I've noticed that we Democrats are following the five stages of grief after the Great Tragedy - which is how I'll refer to the election of 2016. We're progressing very quickly though as it's only been a week and we're already in Anger. We were only in Denial for a brief amount of time and I'll note that it came with a a heavy dose of Depression.
We are all looking for a single thing to blame for what happened last week and as I pointed out in my previous post, I think there's a LOT going on here. There is no one answer to this problem, Like the Democrat party itself, it's a mixed bag.
Here's what worries me right now that just like Republicans in 2008 and 2012 who were working on being introspective and fixing things for themselves, that we Democrats are sitting in our ivory towers and deciding what we need to do without actually listening or talking to the folks who we want to vote for us.
I think a key to a strong resurgence of a party who looks out for EVERYONE, is listening and talking to folks. That has to start at the local level. I think it's a good time for each city, county, and state to turn inward and figure out what we need to do for our local folks. We need to win local elections and state offices in two years. That's grass roots.
If we know what's happening in our own states I think the next time out our national candidate is going to pay attention. At least, that's what I'm hoping if we don't fall victim to Ivory Tower thinking.
Pay attention too when at long last the press is finally asking Trump supporters why they voted the way they did and their expectations. They don't expect Trump to keep all his promises, and they're okay with a flawed candidate, clearly. We, Democrats don't need to worry about being perfect. That is the best news ever as we go forward.
Does this sound like Bargaining? It did to me too.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Thoughts On A Gloomy Week
I have voted for the Democrat in every Presidential election since I could vote. I am a liberal - don't tune out, try to hang here and understand. I want to know that when I turn on the tap clean water comes out. Since the tragedies in West Virginia and Flint, Michigan I fear a water crisis in my own location - not only that it will happen, but that if it does, no one will fix it. I understand that significantly more people die each year from lung cancer caused by pollution than were killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Clean air and clean water are vital to our future but I don't see anyone taking that seriously. Definitely not Republicans and I'm sorry to say, not so much Democrats. We're fracking at an alarming rate and one of the smartest countries in the world refuses to innovate for clean energy at the same pace. We're the country that put a man on the moon and created the Atom bomb and we can't seem to get off our asses to solve the problems presented to us by how we live our lives and the threats to our environment.
I'm talking about this because it's one of the reasons we've just ushered in one of the most terrifying people to occupy the White House in my lifetime. As some of my friends are talking about White Lash I actually think things are much more complex this time. I'll talk about the non-Obama voters in a minute, but first I think we should acknowledge that we, that's Democrats, forgot our purpose. We are supposed to be on the side of the average man/woman - no matter their race or where they live or even their point of view. That used to be the guts of our support. We call ourselves Progressive, but we're not doing the things that progressives would do.
Bernie Sanders was in Michigan. He got it. Hilary didn't. She has the power of the Clinton Foundation at her fingertips and could have made a point of visiting Flint and bringing resources, but she didn't. If your kids have lead poisoning - a lifelong challenge they've been granted through no other effort than drinking the water in their house - and the Republicans are responsible for poisoning it and the Democrats don't show up to fix it, why would you bother to turn out to vote? They were failed by Democratic institutions that we profess to love like the EPA. Any time Republicans try to tinker or bastardize the EPA we scream and shout about how awful it is, but at the end of the day we didn't fix it. Us, the people who pride themselves on looking out for the little guy. Michael Moore pointed out yesterday on Morning Joe that 90,000 voters in Michigan completed every single line on their ballots except for President. They opted out of a system that's failed them.
Then, there's the economy. In hindsight, I'm kind of shocked Hilary didn't get this. Her husband ran on "Its the Economy Stupid". Again, I'll point at the Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton is trying to change the world and good for him. I think that's tremendous. Guess what? Here in the United States there are parts of our country that are in a lot worse condition than some of these undeveloped countries around the world. Sometimes you should take care of your own house. We are seeing high rates of addiction, high rates of infant mortality, and depression and suicide. I shared an article about that on my Facebook page and no one felt empathy for these people at all. It was a wake up call though. These folks voted for Trump.
