EMILY's Gift

I rarely meet an Andrew Sullivan campaign-related post with anything other than a vigorous head nod. But I do take exception to his recent characterization of EMILY's List founder Ellen Malcom as building a career upon "identity politics and the big money politics."

I don't particularly agree with Malcolm's op-ed about Clinton being a "champion" who has "shown us that winners never quit and quitters never win," but Andrew's dismissive tone makes me worry that we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater - and not for the first time in this campaign.

The influence that EMILY's List has had on politics is undeniable - and even if I hadn't done an intern stint there, I would still argue that influence has been undeniably for the good.

The organization started the year I was born, when no woman had ever been elected to the Senate in her own right, and there were only twenty three women in the House. Hardly rooted in "big money politics," EMILY's List began as a handful of women in Malcom's basement writing checks to help get other women elected. Today, with sixteen women senators, and 87 congresswomen, including the Speaker, (to say nothing of state legislatures and governor's mansions) it is all but impossible to find a history or account of this sea change that doesn't reference the work of EL in achieving it.

And to the question of why we should even be so essentialist as to view the sheer number of women office-holders as a victory, I'm reminded of Karen O'Connor's exceptional paper on the topic of "Do Women Matter?" The answer is a resounding yes- in substance, in style, on the issues that matter to women voters, and in constituent work, women have made an outsized impact for the better.

An impact that Democratic women could not have had without EMILY's List. An impact that they will continue to make in partnering with a (markedly pro-choice, pro-equal pay, and pro-child care) President Obama. Which is exactly the point that Andrew doesn't see about Ellen Malcom - it is in part because of her work that I can vote my preference rather than my gender. Women are represented at nearly every level of government, and, because of the remarkable pipeline that EL has built, will almost assuredly find their way to the White House in the next few election cycles.

And because Hillary is not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the gift that Ellen Malcolm has given me, and all female Obama supporters, is the freedom from identity politics. Whether or not Ellen herself would agree with how we choose to exercise it.