Yesterday, Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK) won Alaska’s House seat for a full term after taking it this summer in a special election to replace Representative Don Young (R-AK), who died in office in March after 49 years in Congress.
Regardless how much learning Heather's newsletter provides, there have been unusually numerous times this past year that after reading, I just wanted to crawl back under the covers in a fetal position...BUT, it's letters like these that make up for it! Electing two women, one indigenous Democrat and the other an insidious trump-target Republican, who endorsed each (!) other should make Alaskans not only proud of Alaska but for the whole country! It's not just a metaphor but a testament that, even in politics, good CAN win over evil....
As an Alaskan forever, I congratulate these two women. My heart also swells with pride. Thank you to other Alaskans, and to all who vote for competence and reason.
I think Alaska’s combination of an open primary with a ranked choice general election is the best path to save American politics. Partisan primaries empower the extremists. Alaska is giving the political center the power to choose their representatives. I hope to see it spread.
Bill, I agree. I’d like to see a law passed that mandates ranked choice primaries for all races in all states. We now have the computing power to do this.
Last I looked, the states got to make their own voting laws, as long as they don't contradict federal laws (which, however, are being steadily gutted by the Supreme Court). And I think even the states have limited control when it comes to party primaries. Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) is being tested successfully in many places at the municipal level, and its use in ME and AK is a plus. As you probably know, "computing power" has little to do with whether RCV catches on or not.
ME (Maine), not MA (Massachusetts, which is where I live). From the ME secretary of state's website: Maine is using RCV in "all of Maine's state-level primary elections, and in general elections ONLY for federal offices, including the office of U.S. President." They started using it in 2018. All I know about AK (Alaska) is what I've read in the papers. I'm not clear why there was a two-week delay between the general election and the announcement of the final results. Did it take that long to reassign the votes of the bottom-finishers?
Alaska has had the most interesting political reactivation, especially after the depredations of Trump Wannabe Dunleavy on the systems and budgets of AK.
So Kathy, then you’ll probably get a laugh out of Dunleavy’s tweet he published after being re-elected: “From public safety to improving our education outcomes to growing our economy, I am honored to serve Alaskans for another four years”
Glacially slow progress in politics and worse in business because of lack of adequate childcare legislation and the still very present old boys network and outright sexual predation which we so euphemistically called sexual harassment 50 years ago.
I think there can only be rapid change in society when a tipping point is reached in representation in government both in demographics and in those seeking equality and justicce for all. Unfortunately the Lauren Boebert's of the world don't help reach that tipping point.
Re “tipping points”; education, especially in civics, is crucial. Our public education system is an interesting place to focus
Democrats might consider an all out effort to emphasize the importance of voting to all children throughout their K-12 experience and at the same time encourage their interest in the process by which their lives are governed
In this way, diversity has the opportunity to blossom
Ellen you make an excellent point! A large contingent of American voters haven’t got a clue as to how government works. For example…they vote out an incompetent President and leave all his sycophantic followers in office who stymie the efforts of the newly elected President. Why…because many couldn’t bring themselves to vote for members of the opposition party or they don’t realize that the President alone doesn’t run the Country? Of course it doesn’t help when a substantial number of voters don’t even bother to show up because they don’t think, care or know that their votes do matter! Worse yet…do they understand the concept of a Democracy and what’s required to maintain it??
I can only speak for Minnesota. We have civics strands throughout our K-12 standards. Of course, how well those standards are covered in depth varies between districts. We need to make sure that education in all areas stresses more than answers to multiple choice questions!
I worked an election center in LA County. On Election Day, a very gregarious Black man came in announcing "Forget Juneteenth. Election Day needs to be national holiday." We high-fived; he voted, then said "The Ancestors would be proud." Much to celebrate on Election Day, albeit acknowledging there's still work to be done.
I think that horse has left the barn. With a greater acceptance of absentee ballots and early voting, election day is no more than the final day for counting. I recently found out that my 42 year old daughter, who has voted in every major election since 18 years old, has never voted on election day, nor been to a polling booth. She, and her husband, have done mail-in balloting ever since being an out-of-state college student.
I registered to vote while I was in high school in 1976. It was in a civics class. All eligible seniors in the class had the opportunity to register to vote. (You know, because...civics) I was so proud of myself that I’d registered.
Yes, for instance the "1619 Project" supported by, among others, the New York Times, which was histrionically rejected among conservatives, and was the subject of legislation in a number of mostly Southern states. See also "CRT" and "Don't Say Gay" and book censorship in a number of states and communities. How can we get to "a clearer picture," if the politicians in the pockets of white suprematists don't want students to see it?
Kids Voting has been around since 1988. My boys’ school in Buffalo was a participant and an official polling place. I also took them with me to vote in every election. It’s a great educational tool.
Having your children at least observe their parents voting and contemplating/discussing that vote, whether at a polling place or at home , as we do in my home state of Wa., is good for the whole family! Thanks, as always, for the many contributions from HCR's readers. She has done more than write letters. I dare say she has touched hearts and minds! Many thanks to you, Heather Cox Richardson
Unfortunately, our local school board (Salem/Keizer in Oregon)has had to return to virtual meetings because of the behavior at the in person meetings. A petition was circulating to recall three progressive members of the board, but this time it failed to get enough signatures, but these folks are not going away. Another board in the Portland area just went virtual again because of behavior at in person meetings. So our work is ever ongoing because these people may be in the minority, but they are loud and persistent. The new rep for Oregon's 5th district may be a Latina, but she mentioned parents in her ads which is the buzz word for what I have described. She didn't win by a lot, so I am hoping that will temper what she does.
I hear you. Both women (Kristy Noem, MTG, and Lauren Boebert and Sarah Palin) and people of other races (Oregon's new 5th district Rep and Herschel Walker) can be just as bad as Caucasians. All the increases in both signifies is that there's less discrimination, which is good, but there's nothing good about electing the MTGs and Boeberts of the world. And may Walker be soundly defeated in the runoff.
The school board infiltration is nationwide and a signature move throughout history when the far right is trying to work their magic. We kicked some of the crazies off this go round. Less noisy that way.
This is where people really need to pay attention. Fortunately, we have several in the Salem community who are on this and keep us all informed. One goes into enemy territory and videos from her car.
I do too. The national Ds put very little into this which didn't help. Then Schrader decided to be a poor loser and spoke against Jamie and did not campaign for her. I suspect he was busy behind the scenes undermining her. He also supported Machine Gun Betsy who is no moderate either. I consider well and truly just as ass.
Something that has stuck in my head ever since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 and the astonishing and lasting impact that the survivors have had on the national stage ever since: the activist students credited both their civics education and the school's theater program. Not only did they know their stuff, they were able to perform it for a dauntingly large and diverse audience. Add writing and communications tech to the mix and you've got most of the tools a citizen activist of any age needs.
Yes, and after learnng about it in the classroom, the emphasis should include the physical act of going to vote. As a retired teacher, I believe very strongly in developing habits in children, so if I were still teaching, I'd have them walk from the classroom to a "polling" location in the school to cast their votes. (actually, some schools do this.)
This practice should be required by each grade so when the kids become of age, it's normal for them to learn about the candidates then go to the polls to cast their vote.
Education is certainly important, civics in particular. But it's also important to know who the educators are. "True history" is different in Texas and Massachusetts, for example.
The white right knows how important education is. That's why it's putting such effort into skewing the curriculum in their favor. I can guess what a state-approved civics curriculum would look like in Texas or Florida or South Dakota, for instance -- not pretty.
The ability to get pregnant ... and all the systems that are in place and not in place, directly affect women's progress. For example, any laws that inhibit their access to birth control at any level (day-after pill to later term abortion when needed and chosen by her), and all systems that feed into unaffordable childcare and choices to work part-time for less pay, and take on fewer leadership roles because of lack of good childcare and loss of experience early on, etc., all of these things are only being overcome to any degree in situations where access to good medical healthcare and mental healthcare are readily available, i.e., women are getting to live longer lives and finally get their chances to lead and create and contribute to other than the home and children. Ever wonder why more women are depressed, anxious and neurotic? Trying to make sense of what is going on and what is keeping them down would sure do the trick there. And, just incidentally, add to that that any woman who worked fewer years outside the home and worked for less because of her roles and gender, receives less Social Security with which to support herself and her goals. I could go on and on ... As a high intelligence specialist and writer, I can tell you that many "late bloomers" are simply intelligent people who were able to finally throw off their shackles! And yes, that includes more than women, but the largest number of oppressed people anywhere is female. And denial of abortion, control of her own body, and affordable childcare is all so directly related that you KNOW dark money is not unaware of that. Keep them poor, keep them uneducated, keep them willing to scrape for any income at all and you can get rich off it. No one reads this, right? When I write, I always consider if anyone would hold it against me, and I almost always don't care. It needs to be said.
Yes. Well said. Margaret Sanger knew some of this too. I would add that our insistence on holding to gender expectations, hinder women as well, since not only do they limit women's expression of their entire humanity, but so many women comply and don't even know enough to question. Oppression often is most effective because many of those oppressed internalize the messages about their own inferiority.
I absolutely agree!, Deborah. I am personally acquainted with many examples of the ongoing problems you very accurately discussed. Until more women are in positions of making the decisions for themselves and others, change will be slow.
Good morning, And yes, it has been awfully slow for women. With hindsight, of course, I can look back on the heady days of the civil rights movement and see that those of us working and sometimes marching beside the (male) superstars of the movement mostly made coffee and emptied ashtrays. And, of course and not to be too crude this early in the day, we were "available" to serve in other ways. I hope these young women today are learning better. They have the energy, and so did we when 1963 rolled into the late sixties and early seventies. As is so often true in the lives of women I have known, and in the deep mythological underpinnings of the feminine, maybe the journey is slow, the effects cumulative, and the end a more richly layered truth than we could have imagined. The classical symbols of the feminine are creativity and chaos, qualities that pose a threat to those who represent logic and order. And fear breeds oppression and violence. On the other hand, and while I indulge my literary bent, this generation of women and those of us elders who can still manage it, need to get our chaotic, creative selves out to the voting booths and into the trenches. I have no doubt we will prevail, and I have no doubt we will have to keep renewing our lease on this place we occupy.
As an “elderly” liberal male, I am extremely excited to envision folks like you, Dean Robertson, inspiring my two “millennial” daughters and their young, energetic children (the grandest of grandkids) in the struggles of today. Thank you for your efforts.
Us curmudgeonly old broads do occasionally serve a purpose. More often, we just piss people off, so I thank you for your kind words. I think sometimes despairingly that we are dependent on these children, but I have to remember that in 1963, we were an army of children. It's a powerful energy. I am not convinced that it's enough to stop the swell of corporate interests and just the profound amassing of money. The more money on the table, the harder to convince the owners of that money to make changes. But, one of the qualities I share with all the other women on this side of history is that we're so darned angry that we can't stay sad for long. Stay on the bus with us, Paul. We need you and your daughters and your granddaughters.
Yes, Dean, I am right there with you, in age and with two millennial daughters. They both proclaimed they were not having children and that having a man to mess up their space wasn’t in their cards, right now. It will take us women to straighten this planet out and the men who think like we do.
"I have to remember that in 1963, we were an army of children. It's a powerful energy."
Yes, we were, Dean, and we accomplished so much, if not immediately then ultimately. It is painful to see so much being wrested away now, which is why a new army of children (with the support of us old folks) is necessary to regain the grounds we won.
I truly love the words...”get our chaotic, creative selves” into the voting process. As a senior, encouraging other seniors to jump into the process, that phrase suits me to the soul.
I agree with what you said, but you stated what I assume to be a learned assumption that I want to point out. You wrote, "The classical symbols of the feminine are creativity and chaos, qualities that pose a threat to those who represent logic and order." I will counter that creativity, chaos, logic and order can reside in men, women, and definitely within one person.
Why point this out? Because your assumption assigns a dichotomy between men and women to be part of the natural order. While biologically (mostly) true, emotionally and intellectually the natural order is men WITH women, not men vs. women. (Admittedly, that's more my sense and hope and not a blind conviction.)
The political progress being discussed here is also progress in dismantling the hierarchical and too- often adversarial roles assigned to women and men. It is worth celebrating and encouraging.
Hi, Jerry, I agree with you on all points. I didn't intend to assign roles nor to make assumptions about human nature, male and/or female. And, of course, all those qualities can and almost always do reside in all of us. Again, what I was writing about wasn't my assumptions at all. I was writing about the ancient mythologies from every culture I've ever studied that do assign those symbolic qualities to the masculine and the feminine. They aren't, even in those stories, intended to refer to individual men or women. They are sort of the western version of the yin and yang. I hope I'm being a little clearer in what I'm saying. And, as you point out, the goal is a union of the two. In the old stories that union is symbolized in the sacred marriage. I'm afraid It's instinct with me to go to those deep symbolic roots as a way of thinking about our current political struggles. There's no need to "counter" what I've written because I think we agree on nearly everything. As for the "political progress being discussed," :I think I have a pretty good grip on it, and I celebrate it every day. I've been around long enough--probably too long--to be able to see the long road behind us.
While I think I understand your point, the whole idea of yin and yang, or masculine and feminine still contributes to a false dichotomy. Although if would be impossible, I would like to rid our language of "masculine" and "feminine" and find alternatives that don't refer to our biology but instead are descriptive of whatever characteristic we're focusing on. I ask my students what comes to mind when they think of "cat". Never do they come up with their biological sex. Instead they may say four footed, furry, meows, various fur colors, hunters etc. It's only when I ask specifically what they know about the differences between male and female cats, do they turn their focus to that. In our human world, the first thing that we think about and emphasize often is whether a person is male or female, and we're off to the races with filling in the blanks. I suppose some of this is about evolution and that we need to focus there for reproductive purposes, but when do we also stop filling in the blanks? When we only know a person's sex, the only thing we know for sure about that person is their potential role in reproduction. All other descriptors are filling in the blank.