When something new comes along there are always early adopters or what politicians would call their 'base'. These are the people who are in it and they're going to stick with you, Then, there's the group that can be convinced to come along and says "Okay, I might be dubious, but I'll give this a chance." That second group are the folks we just lost. They gave Obama a chance and it didn't work out, so now they're going to try this other guy.
I want to talk about personal responsibility too and how the majority of the American people act just like most businesses - they have a model they follow and if it ain't broke they won't fix it. We the people are and have been contributors to our own demise, and willingly. We've allowed ourselves to be sucked into voting against our best interests with social issues that the Government should keep its giant snoot out of. The gay couple down the street is not keeping you from getting clean drinking water or from getting a job but many people have been convinced that this is something they should vote on.
In the 1980s we hated drugs and we hated unions so we started incarcerating a ton of people who can't contribute to the bottom line from prison and we don't have any unions around who might have been able to keep jobs from heading out of the country. We also hated regulations and started tearing down those protections because we were told they were 'job killing' even though there was no evidence. Then we started eating a heck of a lot more food than we needed and industry gave us what we wanted - more, more, more. There's a connection here between good union jobs with health benefits and no job and a bunch of sick, fat people. We voted for that.
In the 1990s we continued our love of deregulation and started tearing down more of the New Deal that had kept the economy in decent shape since the Depression. That New Deal was now no deal and we continued locking up anyone who looked at us funny and we wanted to kill people with the death penalty even faster - despite the fact that a lot of people on death row turned out to be innocent. And, we reformed Welfare. No more lifetime welfare recipients. And guess who uses welfare more than any other demographic? Poor white folks in rural areas who if they turned out to vote on Tuesday, voted for Trump. What did it matter to us though? The economy was great. Because like everyone, even those early adopters, we don't act if things aren't broke.
We also started making Wal-Mart our best friend. A store where nearly everything on their shelves is made in a country other than the United States. We're really mad that all those good union jobs are overseas, and then we shop at Wal-Mart because we want a bargain. We work against ourselves on almost a daily basis. We gave up on the Mom and Pop shops - those small, family owned businesses we profess to love. My sister lived in northern Idaho for a few years and while visiting I took my nephews out and about and we walked into a little store that had art supplies. A woman in the same store looked at the stuff I was buying and said "They have that at Wal-Mart for a lot less". Knife in the heart to that small business owner. We the people abandoned those folks. That's us. When you're bemoaning the loss of these businesses, think about where you shop.
Are you tired yet? I still have a bit more to say and if you've hung in this long try to stick it out to the end. Remember the Bush election of 2000? He ushered in tax cuts, and a war we fought but didn't want to pay for. Remember Al Franken bringing bullet proof vests to soldiers in Iraq because we weren't providing them to the military? All those folks who think the Republicans are pro-military let me lay out a fact for you. The military makes up less than 1% of our population. You're useful as an election prop and that's about it. The VA is a mess and that right there shows you how much either party is doing. Once more, opportunity for Democrats but we didn't fix that either. Still, we the people keep hitting our heads against that same brick wall and expecting a different result.
In 2008 we gave up on Bush and put Obama in office. Where the first thing he worked on was Healthcare. His plan relies on all those young people who voted for him to now buy into the insurance plans, and they didn't. People who really need healthcare bought in and they're seeing premiums that are bigger than their mortgage and deductibles that they can't pay. We're also a lot sicker than we used to be. Remember our need to eat, eat and eat again and the bigger the portion the better? We drive places we can walk, we sit at home glued to television and we wonder why we're not healthy. We wonder why health insurance rates have sky rocketed. You can blame doctors and hospitals and drug companies, and I do, but we are part of the problem Remember how upset everyone got when Michelle Obama suggested we shouldn't drink soda? Drink up fatty fatty 2x4 can't get through the kitchen door (and I say this as someone who needs to lose weight). We still smoke. Despite all the evidence out there around cigarette smoking, we are still smoking.
