I keep reading that many of Hillary’s followers have never gotten over her defeat in the primary.  A few are saying outright that they are going to vote for McCain.  Some of the major fundraisers who worked for Hillary refused to even show up at the Democratic National Convention now in progress in Denver.  Other delegates are leaving the Convention early, before Obama speaks on Thursday.  These Hillary supporters are complaining of slights, saying that “they don’t like the way they were treated” by the Obama camp.

Are you wondering why these women are so deeply disappointed?  Why they are taking Hillary’s defeat so personally?

Well, let me tell you about Josephine Ruth Woolsey Dana, a long-time Portland resident, who died last Thursday.  I didn’t know Josephine, but I found her obituary instructive, in regard to Hillary’s followers.  Shortly after her birth, Josephine lost her mom, and so she and her sibs were raised by their father.  Josephine showed exceptional writing talent and wanted to study journalism, but as the obituary states, “girls weren’t permitted to major in journalism at Oregon State.”  So she took a degree in secretarial science. 

Josephine pushed on toward her goal, though, finally joining the editorial board of the Oregonian in the 1940′s, making her the first female newspaper editor in Oregon.  Later, she married the son of the editor, Marshall Dana, and then dropped out to raise her children.  She returned to work as an editorial researcher in the 1960′s and for years wrote a regular column for the Oregonian.  One need only ask the simple question about this gifted woman: had Josephine been Joseph, how would her life been different?

According to a recent editorial by Susan Faludi in the NY Times (8/26), today the US ranks 22nd among developed nations in its proportion of female federal lawmakers.  Some 86% of our elected officials are male.  Women’s real annual earnings have fallen for the last four years.  The 20 top occupations of women in 2007 were the same as they were in the 1950′s: secretary, nurse, grade school teacher, sales clerk, maid, hairdresser, cook, etc.

This is why some women are so disappointed, so angry.  They have waited too long, worked too hard for change for long years, to be able to shift their loyalties.

Nevertheless, I would say to them it’s not about you.  It’s not about women’s rights.  And as pleased as I am that an African American may become our next President, it’s not chiefly about healing the wounds of racism.  It’s about securing leadership for a country that has lost its integrity and its direction.  It’s about saving this fragile planet.  It’s about getting our soldiers out of Iraq.  It’s about making sure that all our citizens can go to the doctor when they fall ill.  It’s about creating an economy that serves the people as a whole and not just the rich.  It’s about saying no to torture and yes to civil rights.  It’s about taking our place as a moral leader in a world that has lost respect for us, and rightly so.

Liberals have a habit of pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory, as they say.  Why is this?   Is this why Nader blithely ran on his green ticket, taking precious votes from the Democrats and losing the race?  Is it because we are idealists and impractical, to a fault?  Politics is not the realm of the ideal–it is the realm of the possible.  Earth to Democrats everywhere, of all genders and stripes: we can’t afford to lose this one.  Whoever you are, it’s not about you.  Get on board.