Doug and Steven, if you’re counting, this post is not really about Nikki Haley. It’s about women. It’s about me having trouble figuring them out. Or having trouble figuring out how the world reacts to them. Or something…
HuffPost calls our attention to the following:
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), in an interview in Marie Claire published Wednesday, discussed what lessons she has learned.
She named her role models. “Mine are my mother, Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, Martina Navratilova, Gabby Giffords. And Joan Jett. I tell you, Joan Jett is my idol. I would just love to meet her!”
Joan Jett’s pretty cool, I guess. Although I have to confess that I continue to get her confused with Pat Benatar. (Hey, gimme a break. By that time, I was an adult with a wife and kids and very busy running a newsroom.) And I’m sure the phrase “my mother and Margaret Thatcher” would fall easily from many Tory lips.
But you know, I’ll never get this chick thing about admiring people just because they share one’s gender.
I mean, really — Hillary Clinton coming right after the Iron Lady. I can see that they have a lot in common, but then I’m not a Democrat or a Republican.
Think of it this way: If Romney or Santorum or any of the guys running for president were asked to name his role models, and he named six, and one of them was Bill Clinton and another was a Democratic member of Congress, don’t you think he’d get in trouble with his base?
But if a woman does that, we don’t bat an eye. Because the gender bond is just supposed to be so profound that such differences don’t matter. In a way, that’s really cool (I certainly admire people from across the political spectrum). And good for Gov. Haley for being broad-minded. But in another way, it’s… I don’t know… either we’re condescending to women by not expecting consistency (like the Jack Nicholson character saying that to create female characters, “I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability“), or we’re being unfair to men. One or the other. Whatever it is, it ain’t equality.
Not being a feminist, I’ve got no objection, in principle, to double standards. Boys and girls are different, in important ways. But this is one difference that puzzles me.
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Of course, to be perfectly fair, if I’m asked to name role models, they would probably be all male. And they would probably be politically eclectic.
But then, I’m not a Democratic or Republican politician.
Off the top of my head: Jesus, Mark Twain, Thomas More, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee (how’s that pair for eclectic?), Winston Churchill and Elvis. Either Presley or Costello; take your pick.
Oh, wait — do they have to be living?
I don’t believe Nikki really has any real kind of political philosophy that would preclude her having Hillary as a role model. Actually admitting it is something else. I think she would have looked at Hillary Clinton and what she thought she had and said: “I want that”. Probably thought the same about Joan Jett, but maybe she can’t sing. Wonder what it is about Martina?
Nikki strikes me as Mark Plus. She’s that common kind of politician who runs for office because it is the best deal they could ever get, far beyond anything they could ever attain in a real job. Great salary, very good benefits, perks to beat the band.
She picked the party she had to pick to be elected from Lexington County, learned what she had to say to keep those customers satisfied and went from there.
I think the lack of a philosophical core we see in some of her actions is more about pure opportunism – it’s going to benefit her somehow. There will be some payoff of some kind – than a mature pragmatism. But, that’s frowned on by her supporters anyway. Purity and rigidity is valued by that bunch.
Well… that was a waste of two minutes.
Bruce Springsteen, Larry Bird, Ron Paul, Don Rickles, Tim Tebow
Please stop generalizing from a few data points. Other than anatomically, all women are not a certain way, any more than all men are, and it does not advance our knowledge to make such sweeping generalizations.
Paul Krugman, Peyton Manning, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandella
Kathryn, you just made my point for me: “Other than anatomically, all women are not a certain way, any more than all men are…”
Exactly. So it strikes me as odd when I see such a list that seems to have no common denominator other than gender…
Well, digging a little deeper, in Nikki’s mind I think there’s another commonality — she sees these as women who, through force of will, went against expectations to achieve certain things.
Which tells us how she views herself, or want others to view her. As if Nikki, whose political career went from zero to 100 mph in a heartbeat thanks to the coincidence of the Tea Party rising at just the right moment, ever had to overcome the sorts of barriers to power that Margaret Thatcher faced.
I thought the Tea Party was just some fringe element? You mean they have enough power to elect a dark-skinned female in a state full of racists?
I think there’s a lot of the old establishment who can’t yet grasp that a woman kicked their butt.
The Tea Party is to Republicans what the Occupiers are to Democrats. Does either party accept them as anything except their weird uncle that you’re not supposed to talk about?
She’s not black. That’s all that matters to some people. But then, there are those for whom she isn’t white enough.
Don’t care about her gender or ethnicity. Here is what Nikki’s not (to name a few): intellectual, honest, knowledgeable, moral, ethical, mature, wise, persuasive, an accountant. She makes a great Middle School Governor though, so those of you who are still enthralled, enjoy it while the disgusting tale lasts.
She idolizes lesbians, both closeted and not. There’s nothing wrong with that except that she should become a democrat.