Hi, J.Nol, you make some interesting observations here. They get me thinking, always a plus. Count on a teacher! I have two replies. First, and most important, I am not making any point. I was sharing information about ancient western cultures and their stories, usually their creation myths. As for my analogy of the yin and yang symbol, it's exactly the opposite of a dichotomy. It's a circle that consists of two halves, one white, one black, that flow uninterrupted into each other with no edges or straight lines of division or demarcation. It is a visual representation of exactly what I think you're describing as the ideal.
I so agree with you. We aren't "opposite", just different in some ways, but we all, both women and men fall on an continuum, where we often share characteristics. It's time we stopped dichotomizing the sexes. It's time we stopped celebrating extreme masculinity or femininity as the optimum. Both are detrimental to the individual and society. In this way we might have a chance to come together and see each other as human.
1. Men unabashedly fondling / raping / and bullying women, then Trump making it a disgusting public show, and people that I'd known and loved (all republicans) shrugged and voted for that monster that wants nothing more than money and power.
2. Republican's (not my) Supreme Court overturning of Roe Vs Wade, and supporting Trump and his lunacy
3. Jan 6th
All these and more, crossed the line in what we can no longer collectively accept. I didn't want to write a thesis, so did not elaborate on these points, but I think you get it.
And so far back before Trump. The early sixties again and the heroes of the whole shebang--The line of Kennedy men--John, Robert, Ted-- and Martin Luther King--were notorious for their exploitation of women. Do you know, I'm almost embarrassed to admit it after all these years, but I can't read about or see a photograph of Marilyn Monroe without crying. And I don't mean lady-like damp eyes. I'm talking heaving, snot-running sobs. I think she carries, in her story, all the vulnerability I can't ever quite face in my own. And on that note, this old broad is going to prepare the fort for the arrival of a 7 year old.
I'm so proud to be on this team! My first critical commitment to politics was in 1972 when as a senior in college I worked to help get Pat Schroeder elected to the House in Colorado! We haven't stopped fighting nor will we ever stop!
Me, too, Cynthia, and it's a good thing we won't stop fighting because it's possible that we might be in this battle close to forever. As a woman, and especially a woman with a child, I am an expert in the long haul. I was in labor for 12 hours. We can wait. We can breathe deeply, We can read the signs that tell us when to push and when to let go.
Well, Evelyn, we may be finally returning to where "we" once were. According to an article on early North American democracies in the November 5, 2022 Science News [www.sciencenews.org] women have likely been at the core of some of the earliest democracies in North America dating back 1500 to 3000 years. Anthropologists and archaeologists have conspired to unearth evidence of Muskogee Nation (Southeastern USA near current Atlanta) and Haudenosaunee (Northeastern USA) clans assembling "to reach collective decisions about various community issues." Membership in clans "was inherited through the female line and were - and still are - the social glue holding together Wendat (Huron) and Haudenosaunee politics together...Clans controlled seats on confederacy councils...but decisions hinged on negotiation and consensus." "Benjamin Franklin learned about Haudenosaunee politics during the 1740s and 1750s as colonists tried to establish treaties with the [Wendat & Haudenosaunee] confederacy.""Colonists took select political ideas from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy without grasping its underlying cultural framework...The US Constitution stresses individual freedoms, whereas the Indigenous system addressed collective responsibilities to manage the land, water, animals and people."
John, your comment just snapped into perspective for me the basic tension of the gun argument. With the appallingly regular number of mass shooting incidents, we in the U.S. have tipped over from " a few bad apples" or " isolated insanity" to a raging public health crisis. The collective responsibilty of the indigenous system comes to the fore and trumps arguments for individual freedom to carry ( which I do not think the 2nd Amendment means anyway. We actually don't even have an Amendment that protects an unfettered right to carry at all, IMHO ). At this juncture of a public health epidemic the common good has to be the lens through which we look.
JohnM, therein lies the difference between a progressive mindset, which addresses the common good, and a MAGA mindset, which wants to vilify it and foment hatred.
There is now a profile of mass shooters based on research by
Peterson and Densely, whose book was published in the 2021, The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic,
"Peterson: There’s this really consistent pathway. Early childhood trauma seems to be the foundation, whether violence in the home, sexual assault, parental suicides, extreme bullying, followed by a build toward hopelessness, despair, isolation, self-loathing, oftentimes rejection from peers. That turns into a really identifiable crisis point where they’re acting differently. Sometimes they have previous suicide attempts.
What’s different from traditional suicide is that the self-hate turns against a group. They start asking themselves, “Whose fault is this?” Is it a racial group or women or a religious group, or is it my classmates? The hate turns outward. There’s also this quest for fame and notoriety.,"
Question: if the Resolution has already passed in the House, can the Senate take it up in 2023? One more action that both Houses of Congress should take during this Lame Duck period!
Excellent news about the increasing number of women in government. It’s news because the suits significantly outnumber women. Let’s change that even faster. Let’s work to reinstate Civics in all USA middle and high schools. Teach about government in younger grades by educating teachers in how to set up democratic classrooms. Starting in Kindergarten. Work for family friendly day care and paid maternity leaves so women don’t end up leaving career paths and not being able to return. Working for low tuition or tuition free two and some four year public colleges will help more women as well as men attend higher education programs. This Rutgers website features women in government from 1848 forward. I want to reincarnate and run for office. Too late for me, but not for many of you, or our friends and daughters.
Civics for sure, but grounded in what we know about human behavior and how we have learned to deal peacefully with our differences. So much of the history and civics I learned in the 1950s and '60s in public school was pretty indoctrinating and Disneyfied. But a mindful democracy empowers, not regiments.
What are the dynamics of power? Consent of the governed means we divide choice into shares; but also, of necessity, civic responsibility. If we are to truly be a self-governing society, who else would have the responsibility for societal outcomes apart from us? Who sets the path a democratic society aims for, if not us? To be broadly and adequately informed is central to fulfilling our duties as collective citizen/managers, and yes, communication, debate, conversation, and robust good faith interaction, seems to me to be the lifeblood of genuine democracy and justice. Beside the "bootstrap" skills of learning to effectively learn, evaluate, and communicate, what subject matter would be of greater consequence.
Equally terrible is NOT voting! I was so disappointed in many in my family who chose to not be “inconvenienced” by voting. It shouldn’t have to be mandatory for citizens to exercise a civic duty!
Mandatory here in Australia. Nobody minds. Anyone who fails to vote gets a "please explain" in the post and is liable to a fine if no valid reason. Today was election day for the State of Victoria, where I live. Early voting was available for a fortnight, and today the polling stations were open from 8 till 8. Results still coming in, but at 10 pm we know who's won what (Centre-Left again). The only complaint I know of was that voting isn't the same without the smell of frying onions - in the pre-COVID days there was always a sausage sizzle out in the yard.
Are you suggesting Anne-Louise that Americans could learn from other countries? Seriously? You mean there are better ways to operate democracy elsewhere? Could that also be true of health care or education?
Now wait just a minute. Next you are going to say there is a better way to control gun violence. I thought we were so "exceptional" as Americans, everyone was to learn from us!
Anne-Louise, your Australian law is civilized. A celebration of rights and obligations. Required voting. Here in USA where guns not people are protected, “mandatory” is a bad word. Cowboy mentality still gallops around and isn’t just a concept. In some states Voting can occur where open carry is literally in the background. Vote by mail, friends. In my opinion, open carry is a lethal weapon and is Intimidation. That should be banned as it interferes with my First Amendment rights to be safe. What a contrast.
Since my childhood it seems to me that pro-voting public service announcements have tended to emphasize the idea that you vote to exercise individual choice; yet by voting, and by not voting, you share in determining the fate of our society, especially for those who are most disadvantaged, and tend to be most vulnerable when lazy or foolish voting decisions turn bad. As a matter of definition, we cannot be self-governing of our own society without a share of responsibility as well as choice. That needs to me underlined.
The Houston Chronicle’s editorial board complained that far too many Democrats voted straight blue for county judges rather than doing their research. They published their research on Election Day, when many people had voted already. It would have been much more useful 2 weeks before early voting started so that their claims could have been verified.
I read the Chronicle's analysis about the election for Harris County judge. Having lived here for decades and followed the issues closely, and having favored R's more often than D's over the years, I would presently say that their editorial board seems shell-shocked and currently feeble minded when doing their analyses.
In a nation ostensibly piloted by "We the People", we need to do enough due diligence to vote, and we need to vote to wisely pilot the state. You wouldn't drive a car without learning what driving is about, and how it can go wrong. Why is running a country different?
Yes, JL, good reminder that history/civics can, unfortunately be taught through the "brainwashing" method....according to those leading in government, using the field of education to control it's citizenry.
Where to find teachers who will teach, research and personnaly value the importance of truth? There are devasting consequences that occur when citizens follow a government that wants to control their perception of truth.
We need teachers who will teach the foundation of governing....responsibilities from the smaller offices to the top. Everyone is valuable! OUR VOTE COUNTS! ....even for the books chosen for education of our fellow Americans.
This is only one area in which we, as citizens in a democracy must be personally and actively involved. We have become lazy thinkers: what do my friends believe, who does my pastor tell me to vote for, what do you listen to on radio or TV....do you just accept what they say....do you actually do research....do you know how to do research????
Teachers in Texas (and other red areas) are afraid to teach the truth about certain aspects of US history because it can get them fired and attacked. We need to pass laws protecting teachers.
Mary From age 58 to 80 as a community college professor I taught SOCIETAL DISCRIMINATION FROM PATRIARCHY TO THE PRESENT. This included patriarchy from the Hammurabi Code, racial discrimination from slavery to post-Reconstruction in both the South and the North, and the waves of discrimination against new immigrations.
I am appalled that such a high school course would be prohibited in many American states. If our children are not exposed to the genesis of discrimination in America’s evolution, how can they appreciate the falseness of ‘white (male) supremacy?’
And here, in CA, the truth is encouraged to be taught. There’s no escaping social media for kids. They get their education from Tik tok but not all of it is bad. These kids support one another throughout the world. Gen Z have been battered and killed by mass shootings and they are at an age where they can vote and they did. They truly are our future.
In an uncharacteristically humble moment, Newton famously said that to offer his insights, he had stood on the shoulders of giants. So do we, as well as upon the shoulders of countless numbers of persons whose experiences and discoveries ompletely missed by recorded history. As an exquisitely social species, a vast proportion of our take on reality is passed on to us by others, but we also experience our own unique sentience, and we, in the end, must decide what we believe to be true; whether by personal experience, statistical analysis, by ideology. We are ultimately obliged to to think for ourselves, even when we cede that authority to others.
At the same time we cannot hope to duplicate or exceed the total of accumulated human knowledge, so how can we apply our own unique perspective to our best advantage? Part of it is surely to look at the process by which reliable information is obtained. Aristotle intuited from casual inspection that objects fall faster the heavier they are, but Galileo measured it, and derived a key constant that empowered Newton. We can spin all kinds of possibilities that cannot be proved or disproved, but you or I could presumably duplicate Galileo simple yet profound experiments and verify his findings. THAT's part of what I wish the schools made a sustained effort to teach, not just "STEM". The epistemological, practical view of how we identify information worthy of our confidence as a general matter.
We can also learn to detect those whose views may be more suspect or are activity trying to fool us. I recall an hour or two in 5th or 6th grade when the teacher talked about classic, named logical fallacies. Good stuff, but we needed to incorporate that perspective throughout our studies, and exercise it; not just to hear about it as an incidental footnote.
I don't grow tomatoes, but I do, so far as I am able, provide condition that enable good tomato fruit. I can't control the behavior of hummingbirds, but some of what I plant effectively encourages hummingbirds to come.
Not to mention that Toastmasters teaches one to be articulate and persuasive without being verbally violent or abusive. Also, it teaches members to sit down, and shut up, and listen. All excellent basics for reasonable discourse. 🗣️
They're always looking to expand their membership - contact the organization? Join and start a club focused on civil political discourse? https://www.toastmasters.org/
I should add that the framework is not perfect. They are more focused on speaking persuasively than on good argumentation. But what they do, they do well, supportively, and with great civility.
What to Americans know about the diversity of the elected representatives now in Congress? Not much.
Do the American people know which political party has more diversity among elected members of Congress? No.
Do Americans believe that their elected representatives are somewhat representative of the diversity of then nation? No’
Let’s dig in with what YouGovAmerica reports concerning these questions, answers and more.
‘What Americans think about the diversity of their elected officials’
‘Polling conducted by YouGov in the days following this year's election finds that large shares of Americans believe it's important for their elected officials to be demographically representative of the American population; among the most likely form of diversity to be prioritized is representation in regard to education and age. There is a disconnect between what Americans find important in representation and how they perceive the current situation: Fewer than half of people say that America's elected officials are currently even somewhat representative of the country overall in each of the eight ways asked about: age, disability, education, gender, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and wealth or income. Americans are correct about a lack of representation along these dimensions, at least with regard to members of Congress.’
'Which party's elected representatives are more demographically representative of the country as a whole? Despite data showing that Democratic members of Congress are far more representative than Republicans of the American population overall in terms of their gender, race or ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, fewer than two in five people think this is the case for each of these types of diversity, while most Americans believe the parties are equally representative or are not sure which is more representative.'
'Education and age are the traits regarded as at least somewhat important by the most Americans — far more than emphasize any of race or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.'
'Age: The 117th Congress has been the oldest, on average, of any Congress in history, and far from representative of the age distribution of American adults overall. While both party's representatives are older, on average, than Americans overall, congressional Democrats are slightly more out of line, with the average member being 61 compared to 58 among Republicans.'
'Educational attainment: Members of Congress are far more likely to have graduated from college than Americans overall are. In 2022, the vast majority of members of Congress — by some estimates, 96% — had a college degree, compared to just 38% of Americans 25 and older in 2020. In the 117th Congress, most incoming members without a college degree were Republicans. When asked which party's elected officials are more representative of the American public in regard to education, Americans are about equally likely to say Democrats are the more representative party as they are to say Republicans are.'
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'‘Gender: The 117th Congress includes more women than ever before, though women still account for just over a quarter of all members, far fewer than their share of the population, which is slightly over 50%. Democratic officials are more diverse in this regard: Women account for 38% of congressional Democrats and just 14% of congressional Republicans. Americans who named one party as more representative than the other were twice as likely to name Democrats than to name Republicans.’
