For months now, people have been calling for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race for the nomination. On many websites and blogs that I frequent, there are ads with an unflattering photo of Clinton that ask “Should Hillary quit?”
Historically, candidates have not been pushed so hard to quit before their opponents have secured the nomination (see this article by Steven Stark for a nice recap). For a country that shies away from sports that can end in a tie, the expectation that Clinton should step aside before the time clock has expired strikes me as odd.
She is being treated unlike any candidate in history. Indeed she is unlike the others, so let’s not pretend that her gender has nothing to do with this phenomenon. Some will argue that it’s for the good of the party. But aren’t women always expected to put others first? If she were a man, would the calls for her to quit be as loud, or the push to beat her as offensive?
Many women, even those who support another candidate, feel personally attacked when they feel Clinton is being treated unfairly based on her gender. Eric Boehlert at Media Matters notes that the men who have come before her have not been told to go home and get over themselves, despite mathematical impossibility of winning. It’s unprecedented.
