An All-Caps Explosion of Feelings Regarding the Liberal Backlash Against Hillary Clinton 
 
 By Courtney Enlow | Politics | May 18, 2016 | 
 
 As Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have become head-to-head rivals, their denizens have begun attacking each other, the Democratic Party eating itself like a snake that loves science and Planned Parenthood. And things have gotten ugly. 
 
 For many of us, it's not simply politics as usual. It's very personal. 
 
 For me, the backlash against Hillary Clinton feels very, very personal. 
 
 Can you imagine how absolutely infuriating it must be for Hillary to have to work so hard to be likable, but strong? Hip, but above the need to be seen as cool? For everything she says to be perfect because she'd be crucified otherwise, meanwhile Bernie Sanders could say pretty much anything he wants and it would be seen as the goddamn revolution? I'm so infuriated on her behalf. Because what you like about Bernie, what they like about Trump, she doesn't get to do that. She doesn't get to be all wild hair and yelling. Do I wish different? Of course. And the first female president would go a long way toward making that difference possible. 
 
 So since Hillary cannot yell, since by the virtue of being sane and not a white man she is forced to be the biggest adult in the room, just like Obama has had to for eight goddamn years, I will yell for her. 
 
 FIRST AND FUCKING FOREMOST, COOL, YOU LIKE BERNIE'S WISHES AND DREAMS APPROACH TO POLITICS. "FREE COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE AND A GODDAMN PONY." YES, THAT SOUNDS FUCKING WONDERFUL BUT DO YOU THINK HILLARY COULD EVEN SAY THOSE WORDS WITHOUT FOX NEWS LITERALLY BURYING HER ALIVE IN TAMPONS AND CRUCIFIXES? 
 
 YOU DON'T LIKE THAT SHE HAD CERTAIN NOW-UNACCEPTABLE POLICIES BACK IN THE '90S? HEY, I GET THAT THAT SHIT SEEMS LIKE LAST WEEK, BUT IT WAS ANOTHER GODDAMN WORLD ENTIRELY. I GET THAT WE ALL THINK WE'RE THE UNIVERSE'S BESTEST HUMANS BUT MOST OF THIS COUNTRY JUST LEARNED TRANS PEOPLE EXIST, LIKE, YESTERDAY. LET'S NOT PRETEND WE'VE ALL BEEN THE MOST INCLUSIVE PROGRESSIVE SUPER-COOL PEEPS FOR LIKE A THOUSAND YEARS NOW. PROGRESSIVE MEANS JUST THAT--PROGRESS. SHIT THAT WAS A BIG GODDAMN DEAL AT THE TIME IS NOT COOL NOW. PROGRESS. IT'S FUCKING SWELL. 
 
 YOU DON'T LIKE THAT SHE PLAYS THE GAME? THAT SHE HAS TIES TO THE ESTABLISHMENT? FOR ONE THING, THAT'S HOW SHIT FUCKING GETS DONE. FOR THE OTHER THING, THE BIGGEST THING, A WOMAN DOESN'T GET THE FUCKING OPTION *NOT* TO PLAY THE GAME. NOT NOW. NOT YET. WE ALL WISH THINGS WERE DIFFERENT BUT THEY DON'T BECOME DIFFERENT WHILE WE'RE ATTACKING THE FUCKING PERSON WHO CAN MAKE THAT POSSIBLE. 
 
 AND THESE NEW BERNIE VS. HILLARY MEMES. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN DOING? 
 
 SERIOUSLY? THAT'S YOUR LINE? SHE'S NOT COOL ENOUGH? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN WANT FROM HER? WOMEN HAVE TRIED FOR YEARS TO "HAVE IT ALL" AND THEN WE GET YELLED AT FOR TRYING TO HAVE THE IMPOSSIBLE "ALL" BUT THEN IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH WHEN WE DON'T HAVE THE "ALL." IT'S FUCKING BULLSHIT. 
 
 
 
 THE DAY MY HUSBAND TOLD ME HE LIKED BERNIE, HE SAID, "I mean, how great is it to have a president who just doesn't even care how his hair looks" AND I EXPLODED "DO YOU THINK THERE EXISTS A WORLD WHERE A WOMAN COULD EVEN CONSIDER THAT?" 
 
