Hillary marketing herself as the "grandmother of the United States" is weird and creepy.

[Bonobo]

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/12/22/3734656/clinton-abuela/
“Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Wants You to Know She’s Like Latina Grandmothers Everywhere.” That’s the headline of a post highlighting seven ways in which the grandmother of one — and Democratic presidential candidate — is like an abuela, or Latina grandmother.
The list includes everything from how she advocates for vaccines to how she reads to children. It even includes a take-down of Donald Trump, en Español (er, kinda.)

But some have taken issue with the campaign’s representation of a privileged and powerful white woman as the sort of every(wo)man abuela.



------------------------
I'd like to hear what the hell being a grandmother has to do with being a POTUS. Yup, weird. And creepy. Oh and more than a bit sleazy too.

And the REALLY funny thing is that she plays both sides. On the one hand, her spokespeople have COMPLAINED that too much attention is paid to her being a grandmother - but at the same time, they have tried to squeeze every bit of political energy out of it that they can.

[angryvet]

1. Give it a rest

I'm sick of the sniping.

[grossproffit]

3. Me too. It's become boorish.

[Bonobo]

5. You haven't even been on DU for 6 months.

Thanks for the comment. It means nothing to me.

[redstateblues]

17. I've been here 12 years and

I think your response to her being a grandmother is weird and creepy. I'm a grand parent and I happen to think it's a big plus.

[UtahLib]

18. Welcome to DU,

where you have the right to express your opinion no matter how long you've been here.

[Bonobo]

4. You've been here for a few months. I've been here over 12 years.

I think your "I'm sick of the sniping" is rather meaningless in that context.

[CoffeeCat]

20. Well, if you've been here for twelve years...

...then you understand that when Clinton supporters criticize and mock Bernie or his supporters--it's just pithy prose.

When we have anything negative to say about Clinton--we're being very, very, very bad and we must be admonished!

It's a bit loony tunes.

And that "Hillary is like your abuela" schtick is absolutely hilarious. If you want to see how hilarious--tune into SNL this weekend or peek in on all of the late-night shows. I am sure the Hillary/abuela jokes will be coming down like rain in Seattle.

She did this to herself. This is...comedy gold.

[roguevalley]

25. i hated this nations grandma shit when barbara bush did it. it isn't improved by hillary

[UtahLib]

13. Many people are. Don't let the nasty get you down.

Some people seem to have no other means of communicating.

[Motown_Johnny]

2. Desperation must be setting in.

I guess sliding poll numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire combined with Bernie's fundraising numbers are scaring her.

[CoffeeCat]

22. I think they're hurling everything at the wall

and hoping that something sticks.

Unfortunately, they hurled a Hispanic grandmother this time.

[Luminous Animal]

6. She has the best that money can by and they came up with this boneheaded move.

#notmyabuela is exploding on twitter.

[Xipe Totec]

7. No me Chingles, abuela. nt

[joshcryer]

8. The abuela campaign was a terrible misfire.

Whoever thought it up needs to reevaluate. If Clinton spoke Spanish maybe she could pull it off more sincerely.

But it is not creepy, imo. Latino culture places a lot of emphasis on grandmothers and they were obviously trying to tap in to that.

[Bonobo]

12. That, Josh, is what MAKES it creepy. nt

[joshcryer]

23. I reread your post and it seems to be focusing on the "grandma" aspect.

Having familiarity with Latino culture it wasn't a bad idea.

[Bonobo]

29. Actually, no. If she understood how respected "grandmas" were, she wouldn't have

disrespected them. Among Latinos and Hispanics, family and grandmas are gold, bad fucking idea to try to do what she did.

[joshcryer]

30. I've not been impressed by any of her social media stuff.

So it doesn't surprise me they failed again.

[Bonobo]

31. I believe it reflects her personality.

I don't want to say she is tone deaf, but she is certainly tone challenged. This is reflected in the choices she made.

As above, so below.

[joshcryer]

32. Well yes, that's her greatest weakness.

We saw that in spades in 2008. Odds are she signed off on this with great enthusiasm.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. I'm not sure I'd call it weird and creepy so much as pandering.

