So, a New York DA has charged Trump. There’s some posturing by DeSantis, but Trump will almost certainly go to New York and surrender. This is a watershed moment, no former President has ever been charged with a crime. This is a political act. Many President have committed crimes and have not been charged. It will lead to red state DAs indicting Democratic p […]
My dearest Conflucians! I must apologize for being MIA lately. Real life job-opportunity is taking a bit readjusting with PUMA cub versus blog life. I’ve missed you all and hope to get back on track with my favorite corner in the blogosphere. So where did I leave off…oh yeah! McCain/Palin is kicking The Precious’ behind (like we didn’t see that coming.)
Within your PUMA or unPUMA-yet-Clinton-Democrat-ness, there is something that’s brewing in our great nation. People ain’t buying the hope & change schtick. So far, I’m still PUMA and proud and voting my conscience on top of the ticket, but not for Obama. And so far, I’m supporting down-ticket Dems in my state since I live in Florida. Your case in your state may be different, but living in a red state like I do, we need all the down-ticket Dems we can get! Now if that Democrat trampled on Democracy for political expediency, my vote will never go to them (like Wexler down in Ft. Lauderdale area). What you do with your vote is your own damn business. You do what you gotta do to get Democracy back to the Democratic Party in your neck of the woods.
I’m still a progressive liberal, and as we’ve discovered this primary season, “progressive liberal” is not mutually exclusive to being a “Democrat.” I want universal healthcare, green energy & jobs, equal rights for ALL people, comprehensive and humane immigration reform, full protection of women’s reproductive rights, diplomatic and effective foreign policy, etc., i.e. What Hillary Said. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans (or any third party alternative) has addressed the issues as Hillary did, and for that, I’m willing to wait. But it seems like we’re waiting in vain for that moment when the DNC will acknowledge that Hillary was the most progressive and most electable of all the candidates they threw on us. God knows the majority didn’t vote of any of those guys. I don’t wanna wait in vain if the DNC doesn’t back Hillary come November 5th, 2008. But for some reason, I still feel that the DNC will rally around the Democrat that won the popular vote if Obama loses big (as we already know he will) this November 4th.
In order to have a more tolerable next 4 years, we have to support down-ticket Dems for that to happen, since the Chicago based DNC won’t help them (IMHO of course). How do you feel about that? let me know in the comments section.
Speaking of waiting, Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” pops in my mind. Rico has spiced Jamaican Rum cocktails ready to go and Flo’s in gear like Bruce Lee for Gollums evoking harmful words just in case. This is also an open thread for those who want to fill us in on the latest on the blogosphere. Special shout out to our Texan Conflucian dealing with Hurrican Ike. Carol & Regency, are you ok?
As a woman, I have been told various things by various factions in the feminist movement. One claims that gender is a social construction. This faction, in my opinion, falls into the category of denying reality. In fiercely and falsely asserting that women and men are the same, we open ourselves up to what I call the “Oh, Shit!” moment.
The “Oh, Shit!” moment is that pause before a woman realizes she is outnumbered by men who can do her physical or professional harm, and that there’s no way to fight them on equal ground. It’s that feeling when the cortisol rushes to your brain, your heart takes an express train to the bottom of your stomach, and the “fight or flight” instinct takes over. And what can you do at that point? You must flee, or be overwhelmed. And you understand that the myth of female/male equality has been nothing but a well-intentioned lie.
Let me share my own “Oh, Shit!” moment with you. When I was 17, I worked at Wendy’s in the summer to make some extra money. I had done the same the year before, and had enjoyed it. A lot of kids my age were working with me, and I like the service aspect of the work. (One woman told me, when I took her order at the drive-thru window, that mine was the first friendly voice she had heard all day.) However, this year, things were different.
This year, Wendy’s had decided to participate in an “Inside Out” program. This meant that convicts who were eligible for working outside the prison were invited to work at Wendy’s, to make their transition back to civilian life a little easier. It might have been a good idea for them, but for me, it was a nightmare.
There are three must read posts from two of our friends and one satellite sister today. I’m calling these posts “What they did to us”, “Why they’re doing it” and “How to start fighting back”.
The first, What they did to us, is at PUMAPac and is an update and second teaser for the film, The Audacity of Democracy, The Hillary Flashpoint and Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party.
Darragh is still raising funds to finish the film, scheduled for around inauguration in 2009, though if it’s finished earlier, doesn’t it get counted in the Academy Awards category of documentary? I dunno. Anyway, if you contribute now and pre-order your copy of the film now, you will get a DVD of clips from various PUMA events in Denver, including the one where Sheri Tag and MarylandPUMA tag teamed the reprehensible Tommy Christopher, “journalist”. Not to be missed!