 AND THE MOST MINDBLOWING PART? THIS ISN'T EVEN COMING FROM THE GOP! BECAUSE WHAT I AM SEEING IS THE SAME THING WE SEE WITH OBAMA ONLY ON THE MORE LIBERAL END OF THE SPECTRUM--PEOPLE WHO WOULD NEVER CONSIDER THEMSELVES BIGOTS IN ANYWAY BUT JUST KNOW THERE IS *SOMETHING* THEY DON'T CARE FOR ABOUT THIS PERSON. THEY REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING COULD BE SKIN COLOR OR GENDER BUT FOR VERY MANY OF THEM IT ABSOLUTELY FUCKING IS. 
 
 I'M NOT SAYING THERE AREN'T REASONS SOMEONE SHOULD DISLIKE HILLARY OR PREFER BERNIE. THAT IS FINE. THAT IS YOUR JOURNEY. BUT LET'S NOT PRETEND FOR A SECOND THAT THERE WOULD BE *THIS MANY* ISSUES WITH HILLARY IF SHE WAS A GODDAMN MAN. 
 
 AND IF YOU COME AT ME FOR EVEN ONE GODDAMN SECOND WITH A "YOU JUST LIKE HER BECAUSE SHE'S A WOMAN" I WILL DESTROY YOU WHERE YOU STAND. I LIKE HER! I LIKE HER POLICIES, I LIKE HER PLANS, I LIKE WHAT SHE STANDS FOR, I LIKE THAT SHE'S GROWN AND EVOLVED AS A HUMAN AND POLITICIAN! I LIKE THAT SHE WAS FOR MANY OF US MY AGE ONE OF OUR FIRST ROLE MODELS OF A SMART, PROFESSIONAL, KICKASS WOMAN AND THAT SHE ISN'T AFRAID OF THE WORD "FEMINIST" AND I'M SICK OF HAVING TO APOLOGIZE FOR LIKING HER, FOR HAVING TO QUALIFY AND SEE YOUR SIDE AND RESPECT YOUR OPINION WHEN I FUCKING DON'T AND YOU FUCKING DON'T RIGHT BACK. I LIKE HER! 
 
 AND MOST OF YOU LIKE HER POLICIES AND PLANS TOO BECAUSE A) THEY'RE BASICALLY FUCKING OBAMA AND B) THEY'RE NOT THAT FUCKING DIFFERENT THAN FUCKING BERNIE. 
 
 THIS IS BASICALLY TWITTER RIGHT NOW: 
 
 Hillary: College should be affordable. 
 
 Twitter: Establishment puppet, no better than GOP. 
 
 Bernie: College should be affordable. 
 
 Twitter: DAD 
 
 AND THE THING IS--I LIKE BERNIE! EVERYONE LIKES BERNIE! BECAUSE CRAZY GRANDPA IS TOTALLY ELECTABLE BUT CRAZY GRANDMA NEVER COULD BE. BUT WHY DO WE HAVE TO HATE HER TO SHOW HOW MUCH WE LOVE HIM? SOCIALIST JESUS TAKE THE FUCKING WHEEL. 
 
 IT IS ABSOLUTELY GUT WRENCHING THAT THIS BADASS, IMPORTANT WOMAN HAS BEEN DIMINSHED AND WRITTEN OFF AND HATED HER WHOLE CAREER, HER WHOLE EXISTENCE AS A PUBLIC FIGURE. YOU LIKE BERNIE BECAUSE HE DOESN'T PLAY THE GAME, BUT FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, FOR A WOMAN, SHE HAS HAD NO OTHER CHOICE. 
 
 BUT THOSE WHO COME AFTER HER MIGHT. 
 
 SO, YES, I'M EMOTIONAL AND I'M YELLING. BECAUSE THIS IS FUCKING EMOTIONAL FOR ME. I WANT A FEMALE PRESIDENT AND I WANT PRESIDENT HILLARY CLINTON. I WANT BOTH OF THESE THINGS BUT MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE I WANT WOMEN TO HAVE AN EQUAL FUCKING FAIR SHAKE. I'M SICK OF THIS STUPID BULLSHIT DISGUISED AS POLITICS, MASQUERADING AS POLITICAL OPINION. 
 
 SO FUCK EVERYTHING. I'M WITH HER. 
 
 Thank you for your time. Excuse me while I nope out of the comments for all eternity. 
 
