"I am sure that every one of my colleagues - Democrat, Republican, and Independent - agrees with that statement. That in the voting booth, every one is equal." ~ Barbara Boxer, U.S. Senator from CA
When the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets tomorrow they should discuss the discrepancy between how states were treated which favored one or another candidate in the polls. It is curious that the two states where Clinton was rated highest in the polls, Florida and Michigan, were punished but I recall that Obama polled high in the three states (up until the time near the election in New Hampshire) that received a waiver. It is odd that states that heavily favored Clinton were punished while states that had favored her competitor were given waivers even though all five states broke Rule 11.A. There can be no fair solution unless all five states are treated the same. The integrity of the Rules and Bylaws decision tomorrow will be based on whether all five states are treated the same.
Hillary Clinton is the first woman candidate with a good chance of becoming president. For centuries American women have struggled to free ourselves from subjugation. We have achieved some success but there is a long way to go. For example, most U.S. slaves are women and girls. Females have much less political, economic and social power than males. It is disturbing that of the five states that broke the DNC schedule rule the two states that favored the only woman candidate were punished twice as severely as standard yet the three states that favored a male candidate were given a waiver. I'm not stating that sexism is the only reason this happened but it is reasonable to assume sexism could have played a part in the DNC's decision to favor a male candidate over a female candidate because there is no logical reason why the two states that favored a woman were punished in an extreme and unusual manner while the states that had favored the male candidate were given a waiver. And whether there was conscious sexism or not, the result was that a woman's historic campaign that helped women's equality was treated unfairly and harmed in a way that benefited her male competitor. Thus, Clinton's efforts to ensure voting rights are not just for the rights of Florida and Michigan to be treated as equal to other states, but also for women to be treated as equal to men.
U.S. women have fought for the right to vote since the 18th century but the large national movement to get the vote began in 1848 during the First Women's Rights convention in New York (where Clinton is Senator). For the next 72 years women who tried to get equal rights for women to vote were harassed, jailed and subjected to extreme physical abuse. Then in 1920 justice became law. The 19th Amendment, called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, guaranteed women the vote in every state.
Sources:
CountTheVotesCast believes that since "...we are a nation of fifty states, not forty-eight" that Florida and Michigan voters should have the right to vote for the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. They have created a petition to the DNC: http://www.countthevotescast.org/letter. php.
Florida and Michigan are among six states that moved their primary day, thus the only fair solution would be that all the states in the same situation should be treated the same: http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/5/28/1338 36/190.
Video about women's long struggle to get the right to vote-Bread and Roses: Women's Suffrage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYIHPj-3h
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video: sexism against women and HRC's presidential bid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke64670Gk
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video: April 11th demonstration to end media bias against HRC:
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