We have been gluttons. We are consuming things and food and never once stopping to wonder if what we're doing might not be the best thing for us, our kids and our future. We are buying houses and cars we don't need and then wondering why we have no savings. We don't know where our jobs went. We don't know why our kids have lead poisoning. Well, you do know. It's us. We did all of this to ourselves. Some people tried to tell us and we scoffed at them for their political correctness and for being hippies. We don't have a safety net to keep us on our feet - remember welfare reform? - while we look for a new job and try to make it in this world. We keep hoping old jobs are coming back. That way of life is gone. Time to wake up and build something new.
Let me end on a high note here. I have always said that we should never bet against America. We're not perfect, as I have so plainly pointed out, but we can make America great. I'm not going to say again because way too many people have been used and abused for what we had before. This is a wake up call though. We should protest what happened in this election. We should organize and reach out and figure out how to make these politicians understand that they're not doing what we want. The new president is being surrounded by excited Republicans hoping to get a piece of his magic and convince him that he should do things their way. That is not good for us at all. Let's really pay attention this time and we will be the change and stop relying on politicians to bring it to our door.
I'm talking about this because it's one of the reasons we've just ushered in one of the most terrifying people to occupy the White House in my lifetime. As some of my friends are talking about White Lash I actually think things are much more complex this time. I'll talk about the non-Obama voters in a minute, but first I think we should acknowledge that we, that's Democrats, forgot our purpose. We are supposed to be on the side of the average man/woman - no matter their race or where they live or even their point of view. That used to be the guts of our support. We call ourselves Progressive, but we're not doing the things that progressives would do.
Bernie Sanders was in Michigan. He got it. Hilary didn't. She has the power of the Clinton Foundation at her fingertips and could have made a point of visiting Flint and bringing resources, but she didn't. If your kids have lead poisoning - a lifelong challenge they've been granted through no other effort than drinking the water in their house - and the Republicans are responsible for poisoning it and the Democrats don't show up to fix it, why would you bother to turn out to vote? They were failed by Democratic institutions that we profess to love like the EPA. Any time Republicans try to tinker or bastardize the EPA we scream and shout about how awful it is, but at the end of the day we didn't fix it. Us, the people who pride themselves on looking out for the little guy. Michael Moore pointed out yesterday on Morning Joe that 90,000 voters in Michigan completed every single line on their ballots except for President. They opted out of a system that's failed them.
Then, there's the economy. In hindsight, I'm kind of shocked Hilary didn't get this. Her husband ran on "Its the Economy Stupid". Again, I'll point at the Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton is trying to change the world and good for him. I think that's tremendous. Guess what? Here in the United States there are parts of our country that are in a lot worse condition than some of these undeveloped countries around the world. Sometimes you should take care of your own house. We are seeing high rates of addiction, high rates of infant mortality, and depression and suicide. I shared an article about that on my Facebook page and no one felt empathy for these people at all. It was a wake up call though. These folks voted for Trump.
When something new comes along there are always early adopters or what politicians would call their 'base'. These are the people who are in it and they're going to stick with you, Then, there's the group that can be convinced to come along and says "Okay, I might be dubious, but I'll give this a chance." That second group are the folks we just lost. They gave Obama a chance and it didn't work out, so now they're going to try this other guy.
I want to talk about personal responsibility too and how the majority of the American people act just like most businesses - they have a model they follow and if it ain't broke they won't fix it. We the people are and have been contributors to our own demise, and willingly. We've allowed ourselves to be sucked into voting against our best interests with social issues that the Government should keep its giant snoot out of. The gay couple down the street is not keeping you from getting clean drinking water or from getting a job but many people have been convinced that this is something they should vote on.
In the 1980s we hated drugs and we hated unions so we started incarcerating a ton of people who can't contribute to the bottom line from prison and we don't have any unions around who might have been able to keep jobs from heading out of the country. We also hated regulations and started tearing down those protections because we were told they were 'job killing' even though there was no evidence. Then we started eating a heck of a lot more food than we needed and industry gave us what we wanted - more, more, more. There's a connection here between good union jobs with health benefits and no job and a bunch of sick, fat people. We voted for that.
