When I got an email this afternoon from The Nation, one of the pieces listed was this one by the long-time and well-known feminist writer Katha Pollitt, which is subtitled “It’s not his focus on the economy—it’s that he doesn’t seem to understand that the economy is structured by gender and race.”
I did not immediately write about it, and wondered whether calling attention to it might just engender some of the nastiness that has been too frequent on this site as the primary has continued.
As I have seen those supporting Clinton get challenged constantly, as I was earlier today in my diary about a Charles M. Blow column, all but accusing me of hypocrisy in repeating what he wrote while supporting Clinton, I thought perhaps a person of the stature of Pollitt might help some who do not support Clinton understand why someone of undoubted liberal credentials might choose not to support Bernie.
She does have a paragraph on electability:
Why didn’t Bernie get me? Well, there’s electability: I just don’t believe Americans are ready for a 74-year-old self-described socialist with a long far-left CV who would raise their taxes by quite a lot. By the time the Republicans got finished with him, he’d be the love child of Rosa Luxemburg and the Ayatollah Khomeini, and then it’s hello, President Trump. There’s the question, too, of how much Bernie could actually accomplish. Would he make an effective president, as I think Hillary will—all the more so now that she’s been forced to see that a significant part of the Democratic electorate is to her left?
But that is not her main reason. As she puts it simply, Bernie didn’t ask for my vote.
And part of why I wanted to be sure people saw this piece is because I think her explanation is important for many people, even as my reasons do not totally overlap with hers.