‘Race or ethnicity: The racial and ethnic diversity of Congress has increased in recent years: 23% of representatives elected in 2020 identify as racial and ethnic minorities. While this is more than at any other point in history, it is far less than the roughly 40% of Americans who are non-white. Our survey shows that Americans are twice as likely to say the Democratic Party is more representative in terms of race or ethnicity relative to Republicans than to say Republicans are more representative than Democrats. They are correct in this regard, at least when it comes to Congress: 83% of members of Congress who are members of a racial or ethnic minority are Democrats.’
‘Wealth or income: Members of Congress are far wealthier than average Americans: Personal financial disclosures suggest that in 2018 the median net worth of members of Congress was around $500,000, roughly five times the median net worth of American households. Elected Democrats and Republicans are both far wealthier, on average, than Americans overall, though Republicans are somewhat more likely to sit at the top of the congressional wealth hierarchy. In 2018, 43 members of Congress were estimated to be part of the 1% of wealthiest Americans; 26 of these were Republicans and 17 were Democrats.'
'In our survey, Americans were roughly equally likely to say each party was more representative than the other in regard to elected officials' wealth or income.’ (YouGov) See link to report below.
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Important questions are asked about the validity of poll and the polls representative of the qualified American voters in this instances.
'This poll was conducted on November 9 - 11, 2022, among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens. Explore more on the methodology and data for this poll.'
Thank You Fern. Clearly we need to begin NOW to identify and support candidates for office who represent us, We, The People, All of Us This Time. I look at my own congressional district in light of just one fact you presented here:
"Personal financial disclosures suggest that in 2018 the median net worth of members of Congress was around $500,000, roughly five times the median net worth of American households." In our district, Michigan's Upper Peninsula has a median income [Note- it's your fault, Fern, that I am looking up statistics at 6 a.m. while visiting kids and grandkids in Chicago!) is less than 10% of that -$49,000. And age - our Seditionist Rep is SEVENTY-FIVE (75) years old! Bought and paid for by Big Oil to keep Line 5 flowing through our gorgeous forests and farms, and under Lake Michigan/Huron! Okay, maybe we can enjoy one more holiday first, but our New Year's resolutions have to be centered on making our representatives be actually representative of us! Thanks
MaryPat, No one could more effectively scold and encourage me at the same time. Did I add educate me as well? "Have I got a friend...?" Yes, I do and absolutely fortunate, too, for sure!
MaryPat, we need to pass laws that 1) prohibit campaign spending other than that provided by Congress; 2) outlaw political action committees (PACS); 3) require candidates for statewide and national offices to provide net worth statements along with 6 years of income taxes; and 4) make congressional, senatorial and Supreme Court intern positions paid positions (paying enough to live in the DC area). This last is extremely important—a lot of important relationships are forged during these internships and poor kids can’t afford to be working as unpaid interns straight out of college.
YES, MaryPat! This is the duty of The People under democracy, or the word is meaningless. And that would make America as great as EVERY politician says it is in his or her opening gambit. Imagine living in your magnificent country without fear, with pride and respect, where families could gather around the Thanksgiving table without having to avoid certain topics of conversation.
Seems he is a fisherman, has a cabin up in the U.P. he visited once or twice a year, and when he announced his candidacy he coincidentally decided to fix up the place into a house that all of a sudden became his primary residence (In Michigan, taxes on non residential homes like cabins, are taxed at a significantly higher rate). He may still fish there once or twice a year (some neighbors are keeping track) but he sure as hell doesn't live there. His wife is at their Louisiana home or in D.C.
Good points, Irenie. I’m not all that convinced that Civics & Government & “Forthright” American History is NOT taught in schools today. As a retired elementary school teacher, I constantly chat with my grandkids (ages 7-13) about what they are learning, with my ear especially tuned to the Social Studies. They are gettin’ it! Maybe that is only happening in my neck of the woods?
Yup, you nailed my location. In fact, we just elected Nabeela Syed - 23 years old to IL legislature. Yup, quite blue. We just moved here about 1 year ago from McHenry County, IL - a very red area, 45 minutes away from here.
You are absolutely correct about supporting and nurturing folks in those areas - both liberals and conservatives. I have found that nudging toward Common Ground rather than picking fights can be effective.
Lately, I’ve been promoting the notion of DEMS cutting taxes - by canceling the Sunset Clauses of the 2017 TCJA law, which the Republicans passed and CODIFIED raising taxes on regular Americans. (Corporate taxes were not Sunsetted.). Biden should work out a deal with McCarthy (or whomever) to make that happen, but BIDEN (and the DEMS) need to have their fingerprints all over the deal. THEY should be promoting in RIGHT NOW - before the new Congress. Make it a Lame Duck deal. Would ANY Republican vote against this idea?
One would think that the Republican Party, seeing the trend in election results and changing demographics, would try to craft policies that would attract more voters. But they either can't stomach the idea of compromising their political principles and/or are so beholden to business and "religious" interests that reform is impossible. Thus the party grows more insular and open in the embrace of hate and one-party rule.
There is clearly not a majority of voters who want anything resembling the Trump years. That's not to suggest we're anywhere close to being out of the woods. A minority party can wreak havoc, and the GOP's new slim majority in the House will do just that.
One could arguably substitute "out of the woods" with "free of the killing fields". The GQP policies and the reign of Trump brought us hundreds of thousands of unnecessary Covid deaths, assassinations by rogue cops, mass murders employing readily available WMDs, preventable deaths due to a ridiculously unfair "health care" system which really is a business that just profits from illness. That's my starter list.
Bill, my constant theme..originating from living in countries that respect quality health care for all. Without the “for all” there is no such thing as “quality”
Not out of the woods, and not able to see the forest for all the trees blocking the view,. Does this suggest we are on the right path, but don't have a clear view to a way out of the woods, to the future?
How many young ones have a forestry tradition and can relate to this metaphor? I'm comfortable with it , but I'm 75. Our language has changed since I was in school. Computer terms leave me needing a translater. How can we transmit our wisdom to help the young ones, or at least not confuse them?
I saw a tweet last week. One of them was screaming - they are always screaming- that unless they change their message, they will never win, and I wondered how they can change a message that excludes women, those not white, those in the lgbtq+ community, those with healthcare needs, gun legislation, those in lower middle to struggling demographics, etc. as they are only interested in keeping corporations profitable and lining their pockets. There is nothing they offer and all they do is scream about Democrats, need to continue with oil, fix the border (why didn't they when they had the power), Hunter, crime (lies).
I think the impulse at the core of today's Republican party is autocratic, plutocratic control, and big money has reinforced and honed that focus. To distract from creeping disempowerment of the common weal, big lies have become bigger and bigger; to a degree that now resembles psychosis; yet with the ulterior motive hiding what is real.
After four decades of varying degrees of "Reagan Revolution", whose interests have been favored, and have whatever benefits to society as whole that have emerged in the interim been because or in spite of this? As the Jan 6th Committee has done, we should continue making a "thing" of "GOP" ultra-depravity, while vividly describing and empirically demonstrating more appealing alternatives.
It would be worthwhile to study Putin's playbook, which studied American behavior for decades in order to bot and troll us on the internet. And it would be valuable to point out at regular intervals until it sinks in to the far corners of our republic, that Russia is a "federation" now, not a republic and to ask if the agenda of the Federalist Society in the USA has plans to emulate Russia. We need to throw some balls in the air for people to catch and cogitate upon.
Desantis IS worse-smarter, and intentionally cruel. As a Floridian who watches his destruction of our educational institutions and decent treatment of poc, lgbtq, and more with horror, my greatest fear is that he will attain higher office.
DeSantis is actually worse than Trump. He's well educated, has legislative and governing experience and a photogenic family. What makes him even scarier is his comfort with Chritofascist tropes and lack of fear of bad outcomes (witness his mishandling of COVID).
I am definitely NOT a fan of DeSantis, or any Republican. However, I DO want to offer, from NY, that DeSantis DID handle the Covid pandemic in a way that preserved small businesses relative to the disastrous approach that New York's Cuomo took.
I live in NY. NY did this: Force closed all restaurants, bars, and Mom and Pop small businesesses all over NY at once. At the same time, they left all grocery stores and Big Box Stores OPEN (Best Buy, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc.)_
BUT, a small hardware store? Force closed (my favorite one went under an the owner moved to Florida). A small hobby shop that my son and I used to frequent??? Closed. But? Hobby Lobby?? OPEN.
NY KILLED all of its small businesses during the Pandemic AND EVEN in small towns where the tiny local hospitals had zero Covid patients.
Cuomo was a complete, utter disaster for small business and that is probably the reason he is history and gone now.
DeSantis balanced the need for business with the need to protect people reasonably well in a fluid situation.
Now, DeSantis DID mishandle the wearing of masks early on at the same time the CDC also was lying or mishandling that issue. Masks helped. But, the CDC was saying they did not matter like the idiots they were.
So, now, DeSantis listened to the CDC. I mean, the guy went to Yale, not Texas A&M so you would not expect him to be able to think for himself very much. :-)
Me?? I would say DeSantis balanced the need for small business with the need to protect people. I mean, the small hobby shop here would be nearly empty any way on any given day. No need to shut it down.
NOBODY handled the Pandemic well, but, should we have taken the China route which is what Cuomo origjnally did??
I hope you are not serious, Mike. DeSantis is responsible for cooking the books on COVid statistics and is responsible for widespread COVid sickness, death, and denier stance to the vaccine. His forced surgeon general Ladapo is a denier and a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Florida.
Where COVid is concerned, it is useless lauding a person or state because its was not as “bad” as another. DeSantis keeping the state opened was another strategy to appear “unwoke”, a dangerous place to be.
I am partly serious. You are right, DeSantis combined his approach to Covid with politics. You are correct that there was widespread Covid and death and sickness.
But, this was also true in NY. Perhaps it is not known that there were semi-refrigerator trucks lining the streets of NY with dead bodies?
My point is: There is actually a balance that has to be struck that enables people to get groceries and survive for another day, and, fighting a new pandemic.
New York did it poorly and politically and a lot of people died.
Florida did it poorly and politcally and a lot of people died.
It would definitely help if folks could think for themselves or read since the NY Times published that Covid was airborne in April of 2020.
But, Covid was a pandemic and people died independent of how badly all the states handled Covid.
No state did well.
The real question is: Did we all learn anything we can carry forward?
Sorry Mike, you seem to be accepting the fairy tale of DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic. I lived it in Florida. Others have covered his business dealings but let me remind you that his decisions to allow spring break and other festivals to take place meant the party goers spread the virus nationwide. Owners of small businesses? Five that I know died.
I remember seeing a map that tracked the cell phones of those who had been in FL during spring break, and how far Covid travelled as a result. It was astonishing
I agree that DeSantis was playing politics. I agree that, if I were him, I would have advised wearing masks.
Had I been him, I (perhaps) would have tried to dissuade rich, white young people in college from heading to Florida for a drunken revelry during a Pandemic.
But, I am not sure anymore what I would have done. I would have tried to balance not wiping out small businesses with attempting to keep people alive.
I would probably have issued the best understanding I had at the time: Wear a mask, wash your hands, don't be dumb and head out sick to the grocery store, order on line, that kind of thing.
I would not have shut down all small business while leaving open all big box stores like NY did.
But that’s just it, Mike. Small businesses WERE shut down in Florida, and for some time the Florida border was closed. DeSantis is promoting revisionist history. BTW, the five business owners I knew were all vaccine deniers.
Hindsight is alway 20-20. I am so grateful I didn't live in FL during the peak of the pandemic. DeSantis had the numbers of deaths and cases altered to make his state look better than it was. https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/covid-19-data-misrepresented-florida-governor Small businesses may have been hurt worse in proportion to some of the larger box stores but vulnerable people in FL were dying at rates that were worse than most places around the world. Just like the rest of the US. Don't talk to me about how good DeSantis is for business when he uses bullying techniques with business as well. i.e. Disney. -saw-
My local China guru (studied to be an ambassador to China and traveled there several times) told me that the health of the population in general is more fragile than ours; they did not have the same level of health, the same level of immunity as the USA, because of decades of social upheaval and government chaos, so I am not allowed by her to compare to the USA. Or apples and oranges.
They've been wearing masks in China for years and years. Lots of Asian students in Sydney and Melbourne - all wore (and wear) masks on public transport.
I wasn't aware that masks were regularly worn by the Chinese. They have been widely used in Japan for decades -- a fact that took some getting used to when I visited about 20 years ago.
I read Cuomo's New York on PAUSE order. Yes, it would have lead to many small businesses being closed (as they were in California) but it also came at a time when our shopping habits changed. We preferred one-stop-shopping and shifted quite dramatically to on-line shopping. Big box stores didn't have carte blanche to do as they wanted. The lines to get in were legendary. The fight over masking was insane. Hobby Lobby defied orders to close their stores for several weeks. They finally closed them nationwide in April 2020.
The once hallowed CDC was hollowed out when its incompetent, far-right director, Robert Redfield, allowed Trump to direct policy. At one point hospitals were ordered to send their M&M reports to the White House! We will never have an accurate count of the number of COVID deaths because of that interference. The CDC also decided to create their own tests rather than buy ones that were proven effective. This resulted in a tragic delay as the first batches were bad. Add the failure to do intense contact tracing and you end up with the highest case and death rates STILL. https://ncov2019.live/
As for nobody handling the pandemic well, I beg to differ. Many under-resourced nations followed old CDC guidelines for pandemic mitigation and did very well. At one point, despite intense crowding in many cities, the infection rate was held in check and the number of deaths was minimal.
China could, perhaps, use a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer but it's hard to balance the needs of its economic engine and the need to keep their population alive and functioning.
As well as the photogenic family, the name, DeSantis, with its suggestion of holiness, as well as the photogenic family, is probably an asset. But he's third generation, and all it signifies is that Italian names beginning with De and ending in -s are common in the south of the peninsula from which so much of the early 20th century immigration came, back in the days of "Give me your poor..." and I won't quote the rest, for various reasons of discretion. And the "De" has nothing to do with the French lower-case "de" which indicates aristocratic ancestry.
