I hate to admit it, but I felt some visceral satisfaction when Carly Fiorina fired a biting one-liner at Donald Trump during the Sept. 16 Republican debate on CNN.
“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” Fiorina said in response to his comments about her face, steely gaze locked onto her opponent. The statement had the Internet yelling a collective “OOOO” and declaring her the “mic-dropping” feminist champion of the debate.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad she stood up for herself, especially considering she is a female candidate who was attacked by a male candidate on the basis of looks in the year 2015. That being said, she shouldn’t be declared a feminist heroine when there are fundamental parts of her campaign that are troubling. Fighting off a petty comment on her appearance is, unfortunately, not enough. There are more insidious forms of sexism she is buying into.
The weird dual nature of her campaign’s take on women’s rights is reflected in her response to the $10 bill question. I was on board when she said putting a woman on the $10 bill was just a “gesture.” I was on board when she said “this nation will be better off when every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses.” But when she talked about rejecting women being a “special interest group,” I groaned at the familiar rhetoric.
Fiorina’s comment echoes the GOP’s vehement opposition to anyone who might identify him or herself as a “victim” of societal maltreatment. Fiorina, along with other presidential hopeful, Ben Carson, is a darling of the party because she touts her personal success stories as concrete evidence that systematic oppression doesn’t exist.
These candidates are valuable to the GOP because they can be used as specific retorts to anyone accusing the party of solely being about white men. They provide fuel to people who refuse to talk about racism under the guise of being “colorblind.” They allow people to discredit the “war on women” because at least one white woman fought her way to the top of the food chain.
“When you look at the philosophies of the two parties now, what I have noticed as a black Republican is that Republicans tend to look more at the character of people. And Democrats tend to look more at the color of their skin,” Carson said in a Sept. 23 interview with CNN, adding that the Republican Party was the one of anti-slavery.
While it is undeniably true that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, the parties have evolved since 1865. The shift of black Americans to the Democratic Party came as the Dems increasingly became the ones supporting civil rights, according to a Sept. 25 poll published by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Consider Jeb Bush’s recent comments on luring in black Americans with “free stuff” if you want proof of the disconnect between the modern GOP and minority voters.
By foisting this anti-victimhood complex on the public, Fiorina and Carson are effectively denying hundreds of years of history in order to pander to white men. They’re taking the nuance out of layered cultural issues and boiling them down to only the most obvious instances of discrimination.
This explains why Carly Fiorina can serve up an ice-cold smackdown against Donald Trump’s comments on her looks, but oppose mandated paid maternity leave and the right to abortion. It explains Ben Carson’s insistence that racism isn’t a pressing social issue. In response, the rest of the party pats these two candidates affectionately on the head for not being like “the others.”
It’s not a bad thing to beat back negative odds and come out on top. It’s very possible to rise in the ranks through hard work and drive, but Fiorina and Carson are doing themselves (along with other women and people of color) a disservice by ignoring the other forces at work.
It’s questionable how they claim to represent the best interests of their respective demographics by actively discrediting major concerns of those demographics. Although they have risen in their own party’s polls, given that 56 percent of women voters and 93 percent of black voters showed up for Obama in 2012, Fiorina and Carson would need to do some serious restructuring if they realistically want to do well amongst the major populations of American people they supposedly represent.