In the 1990s we continued our love of deregulation and started tearing down more of the New Deal that had kept the economy in decent shape since the Depression. That New Deal was now no deal and we continued locking up anyone who looked at us funny and we wanted to kill people with the death penalty even faster - despite the fact that a lot of people on death row turned out to be innocent. And, we reformed Welfare. No more lifetime welfare recipients. And guess who uses welfare more than any other demographic? Poor white folks in rural areas who if they turned out to vote on Tuesday, voted for Trump. What did it matter to us though? The economy was great. Because like everyone, even those early adopters, we don't act if things aren't broke.
We also started making Wal-Mart our best friend. A store where nearly everything on their shelves is made in a country other than the United States. We're really mad that all those good union jobs are overseas, and then we shop at Wal-Mart because we want a bargain. We work against ourselves on almost a daily basis. We gave up on the Mom and Pop shops - those small, family owned businesses we profess to love. My sister lived in northern Idaho for a few years and while visiting I took my nephews out and about and we walked into a little store that had art supplies. A woman in the same store looked at the stuff I was buying and said "They have that at Wal-Mart for a lot less". Knife in the heart to that small business owner. We the people abandoned those folks. That's us. When you're bemoaning the loss of these businesses, think about where you shop.
Are you tired yet? I still have a bit more to say and if you've hung in this long try to stick it out to the end. Remember the Bush election of 2000? He ushered in tax cuts, and a war we fought but didn't want to pay for. Remember Al Franken bringing bullet proof vests to soldiers in Iraq because we weren't providing them to the military? All those folks who think the Republicans are pro-military let me lay out a fact for you. The military makes up less than 1% of our population. You're useful as an election prop and that's about it. The VA is a mess and that right there shows you how much either party is doing. Once more, opportunity for Democrats but we didn't fix that either. Still, we the people keep hitting our heads against that same brick wall and expecting a different result.
In 2008 we gave up on Bush and put Obama in office. Where the first thing he worked on was Healthcare. His plan relies on all those young people who voted for him to now buy into the insurance plans, and they didn't. People who really need healthcare bought in and they're seeing premiums that are bigger than their mortgage and deductibles that they can't pay. We're also a lot sicker than we used to be. Remember our need to eat, eat and eat again and the bigger the portion the better? We drive places we can walk, we sit at home glued to television and we wonder why we're not healthy. We wonder why health insurance rates have sky rocketed. You can blame doctors and hospitals and drug companies, and I do, but we are part of the problem Remember how upset everyone got when Michelle Obama suggested we shouldn't drink soda? Drink up fatty fatty 2x4 can't get through the kitchen door (and I say this as someone who needs to lose weight). We still smoke. Despite all the evidence out there around cigarette smoking, we are still smoking.
We have been gluttons. We are consuming things and food and never once stopping to wonder if what we're doing might not be the best thing for us, our kids and our future. We are buying houses and cars we don't need and then wondering why we have no savings. We don't know where our jobs went. We don't know why our kids have lead poisoning. Well, you do know. It's us. We did all of this to ourselves. Some people tried to tell us and we scoffed at them for their political correctness and for being hippies. We don't have a safety net to keep us on our feet - remember welfare reform? - while we look for a new job and try to make it in this world. We keep hoping old jobs are coming back. That way of life is gone. Time to wake up and build something new.
Let me end on a high note here. I have always said that we should never bet against America. We're not perfect, as I have so plainly pointed out, but we can make America great. I'm not going to say again because way too many people have been used and abused for what we had before. This is a wake up call though. We should protest what happened in this election. We should organize and reach out and figure out how to make these politicians understand that they're not doing what we want. The new president is being surrounded by excited Republicans hoping to get a piece of his magic and convince him that he should do things their way. That is not good for us at all. Let's really pay attention this time and we will be the change and stop relying on politicians to bring it to our door.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
It's The End of the World....
Okay, I know it's not the end of the world, but it certainly feels like it. Yes, I wanted Hilary to win, was pretty convinced she had it in the bag only to find out there are vast numbers of pissed off white people in rural areas who feel left behind by the economy. Now I find myself in the position of being pissed off at them for what they've done.
This morning I had a great sense of humor that went along with my despair. Like, when I got up this morning at 3:30 am because I couldn't sleep through the end of the world, my Dog seemed exuberant. Then it occurred to me that he just might be a Trump supporter because he does try to hump me sometimes without asking.