"If not Trump, then DeSantis, who is just as bad, and maybe even worse."
If TFG fails to get the nomination, he's not going to quietly fade away. He'll likely, hopefully, form a third party, get his MAGA mob to stay home on election day, or do something else to split the Republican vote. He cares not at all if he wrecks the GOP, and that's what I'm hoping for.
I don't worry too much about DeSantis. It's a long way to the nomination and there are many Republicans presidential wannabes, none of whom are above stabbing the front runner in the back. I think front runners this early rarely make it to the nomination. At this point my long-shot bet to get the GOP nomination is Nikki Haley.
They have all drunk the coolaid; some straight, some on the rocks, but they all drank it. I don't think there's a teetotaler left in the Republican Party.
My parents were hard core Stevenson/Kennedy Democrats. From the cradle I learned to loathe Richard Nixon. I would gladly vote for Nixon today over any current Republican running for any federal office.
One would not expect the Taliban to change because of any demographic informatoin or information on what the majority of people want.
Similarly, we should not expect the Republican Party to heed the electorate any more than we would expect the Taliban to heed the people of Afghanistan's wants and needs.
We CAN expect Republicans to continue moving toward nondemocratic methods to ensure that they, like the Taliban, control our country without elections or having to even think about what a majority desires.
After all Michael, Republicans know what God wants, and, God is on their side. Right?
Barry Goldwater on Christian fundamentalists in the Republican Party: “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
I agree but balk at the use of the word or concept of "principles" as a description of Republican behavior. A principal is a fundamental truth. They seem remarkably uncomfortable with truth.
They don't want to compromise their "political identity" I think.
Yup, I think you are correct, Michael: the R’s ARE noticing what is going on within their ranks and this is a great time for Liberals to capitalize on this change. The “Tricky Bit” is the apparent “Be Silent Strategy” that many of the Republicans are using. This “Be Silent Strategy” involves not poking the Mar-a-Lago bear, but fervently hoping that the Democrats and the Courts bring down the bear. It’s kind of a Pontius Pilate moment for them - simply washing their hands and letting King Herod do the dirty work.
The Liberals need to concentrate on some very important issues that Conservatives will have a very difficult time running away from: 1.) Cancelling the Sunset Provisions of the 2017 TCJA law (which translates to Democrats CUTTING TAXES that Republicans had codified to RAISE i. 2025), 2.) Ending the “Fossil vs Green” War, by encouraging and incentifying the conversion of “Fossil” energy companies to become “complete” energy companies. (It CAN be done. For example, help EXXON - just to name one - partner with wind and solar companies to erect wind turbines and solar panels on the land where those pumpjacks are lazily pumping up and down. THEN, EXXON’s gas stations can also sell electricity for folks who stop in to “fill up” their EVs., 3.) Election Reform for all elections at the FEDERAL level - President-Vice President and the US House and Senate. State and Local election “reforms” can/should be handled at the state and local levels. 4.) Sensible Gun Laws.
I’m loving being wide awake at 78 to cheer the women in political life now and I expect this representation will continue growing in coming years! What a pleasure!!
Per Rutger's Andrea Alexander 11/15/22, the problem-solving Gen Z Voters are projected to.have an overweight impact on national elections through 2030.
It's my personal opinion that Congress needs more women in office, as I believe women are fundamentally more collaborative in nature than men. They're generally more civil as well. Just one guy's opinion...however, the more women there are in office, the more we'll see some like Taylor-Greene and Boebert who don't represent their gender well. I don't think men have the lock on despicable behavior, but they seem more given to competition than collaboration.
“The reelections of Peltola and Murkowski illustrate that we are, in many different ways, at a sea change moment in American history.”
I agree, with skeptical optimism. Oxymoron? Maybe guarded optimism is better. Either way, we’re by no means out of the woods yet. We do well to remember that Stacey Abrams (barely) lost in Georgia, and Rand Paul got re-elected in Kentucky. Herschel Walker may yet be elected senator from Georgia. If that last fails to occur, I will feel a lot better.
Ralph, we're working on it. Lightning should strike twice in the same place if we have anything to do with it. We're not taking anything for granted. We were fooled in 2016, so we are fighting hard! Not assessing Walker as anything but dangerous....
I’m a NY state resident, but I’ve been donating weekly to Warnock’s campaign. He doesn’t take corporate donations, while Trumpist big donors are backing Walker with mega millions. Half of your donation goes to the Democratic Party (can’t figure out how to donate directly to Warnock). Georgia is key again! Any small contribution will help:
If you go to Senator Warnock's campaign website and click on the "Donate" button you will be able to use your Act Blue account to donate directly to Warnock without splitting the donation with any other candidate or organization. See this URL: https://warnockforgeorgia.com/
Everyone who comments here should put their money where their words are and donate to Warnock's campaign, even if only a few dollars, to counteract the vast amount of 'dark money' pouring into Georgia in support of his opponent.
Heartening news indeed! I hope that the next gen young women (and young men) will in the future replace the Repugs like Marjorie Threenames, Boebert, Gaetz, Hawley et al and bring an end to this surreal landscape of election deniers. I hope it can turn around in my lifetime.
Justice Just Janice; in 1983 I was a member of my law school's first class that was majority women. I was clerking at a law firm while going to law school that had a 40 year old woman partner who was pregnant with her first child. I think the future is here now but, many struggles ahead. Updated Comment with International Women's Struggle in Iran NOW: I can only repeat a Farsi slogan: "The Grandchildren of the regime are devouring it" [the regime]. Khomeini's historical home has been burned down. Reportedly, more than 15,000 imprisoned. Similar to internal social movements in Iran in 2009, 2017 & 2019 per First 24 yesterday.
Our daughter introduced us tonight to the Hulu series on Hilary Clinton, and her work in political campaigns looks like she was a trail blazer. Good to see this timely review by HCR which appeared in my inbox just after part 4 of the Hulu series (made 2 years ago but who are we to be current) finished airing on our home screen.
Ho, boy... " ... efforts to dismantle the business regulation, basic social safety net, promotion of infrastructure, protection of civil rights, and international cooperation that were the fundamental principles underpinning American government after the Depression and World War II." Now that certainly spells out the basic Repub Party manifesto. Sure glad to see the changes brought on in the mid-term. And clearly the fast-fading away of the MAGA-brain dead. Looking good, USA!
The recent success of Democrats in most of the country, pushing back on forty years of conservative efforts to dismantle the policies that have contributed to the nation's growth, have been conspicuously absent in Texas and Florida. That is not because of the voters in those States, but because of the non-voters there, who prefer watching football and exchanging barbecue recipes to political involvement.
I personally find your comment interesting, Jack... you see some time ago I immigrated to Australia and now hold dual citizenship... I get to vote in all Aussie elections and in all US federal elections. And as a former journalist I like politics, not politicians so much, but politics. As concerns your comment down here voting is mandatory. Once reaching 18 years a person is automatically registered and must vote or face financial penalties. So, looking at both sides; mandatory voting or voluntarily voting, in my estimation either works. Voter turnout in AU is high but does that mean the people elected are better candidates? No. High turnout does not make a wiser politician. Of course in places like Texas or Florida the low turnout of the liberal voters does make a difference, but that's the fault of the voters not the system.
Such an inspiring piece about the positive changes in our country. No going back? I'm hesitant but more optimistic after your detailing of the demographic change and increase in our representative diversity, nationwide. Let us keep moving forward into the 21st century.
In the wee morning hours, having read through some 96 comments here & not seeing it mentioned, I would like to lob a wish of mine into the ring: I would like to see in my lifetime (I’m 73) the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. It is way past time to make it so.
Here in far far far northern coastal CA, I was unable to sleep at around 3 a.m., so read LFAA & the comments posted at the time. I was finally able to “stack some Z’s” (a cartoon euphemism for sleep I use) & am just now coming back to LFAA. Yeah, I’ve been keeping abreast of ERA issues & what’s hanging it up and sad that it is not more in the forefront. Should be a no-brainer!!! Being on staff, and a student as well, at a college campus (I retired from there after 40 yrs), I recall back in the 70’s a lot of buzz and conversation about it; one issue of concern was because the draft & Vietnam were front & center, many wondered if that would mean women would be drafted as well—I mean, equal is equal! I have this site bookmarked: https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era-ratification-map. I really like the idea of tying the passage to the centennial!!!!
The results of the midterm elections were indeed gratifying for women and many Democrats, but we must remember that Trump backed candidates won many seats in the house of representatives and they will work to disrupt the good work that the Biden Administration has accomplished.
over the last 40 years there has been a distinct move towards fascism in this country and many eminent sociologists believe that it is still a huge danger to our democracy. nearly all of the autocratic dictatorships have been formed because the leaders failed to enamor the people and lost elections and took over the government through force. This situation exists today and Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the 2024 presidential election in that it has been said that he is planning to attend the inauguration in 2025 and claim victory even though he had lost the election in 2024.
Hopefully, he will be serving a long term in federal prison at that time and won’t personally represent a threat, but we must be ever vigilant that fascist right wing forces are ready to continue their assault on democracy.
Every American must stand firm against fascism and be sure not to let democracy fail.
Trumpism is fascism. Spreading .Pure and simple. Mussolini’s granddaughter elected in Italy. The Boot is overrun with impoverished Black African immigrants fleeing warming, drought, war, starvation, poverty, hunger, killing. ISIS is not dead. Warming, C-19, Monkeypox, big oil... the Rx for fascism is spreading. Ukraine is Russia’s most egregious gesture, but it’s supported by Tucker the Fucker. FOX is fascist.
Bloodlessly, we blew out both Ferdinand and Imelda in favor of Cory Aquino. Donated two orphanages, one in honor of Cory’s best, killed on the tarmac, the other to honor Jamie Cardinal Sin, who delivered the checks in Manila given to him in me at the archdiocese in Newark, as arranged by Archbishop Father Teddy McCarrick, later a defrocked Cardinal. Long story Department.
It was an amazing day for us here in Alaska! I am so proud to have such intelligent, strong, hardworking women representing my state.
Congratulations, Jessica and the State of Alaska!
“The expansion of our political representation to reflect the many different people in our diverse democracy can only be a good thing.”
Truth!
Regardless how much learning Heather's newsletter provides, there have been unusually numerous times this past year that after reading, I just wanted to crawl back under the covers in a fetal position...BUT, it's letters like these that make up for it! Electing two women, one indigenous Democrat and the other an insidious trump-target Republican, who endorsed each (!) other should make Alaskans not only proud of Alaska but for the whole country! It's not just a metaphor but a testament that, even in politics, good CAN win over evil....
As an Alaskan forever, I congratulate these two women. My heart also swells with pride. Thank you to other Alaskans, and to all who vote for competence and reason.
I think Alaska’s combination of an open primary with a ranked choice general election is the best path to save American politics. Partisan primaries empower the extremists. Alaska is giving the political center the power to choose their representatives. I hope to see it spread.
Bill, I agree. I’d like to see a law passed that mandates ranked choice primaries for all races in all states. We now have the computing power to do this.
Last I looked, the states got to make their own voting laws, as long as they don't contradict federal laws (which, however, are being steadily gutted by the Supreme Court). And I think even the states have limited control when it comes to party primaries. Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) is being tested successfully in many places at the municipal level, and its use in ME and AK is a plus. As you probably know, "computing power" has little to do with whether RCV catches on or not.
I am familiar with RCV's positive history in Western states; but, what are the factors in those northern latitudes... in AK & MA?
ME (Maine), not MA (Massachusetts, which is where I live). From the ME secretary of state's website: Maine is using RCV in "all of Maine's state-level primary elections, and in general elections ONLY for federal offices, including the office of U.S. President." They started using it in 2018. All I know about AK (Alaska) is what I've read in the papers. I'm not clear why there was a two-week delay between the general election and the announcement of the final results. Did it take that long to reassign the votes of the bottom-finishers?
Thank you ....
Alaska has had the most interesting political reactivation, especially after the depredations of Trump Wannabe Dunleavy on the systems and budgets of AK.
So Kathy, then you’ll probably get a laugh out of Dunleavy’s tweet he published after being re-elected: “From public safety to improving our education outcomes to growing our economy, I am honored to serve Alaskans for another four years”
😂
I was just reviewing the multiple lawsuits he lost for abusing AK employees and resources.
I do wish the recall efforts had been more successful.
Women! One of the issues I marched for in the late 60s & early 70s. Getting somewhere. It’s taking longer than we had hoped.
I was there too.
Glacially slow progress in politics and worse in business because of lack of adequate childcare legislation and the still very present old boys network and outright sexual predation which we so euphemistically called sexual harassment 50 years ago.
I think there can only be rapid change in society when a tipping point is reached in representation in government both in demographics and in those seeking equality and justicce for all. Unfortunately the Lauren Boebert's of the world don't help reach that tipping point.
Re “tipping points”; education, especially in civics, is crucial. Our public education system is an interesting place to focus
Democrats might consider an all out effort to emphasize the importance of voting to all children throughout their K-12 experience and at the same time encourage their interest in the process by which their lives are governed
In this way, diversity has the opportunity to blossom
Yes, indeed. And add some other elements. Start with a clearer picture of American history and how our government (should) function.
And then, introduce automatic voter registration in high school as the culmination of your important effort.
YES. We really need to reintroduce civics education in our schools.
Ellen you make an excellent point! A large contingent of American voters haven’t got a clue as to how government works. For example…they vote out an incompetent President and leave all his sycophantic followers in office who stymie the efforts of the newly elected President. Why…because many couldn’t bring themselves to vote for members of the opposition party or they don’t realize that the President alone doesn’t run the Country? Of course it doesn’t help when a substantial number of voters don’t even bother to show up because they don’t think, care or know that their votes do matter! Worse yet…do they understand the concept of a Democracy and what’s required to maintain it??
I can only speak for Minnesota. We have civics strands throughout our K-12 standards. Of course, how well those standards are covered in depth varies between districts. We need to make sure that education in all areas stresses more than answers to multiple choice questions!
