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Letter From The Editor Opinion

I’m Not Sexist, But …

There was a huge sea-change in attitudes this week. Thousands of people made the decision to switch from not being racists to not being sexists. As in, “I’m not a sexist, but I can’t stand Hillary Clinton.” This is good news for President Obama, as the thousands of not racists who hated him found a new target.

This change was spurred by Clinton’s video announcement on Sunday that she would be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. Her announcement, called “Getting Started,” was pandering and insipid — touching all the elements of her base: families, retirees, gays, lesbians, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, working men, young mothers, small business owners, students, and dog owners. Cat owners, apparently, are being conceded to Rand Paul.

Clinton promised that it was time for Americans to “get ahead and stay ahead,” and accented the point with a small, awkward fist pump. That was enough to cue the Hillary Derangement Syndrome from the right-wing media and the GOP.

In Nashville, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said that a Clinton presidency would bring a wave of “darkness and despair,” adding that “eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough.” Yes, it’s high time we got back to white male presidents, as Jesus intended. Way to sew up the women’s vote, Wayne.

Seconding that motion, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly declared that it would be “open season on Christians and white men,” courageously leaping to the defense of America’s most oppressed people.

Lord help us. We have 18 more months of this to look forward to. And after what Obama’s done to us, we’re about to run out of guns.

Every week, a new Republican candidate climbs into the clown car, upping the ante and raising again the question: Can an anti-science, anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, anti-health-care reform, anti-immigration reform, pro-gun Christianist win the presidency? Apparently, no GOP candidate thinks he can win the nomination without embracing Tea Party tenets.

I’m no scientist (to quote most declared Republican candidates thus far), but I can do math. In the 2012 election, Barack Obama won 332 electoral votes; Mitt Romney won 206. The tides of age, gender, and diversity are sweeping old white men out to sea and the Republicans are running out of brooms.

Hillary Clinton isn’t particularly likeable, at least not to a lot of people, including many Democrats. That’s why Obama was able to knock her off so quickly in the 2008 primaries: He was a fresh, likeable, approachable candidate.

Hillary is Hillary. But her views are much more in line with the majority of Americans than those of the Tea Party.

The Republicans haven’t got anybody in the stable who’s remotely close to being able to appeal to a sentient, multi-ethnic America. Yes, the Republicans will continue to win state elections in areas where they’ve gerrymandered themselves into near-permanancy, but their presidential prospects are doomed until a candidate emerges with the courage to call bullshit on all this pandering to know-nothings.