As we look back at this long, I think exhausting, electoral season, I guess we can feel lucky we have a democratic process, with a peaceful instead of bloody change of regimes. None-the-less, I can’t help feeling that the light it  has shone on the prevailing attitudes towards and treatment of women candidates has illuminated some dark places in our hearts and has been, at least metaphorically, both brutal and bloody.

No one has addressed this better or managed to make more incisive points than the esteemed Lynette Long or other guests who’ve posted on her blog.  Some, I believe, have really gotten down to some root causes and  effects which I’d like to share with you, from a  non-partisan, but pro-woman standpoint.

Artemis March in a guest post Lynette Long: SARAH PALIN: A RORSHACH FOR FEMINISTS discusses where women stand today, both with how they are portrayed in the media, and their standing as candidates in the political parties:

“The truth is this: A woman can’t deal with sexism solo. She has to have a Greek Chorus to amplify, interpret, and spin with, for, and about her. And, after 40 years, there is no Greek Chorus for women at the national level. Nada. Zip.

• There is no feminist voice in the Old Media, let alone a feminist perspective informing all the media. The media are totally androcentric in their framing of all issues. Women who are allowed face time either see the world as their male bosses do, or tread very carefully with their small departures.

• The DNC never had Hillary’s back, never became her Greek Chorus. They not only betrayed their best candidate in 75 years, but they also betrayed the many constituencies for whom she has a long record of fighting.

After 40 years, feminist organizations and spokeswomen have not been able to create a cultural context that would make it impermissible to attack women and perpetrate the kind of vicious misogyny directed at Hillary Clinton and now at Sarah Palin. It would be a tall order given that patriarchy has been organizing our social world and our culture for 5,000-6,000 years. The only good news here is that the behavior of the DNC has made it transparent to many of us that we’ll never get there by being an appendage of the DNC and held hostage to Roe.

If establishment feminists had any real clout with the DNC, Hillary would be taking the oath of office on January 20. Rather than attacking women candidates who don’t fit their precious self-image, leftist so-called feminists and those wondrous postfeminists should get over themselves. If they had done that a year ago, Hillary would be on her way to the White House, and we wouldn’t be in this mess of opting between which set of candidates scares us less.

Sarah Palin is a rorschach for the Left and for feminists. She has exposed the boundaries and implicit rules for inclusion in their clubs, thereby sparking a much needed dialogue about what feminism is and can be. She has thrown into relief the limitations of establishment feminist strategies, and blown open the door to alternative strategies. Sarah Palin arrived on the national scene at the moment when many Hillary supporters were recognizing an old political truth: If you can’t walk away from the table, you have no bargaining power. If you have no alternatives, you will get nothing but crumbs.”

And speaking of alternative strategies, Greta Van Susteren came up with an alternative strategy on Lynette Long: ARE YOU KIDDING??? FROM GRETA ON GRETAWIRE.

“I can’t get over it….are they nuts?”, Greta asks about women who portray themselves as leaders for women but proceed to attack other women running for office.