I was thinking the very same thing, Ellen. Truthful history must be the law of the land.
I’d agree, but “truthful” history” is in the eye of the beholder. “Balanced” is my preferred adjective.
Most heartily agree
It wouldn't hurt to make election day a national holiday.
I worked an election center in LA County. On Election Day, a very gregarious Black man came in announcing "Forget Juneteenth. Election Day needs to be national holiday." We high-fived; he voted, then said "The Ancestors would be proud." Much to celebrate on Election Day, albeit acknowledging there's still work to be done.
♥️
I think that horse has left the barn. With a greater acceptance of absentee ballots and early voting, election day is no more than the final day for counting. I recently found out that my 42 year old daughter, who has voted in every major election since 18 years old, has never voted on election day, nor been to a polling booth. She, and her husband, have done mail-in balloting ever since being an out-of-state college student.
I registered to vote while I was in high school in 1976. It was in a civics class. All eligible seniors in the class had the opportunity to register to vote. (You know, because...civics) I was so proud of myself that I’d registered.
Yes, for instance the "1619 Project" supported by, among others, the New York Times, which was histrionically rejected among conservatives, and was the subject of legislation in a number of mostly Southern states. See also "CRT" and "Don't Say Gay" and book censorship in a number of states and communities. How can we get to "a clearer picture," if the politicians in the pockets of white suprematists don't want students to see it?
Kids Voting has been around since 1988. My boys’ school in Buffalo was a participant and an official polling place. I also took them with me to vote in every election. It’s a great educational tool.
https://www.kidsvotingusa.org/
Having your children at least observe their parents voting and contemplating/discussing that vote, whether at a polling place or at home , as we do in my home state of Wa., is good for the whole family! Thanks, as always, for the many contributions from HCR's readers. She has done more than write letters. I dare say she has touched hearts and minds! Many thanks to you, Heather Cox Richardson
This can start by attending School Board meetings and electing School Board members who agree!
Unfortunately, our local school board (Salem/Keizer in Oregon)has had to return to virtual meetings because of the behavior at the in person meetings. A petition was circulating to recall three progressive members of the board, but this time it failed to get enough signatures, but these folks are not going away. Another board in the Portland area just went virtual again because of behavior at in person meetings. So our work is ever ongoing because these people may be in the minority, but they are loud and persistent. The new rep for Oregon's 5th district may be a Latina, but she mentioned parents in her ads which is the buzz word for what I have described. She didn't win by a lot, so I am hoping that will temper what she does.
I hear you. Both women (Kristy Noem, MTG, and Lauren Boebert and Sarah Palin) and people of other races (Oregon's new 5th district Rep and Herschel Walker) can be just as bad as Caucasians. All the increases in both signifies is that there's less discrimination, which is good, but there's nothing good about electing the MTGs and Boeberts of the world. And may Walker be soundly defeated in the runoff.
The school board infiltration is nationwide and a signature move throughout history when the far right is trying to work their magic. We kicked some of the crazies off this go round. Less noisy that way.
This is where people really need to pay attention. Fortunately, we have several in the Salem community who are on this and keep us all informed. One goes into enemy territory and videos from her car.
I'm glad they have the option of meeting safely.
CD5 has been jerked around over and over again over the years.
I have high hopes that Jamie McLeod-Skinner will make another run for office.
I do too. The national Ds put very little into this which didn't help. Then Schrader decided to be a poor loser and spoke against Jamie and did not campaign for her. I suspect he was busy behind the scenes undermining her. He also supported Machine Gun Betsy who is no moderate either. I consider well and truly just as ass.
Exactly. These decisions are made at the local School Board level.
Something that has stuck in my head ever since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 and the astonishing and lasting impact that the survivors have had on the national stage ever since: the activist students credited both their civics education and the school's theater program. Not only did they know their stuff, they were able to perform it for a dauntingly large and diverse audience. Add writing and communications tech to the mix and you've got most of the tools a citizen activist of any age needs.
Yes, and after learnng about it in the classroom, the emphasis should include the physical act of going to vote. As a retired teacher, I believe very strongly in developing habits in children, so if I were still teaching, I'd have them walk from the classroom to a "polling" location in the school to cast their votes. (actually, some schools do this.)
This practice should be required by each grade so when the kids become of age, it's normal for them to learn about the candidates then go to the polls to cast their vote.
My mother took me with her when she voted. But a lot of parents can't do that, so, yes, the schools should do as you say.
Dave, agree 100%...should begin in kindergarden!!!!
Education is certainly important, civics in particular. But it's also important to know who the educators are. "True history" is different in Texas and Massachusetts, for example.
The white right knows how important education is. That's why it's putting such effort into skewing the curriculum in their favor. I can guess what a state-approved civics curriculum would look like in Texas or Florida or South Dakota, for instance -- not pretty.
The ability to get pregnant ... and all the systems that are in place and not in place, directly affect women's progress. For example, any laws that inhibit their access to birth control at any level (day-after pill to later term abortion when needed and chosen by her), and all systems that feed into unaffordable childcare and choices to work part-time for less pay, and take on fewer leadership roles because of lack of good childcare and loss of experience early on, etc., all of these things are only being overcome to any degree in situations where access to good medical healthcare and mental healthcare are readily available, i.e., women are getting to live longer lives and finally get their chances to lead and create and contribute to other than the home and children. Ever wonder why more women are depressed, anxious and neurotic? Trying to make sense of what is going on and what is keeping them down would sure do the trick there. And, just incidentally, add to that that any woman who worked fewer years outside the home and worked for less because of her roles and gender, receives less Social Security with which to support herself and her goals. I could go on and on ... As a high intelligence specialist and writer, I can tell you that many "late bloomers" are simply intelligent people who were able to finally throw off their shackles! And yes, that includes more than women, but the largest number of oppressed people anywhere is female. And denial of abortion, control of her own body, and affordable childcare is all so directly related that you KNOW dark money is not unaware of that. Keep them poor, keep them uneducated, keep them willing to scrape for any income at all and you can get rich off it. No one reads this, right? When I write, I always consider if anyone would hold it against me, and I almost always don't care. It needs to be said.
Yes. Well said. Margaret Sanger knew some of this too. I would add that our insistence on holding to gender expectations, hinder women as well, since not only do they limit women's expression of their entire humanity, but so many women comply and don't even know enough to question. Oppression often is most effective because many of those oppressed internalize the messages about their own inferiority.
Excellent overview of the elements of women's repression in America. Thank you.
I absolutely agree!, Deborah. I am personally acquainted with many examples of the ongoing problems you very accurately discussed. Until more women are in positions of making the decisions for themselves and others, change will be slow.
We have read you. I thank you for your many faceted input!
Or the Gnome in South Dakota for another example of a very bad apple.
Good morning, And yes, it has been awfully slow for women. With hindsight, of course, I can look back on the heady days of the civil rights movement and see that those of us working and sometimes marching beside the (male) superstars of the movement mostly made coffee and emptied ashtrays. And, of course and not to be too crude this early in the day, we were "available" to serve in other ways. I hope these young women today are learning better. They have the energy, and so did we when 1963 rolled into the late sixties and early seventies. As is so often true in the lives of women I have known, and in the deep mythological underpinnings of the feminine, maybe the journey is slow, the effects cumulative, and the end a more richly layered truth than we could have imagined. The classical symbols of the feminine are creativity and chaos, qualities that pose a threat to those who represent logic and order. And fear breeds oppression and violence. On the other hand, and while I indulge my literary bent, this generation of women and those of us elders who can still manage it, need to get our chaotic, creative selves out to the voting booths and into the trenches. I have no doubt we will prevail, and I have no doubt we will have to keep renewing our lease on this place we occupy.
As an “elderly” liberal male, I am extremely excited to envision folks like you, Dean Robertson, inspiring my two “millennial” daughters and their young, energetic children (the grandest of grandkids) in the struggles of today. Thank you for your efforts.
Us curmudgeonly old broads do occasionally serve a purpose. More often, we just piss people off, so I thank you for your kind words. I think sometimes despairingly that we are dependent on these children, but I have to remember that in 1963, we were an army of children. It's a powerful energy. I am not convinced that it's enough to stop the swell of corporate interests and just the profound amassing of money. The more money on the table, the harder to convince the owners of that money to make changes. But, one of the qualities I share with all the other women on this side of history is that we're so darned angry that we can't stay sad for long. Stay on the bus with us, Paul. We need you and your daughters and your granddaughters.
Yes, Dean, I am right there with you, in age and with two millennial daughters. They both proclaimed they were not having children and that having a man to mess up their space wasn’t in their cards, right now. It will take us women to straighten this planet out and the men who think like we do.
Don’t kid yourself, Dean, you serve a Giant Purpose, and I thank you for your Curmudgeon!
"I have to remember that in 1963, we were an army of children. It's a powerful energy."
Yes, we were, Dean, and we accomplished so much, if not immediately then ultimately. It is painful to see so much being wrested away now, which is why a new army of children (with the support of us old folks) is necessary to regain the grounds we won.
And many of us... oddly, most especially in areas considered "red" are back to fight again.
💞
I truly love the words...”get our chaotic, creative selves” into the voting process. As a senior, encouraging other seniors to jump into the process, that phrase suits me to the soul.
I agree with what you said, but you stated what I assume to be a learned assumption that I want to point out. You wrote, "The classical symbols of the feminine are creativity and chaos, qualities that pose a threat to those who represent logic and order." I will counter that creativity, chaos, logic and order can reside in men, women, and definitely within one person.
Why point this out? Because your assumption assigns a dichotomy between men and women to be part of the natural order. While biologically (mostly) true, emotionally and intellectually the natural order is men WITH women, not men vs. women. (Admittedly, that's more my sense and hope and not a blind conviction.)
The political progress being discussed here is also progress in dismantling the hierarchical and too- often adversarial roles assigned to women and men. It is worth celebrating and encouraging.
Hi, Jerry, I agree with you on all points. I didn't intend to assign roles nor to make assumptions about human nature, male and/or female. And, of course, all those qualities can and almost always do reside in all of us. Again, what I was writing about wasn't my assumptions at all. I was writing about the ancient mythologies from every culture I've ever studied that do assign those symbolic qualities to the masculine and the feminine. They aren't, even in those stories, intended to refer to individual men or women. They are sort of the western version of the yin and yang. I hope I'm being a little clearer in what I'm saying. And, as you point out, the goal is a union of the two. In the old stories that union is symbolized in the sacred marriage. I'm afraid It's instinct with me to go to those deep symbolic roots as a way of thinking about our current political struggles. There's no need to "counter" what I've written because I think we agree on nearly everything. As for the "political progress being discussed," :I think I have a pretty good grip on it, and I celebrate it every day. I've been around long enough--probably too long--to be able to see the long road behind us.
While I think I understand your point, the whole idea of yin and yang, or masculine and feminine still contributes to a false dichotomy. Although if would be impossible, I would like to rid our language of "masculine" and "feminine" and find alternatives that don't refer to our biology but instead are descriptive of whatever characteristic we're focusing on. I ask my students what comes to mind when they think of "cat". Never do they come up with their biological sex. Instead they may say four footed, furry, meows, various fur colors, hunters etc. It's only when I ask specifically what they know about the differences between male and female cats, do they turn their focus to that. In our human world, the first thing that we think about and emphasize often is whether a person is male or female, and we're off to the races with filling in the blanks. I suppose some of this is about evolution and that we need to focus there for reproductive purposes, but when do we also stop filling in the blanks? When we only know a person's sex, the only thing we know for sure about that person is their potential role in reproduction. All other descriptors are filling in the blank.
And thank you, by the way, for keeping a dialogue going. It really is one of the joys of this place
Now that I'm really old, memories of childhood are clearer and this discussion brings to mind the round wooden puzzles that were new in the 1960s. The pieces were all similar but different, made of wood, but all different shapes and sizes and integrated in the completed puzzle. All comparisons eventually break down, but this is how the human population looks to me today. Each piece is necessary to make the whole. And we are three dimensional (actually more). https://www.fruugo.pt/3d-wooden-puzzles-iq-challenge-brain-teaser-lock-logic-intellectual-educational-toy-jigsaw-puzzle-removing-assembling-cube/p-65744640-132382761?language=en&ac=ProductCasterAPI&gclid=CjwKCAiA68ebBhB-EiwALVC-NrLM50Xto--w9X11jArqmqto4flS_PpRMao5hRs6iX5IgNKjw8DWpBoCGLEQAvD_BwE#
Hi, J.Nol, you make some interesting observations here. They get me thinking, always a plus. Count on a teacher! I have two replies. First, and most important, I am not making any point. I was sharing information about ancient western cultures and their stories, usually their creation myths. As for my analogy of the yin and yang symbol, it's exactly the opposite of a dichotomy. It's a circle that consists of two halves, one white, one black, that flow uninterrupted into each other with no edges or straight lines of division or demarcation. It is a visual representation of exactly what I think you're describing as the ideal.
I so agree with you. We aren't "opposite", just different in some ways, but we all, both women and men fall on an continuum, where we often share characteristics. It's time we stopped dichotomizing the sexes. It's time we stopped celebrating extreme masculinity or femininity as the optimum. Both are detrimental to the individual and society. In this way we might have a chance to come together and see each other as human.
Well said, Dean”more richly layered truth” indeed!
❤️”renewing our lease”
I too was there, and I think:
1. Men unabashedly fondling / raping / and bullying women, then Trump making it a disgusting public show, and people that I'd known and loved (all republicans) shrugged and voted for that monster that wants nothing more than money and power.
2. Republican's (not my) Supreme Court overturning of Roe Vs Wade, and supporting Trump and his lunacy
3. Jan 6th
All these and more, crossed the line in what we can no longer collectively accept. I didn't want to write a thesis, so did not elaborate on these points, but I think you get it.
And so far back before Trump. The early sixties again and the heroes of the whole shebang--The line of Kennedy men--John, Robert, Ted-- and Martin Luther King--were notorious for their exploitation of women. Do you know, I'm almost embarrassed to admit it after all these years, but I can't read about or see a photograph of Marilyn Monroe without crying. And I don't mean lady-like damp eyes. I'm talking heaving, snot-running sobs. I think she carries, in her story, all the vulnerability I can't ever quite face in my own. And on that note, this old broad is going to prepare the fort for the arrival of a 7 year old.