Then as I was out walking I thought I should probably give up on physical fitness. I don't want to get fit and really attractive so that I end up getting my pussy grabbed. That would be awful. So I ate some candy at work and had a big lunch to ward that off.
My sister had a great line this morning asking what the hell happened because we thought the election was rigged in Hilary's favor. Apparently not.
Now it's the end of day one in this new, cock eyed world where a bunch of people have voted for someone they think is going to fix all their problems and I have some really bad news for them. It ain't happening folks. I know because I voted for Obama twice - the first time thinking he'd fix the mess and the second knowing that he'd be a lot less messy than Romney. I voted for Hilary because I know that other guy (I can't say his name, I just can't) is a snake oil salesman you can see coming from a mile away - well, some of us could.
Worry has begun to set in for a lot of my friends and their families. I saw the posts from the white supremacists - thank you Southern Poverty Law Center. I think if you voted against Hilary and for the other guy, then you should own this one. Attached to your vote is a lot of misogynistic, racist talk and I'm afraid action. Don't try to tell the rest of us you're not like this because that's who you've aligned yourself with. In their post they refer to the newly elected President as "Our Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor". Doesn't that make your blood run cold? It did mine. They claim credit for his win. He couldn't have done it without them. So, yeah, you own this one.
I donated to Hilary's campaign. I felt it was important. Now I will be sending that money regularly to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood. I'll keep reminding myself that this is not what the majority of the people wanted. Hilary won the popular vote by nearly 2 hundred thousand votes. It means that we didn't want that other guy. Now we need to get rid of the electoral college. It's screwed us twice and we can't afford for that to happen again.
I think we've missed out on a big opportunity to have one of the best presidents this country has ever seen. She was smart, hard working and more prepared than anyone who came before her. I guess we're not good enough for that kind of awesomeness. Instead we're stuck with that other guy.
This morning I had a great sense of humor that went along with my despair. Like, when I got up this morning at 3:30 am because I couldn't sleep through the end of the world, my Dog seemed exuberant. Then it occurred to me that he just might be a Trump supporter because he does try to hump me sometimes without asking.
Then as I was out walking I thought I should probably give up on physical fitness. I don't want to get fit and really attractive so that I end up getting my pussy grabbed. That would be awful. So I ate some candy at work and had a big lunch to ward that off.
My sister had a great line this morning asking what the hell happened because we thought the election was rigged in Hilary's favor. Apparently not.
Now it's the end of day one in this new, cock eyed world where a bunch of people have voted for someone they think is going to fix all their problems and I have some really bad news for them. It ain't happening folks. I know because I voted for Obama twice - the first time thinking he'd fix the mess and the second knowing that he'd be a lot less messy than Romney. I voted for Hilary because I know that other guy (I can't say his name, I just can't) is a snake oil salesman you can see coming from a mile away - well, some of us could.
Worry has begun to set in for a lot of my friends and their families. I saw the posts from the white supremacists - thank you Southern Poverty Law Center. I think if you voted against Hilary and for the other guy, then you should own this one. Attached to your vote is a lot of misogynistic, racist talk and I'm afraid action. Don't try to tell the rest of us you're not like this because that's who you've aligned yourself with. In their post they refer to the newly elected President as "Our Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor". Doesn't that make your blood run cold? It did mine. They claim credit for his win. He couldn't have done it without them. So, yeah, you own this one.
I donated to Hilary's campaign. I felt it was important. Now I will be sending that money regularly to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood. I'll keep reminding myself that this is not what the majority of the people wanted. Hilary won the popular vote by nearly 2 hundred thousand votes. It means that we didn't want that other guy. Now we need to get rid of the electoral college. It's screwed us twice and we can't afford for that to happen again.
I think we've missed out on a big opportunity to have one of the best presidents this country has ever seen. She was smart, hard working and more prepared than anyone who came before her. I guess we're not good enough for that kind of awesomeness. Instead we're stuck with that other guy.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
"You're Not A Feminist?" I asked with surprise....
