Did Debbie Wasserman Schultz Really Need to Go?
While nobody in Philadelphia for the first day of the Democratic convention was questioning the ouster of Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee, in the corner of at least one cocktail party for convention-goers, some were questioning the vehemence and hysteria with which she was dispatched.
"It's like the witch trials," one operative said of the national mood, noting that the die-hard Bernie Bros howling for Wasserman Schultz's blood and protesting Clinton's candidacy were repeating the "lock her up" chant of Trumpeters, their supposed ideological foes.
The Salem Witch Trials were a response to an influx of war refugees and economic uncertainty in the Massachusetts colony in 1692. Resources were strained, a small pox epidemic had ravaged the area, and people were terrified of potential attacks from neighboring Native American tribes. Class resentment between Salem merchants and farmers was rampant. The Witch Trials became a collective expression of this anxiety-an escape valve for the explosive rage of the time. Does any of this sound familiar?
It's not enough to simply oppose Clinton's polices or defeat Clinton at the polls, her witchcraft is so powerful, she must be jailed and killed.
These days, feminists see parallels once again between late-17th-century Salem and modern America: Chris Christie's mock trial of Hillary Clinton at the Republican convention, inciting delegates to howl "guilty" over fictional allegations; Ben Carson's suggestion that Clinton was a devotee of Satan; and Trump surrogate Al Baldasaro's suggestion that Clinton should be put in front of a firing squad. It's not enough to simply oppose Clinton's polices or defeat Clinton at the polls, her witchcraft is so powerful, she must be jailed and killed.
As the DNC got under way, those more sympathetic to Wasserman Schultz expressed frustration that the mob mentality from Cleveland was spreading to Philly. The misogyny on the right is much more flagrant, but there is still ambivalence about women's power on the left. Some of this comes down to infighting about how to frame policy-feminists and minorities see economic inequality as being driven by bigotry, while others see identity politics as a distraction from fighting for the 99 percent. To the coven of operatives I spoke to Monday, the Bernie Bros' rage at Clinton for beating Bernie Sanders has taken on a gendered cast.
Of course, Wasserman Schultz may have deserved to be replaced-there have been longstanding questions about her effectiveness as a fundraiser and standard bearer, and it was assumed she would step down after the election anyway. But there was a feeling she was being banished for the wrong crime. "For a woman to become president, women have to be punished in some way," another D.C. powerbroker at the party opined. If Goody Clinton can't be punished, well, then, Goody Wasserman Schultz was the next best thing-just as long as they got to put a woman's head on a pike.