I agree with you, there are still times I cry when I think of my 11 year old self at the hands of sick men.
I love your beautifully tender statement, " I think she carries, in her story, all the vulnerability I can't ever quite face in my own."
Here's a hug from me to all women who have suffered
And still we persist. Quite remarkable.
I so agree with you!
I'm so proud to be on this team! My first critical commitment to politics was in 1972 when as a senior in college I worked to help get Pat Schroeder elected to the House in Colorado! We haven't stopped fighting nor will we ever stop!
You go girl! 💕👏🏼👍🏻🏆 Tell Polis it’s time to activate Colorado’s red flag law on Gun Control or step aside.
Yes! Long overdue!!
Me, too, Cynthia, and it's a good thing we won't stop fighting because it's possible that we might be in this battle close to forever. As a woman, and especially a woman with a child, I am an expert in the long haul. I was in labor for 12 hours. We can wait. We can breathe deeply, We can read the signs that tell us when to push and when to let go.
Well, Evelyn, we may be finally returning to where "we" once were. According to an article on early North American democracies in the November 5, 2022 Science News [www.sciencenews.org] women have likely been at the core of some of the earliest democracies in North America dating back 1500 to 3000 years. Anthropologists and archaeologists have conspired to unearth evidence of Muskogee Nation (Southeastern USA near current Atlanta) and Haudenosaunee (Northeastern USA) clans assembling "to reach collective decisions about various community issues." Membership in clans "was inherited through the female line and were - and still are - the social glue holding together Wendat (Huron) and Haudenosaunee politics together...Clans controlled seats on confederacy councils...but decisions hinged on negotiation and consensus." "Benjamin Franklin learned about Haudenosaunee politics during the 1740s and 1750s as colonists tried to establish treaties with the [Wendat & Haudenosaunee] confederacy.""Colonists took select political ideas from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy without grasping its underlying cultural framework...The US Constitution stresses individual freedoms, whereas the Indigenous system addressed collective responsibilities to manage the land, water, animals and people."
John, your comment just snapped into perspective for me the basic tension of the gun argument. With the appallingly regular number of mass shooting incidents, we in the U.S. have tipped over from " a few bad apples" or " isolated insanity" to a raging public health crisis. The collective responsibilty of the indigenous system comes to the fore and trumps arguments for individual freedom to carry ( which I do not think the 2nd Amendment means anyway. We actually don't even have an Amendment that protects an unfettered right to carry at all, IMHO ). At this juncture of a public health epidemic the common good has to be the lens through which we look.
Thank you.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/democracy-indigenous-americans-people-rule-muscogee
JohnM thanks for the link
"collective responsibilities"
JohnM, therein lies the difference between a progressive mindset, which addresses the common good, and a MAGA mindset, which wants to vilify it and foment hatred.
There is now a profile of mass shooters based on research by
Peterson and Densely, whose book was published in the 2021, The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic,
"Peterson: There’s this really consistent pathway. Early childhood trauma seems to be the foundation, whether violence in the home, sexual assault, parental suicides, extreme bullying, followed by a build toward hopelessness, despair, isolation, self-loathing, oftentimes rejection from peers. That turns into a really identifiable crisis point where they’re acting differently. Sometimes they have previous suicide attempts.
What’s different from traditional suicide is that the self-hate turns against a group. They start asking themselves, “Whose fault is this?” Is it a racial group or women or a religious group, or is it my classmates? The hate turns outward. There’s also this quest for fame and notoriety.,"
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/27/stopping-mass-shooters-q-a-00035762
Truly - nearly 300 years from first settlement to women even being allowed to vote!
But shorter than never!!!
Thank you, Evelyn, for your dedication to the cause!!
I was there too. It's about time!
True!
Question: if the Resolution has already passed in the House, can the Senate take it up in 2023? One more action that both Houses of Congress should take during this Lame Duck period!
Can the Vice President re-introduce the ERA?
Try Civil discourse podcasts with Joyce Vance on Substack?
https://joycevance.substack.com/
Excellent news about the increasing number of women in government. It’s news because the suits significantly outnumber women. Let’s change that even faster. Let’s work to reinstate Civics in all USA middle and high schools. Teach about government in younger grades by educating teachers in how to set up democratic classrooms. Starting in Kindergarten. Work for family friendly day care and paid maternity leaves so women don’t end up leaving career paths and not being able to return. Working for low tuition or tuition free two and some four year public colleges will help more women as well as men attend higher education programs. This Rutgers website features women in government from 1848 forward. I want to reincarnate and run for office. Too late for me, but not for many of you, or our friends and daughters.
https://cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/milestones-women-american-politics
Proper education right from the start is critically important. Civics. Debating. It can start as play. (Instead of deteriorating into play...!)
Civics for sure, but grounded in what we know about human behavior and how we have learned to deal peacefully with our differences. So much of the history and civics I learned in the 1950s and '60s in public school was pretty indoctrinating and Disneyfied. But a mindful democracy empowers, not regiments.
What are the dynamics of power? Consent of the governed means we divide choice into shares; but also, of necessity, civic responsibility. If we are to truly be a self-governing society, who else would have the responsibility for societal outcomes apart from us? Who sets the path a democratic society aims for, if not us? To be broadly and adequately informed is central to fulfilling our duties as collective citizen/managers, and yes, communication, debate, conversation, and robust good faith interaction, seems to me to be the lifeblood of genuine democracy and justice. Beside the "bootstrap" skills of learning to effectively learn, evaluate, and communicate, what subject matter would be of greater consequence.
Voting while ignorant is a terrible democratic variable
Equally terrible is NOT voting! I was so disappointed in many in my family who chose to not be “inconvenienced” by voting. It shouldn’t have to be mandatory for citizens to exercise a civic duty!
Mandatory here in Australia. Nobody minds. Anyone who fails to vote gets a "please explain" in the post and is liable to a fine if no valid reason. Today was election day for the State of Victoria, where I live. Early voting was available for a fortnight, and today the polling stations were open from 8 till 8. Results still coming in, but at 10 pm we know who's won what (Centre-Left again). The only complaint I know of was that voting isn't the same without the smell of frying onions - in the pre-COVID days there was always a sausage sizzle out in the yard.
Are you suggesting Anne-Louise that Americans could learn from other countries? Seriously? You mean there are better ways to operate democracy elsewhere? Could that also be true of health care or education?
Now wait just a minute. Next you are going to say there is a better way to control gun violence. I thought we were so "exceptional" as Americans, everyone was to learn from us!
Lovely! Living in Australia has been my long-time dream. Everyone votes! And I love fried onions over sausage!
I’m somewhat jealous, Anne-Louise ;-)
Anne-Louise, your Australian law is civilized. A celebration of rights and obligations. Required voting. Here in USA where guns not people are protected, “mandatory” is a bad word. Cowboy mentality still gallops around and isn’t just a concept. In some states Voting can occur where open carry is literally in the background. Vote by mail, friends. In my opinion, open carry is a lethal weapon and is Intimidation. That should be banned as it interferes with my First Amendment rights to be safe. What a contrast.
Since my childhood it seems to me that pro-voting public service announcements have tended to emphasize the idea that you vote to exercise individual choice; yet by voting, and by not voting, you share in determining the fate of our society, especially for those who are most disadvantaged, and tend to be most vulnerable when lazy or foolish voting decisions turn bad. As a matter of definition, we cannot be self-governing of our own society without a share of responsibility as well as choice. That needs to me underlined.
The Houston Chronicle’s editorial board complained that far too many Democrats voted straight blue for county judges rather than doing their research. They published their research on Election Day, when many people had voted already. It would have been much more useful 2 weeks before early voting started so that their claims could have been verified.
I read the Chronicle's analysis about the election for Harris County judge. Having lived here for decades and followed the issues closely, and having favored R's more often than D's over the years, I would presently say that their editorial board seems shell-shocked and currently feeble minded when doing their analyses.
🤦♀️
In a nation ostensibly piloted by "We the People", we need to do enough due diligence to vote, and we need to vote to wisely pilot the state. You wouldn't drive a car without learning what driving is about, and how it can go wrong. Why is running a country different?
Yes, JL, good reminder that history/civics can, unfortunately be taught through the "brainwashing" method....according to those leading in government, using the field of education to control it's citizenry.
Where to find teachers who will teach, research and personnaly value the importance of truth? There are devasting consequences that occur when citizens follow a government that wants to control their perception of truth.
We need teachers who will teach the foundation of governing....responsibilities from the smaller offices to the top. Everyone is valuable! OUR VOTE COUNTS! ....even for the books chosen for education of our fellow Americans.
This is only one area in which we, as citizens in a democracy must be personally and actively involved. We have become lazy thinkers: what do my friends believe, who does my pastor tell me to vote for, what do you listen to on radio or TV....do you just accept what they say....do you actually do research....do you know how to do research????
Teachers in Texas (and other red areas) are afraid to teach the truth about certain aspects of US history because it can get them fired and attacked. We need to pass laws protecting teachers.
Mary From age 58 to 80 as a community college professor I taught SOCIETAL DISCRIMINATION FROM PATRIARCHY TO THE PRESENT. This included patriarchy from the Hammurabi Code, racial discrimination from slavery to post-Reconstruction in both the South and the North, and the waves of discrimination against new immigrations.
I am appalled that such a high school course would be prohibited in many American states. If our children are not exposed to the genesis of discrimination in America’s evolution, how can they appreciate the falseness of ‘white (male) supremacy?’
"Honesty is the best policy"
I am appalled also, Keith. It’s actually unconscionable!
That alone is a horrifying thought, a need for such laws.
And here, in CA, the truth is encouraged to be taught. There’s no escaping social media for kids. They get their education from Tik tok but not all of it is bad. These kids support one another throughout the world. Gen Z have been battered and killed by mass shootings and they are at an age where they can vote and they did. They truly are our future.
There are lies of omission. It can be tricky, but we need not to be teaching lies.
In an uncharacteristically humble moment, Newton famously said that to offer his insights, he had stood on the shoulders of giants. So do we, as well as upon the shoulders of countless numbers of persons whose experiences and discoveries ompletely missed by recorded history. As an exquisitely social species, a vast proportion of our take on reality is passed on to us by others, but we also experience our own unique sentience, and we, in the end, must decide what we believe to be true; whether by personal experience, statistical analysis, by ideology. We are ultimately obliged to to think for ourselves, even when we cede that authority to others.
At the same time we cannot hope to duplicate or exceed the total of accumulated human knowledge, so how can we apply our own unique perspective to our best advantage? Part of it is surely to look at the process by which reliable information is obtained. Aristotle intuited from casual inspection that objects fall faster the heavier they are, but Galileo measured it, and derived a key constant that empowered Newton. We can spin all kinds of possibilities that cannot be proved or disproved, but you or I could presumably duplicate Galileo simple yet profound experiments and verify his findings. THAT's part of what I wish the schools made a sustained effort to teach, not just "STEM". The epistemological, practical view of how we identify information worthy of our confidence as a general matter.
We can also learn to detect those whose views may be more suspect or are activity trying to fool us. I recall an hour or two in 5th or 6th grade when the teacher talked about classic, named logical fallacies. Good stuff, but we needed to incorporate that perspective throughout our studies, and exercise it; not just to hear about it as an incidental footnote.
Spot on, Emily. You plant a seed, but how you water and fertilise it from the start will decide the way it grows.
I don't grow tomatoes, but I do, so far as I am able, provide condition that enable good tomato fruit. I can't control the behavior of hummingbirds, but some of what I plant effectively encourages hummingbirds to come.
Exactly!
Start Toastmasters clubs to teach beginners parlimentary procedures!
Not to mention that Toastmasters teaches one to be articulate and persuasive without being verbally violent or abusive. Also, it teaches members to sit down, and shut up, and listen. All excellent basics for reasonable discourse. 🗣️
Toastmasters sounds to me like a brilliant thing that could be started immediately. How to go about it?
They're always looking to expand their membership - contact the organization? Join and start a club focused on civil political discourse? https://www.toastmasters.org/
I should add that the framework is not perfect. They are more focused on speaking persuasively than on good argumentation. But what they do, they do well, supportively, and with great civility.
Irenie: ambitious, inspiring, going to be a challenge and probably a struggle. I like it.
What to Americans know about the diversity of the elected representatives now in Congress? Not much.
Do the American people know which political party has more diversity among elected members of Congress? No.
Do Americans believe that their elected representatives are somewhat representative of the diversity of then nation? No’
Let’s dig in with what YouGovAmerica reports concerning these questions, answers and more.
‘What Americans think about the diversity of their elected officials’
‘Polling conducted by YouGov in the days following this year's election finds that large shares of Americans believe it's important for their elected officials to be demographically representative of the American population; among the most likely form of diversity to be prioritized is representation in regard to education and age. There is a disconnect between what Americans find important in representation and how they perceive the current situation: Fewer than half of people say that America's elected officials are currently even somewhat representative of the country overall in each of the eight ways asked about: age, disability, education, gender, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and wealth or income. Americans are correct about a lack of representation along these dimensions, at least with regard to members of Congress.’
'Which party's elected representatives are more demographically representative of the country as a whole? Despite data showing that Democratic members of Congress are far more representative than Republicans of the American population overall in terms of their gender, race or ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, fewer than two in five people think this is the case for each of these types of diversity, while most Americans believe the parties are equally representative or are not sure which is more representative.'
'Education and age are the traits regarded as at least somewhat important by the most Americans — far more than emphasize any of race or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.'
'Age: The 117th Congress has been the oldest, on average, of any Congress in history, and far from representative of the age distribution of American adults overall. While both party's representatives are older, on average, than Americans overall, congressional Democrats are slightly more out of line, with the average member being 61 compared to 58 among Republicans.'
