Steinem cuts to the quick

AD's matriarch sounds off on domestic politics...

Gloria Steinem has cut to the quick on the gender question and has enlightened an issue that we will be talking about for the next 300 or so days. Steinem wrote this opinion piece for the New York Times before Hillary Clinton astonished her own campaign, Barak Obama’s, the pollsters and the media by winning New Hampshire.

I read it before listening for several hours to mostly guy pundits discuss “what’s happening here?” as the New Hampshire returns flowed in, consistently showing Clinton ahead. They were mystified. ”Maybe it’s ‘cause she teared up and women related to that?” “Maybe it’s because the boys beat up on her in the last debate and women related to that?”

It was left to a member of Clinton’s own campaign to say, “Maybe the voters looked at the candidate and decided she was the most qualified.”

I disagree with Steinem on one point: In both Iowa and New Hampshire younger women broke for Obama while older women voted for Clinton. Steinem says it proves that women get more radical with age. I believe it’s because we remember. Younger women should know that their lack of concern over gender derives directly from the fact that for decades the Gloria Steinems and Hillary Clintons have had the courage to be who they are and do what they think it is imperative to do.