With all the stuff going on in the current Presidential election I’ve been reading a lot about how millennial women are not feminists. Then today, a 30 year old woman I work with told me she’s not a feminist. To give this some context, she was asking me if I wanted to take golf lessons in the spring with her and explaining that at the charity golf outing she attended last week there weren’t any women playing. She said, “I’m not a feminist, but I thought more women might want to play.” She was not making a statement that the golf outing had been sexist and excluded women, she just assumed that women didn’t know about it or just needed to take some lessons. I’m 51 years old and my immediate response was, “How can you not be a feminist?”
Her response was she thought that feminists had a bad name and were very angry. She didn’t feel as if there was any glass ceiling she was up against. All of the things I know about being a woman in the United States and the world at large came rushing in on me. “Do you think I’m an angry feminist?” She said she thought I was. Okay, food for thought – at work I don’t go on rants about men but there are things I notice about the work place that I’ll point out in general conversation. I’ve never said though “Let’s get a march together!! Let’s protest!!” I work with a man in his forties who repeats what women have just said in meetings as if they were his original thoughts. He never does this to the men. I do complain about this. I will also admit to a sense of frustration that’s built up over the years from the time I was a teenager until the last few years in dealing with some men and even some women. I don’t feel unsuccessful in the workplace, in fact I feel like I’ve done very well for someone who started this working life without a college degree. However, there are daily reminders that come out of people’s mouths that I find frustrating. Like the man who would see me coming out of his boss’ office and say “I should have realized that he was meeting with such a beautiful woman like yourself….” Blah blah blah.
This wasn’t just a conversation about work though. Sure, my young coworker doesn’t feel like there’s a glass ceiling in the office and when I look at her experience, she’s right. She’s gotten her MBA and since coming to work at our company she’s had mostly female bosses and she recently got a really good promotion. I also think that there’s more fairness in workplace hiring and salary because we’re sitting in the Federal Government’s backyard and they’re our customer. We have a lot of VPs who are women and even some Senior and Executive VPs who are women. All of this happened just before she started at our company though under our current CEO. Up until probably six years ago, the majority of Executives were men. It’s so recent that we have such a large number of women in very senior positions that I personally feel like this is just the start, but maybe she sees it as finished.
Still, there’s so much more to being a feminist than just busting through a glass ceiling in your career. We live in the liberal state of Maryland where we have free access to reproductive health services up to and including unfettered access to an abortion should we need one. No one in Maryland has signed a law telling our doctors to lie to us about our condition. That’s not true in all states. Reproductive and general health services for women are being cut back left and right across the country in an effort to cut off access to abortion. That feels like a much more serious glass ceiling to me that needs to be overcome.
Then there’s the courtroom phenomenon that let’s off rapists with light sentences because no matter what damage they’ve done to the woman, he has a future to think about. What about her future? To be sure, there’s an added level of brutality here, Black men are not given a pass for rape. In fact, they are convicted sometimes on scant evidence and punished whether they deserve it or not.
As we close in on an election where we are very likely about to elect the first woman President of the United States I am reading more and more studies about how men, particularly white men, behave when women step out of traditional roles. When men feel challenged they tend to act out aggressively which probably explains the chants of "lock her up" from the opposing bench along with outright cries to kill her. Additionally, not just men, but women as well tend to judge women much more harshly for mistakes than they judge men for the very same mistakes.
Can I feel angry about all of this? I think if feminists are angry, they are totally justified in their anger. When my co-worker told me she thought I was an angry feminist my feelings got hurt, and then, I got angry. Here she was using one of the more popular criticisms used against women who are asking for a place at the table, for their voices to be heard, to influence the way we want to lead our lives. It's an effective dismissal of everything women are trying to achieve. Women are not allowed to be angry. I had forgotten that. Angry women make others uncomfortable.
My being a Feminist is not just about what is happening here in the United States either. I want all girls to go to school, I want an end to female genital mutilation and honor killings. I want women to be free to marry or not to marry whomever they choose. I want all women to have unfettered access to health care including reproductive freedom so they can pursue their dreams.
When women do well EVERYONE does well. This is well documented and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has an article about how empowering women is smart economically. It is in everyone's best interest to be a Feminist.
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