Betty Friedan would vote for Bernie: Gloria Steinem and other feminists need to hear this

[nashville_brook]

Lucy Komisar with Betty Friedan, photo by Larry Bridwell

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/24/betty_friedan_would_vote_for_bernie_gloria_steinem_and_other_feminists_need_to_hear_this/

Betty Friedan would vote for Bernie: Gloria Steinem and other feminists need to hear this
LUCY KOMISAR - SALON

(snip)

I know that Gloria supports Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, as do many women my age who remember or were part of the ‘70s feminist movement. I’d like those women to consider what Betty told me and what she would tell them today. It was Labor Day weekend 2005 at Betty’s cottage in Sag Harbor, Long Island, five months before her death...

After my involvement in NOW, I had returned to journalism and begun writing about other issues...I visited several developing countries and wrote about their movements for democratization...I learned that Switzerland was an offshore secrecy haven that welcomed dictators, corporations and a variety of crooks and tax cheaters who set up secret bank accounts and fake shell companies to launder their ill-gotten profits and loot.

...I told Betty the offshore bank and corporate secrecy system...abetted rich individuals and corporations cheating on their taxes, assisted international corporations sucking money out of developing countries and helped drug traffickers and other criminals laundering their booty. All done with the acquiescence of the U.S. government that could end the system at will by refusing tax havens access to the U.S. financial system in the name of “national security,” as it does “terrorist” banks...At the end of the conversation, Betty was thoughtful. Finally, she commented: “We didn’t challenge the system enough.”

(snip)

Betty started a revolution. But towards the end of her life, she knew, as others in the women’s movement would recognize, that the vision we shared then was not broad enough – not for middle and working-class women, not for minority women, not for anyone but the very rich — and that the revolution had far to go...Don’t vote for race (as I was persuaded to do in 2008) or gender or anything but policy. There will be good minority and female aspirants for top office if we open up the system.

Rather than support a flawed woman candidate who would not challenge the corporate order, Betty would vote for Bernie.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I miss Betty and Bella Abzug.

[wildeyed]

2. She's dead.

Pretty sure Gloria Steinem and other feminists know that.

[JudyM]

3. Very touching. Good post. Nt