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 11 Movies That Were Booed at Cannes → ||||| The writer, Courtney Enlow, infuriated by her generation's abandonment of Clinton, suggested that Clinton was being held to a double standard. Sanders is allowed to loudly denounce what he describes as corporate malfeasance, while she needs to avoid sounding angry, Enlow wrote, adding that if the former secretary of State said some of the things Sanders has, she would find "Fox News ... burying her alive in tampons and crucifixes." ||||| Women And The Generational Divide Between Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Rob Brown/AP Rob Brown/AP 
 
 Stephanie Hundley is an enthusiastic Bernie Sanders supporter. The 28-year-old from Waterloo is also enthusiastic about the fact that she's not going to vote for Hillary Clinton just because she's a woman. 
 
 "I don't think she's the woman to be representative of women," Hundley said. She ticked off a list of Clinton criticisms: the "damn emails," the "flip-flops," her vote to go to war in Iraq. Citing Sanders' record of supporting women's rights, Hundley said his overall views embody hers more than Clinton's do. "It's weird that an old, white guy would represent women better than an actual woman." 
 
 Many millennial women, like Hundley, want to deal a repeat upset to Clinton in the Hawkeye State. Eight years ago, Clinton lost the women's vote in Iowa to another candidate promising change in Washington. Entrance polls showed that the only group who favored her were the oldest women — those over 65. A similar pattern could emerge again this year. Iowa women do prefer Clinton, according to the final Des Moines Register poll before the Iowa caucuses, but that support is strongest among women over 45. 
 
 The split has exposed a fault line around feminism in America, between women who grew up in an era when they weren't allowed to wear pants to work, for example — and young women who have never known the kind of discrimination and stereotypes their mothers faced. 
 
 A recent poll even found that young women supported Sanders in greater numbers than young men. A January online survey of young voters from USA Today and Rock the Vote showed that women under 35 supported Sanders by an almost 20-point margin, compared to men's 4-point margin. 
 
 Dueling Identities: 'Young' Vs. 'Woman' 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Rick Loomis/LA Times via Getty Images Rick Loomis/LA Times via Getty Images 
 
 Katherine Hillicker is a freshman at Michigan State who came down to Iowa to canvass for Sanders. She sees near-universal support for Sanders among their peers at Michigan State, and she thinks she knows why. 
 
 Young people, she said, "have grown up in this situation where the economy has been crap, and we're going to college, and it's costing a ton of money." She and her friend, fellow Michigan State student Mackenzie Pollick, say they think Sanders appeals more to young people on those economic issues. 
 
 As for gender? It was an afterthought for them. "I think you need to care more about the issues than the gender," Hillicker said. 
 
 Pollick added, "As much as I'd love a woman to be president, it doesn't affect my views much." 
 
 The age gap is stark. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that Sanders bests Clinton among 18- to 44-year-olds, 78 percent to 21 percent. But support for Clinton seems to grow with age: 53 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds chose her, along with 71 percent of people 65 and older. 
 
 Both Clinton and Sanders have made a point of appealing to both women, on issues of reproductive rights and equal pay, as well as young voters, on student debt. However, the Sanders campaign's promises of sweeping change seems to have helped him win over Iowa's youngest voters, and he's doing everything he can to capitalize on that popularity. 
 
 In addition to hitting young people's economic worries hard in his speeches, the Sanders campaign has also been working to mobilize the youngest Iowa voters on caucus night. In its "Go Home for Bernie" push, the campaign is driving young people away from college towns, like Ames and Iowa City, to their smaller Iowa hometowns, to better spread his support all over the state. That's important in a caucus state that won't report raw vote, but shares of delegates. 
 
 'There's Going Go Be A Lot More Elections In Our Lifetime' 
 
 Some young voters say it would be nice to have the first female president — but that's about as excited as they get. 
 
 "We're still young," said Olivia Vogel, an Iowa State student, "and there's going to be a lot more elections in our lifetime, that right now I wouldn't choose just because she's a woman." 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Andrew Harnik/AP 
 
 Vogel attended a Clinton rally in Ames on Saturday, but isn't supporting a candidate yet. 
 
 "I feel like I grew up in a pretty equitable society where I think men and women are based fairly," said Vogel's friend Julia Zappa, a sophomore at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Though she was at the Clinton event, she said she supports Republican Chris Christie. "I think for a younger generation, we don't need to rush for a woman to become president, because I feel like it'll happen, so I don't want to rush." 
 
 The long string of presidential elections ahead of them is full of the possibility — or even the probability, as Zappa sees it — of a female president. That means other issues feel much more pressing right now. 
 
 "I don't think voting for a woman is particularly novel for them," said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. "The fact that the nation elected its first African-American candidate in 2008, it's kind of taken the edge out of those narrow parameters of who can be president." 
 
