The Battle for Millennial Votes

A lot has been said about the impact of changing demographics on elections in this country.  But if a picture is worth 1,000 words, these videos are worth about a bajillion.

Here, the GOP appeals to lady voters at a level we can understand - wedding dresses.  They finally get me.  This is not to say that I don't thoroughly love the show parodied here.  Just that I don't relate to politics and issues that affect my life through a lens of reality television.  Assuming so is pretty insulting.

Then there's this video.  Which, I can testify as a millennial, is awesome.  And went almost immediately viral.  And not in the, OMG look at what ridiculously embarrassing/offensive thing Rick Perry just said kind of viral.

The comments on the video are, not unexpectedly, pretty racist, classist, sexist, and generally every other kind of hateful "ist" you can think of.  I mean, it's the internet comments, people.  I guess human rights kind of freak some people out.

So what are we to think then?  Are we really moving forward?  As Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.  I can only hope that my generation's hands and hearts will keep on bending it.  And in the meantime, there are these videos to make you groan/smile.  Oh yea, and don't forget to vote!

The Opposite of Religious Freedom

You know, I'd rather talk about rights than freedoms.  Because freedom, well, sometimes I hate Freedom.  I hate Freedom with a capital F that is used in political rhetoric.  Freedom has been taken out of context to mean a whole lot of things I don't agree with.  In this country you are free to be poor and uneducated, free to be uninsured and unfed.  But in my mind, a good education, healthcare, food and shelter - those aren't freedoms, they're human rights.  They are inalienable.  Oh and it might seem I like I don't need to mention this part, but they belong to humans.  They don't belong to corporations and they can't be voted on.

I do believe that health care is a human right.  I think taking care of people to keep them healthy is better and cheaper for our country, but it's also the moral thing to do.  Even if they can't pay for it or don't have a job who pays for it for them.  And, as crazy as it might sound to some, women's health and by extension reproductive health, are also parts of health care.  We don't want mani-pedis and ponies, we just want health care for the parts we have that You (the big patriarchal You, yea the one that held a panel on birth control access that was ALL MEN) don't have.

In the recent birth control flap, it became clear that the Bishops didn't just want an exception to birth control coverage for Catholic institutions, they wanted an exception for anyone who wanted it - like the Catholic who owns a Taco Bell or runs a bank.  And then came Sen. Blunt saying we should let ANY employer deny you coverage for ANY health care for ANY moral/religious qualm you may have, which was properly dubbed the Blunt Measure.

But you the individual, the human, the employee have a right to health care.  And that includes, this needs to be repeated, women's health and reproductive health.  It is not freedom when your employer says, you cannot have this coverage because of my religious beliefs.  That is not religious freedom; it is the opposite of that.  It is allowing others to push their religious beliefs on people who may not agree and who are held captive by their economic relationship with their employer.  Freedom with a capital F is about Freedom from your government, not freedom from you employer so that we are Free from Uncle Sam, but a slave to capitalism.

John Boehner Doesn't Applaud Equal Pay for Women

In last night's State of the Union speech Obama stressed economic equality.  Mostly it was about creating a fairer tax code and reviving the American Dream, but he did throw us ladies a bone when he said we should also be entitled to equal pay for equal work.  It's a pretty mainstream position to take.  I mean it's not federal funding for abortion (don't get me started) or even, apparently, over the counter Plan B, neither of which Obama has gotten on board with.  It's just equal pay for equal work, one of the oldest and most innocuous requests of the women's movement since the right to vote. 

And yet, my buddy Boehner did not applaud the President's desire to ease entrenched sexism in the marketplace.  And clapping is what the State of the Union is all about.  Those people cannot stop clapping.  If they even remotely like something, they will clap.  So apparently Boehner does not even remotely like the idea of women getting equal pay for equal work. 

To give him a break he seemed kind of confused last night.  The parties did not sit on opposite sides of the (in this case not metaphorical) aisle as the often do; so it wasn't entirely clear in any case whether it was the Republicans or the Democrats clapping.  Sometimes Boehner would be seen clapping and then would quickly stop, like he had made a mistake.  And other times he would join in the clapping a little late, like Oops! I think I am supposed to support that.  The only time everyone knew exactly what side they were supposed to be on was any time Obama said the word "troops." 

So why didn't Boehner clap?  There are probably a few reasons.  The first among them being that unless not supporting the President will get him demerits (see: "troops") he's probably going to err on the side of not supporting the President.  But also, I think there is a reluctance among Congressional Republicans, and especially the white male members (okay, so most of them), to recognize the continued legacy of racism and sexism and instead to rely on the irrational belief that we can all overcome all of our obstacles, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and become part of the elite.  If you have to do that on 74 cents on the dollar, well then you'll just have to pull those bootstraps 26% harder. 