The second post that I call, “Why they’re doing it”, is from our satellite sister, who isn’t a PUMA, Anglachel. Her post, Where the Shadows Lie, will put a chill up your spine and not merely because the title refers to Tolkien’s Mordor. It’s because you come away feeling like a Clinton Democrat is one of the most reviled creatures on earth to the Unity Democrats. We’ve all experienced this irrational hatred towards us. For example, I can now spot an Obama troll from a mile away by noting the condescension dripping off the page. They assume that we are just barely literate even though many of us have advanced degrees or no degree but are self-taught BS detectors. If we’re so stupid, how is it we can trace their IP addresses back to the Humanities departments of so many (formerly) prestigious universities, like Boston University and Columbia? But I digress. Here is the money quote from the scary smart Angachel, Clintonista Divine:
To cut to the chase, the push in 2004 for a “Unity Party” has been realized with Howard Dean delivering the Democratic Party into the hands of the High Broderists who value unity for unity’s sake more than any other political cause or virtue. They don’t even want to claim to be part of their party, hoping people will forget and just vote for those nice clean, articulate fellas. This is part of internalizing the Reagan assault on the legitimacy of the Democratic Party as such. Psychologically, to them, the Democratic Party is the remnants of the uneducated, racist, white South and rust-belt north, who vote for Bubbas like Clinton and reject above-partisanship technocrats and idealists like Bill Bradley, John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, Paul Tsongas and Howard Dean himself. The nerve of them people! And thus, this year, we have the Unity Democrats, non-partisan to the end.
The dark underbelly of this move is the presumption that the people who have been told their interests must wait will always be there for the Democrats because we have nowhere else to go. Specifically, this means African Americans, women voters and GLBT voters.
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The focus of the Unity Democrats is on the winners of the economic realignment, those who managed to win a place in the white collar upper-middle class. People like my family and my husband’s, who leveraged the affluence of the post-war era to vault from being immigrants and farmers to being professionals in various government bureaucracies, law, finance, and new, white collar industries like high tech and bio-tech. The other part is to minimize the damage the losers of that realignment can inflict, which mostly means refusing to commit to policies and plans that will defend their interests. Or even their lives. Obama’s campaign is not about social goods and resources, but about cultural markers of class inclusion, such as your level of education, where you shop, whether you live in urban or rural environments, etc. He has difficulty addressing the failures of an economic system contiguous with his own class and which is deeply invested in his candidacy, and I don’t just mean the campaign contributions. He is the exemplar of a mode of life that, while not as unreachable as that of Bush’s base, is still out of reach of those who do not have the education, acculturation and business contacts to climb up that economic ladder.
The ultimate shadow of Reagan is that you don’t win by defending losers, only by securing the interests of the winners. That is the dark heart beating in the chest of the Unity Democrats. They are done with the losers.
Yep, we are the LOOOOSSSERRRSSS according to the Chris Bowers types even if we are for the most part indistinguishable from them. The resentment comes down to people who still require something from government, like equal rights for women, African-Americans, the GLBT community, the elderly. If you need something from the Unity Democrats, forget it. You are now being set adrift on your own little ice-floe. Of course, they still need you to win, as evidenced by the 63 branch offices that the Obama campaign has set up in PA. But here’s the message that must be delivered to those Pennsylvanians like my mom, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins: The Obama Democrats do not care about you any more than the Bush Republicans did. Just vote for every woman on the ballot and hope that someday we’ll get to a 30% Solution.
The last post is from our friend, Heidi Li Feldman. Her post is Want to fix the Democratic Party? Steps you can take now is full of short term, practical actions that will yield long term results. Heidi is a cockeyed optimist too. Never say die. There are still things you can do to make sure you the party has a core that will survive the massive meltdown it is headed for in November by stupidly putting Obama at the helm. For example:
You can donate to the Denver Group and Democrats for Principle before party. The funds will be used to buy ads in Capital Hill newspapers to let Congress know we’re still out here and there is strength and numbers in the Clinton wing of the party.
You can contribute to a slate of Democrats who are in unexpectedly tight races this year and whose presence in Congress will shore up that wing of the party. We recommend Linda Stender, Kay Hagen, Kirsten Gillibrand, Al Franken, for example. See out ActBlue page for other suggestions.
You can call your Senator and urge him/her to elect Clinton as Senate Majority Leader. Heidi tells us that now is the time that the political jockeying for positions is done. In a week or so, they will be ordering their inaugural ball gowns and putting aside business for the year. Strike while the Iron is Hot.
Now, a lot of the actions require you to make a donation. Please take the money you might have sent to the DNC this year and donate to the downticket Dems of your choice, then to the causes that will help you re-establish your party. The Denver Group has a plan, PUMAPac has activities and a movie. It’s an investment in your future and the future of the country.
This complete rainbow was photographed at 30,000 feet by Lloyd J. Ferraro. "The 'Private Sector' Is Government 'Contracting Out' Its Functions: We live in a society, and getting things done for society is what government is for. Government is society's way to make decisions about society's resources, economy and future. Per […]
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