 If that's true, the gender card — which Clinton is playing more forcefully this year than in 2008 — may be less effective now for some young voters. 
 
 But their minds may change as they age. 
 
 "I think younger women will face some discrimination in their lives, but when they're young, they probably haven't," Bystrom said. Older women, meanwhile, "feel that it's about time to have a woman president," she added. 
 
 Of course, the reasons anyone supports Clinton (or Sanders) are far more nuanced than voting for a gender. Many women — old or young, supporting Clinton or Sanders — say that gender isn't a factor at all in choosing a candidate. 
 
 And some Sanders-supporting women say they considered the draw of caucusing for a woman, but it ultimately couldn't sway them. Likewise, for many Clinton supporters, who are drawn in by her gender, it's simply one of many reasons. 
 
 However, it is a reason that amps up their enthusiasm. 
 
 "It's about time we caught up with the rest of the civilized world," said Maureen Ekeland of West Des Moines, who attended a Clinton speech in Ames with her daughter and granddaughter. All three are Clinton supporters. 
 
 "It's don't think it's the only thing, and it might not be the main thing. But absolutely — it would be an amazing thing," said Jennifer Ruggle of Waukee, Ekeland's daughter. 
 
 For Older Women, The Time For A Female President Is Now 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Andrew Harnik/AP 
 
 At the other end of the spectrum from the college students attending the event, who feel they have a lifetime to put a woman in the White House, there are the women who say time is running out. One Clinton volunteer said those women motivate her. 
 
 "There are so many children that need to grow up in a situation where it's normal to have a female president," said Kim Frederick of Houston. Frederick told NPR's Tamara Keith the story of an elderly woman she met at a Clinton rally in 2008, when Frederick was also a volunteer. 
 
 "And she said, 'Please, I'm 94 years old,' " Frederick said. "I can't get out there and volunteer. Can you please make this happen? And I promised her I would. And it didn't happen in 2008, and she's probably not around anymore, but there's another 94-year-old woman in a wheelchair that I have to do that for this time. And we're going to make it happen." 
 
 Gender Matters In The General 
 
 Importantly, it's not that supporting Sanders means rejecting Clinton. Many female Sanders supporters who spoke to NPR said they'd support Clinton as a general-election candidate (and many of her supporters say the same of Sanders). 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Andrew Harnik/AP 
 
 And general elections make it clear that it doesn't make sense to talk about the "woman voter," as the Atlantic reported in 2012. While it's true that women tended to support Obama in the past two presidential elections, there are factors beyond gender at work here. Single and minority women have tended to support Obama, for example, while white and married women went for Mitt Romney. 
 
 Once the Democratic candidate is chosen, that's when the battle for women's votes will get even more important, Bystrom pointed out. 
 
 "I think gender always factors into elections and typically for the Democrats," she said. "For a Democrat to be president, there has to be a large number of women" who turn out. ||||| Young voters in Iowa favored Sanders by a margin of six to one, while older voters went overwhelmingly for Clinton—revealing a party split along generational lines. 
 
 Bernie Sanders answered two important questions with his strong showing in Iowa. But, despite his impressive finish, he’ll need to answer two more to truly threaten Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. The most powerful lesson from the Iowa caucus results is that Democrats are facing not just a generation gap, but a Grand Canyon-sized chasm. As I wrote this week, age has emerged as the single most important dividing line in the struggle between Sanders and Clinton. In the Iowa entrance poll (which questions voters on the way into a caucus, rather than on their way out the door, like “exit polls” in primaries) Sanders amassed astounding margins among young people. He crushed Clinton by an almost unimaginable six to one—84 percent to 14 percent—among voters younger than 30. For those tempted to dismiss that as just a campus craze, he also routed her by 58 percent to 37 percent among those aged 30 to 44. But Clinton’s margins were almost as impressive among older voters: she beat Sanders 58 percent to 35 percent among those aged 45-64, and by 69 percent to 26 percent among seniors. That’s an even wider age gap than Iowa produced in the 2008 contest between Clinton and Barack Obama. In that Iowa caucus, Clinton also was routed among younger voters, but Obama stayed more competitive than Sanders did among those older than 45. On both sides, John Edwards, as a strong third contender, also somewhat muted the contrasts. In 2008, Clinton ran 34 percentage points better among seniors than with those under 30; this week, the gap was 55 points. 
 