I don't care if somebody is a parent or a grandparent. Reproduction is a basic biological function that is performed by all living creatures in some fashion and does not do anything to qualify any human organism for high public office. I'm looking for a smart, competent administrator whose political positions sync with mine; if that person coincidentally happens to be a grandparent, that's nice but irrelevant. I don't know why Clinton's campaign advisers thought Latino voters in particular would be impressed with the abuela bit - seems to me they were not only pandering but condescending, suggesting this nice old grandmother would be a comforting image, standing in the kitchen wearing her apron and making tamales or something, surrounded by smiling children. Kinda tone-deaf, IMO.

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. I got a kick out of the term "Hispandering". Too funny. nt

[Bonobo]

16. You're right "very fucking condescending" is more accurate. nt

[Attorney in Texas]

10. She needs to fire the focus group who came up with this Hispandering nonsense.

[Chan790]

11. The actual fuck??!

I got an alert earlier this week for calling Hillary a grandmother on the grounds that it was ageist and sexist.

I want but do not expect an apology from the Hillary fan that has been alert-stalking me for it since.

[artislife]

19. Well, I guess she is aiming to be the first Abuelita president

You know, Bill was the first Black president, so I guess that will make Chelsea the First bi-racial daughter.


*I am Latina, I am trying to have a light moment while h is trying to co-opt my grandmother's experience.

[yuiyoshida]

21. #notmyObaasan

#notmySobo

[PowerToThePeople]

24. Since America is a fascist state

what is she trying to say?

[840high]

26. Very negative comments from Hispanics on FB.

[AZ Progressive]

27. What's the big deal?

[liberal_at_heart]

28. My abuela had to send my father to live with his aunt and uncle so he did not grow up learning

about his Hispanic heritage. And because my father grew up away from his mother and did not know the culture, I was not raised with the culture. But my abuela is 100% Mexican American, and Hillary is in no way my abuela. She should apologize for co-opting the Hispanic culture in order to get Hispanic votes.

[dinkytron]

33. You're taking some flak but as mentioned, you touched on something for sure. First, all

the blowhards who are pouncing on you for attacking grandmotherness-- that's not the point. The point really is... what does her shapeshifting really reveal? BTW, now it all makes sense why she wore thst old lady dress at the debates.

[Bonobo]

34. The "flak" comes in precisely inverse proportion with the accuracy of the OP. IOW, truth hurts. nt

[dinkytron]

35. True that.

[zazen]

36. all I can think of is Tuko's maniacal devotion to his abuelita in episode 2 of Better Call Saul

[Bonobo]

37. Yeah... That was good stuff. But what I think of when Hillary pulls this insincere shit is...

[zazen]

38. UGH: at the top of the abuela post, the infant is being used like an ad headline

I was so curious about this I actually went to Hillary's web site for the first time. This is beyond tone deaf.

Jesus, her branding/ad people are awful, beginning with the awful subconsciously swastika logo (rule #1: in the post-WWII era you don't brand a politician with a symbol that forms any part of a circle using jagged edges). They really are doing her a disservice.

Re this post, of course you see candidate's families on their campaign materials, but not a posed close-up supposedly spontaneous photo with an infant.

By placing this photo, and only this photo, at the top of the abuela post, the infant (her granddaughter) is in effect the ad headline, which of course subconsciously negates the ensuing abuela theme of self-sacrifice, since it looks like a child is being used for her caregivers' advancement rather than the other way around.

UGH!!

It’s no secret that Hillary is loving her role as grandma. And she was thrilled to learn that next summer, her granddaughter Charlotte will have a sibling to play with.

She’s always happy to talk about her “beautiful, perfect” granddaughter, she’s an eager volunteer for babysitting duty, and whenever she travels around the country, she makes sure to bring back a gift for Charlotte—sound familiar?

Here are seven more ways Hillary is just like your grandmother.

[NCTraveler]

39. Creepy?

Considering what is not discussed about Sanders here you might want to leave creepy out of it.

The fact you don't see this for what it is really says something. Creepy. Only in the Goodman/Paul worldview.

[demwing]

40. So Clinton is the first trans-ethnic candidate?

Es muy malo

[Blue_Adept]

41. I WILL BE OUTRAGED BY EVERYTHING

More and more, folks are sounding like conservatives around here.