'Educational attainment: Members of Congress are far more likely to have graduated from college than Americans overall are. In 2022, the vast majority of members of Congress — by some estimates, 96% — had a college degree, compared to just 38% of Americans 25 and older in 2020. In the 117th Congress, most incoming members without a college degree were Republicans. When asked which party's elected officials are more representative of the American public in regard to education, Americans are about equally likely to say Democrats are the more representative party as they are to say Republicans are.'
***
'‘Gender: The 117th Congress includes more women than ever before, though women still account for just over a quarter of all members, far fewer than their share of the population, which is slightly over 50%. Democratic officials are more diverse in this regard: Women account for 38% of congressional Democrats and just 14% of congressional Republicans. Americans who named one party as more representative than the other were twice as likely to name Democrats than to name Republicans.’
‘Race or ethnicity: The racial and ethnic diversity of Congress has increased in recent years: 23% of representatives elected in 2020 identify as racial and ethnic minorities. While this is more than at any other point in history, it is far less than the roughly 40% of Americans who are non-white. Our survey shows that Americans are twice as likely to say the Democratic Party is more representative in terms of race or ethnicity relative to Republicans than to say Republicans are more representative than Democrats. They are correct in this regard, at least when it comes to Congress: 83% of members of Congress who are members of a racial or ethnic minority are Democrats.’
‘Wealth or income: Members of Congress are far wealthier than average Americans: Personal financial disclosures suggest that in 2018 the median net worth of members of Congress was around $500,000, roughly five times the median net worth of American households. Elected Democrats and Republicans are both far wealthier, on average, than Americans overall, though Republicans are somewhat more likely to sit at the top of the congressional wealth hierarchy. In 2018, 43 members of Congress were estimated to be part of the 1% of wealthiest Americans; 26 of these were Republicans and 17 were Democrats.'
'In our survey, Americans were roughly equally likely to say each party was more representative than the other in regard to elected officials' wealth or income.’ (YouGov) See link to report below.
***
Important questions are asked about the validity of poll and the polls representative of the qualified American voters in this instances.
'This poll was conducted on November 9 - 11, 2022, among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens. Explore more on the methodology and data for this poll.'
https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/11/18/americans-think-about-diversity-elected-officials
Thank You Fern. Clearly we need to begin NOW to identify and support candidates for office who represent us, We, The People, All of Us This Time. I look at my own congressional district in light of just one fact you presented here:
"Personal financial disclosures suggest that in 2018 the median net worth of members of Congress was around $500,000, roughly five times the median net worth of American households." In our district, Michigan's Upper Peninsula has a median income [Note- it's your fault, Fern, that I am looking up statistics at 6 a.m. while visiting kids and grandkids in Chicago!) is less than 10% of that -$49,000. And age - our Seditionist Rep is SEVENTY-FIVE (75) years old! Bought and paid for by Big Oil to keep Line 5 flowing through our gorgeous forests and farms, and under Lake Michigan/Huron! Okay, maybe we can enjoy one more holiday first, but our New Year's resolutions have to be centered on making our representatives be actually representative of us! Thanks
MaryPat, No one could more effectively scold and encourage me at the same time. Did I add educate me as well? "Have I got a friend...?" Yes, I do and absolutely fortunate, too, for sure!
Way to go, Fern! 😀
🤩
💞
MaryPat, we need to pass laws that 1) prohibit campaign spending other than that provided by Congress; 2) outlaw political action committees (PACS); 3) require candidates for statewide and national offices to provide net worth statements along with 6 years of income taxes; and 4) make congressional, senatorial and Supreme Court intern positions paid positions (paying enough to live in the DC area). This last is extremely important—a lot of important relationships are forged during these internships and poor kids can’t afford to be working as unpaid interns straight out of college.
Hearts!
HA!
YES, MaryPat! This is the duty of The People under democracy, or the word is meaningless. And that would make America as great as EVERY politician says it is in his or her opening gambit. Imagine living in your magnificent country without fear, with pride and respect, where families could gather around the Thanksgiving table without having to avoid certain topics of conversation.
P.S. And "Rep" Jack Bergman isn't even a Michigander! He lives in Louisianna!
And (while thinking of Herschel), tell me again why that can happen?
Seems he is a fisherman, has a cabin up in the U.P. he visited once or twice a year, and when he announced his candidacy he coincidentally decided to fix up the place into a house that all of a sudden became his primary residence (In Michigan, taxes on non residential homes like cabins, are taxed at a significantly higher rate). He may still fish there once or twice a year (some neighbors are keeping track) but he sure as hell doesn't live there. His wife is at their Louisiana home or in D.C.
Like Herschel Walker having his primary residence in Texas!
Thank you for the very enlightening 🐇🕳 Love it.
yesyesyesyesyes!
Good points, Irenie. I’m not all that convinced that Civics & Government & “Forthright” American History is NOT taught in schools today. As a retired elementary school teacher, I constantly chat with my grandkids (ages 7-13) about what they are learning, with my ear especially tuned to the Social Studies. They are gettin’ it! Maybe that is only happening in my neck of the woods?
No doubt that is Palatine, IL? A lovely bluer than blue community? I’m fortunate in that way also. But I am concerned for those suffering in the reddest areas. How best do we support them? https://mobile.twitter.com/Thom_Hartmann/status/1596162844227407872
Yup, you nailed my location. In fact, we just elected Nabeela Syed - 23 years old to IL legislature. Yup, quite blue. We just moved here about 1 year ago from McHenry County, IL - a very red area, 45 minutes away from here.
You are absolutely correct about supporting and nurturing folks in those areas - both liberals and conservatives. I have found that nudging toward Common Ground rather than picking fights can be effective.
Lately, I’ve been promoting the notion of DEMS cutting taxes - by canceling the Sunset Clauses of the 2017 TCJA law, which the Republicans passed and CODIFIED raising taxes on regular Americans. (Corporate taxes were not Sunsetted.). Biden should work out a deal with McCarthy (or whomever) to make that happen, but BIDEN (and the DEMS) need to have their fingerprints all over the deal. THEY should be promoting in RIGHT NOW - before the new Congress. Make it a Lame Duck deal. Would ANY Republican vote against this idea?
One would think that the Republican Party, seeing the trend in election results and changing demographics, would try to craft policies that would attract more voters. But they either can't stomach the idea of compromising their political principles and/or are so beholden to business and "religious" interests that reform is impossible. Thus the party grows more insular and open in the embrace of hate and one-party rule.
There is clearly not a majority of voters who want anything resembling the Trump years. That's not to suggest we're anywhere close to being out of the woods. A minority party can wreak havoc, and the GOP's new slim majority in the House will do just that.
“A minority party can wreak havoc, and the GOP's new slim majority in the House will do just that.”
One hopes that that havoc will inspire a return of an even stronger Democratic majority in 2024.
I like your “out of the woods” metaphor, a lot.
One could arguably substitute "out of the woods" with "free of the killing fields". The GQP policies and the reign of Trump brought us hundreds of thousands of unnecessary Covid deaths, assassinations by rogue cops, mass murders employing readily available WMDs, preventable deaths due to a ridiculously unfair "health care" system which really is a business that just profits from illness. That's my starter list.
Bill, my constant theme..originating from living in countries that respect quality health care for all. Without the “for all” there is no such thing as “quality”
Quality affordable health care for all must be integral to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
I've never felt safer (healthcare-wise) or freer than I did during the years I was a French taxpayer.
Bill, I understand all your points except the one about WMDs. Could you elaborate just a bit, at least enough for me to research further?
so do I
Not out of the woods, and not able to see the forest for all the trees blocking the view,. Does this suggest we are on the right path, but don't have a clear view to a way out of the woods, to the future?
How many young ones have a forestry tradition and can relate to this metaphor? I'm comfortable with it , but I'm 75. Our language has changed since I was in school. Computer terms leave me needing a translater. How can we transmit our wisdom to help the young ones, or at least not confuse them?
I saw a tweet last week. One of them was screaming - they are always screaming- that unless they change their message, they will never win, and I wondered how they can change a message that excludes women, those not white, those in the lgbtq+ community, those with healthcare needs, gun legislation, those in lower middle to struggling demographics, etc. as they are only interested in keeping corporations profitable and lining their pockets. There is nothing they offer and all they do is scream about Democrats, need to continue with oil, fix the border (why didn't they when they had the power), Hunter, crime (lies).
Change their message, sacrilege. Must hate the libtards, first rule
But...but...the important thing is, they MUST get elected! First press the buttons marked hatred, jealousy, fear.
I think the impulse at the core of today's Republican party is autocratic, plutocratic control, and big money has reinforced and honed that focus. To distract from creeping disempowerment of the common weal, big lies have become bigger and bigger; to a degree that now resembles psychosis; yet with the ulterior motive hiding what is real.
After four decades of varying degrees of "Reagan Revolution", whose interests have been favored, and have whatever benefits to society as whole that have emerged in the interim been because or in spite of this? As the Jan 6th Committee has done, we should continue making a "thing" of "GOP" ultra-depravity, while vividly describing and empirically demonstrating more appealing alternatives.
It would be worthwhile to study Putin's playbook, which studied American behavior for decades in order to bot and troll us on the internet. And it would be valuable to point out at regular intervals until it sinks in to the far corners of our republic, that Russia is a "federation" now, not a republic and to ask if the agenda of the Federalist Society in the USA has plans to emulate Russia. We need to throw some balls in the air for people to catch and cogitate upon.
If not Trump, then DeSantis, who is just as bad, and maybe even worse.
Desantis IS worse-smarter, and intentionally cruel. As a Floridian who watches his destruction of our educational institutions and decent treatment of poc, lgbtq, and more with horror, my greatest fear is that he will attain higher office.
DeSantis is actually worse than Trump. He's well educated, has legislative and governing experience and a photogenic family. What makes him even scarier is his comfort with Chritofascist tropes and lack of fear of bad outcomes (witness his mishandling of COVID).
MisTBlu,
I am definitely NOT a fan of DeSantis, or any Republican. However, I DO want to offer, from NY, that DeSantis DID handle the Covid pandemic in a way that preserved small businesses relative to the disastrous approach that New York's Cuomo took.
I live in NY. NY did this: Force closed all restaurants, bars, and Mom and Pop small businesesses all over NY at once. At the same time, they left all grocery stores and Big Box Stores OPEN (Best Buy, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc.)_
BUT, a small hardware store? Force closed (my favorite one went under an the owner moved to Florida). A small hobby shop that my son and I used to frequent??? Closed. But? Hobby Lobby?? OPEN.
NY KILLED all of its small businesses during the Pandemic AND EVEN in small towns where the tiny local hospitals had zero Covid patients.
Cuomo was a complete, utter disaster for small business and that is probably the reason he is history and gone now.
DeSantis balanced the need for business with the need to protect people reasonably well in a fluid situation.
Now, DeSantis DID mishandle the wearing of masks early on at the same time the CDC also was lying or mishandling that issue. Masks helped. But, the CDC was saying they did not matter like the idiots they were.
So, now, DeSantis listened to the CDC. I mean, the guy went to Yale, not Texas A&M so you would not expect him to be able to think for himself very much. :-)
Me?? I would say DeSantis balanced the need for small business with the need to protect people. I mean, the small hobby shop here would be nearly empty any way on any given day. No need to shut it down.
NOBODY handled the Pandemic well, but, should we have taken the China route which is what Cuomo origjnally did??
How is that working out for China now??
I hope you are not serious, Mike. DeSantis is responsible for cooking the books on COVid statistics and is responsible for widespread COVid sickness, death, and denier stance to the vaccine. His forced surgeon general Ladapo is a denier and a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Florida.
Where COVid is concerned, it is useless lauding a person or state because its was not as “bad” as another. DeSantis keeping the state opened was another strategy to appear “unwoke”, a dangerous place to be.
🗽
Yes, “ God made a fighter” to battle Faucism with Fascism.
Christine,
I am partly serious. You are right, DeSantis combined his approach to Covid with politics. You are correct that there was widespread Covid and death and sickness.
But, this was also true in NY. Perhaps it is not known that there were semi-refrigerator trucks lining the streets of NY with dead bodies?
My point is: There is actually a balance that has to be struck that enables people to get groceries and survive for another day, and, fighting a new pandemic.
New York did it poorly and politically and a lot of people died.
Florida did it poorly and politcally and a lot of people died.
It would definitely help if folks could think for themselves or read since the NY Times published that Covid was airborne in April of 2020.
But, Covid was a pandemic and people died independent of how badly all the states handled Covid.
No state did well.
The real question is: Did we all learn anything we can carry forward?
Answer: Probably not.
Sorry Mike, you seem to be accepting the fairy tale of DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic. I lived it in Florida. Others have covered his business dealings but let me remind you that his decisions to allow spring break and other festivals to take place meant the party goers spread the virus nationwide. Owners of small businesses? Five that I know died.
I remember seeing a map that tracked the cell phones of those who had been in FL during spring break, and how far Covid travelled as a result. It was astonishing
Gail,
I agree that DeSantis was playing politics. I agree that, if I were him, I would have advised wearing masks.
Had I been him, I (perhaps) would have tried to dissuade rich, white young people in college from heading to Florida for a drunken revelry during a Pandemic.
But, I am not sure anymore what I would have done. I would have tried to balance not wiping out small businesses with attempting to keep people alive.
I would probably have issued the best understanding I had at the time: Wear a mask, wash your hands, don't be dumb and head out sick to the grocery store, order on line, that kind of thing.
I would not have shut down all small business while leaving open all big box stores like NY did.
But that’s just it, Mike. Small businesses WERE shut down in Florida, and for some time the Florida border was closed. DeSantis is promoting revisionist history. BTW, the five business owners I knew were all vaccine deniers.
Hindsight is alway 20-20. I am so grateful I didn't live in FL during the peak of the pandemic. DeSantis had the numbers of deaths and cases altered to make his state look better than it was. https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/covid-19-data-misrepresented-florida-governor Small businesses may have been hurt worse in proportion to some of the larger box stores but vulnerable people in FL were dying at rates that were worse than most places around the world. Just like the rest of the US. Don't talk to me about how good DeSantis is for business when he uses bullying techniques with business as well. i.e. Disney. -saw-
My local China guru (studied to be an ambassador to China and traveled there several times) told me that the health of the population in general is more fragile than ours; they did not have the same level of health, the same level of immunity as the USA, because of decades of social upheaval and government chaos, so I am not allowed by her to compare to the USA. Or apples and oranges.