 Obama beat Clinton by 20 percentage points among voters younger than 30, while she beat him by 25 points among voters older than 65, according to a cumulative analysis of the results of all the exit polls in the 2008 Democratic primary conducted by ABC pollster Gary Langer. Voters in the middle-aged groups divided more narrowly: Obama carried those aged 30-44 by 11 points, and Clinton carried the near retirement generation (45 to 64) by seven, according to Langer’s analysis. But when it comes to piling up votes, one of these demographic advantages is much more useful than the other. Across all of the 2008 contests, according to Langer’s calculations, voters older than 45 cast fully 61 percent of Democratic votes, while those younger than 45 cast 39 percent. That’s an advantage for Clinton. And it’s a slightly worrisome note for Sanders—a cloud passing on an otherwise sunny day—that young voters cast a slightly smaller share of the total Iowa Democratic vote in 2016 than 2008. Still, Sanders’s overwhelming margins among Iowa’s younger voters—which exceeded even Obama’s 2008 showing—affirmatively answered the first critical question for the Vermont senator’s campaign: Would the connection with young voters evident at his rallies translate to the ballot box? The second question that Iowa answered is whether Sanders could become more than just what I’ve termed a “wine track” candidate. Sanders started the 2016 race fitting the profile of brainy Democratic contenders from Eugene McCarthy to Gary Hart to Paul Tsongas to Bill Bradley, who relied mostly on support from younger voters and upscale white liberals. All of them lost to rivals who mobilized the competing “beer track” coalition of blue-collar whites and minorities. Obama represented a variation on the theme: He married the backing of those upscale whites with support from African Americans. That allowed him to narrowly beat Clinton’s modified “beer track” coalition of working-class whites and Hispanics. 
 
 In Iowa, Sanders did very well with the wine-track constituencies. Besides his overwhelming showing among younger voters, he stayed close to Clinton among college-educated whites: He carried college-educated white men by 12 percentage points and lost college-educated white women by the same margin. In Iowa, in fact, both college-educated white men and women divided almost exactly as they did in the cumulative results between Clinton and Obama in 2008. But in Iowa, Sanders expanded beyond that beachhead to run evenly with Clinton among non-college whites. If that pattern persists, it would represent a huge change in the Democratic landscape. In 2008, across all the exit polls, Clinton dominated Obama among non-college white women (carrying 66 percent of them) and non-college white men (56 percent). But in Iowa, Sanders narrowly carried those blue-collar white men and held down his losses among the blue-collar white women: Clinton only carried just over half of them. Class and age shaped the gender gap in Iowa. That gap was modest: Clinton last night won 50 percent of women and 44 percent of men. That almost exactly matched her total in the cumulative 2008 results against Obama, when gender was also somewhat muted: In that race Clinton carried 52 percent of women and 43 percent of men. Clinton benefits from that pattern because women cast most of the Democratic votes (57 percent in all the primaries last time, the same number as in Iowa last night). And her overall advantage among women could rise as African American women, who usually vote more heavily than black men, weigh in. But in Iowa, Sanders signaled he could remain competitive enough among women (particularly younger woman) to prevent Clinton’s advantage there from becoming insurmountable. 
 
 It’s yet to be seen whether Clinton’s performance with blue-collar whites eroded because those voters are responding to Sanders’s full-throated economic populism—or simply because she’s not running again against an African American with an Ivy League pedigree. But, either way, if Sanders can sustain the competitive showing among blue-collar whites he displayed in Iowa, he can contest metal-bending Rust Belt states (like Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin) that previous wine-track candidates could only rarely threaten. But to win those states—and the other big racially-diverse states that will almost certainly decide the Democratic race—Sanders must answer two other questions Iowa did not resolve. The first is whether he can win minority voters. Minorities comprised only 9 percent of the voters in Iowa last night (up just slightly from 2008), but they will likely cast between 35 to 40 percent of the total vote in the 2016 Democratic primaries. As I noted on Monday, minorities are especially plentiful in the big states that will award the most delegates, including New York (where minorities cast just under one-third of the 2008 vote), Florida (about one-third), Virginia and New Jersey (about two-fifths), Illinois (over two-fifths) California (nearly half) and Georgia and Texas (over half). The sample in Iowa was small, but Sanders won only about one-third of non-white voters there, compared to about three-fifths for Clinton. She polls even better among minorities in most national surveys. The next contest in New Hampshire, whose Democratic electorate in 2008 was 95 percent white, won’t provide much guidance on whether Sanders can shatter that wall. The real signals will come later in February from Nevada (where Hispanics and blacks each cast about one-sixth of the 2008 vote) and South Carolina (where African Americans cast a 55 percent majority of the 2008 vote). ||||| The other day in Manhattan, Hillary Clinton supporters met for lunch at the home of the media executive Geraldine Laybourne. A group of 50, mostly women, was determined to generate excitement for Clinton’s campaign for president. They were frustrated to see her lagging again among younger voters, and their invited speaker was Kenyatta Cheese, a young Obama campaign veteran and internet impresario. 
 
