Stephanie and the Democratic Identity Crisis

My friend Stephanie, a long-time loyal Democrat, is so frustrated she's taking a break from it all.

For a long time now, her prolific and passionate blog has been my source for learning about feminist issues and keeping in touch with the liberal perspective. And host to a lot of fun conversations. But, lately, she's feeling that the Democratic Party, falling all over itself to move to a pretty conservative-looking "center", has abandoned women's issues.

Stephanie posted a comment here, linking to this essay that sums up how she feels:

Mother Jones Mojo Blog: "The truth about the yellow dog"

"I left the Democratic Party for a long list of reasons, but the main one was the fact that I felt dismissed as a woman. And nothing has changed."

I'm not convinced yet that all this is more than a passing identity crisis for the Democrats, but they should think twice before alienating women like Stephanie.

(Hmm, Stephanie, did I just help you do some backdoor blogging by posting something you would have posted on your blog? :-) That's OK, you're going through blogging withdrawal. Take care of yourself.)