You know what I’m going to miss most when the the 113th Congress comes to a close? The sheer, unedited batshittery of Representative Michelle Bachmann (Guano Party – MN). She is a goldmine guano mine of fodder for the political blogger. Ever since she burst onto the national stage back in 2010 when she suggested some of her colleagues needed to be investigated for unAmerican feelings, she’s been shoveling Tea Party bullshit fast and deep. She delivers the crazy so consistently and entertainingly, that I fully expect the daily Show to do a highlight reel of her career when she finishes her Congressional career at the end of this year.
Until then, she’s continuing to give us the kind of eye-spinning lunacy we’ve come to expect of her. Today she presented us with this quote from an interview she did with a conservative columnist in Minnesota paper:
Bachmann says a lot of people “aren’t ready” for a female president. “I think there was a cachet about having an African-American president because of guilt.” (Presumably she means because of slavery and the lengthy denial of civil rights to blacks.) “People don’t hold guilt for a woman,” she says, adding that while people vote for women for virtually every other office “I don’t think there is a pent-up desire” for a woman president.
First of all, it is just so nice of the helpful conservative columnist to explain that some white people might feel, ya know, bad about the generations of oppression heaped upon people of color in this country. Maybe not anyone reading his stuff but some people. The ones with empathy and an accurate sense of history. (Which still does not explain the election of President Obama but I doubt he wants to hear the real reasons.)
But then there’s the little gem about how a lot of people just aren’t ready for a female President. Sure. That’s why Representative Bachmann lost her bid for the GOP nomination in 2012. People aren’t ready for a female President. It’s not that she’s a piss poor politician with a miniscule base of support. It’s because she’s a girl.
However, let’s take his crazy train a little way down the track. Let’s say the sexist vote is a significant barrier to a female presidential candidate. Let’s say there really is a major bloc of American voters who will automatically turn away from a candidate because of gender. What should we be saying to them?
I, personally, would like to say “Get the fuck over it.”
If you are a person who makes judgements – political or personal – about people based on their gender, or race, or sexual preference, or height, or eye color, or native language, or disability, if any of those things have an overwhelming affect on your judgement processes, then you need to go off and do a little work on yourself. Because those are all characteristics, they are not character. You can’t judge a whole person on one inborn, unchangeable aspect like gender. Sure, it’s a piece of the whole and it has implications on a person’s worldview but it’s not the totality of their self. And using those kind of immutable characteristics as a platform for judging is called prejudice and that is wrong.
So for all the female Presidential hopefuls out there, please ignore Representative Bachmann. She’s a soon-to-be has-been and no one will care about her after the Daily Show can’t run clips on her anymore.