 Why Hillary Clinton is losing young women | Letters Read more 
 
 The debate sparring that night between Clinton and Bernie Sanders over who belongs to the establishment was another reflection of how perilous it is to be an insider this American political season. And it is galling for politically seasoned women to watch Sanders caricature Clinton as an establishmentarian worshipping at the altar of Goldman Sachs. “When you are in the White House, you’re going to be connected to the establishment,” says Sarah Kovner, who served in the Clinton administration and was at Laybourne’s lunch. “That’s just a fact.” 
 
 Sanders put Hillary Clinton on notice last summer, when no one was paying him much heed. “All over this country,” he declared, “ordinary people, working people, elderly people are moving in our direction because they do want a candidate to take on the establishment.” 
 
 During that most recent Democratic debate in South Carolina, I read texts about Clinton by some students at Harvard, where I teach, and talked to some afterwards. Although Clinton’s difficulties with young voters have been much written about, their comments revealed a more acute ennui. 
 
 “Hillary, can you excite us?” asks Osaremen Okolo, a 21-year-old African-American who supports Clinton but “misses feeling fired up” as she was for Barack Obama and as some of her friends feel about Sanders. 
 
 Hillary Clinton, Snapchat, selfies and the road to wooing millennials Read more 
 
 “Young people like Bernie because he sounds like a revolutionary,” she says. But Okolo prefers Clinton’s experience and positions on issues like equal pay for equal work and criminal justice reform. “Hillary sounds pragmatic, which can come across as stuffy to young people. Her experience can almost count against her.” She adds: “Sanders seems bold, even if none of his ideas can happen.” 
 
 Shattering “that highest, hardest glass ceiling”, as Clinton so elegantly put it in her 2008 concession speech, doesn’t seem revolutionary to some younger women. Income inequality is a bigger concern in what may turn out to be a post-gender election. 
 
 Kara Lessin is a 23-year-old in her final year at Harvard who has volunteered for Sanders but was excited by Clinton eight years ago. “The ‘I’m a woman and it’s OK to vote with your uterus’ message is tired,” she said. “Bernie really understands systemic oppression. Her neo-liberal politics is pretty tired.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Clinton at Wellesley in her student protest days. ‘With Sanders on her heels, any day now I expect her to talk about the summer she worked at a law firm whose lead partner was a former Communist.’ Photograph: Sygma/Corbis (left); Lee Balterman/Life Picture Collection via Getty (right) 
 
 I first met Clinton, then Hillary Rodham, in 1978. I was struck by her directness and that she spoke in perfect paragraphs. She was a sincere feminist and activist, but pragmatic. To help her husband win back the governor’s office, after he lost in 1980, she took Vernon Jordan’s advice to add Clinton to her name. 
 
 She’s also been a source. In the 1980s, she headed a women’s commission of the ultra-establishment American Bar Association that called for promotion of more women lawyers and judges, something that was just beginning to happen. Although I was a reporter, a species she inherently distrusts, she provided some useful information for my first book about women lawyers. 
 
 In early 1993, when the Clintons moved into the White House, I was covering a reception in the ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel for women appointees in the new administration. To wild cheering, she proclaimed that, in the important government jobs, “there have never been women like us”. She was using code for feminists. 
 
 'Give us a dream': Hillary Clinton supporters look to her for aspirations Read more 
 
 Lately Clinton has been talking about her activism at Wellesley and Yale Law. With Sanders on her heels in both Iowa and New Hampshire, any day now I expect her to talk about the summer she worked at an Oakland law firm whose lead partner was a former Communist married to Jessica Mitford. But that’s another story. 
 
 At an Iowa rally on Thursday, trying to broaden her appeal to younger women, Clinton was introduced by the singer Demi Lovato. There was an older crowd in New Hampshire the next day, when she got a standing ovation at a Naral Pro-Choice America event celebrating the anniversary of Roe v Wade. Earlier, Sanders had said groups like Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign that have endorsed Clinton were “part of the establishment”. Clinton’s retort came quickly: “We need someone in the White House who understands that Naral and Planned Parenthood aren’t part of the establishment.” 
 
