It has been abundantly clear for a long time now (and painfully obvious since Barack Obama’s election) that we still have a huge racism problem in this country. My friends in the LGBT community can attest that–despite enormous progress on gay rights–they still face plenty of homophobia. What has been less remarked–but is no less true–is that we women haven’t exactly “overcome,” either.
Juanita Jean–proprietor of the World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Shop–got right to the point, after Senator Lindsay Graham dismissed Elizabeth Warren’s objections to the omnibus funding bill by saying
“You’re tired, you’re frustrated, you’re upset about a provision in the bill you don’t like…..”
You’re tired and upset? Oh yeah, that’s the only reason we women fight for anything – we’re tired and upset. The only thing he forgot is that it must be that time of the month.
Oh, but he wasn’t finished.
“If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts and bring this bill down … people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place,” Graham said on the Senate floor. “Don’t follow her lead. She’s the problem.”
The only thing absent from this offensively patronizing putdown is any response to her substantive arguments. Because, evidently, when a “girl” has objections to the content of a piece of legislation, the only rebuttal needed is a none-too-subtle reminder of her gender.
If Warren’s objections were wrongheaded, if there were sound responses available to those objections, surely a critique that included those responses would have been appropriate.
Evidently, however, arguments made by women don’t merit serious consideration. After all, how could we girls match the great job that’s being done by all those straight white men?
Senator Lindsay Graham’s remarks were certainly condescending – Sit down and Shut up. Obama once again proved he has no courage, or intestinal fortitude. Obama could have announced ahead of this Budget vote he would veto it and lay out the plenty of reasons to do so. Instead as I understand he spent his time lobbying the Democrats to pass it. Obama tossed Warren and others under the bus.
According to the Guardian Paper – “White House chief of staff Denis McDonough spent three hours locked in talks with the House Democratic caucus on Thursday night trying to persuade its members to drop their opposition to the so-called “cromnibus” and pleading with them that it was the best deal available.” http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/12/senate-leaders-budget-opposition-final-vote#comment-44931094
Not sure how these congressmen sleep at night especially with their wives.
Are we going to have to wait for all of the old, white men to die off before we have informed, forward-thinking people making our laws? Some of us are too old to wait. Some of us have been waiting too long. But until all of us take our responsibility for voting, all of us will have to suffer these fools.
Can democracy long survive the absence of diplomacy and statesmanship and negotiation? Can we, the people prevail over us and them? Can states compete with other countries in the world in the absence of a strong united Federal government?
Louie, the Democrats threw Obama under the bus long prior to midterms. They paid the price. Now we’re paying the price.
Republicans say now that they’ve seen the error of their ways and will try to find the old handbook of governance so long ignored. Are they really looking?
I hadn’t been in the workfield long before I figured out there are Movers & Shakers, primarily males, who create the work and Plodders & Doers who actually do the work. The vast majority of the Plodders & Doers are we “girls” and we are also expected to also take care of everything on the homefront. Without Movers & Shakers there would be no work to do; we “girls” recognize this fact but the males have yet to realize that without the Plodders & Doers, very little would get done. Nor are those males hip to the fact that we “girls” are catching up to them at Movers & Shakers level and are rebeling at being kept barefoot, pregnant and in their kitches. We aren’t there yet but…cover your asses, guys, cause here we come:)
Let me see. How many demonstrations of the right wing’s lack of maturity to conduct the government’s business have accumulated in the past five years? Being frustrated, tired and upset is for today, but dumb is forever.
If you read a psych 101 text, you can see their strategy. They project their undesirable characteristics onto the other side, so when you see Graham or one of his ilk accusing the other side of some nasty characteristic, just look around and you will see it’s exactly what Graham and his buddies do. Lack of maturity and inability to take responsibility for governing is the right’s main characteristic. Last year, they were all set to shut down the government, just to get their point across.
And yet, people, including many women, keep electing these misogynists to positions of power at all levels of government. All minorities in this country are under the same heel. The rich, mostly WASP, power brokers divide and subvert almost at will, especially after the Citizens United decision. Now add to the mix, the majority is is favor of torture as a conflict tactic. When will we all realize that “we” are one short step from becoming “them”.
Condescending, immature name-calling behavior is the order of the day because it seems to work very well.
JD, that is such a huge and critical point. If you have awful people serving your district, they weren’t put there by a king. Actually, they were put there by something worse: a populism driven by fear, uncertainty, doubt and inability to discriminate between awful people and people who really want to serve the common good. Now, one would think that after they deal with some of the individuals that we have elected, the people would learn from that and throw them out. No. The demagogues just get better at using all the tools that got them there, so they learn, but the people who sent them there do not learn.
I’m not intimately familiar with the situation in Ferguson, but I understand it’s a high percentage of black people being governed by white people. Instead of marching and demonstrating, I should think that they would organize huge registration drives, run someone who is more likely to listen to them, and prepare to vote in droves. It’s also a good way to replace the police dept. Marching and demonstrations only annoy the bad guys, and bring out people they don’t want, but if you can organize a march, you can organize a registration drive. The threat of a big vote is scary. Maybe they are doing that. I don’t know.
There exists many today who speak with great authority about the many ills this nation faces. I don’t know how many times I’ve been exposed to the ‘bootstrap’ theory, or the ‘problems of the ‘inner city’, many of which would be far less if ‘they weren’t such idlers’. (The lazy Negro)
Today’s news broadcasted the final demise of Navistar. Navistar was the result of a sell out by Ford when it became fashionable to our source to the third world. Any thinking person would know that the old Ford plant on English would soon follow the way of the Chevrolet plant downtown. ( And the Chrysler plant on Shadeland.) What they made at the plant was moved to Brazil long ago but they like to let you down easy.
You see, corporations have a leg up on people, even though the court says they are. Corporations last a very long time. In a sense, they are immortal. Navistar goes way, way back. To a man named Cyrus McCormick. His name was on the 2nd largest company in the Us for a long time. His sons married into the Rockefeller family, or vice versa, and were pals with
presidents. Buying business after business and even a town, just like Pullman. I say all this to say that many, many fortunes enjoyed today can be directly traced back to this one man. How did he do it?
Reaping Machine
As the North American continent unfolded to agriculture, the need for extra labor at harvest time grew exponentially. A host of inventors tried to solve the problem, but it was 22-year-old Cyrus McCormick who stuck with it and after numerous refinements devised the first truly practical mechanical reaper. McCormick’s innovation transcended technology. The business Cyrus McCormick built on the basis of his invention pioneered modern manufacturing and sales techniques. Jo Anderson, a slave on the McCormick farm in Virginia, toiled alongside Cyrus in the farm’s blacksmith shop during the reaper’s development. Their friendship endured long after the abolition of slavery.
Have you ever heard of a fabulously rich, black Anderson family? Didn’t poor old Jo have any straps on his boots. ‘They just don’t want to work.’ Next time you see a down and out black person, think about this.
There is a peril which no one seems to appreciate: When I was a kid, in Indianapolis, white cops never had intercourse with black kids unless you ventured into a white neighborhood or even the fringes thereof. My uncle, was one of the first black men to be hired by the IPD in the early 1900’s. Black cops dealt with black kids and they didn’t shoot them. They didn’t throw them on the ground and choke them. In the early 50’s everything ‘integrated’ and white cops began to roam black streets. That’s when the throw downs, the spread eagles and the and the choke holds started. As I witnessed this I considered: ‘How long will it take for them to start doing this to white kids?” The answer was ‘not long’. Extrapolation: How long before they start shooting white kids? Ask not for whom the bell tolls.