What Mitt Romney and Kim Kardashian Have in Common

You all know I'm a fan of Kardashian reality TV, but I understand that some people don't get it.  Why is she famous? they ask me.  I say something about a sex tape, but really we all know she benefited from that elusive and magical Hollywood equation, famous for being famous.  How one achieves that status is difficult to know, and yet stars with no discernible talent at all continue to abound. 

But Hollywood is not the only mythical land (the land of all people beautiful) with such magical powers.  Wall Street (the land of all people wealthy) has some tricks up its sleeve too.  While Hollywood creates people who are famous for being famous, Wall Street manufactures people who are rich for being rich.  Because we've all heard that old saying that you have to have money to make money.  But then what about all of us who aren't already famous, or don't already have money?  Well, we are doomed to be destitute and ugly forever. 

Mitt Romney, and his super-rich peers are rich for being rich.  Let's be clear, I am NOT saying that all rich people came from money or that no rich people worked hard for their money.  But once they had it, the money started doing some of the work for them.  And unlike Hollywood's hocus pocus we know exactly why that is.  It's because the tax code, determined by legislators, favors money made from money rather than money made from work. 

And I don't even need study upon study that shows such a preference doesn't in fact stimulate the economy, entrepreneurship, or job creation to know that that just. isn't. fair.

*Thank you to US Weekly for this fabulous photo since I don't myself have Photoshop

Rick Perry Doesn't Know the Voting Age

I love a good train wreck so I really love this Republican primary.  

If only this was the dumbest thing to come from a Republican primary candidate.  

Attacks on Elizabeth Warren, Intellectualism

It doesn't pay to be smart in politics.  We all saw what happened to Al Gore and John Kerry - don't vote for that guy in the ivory tower, vote for this guy in a cowboy hat who chops wood, he's way more like you.  Ultimately it's insulting to the voter; it says "these people are so smart, they're so different from you," and even more insulting in the assumption that you're too dumb even to realize you're being insulted. 

Here, they make sure to label her "Professor" Elizabeth Warren so you'll know she's a really hoity-toity know it all.  And we all know we need fewer people like that running the country.  I mean, come on, we don't need intellectual theories here, except the intellecutal theory of "trickle down economics" (which is fine because if it has never been proven or had any evidence to back it up then it doesn't count as intellectual).   

Instead we need solutions people.  Solutions!  But not solutions like using a .7% tax surcharge on million dollar incomes to put people to work on infrastructure projects.  No, that's a "radical redistribution of wealth" unlike the deregulation of markets and a shifting tax policy that has led to a 400% growth in the income of the top .1%.  If you want to talk about crime and the radical redistribution of wealth look at Wall Street, not those protesting it. 

Frankly, I'm surprised this ad didn't end with a photoshopped picture of Warren in a Subcomandante Marcos mask.  It just doesn't pay to be smart, and it definitely doesn't pay to be nuanced.  Most people forget that the average Tea Party member is better educated than the average American.  And you know how I know they're so smart?  Becuase they're smart enought to play dumb.

Congressional Republicans Hate Jobs, Love Millionaires

Republicans have been shouting "class warfare" for some time now and to be honest, I was mostly wishing it would be true.  I wish we would rise up and say, THIS JUST ISN'T FAIR.  Inequality in the United States has gotten out of control and the decisions we make about taxes, banks, and debt are not just finanical decisions, but also moral ones. 

A worker with a college education is less likely to have employer health insurance today than a worker with a high school education was in 1979.  Between 1979 and 2005 the top .1% of Americans saw their incomes grow 400%.

And even though we now have Occupy Wall Street, the truth is that class warfare isn't coming from below - it's coming from above.  It's coming from millionaires and billionaires and their Republican allies in Congress who are fighting tooth and nail to hold on to their bags and bags of money.  And don't for a second believe they're going to back down anytime soon. 

Every single Republican candidate for President said they would have rejected a debt deal that included $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases.  Not a single Republican was willing to break a filibuster on an infrastructure spending bill that would be paid in full by a .7% tax surcharge on incomes over $1,000,000. 

The result?  A reduced credit rating.  No new roads.  No new jobs.  Gobs and gobs of money for the top 1%. 

You want to talk about partisanship in government?  Democrats are tripping over themselves to compromise away all the things their base cares about, while Republicans will die fighting a one cent tax increase.  I want to pull my hair out just thinking about it. 