 I am so frustrated with dialogue around Hillary among my peers. It feels so gendered, even from women, so harshly sexist Lena Dunham 
 
 This fight over who belongs to the establishment reminded me of a brilliant article by David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker. He explained how a “Joshua generation” of younger black leaders like Obama had evolved from an older Moses generation. We may be witnessing a similar evolution with Clinton and women. 
 
 Laybourne, 68, is Clinton’s age and, like the woman for whom she held that lunch the other day, became politically active during the first wave of feminism. Clinton is doing well with the Layborne generation. Her troubles are with the Lenny generation. 
 
 Lenny is a newsletter for younger women founded by the writer and actress Lena Dunham, the star of HBO’s Girls. Dunham, 29, has campaigned hard for Clinton and interviewed her for Lenny’s first issue a few months ago. 
 
 “I am so frustrated with the dialogue around Hillary among my peers,” Dunham told me in an email. “It feels so gendered, even from women, so harshly sexist. We never throw claims of too establishment or too stiff or even too selfish at male politicians. It’s unfair in the deepest sense.” 
 
 If she wins the Democratic nomination, Clinton needs to bridge the Laybournes and the Lennys, as Obama did with the Joshua and Moses generations. She must satisfy Okolo, one of her Harvard supporters: 
 
 Hillary, can you excite us? ||||| Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders listen as he speaks Tuesday at the Claremont Opera House in Claremont, N.H. (Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images) 
 
 While Hillary Clinton barely edged Bernie Sanders to win the Iowa caucuses, one thing became clear Monday night: The race for the Democratic nomination is turning into a battle of the ages. 
 
 The dividing line was 45 years old — voters that age or older went decisively for Clinton, while those younger flocked to Sanders. Voters under 30 were the most emphatic, with an astonishing 84 percent backing the 74-year-old senator from Vermont, according to entrance surveys. 
 
 Clinton, 68, appears to face a similar problem in New Hampshire, which holds the first-in-the-nation primary next week. 
 
 She kicked off her post-Iowa efforts here by touting her razor-thin caucus victory with a midday rally at Nashua Community College, but despite the academic setting, the 1,100-person crowd tilted older. 
 
 “Hillary just isn’t trustworthy,” said Amanda Delude, 22, who was headed to her car instead of the rally after class. She said she is likely to vote for Sanders, who she said strikes many in her generation as an uncommonly candid politician. 
 
 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton addresses supporters in Hampton, N.H., on Tuesday. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) 
 
 Chloe Bruning, a 21-year-old Boston University student who attended Tuesday’s rally, said she and other members of the group BU for Hillary were struggling to convince pro-Sanders classmates to give Clinton a new look. 
 
 “Clinton fatigue is a thing,” she said. “It really is.” 
 
 Younger voters were a problem for Clinton in 2008 as well, when they emerged as a key element of the support base that helped Barack Obama defeat her for the Democratic nomination. In Iowa that year, Obama beat Clinton among caucus-goers under 30, 57 percent to 11 percent. 
 
 Clinton’s campaign has said it intends to rebuild the Obama coalition, which included blacks, Hispanics, liberals and young people, while tapping into additional excitement among women over the possibility of the first female president. 
 
 Typically, younger voters do not turn out as reliably as older ones. But Monday night’s entrance polls and other opinion surveys suggest a massive advantage for Sanders among those who do turn out — young women and men alike. Ninety-three percent of caucus-goers under 30, for instance, said Sanders shared their values, compared with 53 percent who felt that way about Clinton, helping Sanders surge past Obama’s performance in that age bracket eight years earlier, according to the entrance surveys. 
 
 If Clinton wins the nomination, reaching younger voters could be a challenge for her in the fall, particularly if the Republicans nominate 44-year-old Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.). 
 
 Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, told NBC News on Tuesday that Sanders has built a following among young people because he offers them “emotionally satisfying” promises. 
 
 Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders split the Iowa caucuses nearly evenly — but how? (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) 
 
 “If you vote for me, I’ll break up the big banks, tax the millionaires and give you free college, cut the cost of health care — end of story,” Bill Clinton said, recapping Sanders’s pitch. He suggested that his wife, on the other hand, would appeal to young people’s sense of realism. “You tell them what you think will really work and what we can afford that will solve the problem, and ask for their help in doing it, and it takes longer,” he said. 
 
