Yeah, but can you actually vote for Doris?

From the Netherlands’ RNW, comes another interesting item in their daily review of the Dutch press. This time displaying the absurd view of certain people merely as Women when their roles vary wildly. That this is always a convenient and heartwarming type of victimology trope is no surprise, but is still degrading to a politician as successful as Angela Merkel. She is being compared to Schroder's wife, who at best lucked out in the big lottery of life by marrying someone who succeeded at something. Thinking that this will attract women voters, or as far as most of the leftist press is concerned, hoping that it will only attract voters to the left, they find themselves playing along with political panderings next door in Germany:

DORIS vs ANGELA

«Here in Europe, the upcoming elections in Germany are generating plenty of interest and Trouw today turns the focus on Angela Merkel - leader of the CDU, the conservative Christian Democrat party. She's widely expected to beat Gerhard Schroder in September's polls and become Germany's first woman leader.

Trouw writes that, "Probably because of fears that Merkel will attract women voters, the Social Democrats have pushed Gerhard Schroder's wife, Doris, into the limelight". Ms Schroder has criticised Ms Merkel, saying she lives in a different world from most women, and calling her performance as Women's Affairs minister in the 1990s "sub-standard".

But Trouw also publishes a major opinion piece by a German author describing Ms. Merkel as, "a gift to all women" and "a long overdue symbol to Germany that capable women can do anything."»

Long overdue symbol? How about electing an achiever like the CDU is expected to do? Not to compare anyone to Indira Ghandi, Golda Meir, or Margaret Thatcher to name a few, but wouldn’t the potent symbols be ones who have already lead a party or a nation, and not someone who married a guy because they might hit it big?

Overdue symbol… I’m trying to stop laughing. If they really wanted women to get ahead in politics they would stop treating them like symbols, or furniture in this case, and definitely not compare a candidate with her opponent’s spouse.

When all they do is look for symbols and not substance, I guess they start to think that calling for one sort of overdue symbol over another is some sort of achievement. What appears to be on display is the high point of “progressivism” which is always absent of actual progress, because you really can’t vote for Doris.