And the worst part is that after killing every job creation idea that comes across the table, Republicans will cry about how Obama hasn't fixed the economy come election time.  I am here to tell you do not believe the lies.

The Woman-Hating Right

Don't let a female Vice Presidential candidate fool you - the Right holds onto base sexist views, both men and women alike.  Watch the video below because no one says it better or funnier than Steven Colbert.

Colbert on Women's Health

What he doesn't say explicitly is that these views are based on an extremely sexist view of women.  What the commentators are saying is: women can't be trusted.  We can't trust them to make smart decisions, even when those decisions are about their own bodies.

They are also saying that women's health is not important, in fact, it is not even part of healthcare.  Birth control, breast feeding - these are not healthcare, they're the frivolous privileges of women.  Because you know, abuse counseling is to pedicures as...no it just doesn't work.

I would say the whole thing is hypocritical - that the government shouldn't get involved with women's reproductive health to give them birth control, only to tell them they can't have an abortion if they have an unplanned pregnancy.  But it's not hypocritical because the same thinking underlines both positions: women can't be trusted.

Anthony Weiner's Penis is Ruining Foreign Policy

Jake and I were watching the news this morning when he had the horrible realization that Anthony Weiner's penis is ruining sound, moderate foreign policy.  Weiner-gate, while fabulous for late-night jokes, pun-filled headlines and double entendre, is turning out to be terrible for politics.  It was bad enough when the whole thing was just straight up embarrassing and distracting.  First it was denials and claims that he got hacked, then came the tearful apology, then came the twitter conversations with underage girls, then the pics taken in the Congressional gym, then the realization his wife was pregnant and then finally, the holy grail of good-god-just-resign-already the iphone photo of his penis.  Now, just when you might have hoped the whole thing was behind us, the penis shot seen round the world is having a ripple effect on foreign policy. 

 

Subsequent to Weiner's resignation was the dreaded special election.  Specials, as they're known in political shorthand, are notorious for low turnout.  Except you know who always turns out?  The Jews.  You don't become a powerful minority by sitting on your ass on election day.  Weiner's district has a large Jewish population and, more specifically, a large Orthodox Jewish population.  So while you might say the Democrat lost because of the economy or a weak campaign, you can't deny the fact that he also lost because of Israel.  How could a Democratic candidate lose because of Israel when he himself is a pro-Israel Jew?  Because it wasn't about the positions of the candidates in the race, it was about Obama and sending him a message about his moderate stance towards Israel. 

 

And you know what?  It worked.  The New York Times reported that after the election Obama aides were scrambling to create multi-page talking points about the president's record with Israel.  A couple weeks later, the Leader of the Free World is on television telling Palestinians not to press too hard for U.N. recognition of statehood.  All because the Congressman from the 9th district couldn't keep it in his pants.  If it hadn't been for Weiner-gate and the subsequent surprise results of the special we wouldn't all be freaking out about losing the 2012 election because of the Jewish vote, we'd just be freaking out about the 2012 election for every other reason in the world. 

 

So add it to the list of apologies Weiner had to make: Sorry Chuck for letting you down after you made me your protege; sorry Huma for betraying you while you were carrying my baby; and sorry Palestinians for squashing your dreams of peace and statehood. 

Top Republicans Want to Raise Taxes on the Poor

This is not The Onion.  This is just how ridiculous things have gotten in the Republican leadership.  Today, the New York Times ran an editorial titled "The New Resentment of the Poor," which noted that Republican presidential hopefuls Michelle Bachmann, John Huntsman, and Rick Perry (with an E not an A for America) as well as House majority leader Eric Cantor have all said that not enough people pay taxes and more people should. 

Yes, some people don't pay Federal income taxes.  You know why?  Because they are so poor and have so little income we choose not to tax it.  Instead we let them keep it so they can buy yachts, fill up their children's trust funds, and go on a vacation to Turks and Caicos.  Oh just kidding, that part actually is a joke.  We let them keep what little income they make so that they can just manage to feed their families and pay for gas to get to their super low-income job.  It's the millionaires and billionaires whose taxes we lower to historic levels so they can buy the yachts and fill the trust funds. It's good for the economy you see; rich people create jobs.  I bet you've never seen a poor person create a job.  That's why since we've lowered taxes on the rich, the economy has improved so much. 

It gets very confusing these days who has too much.  Poor families pay too little in taxes!  Teachers make too much money!  Women have too many rights!  Oops, I think we're still supposed to be embarrassed by saying one of those out loud.  Go Bachmann!