 Hillary Clinton campaign officials noted that she performed well among many important groups, including minorities and self-described Democrats. 
 
 “Her coalition reflects all parts of the Democratic Party, and her agenda of making college affordable, tackling climate change and reforming our criminal justice system speaks to all parts of the Democratic Party, especially younger voters,” said campaign spokeswoman Jesse Ferguson. “She will continue reaching out to them to earn their support.” 
 
 In terms of age breakdowns, Clinton won among older voters, and especially older women, on her way to squeaking out her Iowa victory. 
 
 A number of young people here, including some Clinton supporters, said Sanders’s appeal has gone beyond the issues. He has managed to capture an intangible quality unexpected for a rumpled grandfather figure with bad hair who has served in Congress for 25 years: He’s cooler than Clinton. 
 
 In contrast, the former secretary of state has been in the middle of partisan battles for all their lives. 
 
 Emma Sands, 21, another Clinton backer from Boston University, said that campus social media is dominated by Sanders talk. And while the BU group has more women than men, Sands said it offends many young women’s sense of gender equality to suggest gender as a reason to back Clinton. 
 
 “I have an issue with the argument that you should like Hillary just because she’s a woman,” she said. 
 
 Amy Chapman, 43, who came to hear Clinton speak but said she remains undecided, said she is disturbed by the candidate’s ties to Wall Street banks, which have donated millions to her presidential campaign and from which she and her husband have earned major speaking fees. 
 
 “How can you be completely unbiased when you’re taking huge amounts of money from them?” asked Chapman, adding that she may wind up voting for Clinton anyway, out of fear that Sanders would be a weak general-election candidate. 
 
 Sonia Almeida, 40, a physician’s assistant from Bedford, N.H., came to the rally with an undecided co-worker. Almeida said she’s convinced that Clinton is the better choice on education, health care and foreign affairs. But she had one piece of advice for the campaign: “They need to be on social media more,” she said. “You didn’t think he’d be so cool there.” 
 
 Her co-worker, Celia Ortiz, 36, said Sanders seemed “more genuine.” Ortiz said she works in New Hampshire but lives in Massachusetts, which holds its primary March 1, and was also considering Clinton because she liked the idea of electing a female president. 
 
 Clinton enjoys a lot of support at her own alma mater, the all-female Wellesley College in Massachusetts. But there, too, Sanders dominates online, said Laura Prebble, 19, and Juliette Sander, 18, freshmen at the school who said they support Clinton. 
 
 “People are always putting up Bernie pictures or Bernie quotes,” said Prebble, who grew up in Wisconsin. 
 
 Sander, an international student from France, said some of her classmates liked the idea of a newcomer to the presidential field. 
 
 “They like the idea that he’s not part of ‘the Clinton family,’ ” she said. 
 
 But the two students agreed that the idea of electing the first female president is powerfully moving to them. 
 
 “For me, that’s incredibly meaningful,” Prebble said. 
 
 Abby Phillip in New Hampshire contributed to this report.
– Bernie Sanders didn't just defeat Hillary Clinton among the under-30 set in Iowa, he trounced her by an incredible margin of 6:1. And that holds true when looking solely at young female voters. What gives? Some related coverage: Clinton "has aggressively reached out to young women with the promise of breaking a glass ceiling that the women’s movement has worked for decades to shatter. The newest generation of feminists is responding with a shrug." The Los Angeles Times takes a deeper look, suggesting that millennials see Clinton more as "overcautious mother" than "trailblazer." Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson thinks it's because the idea of breaking the glass ceiling "doesn’t seem revolutionary to some younger women." In fact, this might be a "post-gender election." Read her piece at the Guardian. "The split has exposed a fault line around feminism in America, between women who grew up in an era when they weren't allowed to wear pants to work, for example—and young women who have never known the kind of discrimination and stereotypes their mothers faced." NPR also takes a look. The sentiment isn't unanimous. To read a passionate, all-caps rant against the Hillary backlash going on among young women—written by a young woman herself—see this post at Pajiba. "YES, I'M EMOTIONAL AND I'M YELLING." An Atlantic analysis looks beyond gender in examining the age differences of Clinton and Sanders supporters: Essentially, he got the younger ones and she got the older ones. "Democrats are facing not just a generation gap, but a Grand Canyon-sized chasm." The dividing line in this contest? Age 45, observes the Washington Post.