They've been wearing masks in China for years and years. Lots of Asian students in Sydney and Melbourne - all wore (and wear) masks on public transport.
I wasn't aware that masks were regularly worn by the Chinese. They have been widely used in Japan for decades -- a fact that took some getting used to when I visited about 20 years ago.
I read Cuomo's New York on PAUSE order. Yes, it would have lead to many small businesses being closed (as they were in California) but it also came at a time when our shopping habits changed. We preferred one-stop-shopping and shifted quite dramatically to on-line shopping. Big box stores didn't have carte blanche to do as they wanted. The lines to get in were legendary. The fight over masking was insane. Hobby Lobby defied orders to close their stores for several weeks. They finally closed them nationwide in April 2020.
The once hallowed CDC was hollowed out when its incompetent, far-right director, Robert Redfield, allowed Trump to direct policy. At one point hospitals were ordered to send their M&M reports to the White House! We will never have an accurate count of the number of COVID deaths because of that interference. The CDC also decided to create their own tests rather than buy ones that were proven effective. This resulted in a tragic delay as the first batches were bad. Add the failure to do intense contact tracing and you end up with the highest case and death rates STILL. https://ncov2019.live/
As for nobody handling the pandemic well, I beg to differ. Many under-resourced nations followed old CDC guidelines for pandemic mitigation and did very well. At one point, despite intense crowding in many cities, the infection rate was held in check and the number of deaths was minimal.
China could, perhaps, use a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer but it's hard to balance the needs of its economic engine and the need to keep their population alive and functioning.
As well as the photogenic family, the name, DeSantis, with its suggestion of holiness, as well as the photogenic family, is probably an asset. But he's third generation, and all it signifies is that Italian names beginning with De and ending in -s are common in the south of the peninsula from which so much of the early 20th century immigration came, back in the days of "Give me your poor..." and I won't quote the rest, for various reasons of discretion. And the "De" has nothing to do with the French lower-case "de" which indicates aristocratic ancestry.
"If not Trump, then DeSantis, who is just as bad, and maybe even worse."
If TFG fails to get the nomination, he's not going to quietly fade away. He'll likely, hopefully, form a third party, get his MAGA mob to stay home on election day, or do something else to split the Republican vote. He cares not at all if he wrecks the GOP, and that's what I'm hoping for.
I don't worry too much about DeSantis. It's a long way to the nomination and there are many Republicans presidential wannabes, none of whom are above stabbing the front runner in the back. I think front runners this early rarely make it to the nomination. At this point my long-shot bet to get the GOP nomination is Nikki Haley.
Lordy, she surely drank the coolaid
They have all drunk the coolaid; some straight, some on the rocks, but they all drank it. I don't think there's a teetotaler left in the Republican Party.
Haley is another nightmare!
"Haley is another nightmare!"
They all are.
Nikki Haley! Eek!
They’re all eek.
My parents were hard core Stevenson/Kennedy Democrats. From the cradle I learned to loathe Richard Nixon. I would gladly vote for Nixon today over any current Republican running for any federal office.
Don’t forget Cruz. And Haley wants to stop abortions except to save the life of the mother (forget uterine infections until the mother is septic).
https://amp.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article231297818.html
"Don't forget Cruz." Oh, please do!
I guess that carefully trimmed facial hair was intended to make his face look less fat and give him a distinguished hidalgo look to adorn his name.
That sneer that he always has on the front of his head.....🤮
Worse
Michael,
One would not expect the Taliban to change because of any demographic informatoin or information on what the majority of people want.
Similarly, we should not expect the Republican Party to heed the electorate any more than we would expect the Taliban to heed the people of Afghanistan's wants and needs.
We CAN expect Republicans to continue moving toward nondemocratic methods to ensure that they, like the Taliban, control our country without elections or having to even think about what a majority desires.
After all Michael, Republicans know what God wants, and, God is on their side. Right?
Just ask them.
Barry Goldwater on Christian fundamentalists in the Republican Party: “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater
Gosh! Goldwater!
I agree but balk at the use of the word or concept of "principles" as a description of Republican behavior. A principal is a fundamental truth. They seem remarkably uncomfortable with truth.
They don't want to compromise their "political identity" I think.
Remember 2012, lots of gnashing of teeth about Repub strategy. They doubled down on tea party hatred. Don’t hold your breath…
Yup, I think you are correct, Michael: the R’s ARE noticing what is going on within their ranks and this is a great time for Liberals to capitalize on this change. The “Tricky Bit” is the apparent “Be Silent Strategy” that many of the Republicans are using. This “Be Silent Strategy” involves not poking the Mar-a-Lago bear, but fervently hoping that the Democrats and the Courts bring down the bear. It’s kind of a Pontius Pilate moment for them - simply washing their hands and letting King Herod do the dirty work.
The Liberals need to concentrate on some very important issues that Conservatives will have a very difficult time running away from: 1.) Cancelling the Sunset Provisions of the 2017 TCJA law (which translates to Democrats CUTTING TAXES that Republicans had codified to RAISE i. 2025), 2.) Ending the “Fossil vs Green” War, by encouraging and incentifying the conversion of “Fossil” energy companies to become “complete” energy companies. (It CAN be done. For example, help EXXON - just to name one - partner with wind and solar companies to erect wind turbines and solar panels on the land where those pumpjacks are lazily pumping up and down. THEN, EXXON’s gas stations can also sell electricity for folks who stop in to “fill up” their EVs., 3.) Election Reform for all elections at the FEDERAL level - President-Vice President and the US House and Senate. State and Local election “reforms” can/should be handled at the state and local levels. 4.) Sensible Gun Laws.
They might attract the “wrong” voters
I’m loving being wide awake at 78 to cheer the women in political life now and I expect this representation will continue growing in coming years! What a pleasure!!
Fast approaching 77. And, I feel the same.
Per Rutger's Andrea Alexander 11/15/22, the problem-solving Gen Z Voters are projected to.have an overweight impact on national elections through 2030.
Hallelujah but then what’s in store after that? Hopefully, less vigilantism and more compassion.
It's my personal opinion that Congress needs more women in office, as I believe women are fundamentally more collaborative in nature than men. They're generally more civil as well. Just one guy's opinion...however, the more women there are in office, the more we'll see some like Taylor-Greene and Boebert who don't represent their gender well. I don't think men have the lock on despicable behavior, but they seem more given to competition than collaboration.
There are always outliers, women who campaign on men’s terms. Best example, the NRA nuts.
“The reelections of Peltola and Murkowski illustrate that we are, in many different ways, at a sea change moment in American history.”
I agree, with skeptical optimism. Oxymoron? Maybe guarded optimism is better. Either way, we’re by no means out of the woods yet. We do well to remember that Stacey Abrams (barely) lost in Georgia, and Rand Paul got re-elected in Kentucky. Herschel Walker may yet be elected senator from Georgia. If that last fails to occur, I will feel a lot better.
Ralph, we're working on it. Lightning should strike twice in the same place if we have anything to do with it. We're not taking anything for granted. We were fooled in 2016, so we are fighting hard! Not assessing Walker as anything but dangerous....
I’m a NY state resident, but I’ve been donating weekly to Warnock’s campaign. He doesn’t take corporate donations, while Trumpist big donors are backing Walker with mega millions. Half of your donation goes to the Democratic Party (can’t figure out how to donate directly to Warnock). Georgia is key again! Any small contribution will help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wfg_ads_gs-a?amount=25&amounts=25,50,100,250,500,1000,2800&refcode=ads_alw_gs_brand22_d2d_nat_tCPA&gclid=Cj0KCQiAj4ecBhD3ARIsAM4Q_jGNpeJ7icYg798w_j2s9FqjQ3MzTosCULcdKOLLC_D3E51LnYhZ0vAaAmMrEALw_wcB
If you go to Senator Warnock's campaign website and click on the "Donate" button you will be able to use your Act Blue account to donate directly to Warnock without splitting the donation with any other candidate or organization. See this URL: https://warnockforgeorgia.com/
Just did it. It took less than 2 minutes. Thanks for the link!
Same here, Bill!
Everyone who comments here should put their money where their words are and donate to Warnock's campaign, even if only a few dollars, to counteract the vast amount of 'dark money' pouring into Georgia in support of his opponent.
Did so this morning. ActBlue - easy peasy.
Thank you!
Thank You. Just donated.
I have been donating regularly and just now did again. Thank you for that link. It’s better than the other ones I was using that divided the money
Skeptical optimist, describes me
Heartening news indeed! I hope that the next gen young women (and young men) will in the future replace the Repugs like Marjorie Threenames, Boebert, Gaetz, Hawley et al and bring an end to this surreal landscape of election deniers. I hope it can turn around in my lifetime.
Justice Just Janice; in 1983 I was a member of my law school's first class that was majority women. I was clerking at a law firm while going to law school that had a 40 year old woman partner who was pregnant with her first child. I think the future is here now but, many struggles ahead. Updated Comment with International Women's Struggle in Iran NOW: I can only repeat a Farsi slogan: "The Grandchildren of the regime are devouring it" [the regime]. Khomeini's historical home has been burned down. Reportedly, more than 15,000 imprisoned. Similar to internal social movements in Iran in 2009, 2017 & 2019 per First 24 yesterday.
I’m old, not likely, but one can dream
You are women,
We hear you roar.
Our daughter introduced us tonight to the Hulu series on Hilary Clinton, and her work in political campaigns looks like she was a trail blazer. Good to see this timely review by HCR which appeared in my inbox just after part 4 of the Hulu series (made 2 years ago but who are we to be current) finished airing on our home screen.
Thank you
Ho, boy... " ... efforts to dismantle the business regulation, basic social safety net, promotion of infrastructure, protection of civil rights, and international cooperation that were the fundamental principles underpinning American government after the Depression and World War II." Now that certainly spells out the basic Repub Party manifesto. Sure glad to see the changes brought on in the mid-term. And clearly the fast-fading away of the MAGA-brain dead. Looking good, USA!
The recent success of Democrats in most of the country, pushing back on forty years of conservative efforts to dismantle the policies that have contributed to the nation's growth, have been conspicuously absent in Texas and Florida. That is not because of the voters in those States, but because of the non-voters there, who prefer watching football and exchanging barbecue recipes to political involvement.
And that is pathetic. I know a couple of people who live in FLA and they’re full Maga. Sorrowful...
I personally find your comment interesting, Jack... you see some time ago I immigrated to Australia and now hold dual citizenship... I get to vote in all Aussie elections and in all US federal elections. And as a former journalist I like politics, not politicians so much, but politics. As concerns your comment down here voting is mandatory. Once reaching 18 years a person is automatically registered and must vote or face financial penalties. So, looking at both sides; mandatory voting or voluntarily voting, in my estimation either works. Voter turnout in AU is high but does that mean the people elected are better candidates? No. High turnout does not make a wiser politician. Of course in places like Texas or Florida the low turnout of the liberal voters does make a difference, but that's the fault of the voters not the system.
Such an inspiring piece about the positive changes in our country. No going back? I'm hesitant but more optimistic after your detailing of the demographic change and increase in our representative diversity, nationwide. Let us keep moving forward into the 21st century.
In the wee morning hours, having read through some 96 comments here & not seeing it mentioned, I would like to lob a wish of mine into the ring: I would like to see in my lifetime (I’m 73) the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. It is way past time to make it so.
I am with you 100% on that! It is LONG overdue. Until women get that, it is all lip service.
You beat me to it.
Here in far far far northern coastal CA, I was unable to sleep at around 3 a.m., so read LFAA & the comments posted at the time. I was finally able to “stack some Z’s” (a cartoon euphemism for sleep I use) & am just now coming back to LFAA. Yeah, I’ve been keeping abreast of ERA issues & what’s hanging it up and sad that it is not more in the forefront. Should be a no-brainer!!! Being on staff, and a student as well, at a college campus (I retired from there after 40 yrs), I recall back in the 70’s a lot of buzz and conversation about it; one issue of concern was because the draft & Vietnam were front & center, many wondered if that would mean women would be drafted as well—I mean, equal is equal! I have this site bookmarked: https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era-ratification-map. I really like the idea of tying the passage to the centennial!!!!
We need more like this one:
https://youtu.be/fCNuPcf8L00
Another WOW
Yowza! No kidding!
Leonard Katz
The results of the midterm elections were indeed gratifying for women and many Democrats, but we must remember that Trump backed candidates won many seats in the house of representatives and they will work to disrupt the good work that the Biden Administration has accomplished.
over the last 40 years there has been a distinct move towards fascism in this country and many eminent sociologists believe that it is still a huge danger to our democracy. nearly all of the autocratic dictatorships have been formed because the leaders failed to enamor the people and lost elections and took over the government through force. This situation exists today and Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the 2024 presidential election in that it has been said that he is planning to attend the inauguration in 2025 and claim victory even though he had lost the election in 2024.
Hopefully, he will be serving a long term in federal prison at that time and won’t personally represent a threat, but we must be ever vigilant that fascist right wing forces are ready to continue their assault on democracy.
Every American must stand firm against fascism and be sure not to let democracy fail.
Trumpism is fascism. Spreading .Pure and simple. Mussolini’s granddaughter elected in Italy. The Boot is overrun with impoverished Black African immigrants fleeing warming, drought, war, starvation, poverty, hunger, killing. ISIS is not dead. Warming, C-19, Monkeypox, big oil... the Rx for fascism is spreading. Ukraine is Russia’s most egregious gesture, but it’s supported by Tucker the Fucker. FOX is fascist.
Don’t forget Marcos.
Bloodlessly, we blew out both Ferdinand and Imelda in favor of Cory Aquino. Donated two orphanages, one in honor of Cory’s best, killed on the tarmac, the other to honor Jamie Cardinal Sin, who delivered the checks in Manila given to him in me at the archdiocese in Newark, as arranged by Archbishop Father Teddy McCarrick, later a defrocked Cardinal. Long story Department.
Sandy we still need your book!