The Best Feminist for President is Bernie Sanders

[amborin]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/09/i-am-a-woman-voting-for-best-feminist-bernie-sanders-president-hillary-Clinton

Albright and Steinem apologises as sexism claims dominate Democratic race







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But I don’t believe that the divide the Hillary Clinton campaign has created meets that standard – especially not after the destructive political dilemma that Clinton campaign surrogates Madeleine Albright and Gloria Steinem attempted to create last weekend when they accused young women who support Bernie Sanders of being insufficiently feminist. (Steinem has since apologized and Clinton made excuses for Albright.)

As he has repeatedly said, Bernie Sanders is a feminist, too. And he’s the feminist who has my vote.

I am the executive director of the largest nurses union in the US: my members are overwhelmingly female and, not by accident, we were the first large organization to endorse Sanders. Nurses recognized Sanders as one of their own as soon as he got into the race, because they, like he, believe that all people should be treated equally – especially when it comes to healthcare – regardless of race, gender or ability to pay.







Young women are feminists – but that doesn't mean they'll vote Hillary Clinton

So let’s stop the divisive rhetoric: young women, older women (and younger and older men), all have lots of reasons to vote for Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, and the Clinton camp doesn’t get to define for us the appropriate way to live up to our feminist ideals.

The Clinton campaign has tried to elevate the importance of gender above all other considerations – but if the goal is a woman qua woman, then we all should have been delighted with the fine work of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, regardless the harm suffered by so many as a result of her policies.

We’re not. And we cannot let the wealthy impose a Thatcherite economy on America with the next election, with the 1% continuing to hold the vast majority of wealth in the US.

You cannot separate gender from race and class: racial and gender discrimination remain very real, incredibly widespread societal problems, impacting people’s daily lives in myriad ways, from law enforcement practices to hiring and promotion opportunities to pay inequities to a profit-focused healthcare system.