By now you may have heard that Amanda Marcotte resigned from the Edwards campaign. I’m very sad. Other than that, I have nothing to add to what Taylor Marsh wrote.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
By now you may have heard that Amanda Marcotte resigned from the Edwards campaign. I’m very sad. Other than that, I have nothing to add to what Taylor Marsh wrote.
Unless I’m missing some irony, I’m surprised by your apparent assertion that Amanda’s comments, which do nothing but recognize the historical fact of Christianity’s millennial pervasive misogyny, were somehow out of line.
If we are to exclude from the political process everyone who has criticized Christianity and the Catholic church for its misogyny and anti-feminism, just because some feminists hold a minority interpretation of scripture, we won’t have any honest feminists–feminists who don’t ignore the “elephant in the living room” of Christianity’s millennial pervasive misogyny–in the political process at all.
Amanda, Feminism and Christianity
Oops, that’s what I get for copying and pasting the summary. I’m surprised, of course, by Marsh assertion that Amanda’s comments were out of line.
You can argue with Taylor if you like, although Taylor addressed your concerns in her post. Try reading it again.
“It renders me speechless. Well, almost, obviously. Talk about handing your opponents the knife. Ms. Marcotte was right to resign. However, she’s not the only one to blame for this one, because she remained true to herself throughout. It’s Edwards who was clueless about whom he’d hired.”
Hope its not to late, but Mr. Edwards need to discover…NO GUTS NO GLORY…or he will find himself labled the new Kerry.
I was sad also to see Amanda have to go through the bullshit. I respect her decision to retain her voice. Two thoughts that I have are: Why didn’t whoever scouted her out and made the offer for her to blog for Edwards understand the nature of her writing style and the potential for the controversy that came to pass? Also I wonder if it’s even possible to hire a blogger without destroying the essense of what a blogger is. Once you’ve imposed a control over anothers voice, that voice is no longer free and doesn’t fit my definition of what a blogger is.
I think about Tom Delay’s blog( if it still exsists) where he hired someone to write it for him..It kinda misses the point and nature of a blog. And the same thing goes for Edward’s attempt at blogging. The independence and individual freedom to express oneself is the beauty and the power of a blog and it can’t be bought or sold while remain pure.
One thing Democrats absolutely can NOT do if they want to regain the presidency is to get bogged down in irrelevant side issues. The question of whether or not Christianity or Catholocism are “mysogynistic” is one of these questions. It has ntohing to do with the minimum wage, health care, war, taxes, engaging with the world, protecting the environment – all the things that we Democrats can actually do something about if we win. This was a distraction we didn’t need. Edwards’ campaign made a mistake by hiring Amanda without sufficient vetting – cut the guy some slack and get over it! There will be plenty of mistakes made before this long campaign is over. We’re dealing with human beings here, not philosopher kings.
I was hesitant to say anything about it while she was still with the campaign because I thought it inappropriate to use her name to undermine her own work, but I must say that the “I’m sorry and I will never do it again” note that she had to write on the Edwards blog made me queasy. It was so clear that Amanda — of all people — had been sat in the corner and made to write it on the board a hundred times. It completely efeminated her. Amanda is an intellectual bar fighter, she mixes it up and takes no prisoners. That is what is so wonderful about her. When Edwards brought her on board, the thought was — hey, he’s really going to take it to them. But alas.
This is so unreal. In a country that prides itself on individualism, the new bar for any candidate or supporter who speaks out is some phony, utter compliance with the opposite of individual expression. The right wing screech machine decides to judge others by an impossible ‘ideal’ to which they exempt themselves.
Excuse me for being ignorant but why does a candidate need a blogger?
I was saddened when Amanda went to work for Edwards, since I knew that either (1) her strong voice as an independent blogger would be silenced, or (2) she’d wind up having to leave after someone decided to attach her words and opinions (which are controversial, though I generally agree with ’em) to the campaign. If she had done like Jesse Taylor and others and suspended independent blogging during her employment, I think things could have turned out well, even after the initial kerfuffle. Alas, that was not to be.
I’m glad she’s “unmuzzled” now, but sad about how it all happened.
My thoughts concur, Swami.
I agree with Donna on this, especially the last phrase about the radical right exempting themselves.