They're the ladies

“There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.”

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright said that, and it’s a damn good quote.
It’s also a nice line to remember when someone like Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tears down a fellow female politician.

When asked about former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s apparent lock on the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination, Bachmann turned to — who else? — the big man upstairs.

This coming from the woman who told us that it was God himself who implored her to run for president in 2012.

Bachmann compares Clinton to Goliath, the giant who was defeated by David. I don’t know the story of David and Goliath beyond Bachmann’s retelling, but I’m assuming

Bachmann sees herself as David taking down the giant — presumably Clinton — with a single stone. A stone thrown with the force of God’s hand.

Now I’m not here to bash religion.

Bachmann is free to practice and preach her religion as she chooses. Whether it’s as a private citizen or as a public official, it’s her call.

But she just asked for God’s strength to take down Hillary Clinton. And ain’t nobody
messing with my girl, Hillary.

“If we repent, if we cry out to God, we have no idea what the Lord will do for us in 2016,” Bachmann proclaimed.

I return to the quote from Madeline Albright. In a country where women only hold 78 of 535 seats in the House of Representatives and 20 of 100 seats in the Senate, why would any woman in politics choose to bash another woman?

I’m not saying all women need to hold hands all the time and love every other woman unconditionally, but Bachmann and Clinton share a very exceptional merit.

They are both women who came fairly close to presidency of the United States of America. An office that has never been held by a woman. Bachmann and Clinton should be supporting each other, not as politicians with opposing views, but as women who have broken through the glass ceiling of a male-dominated society and work environment.

I don’t mean to make a special exception for women because politicians deserve to fight on equal footing regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other defining cultural factor.

But while we’re still living in a country where the percentage of women in our government hardly mirrors that of the general population, I’d like to see a little more support between the ladies in power and a little less calling for religious intervention to impede them.

­— wdmcdona@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Dane McDonald on Twitter @W_DaneMcDonald.