We made some Obama organizing calls last Tuesday night, before pundit-gate, so I’ll go ahead and give you my take on the war on women because I haven’t seen it anywhere. Maybe I’m alone in this, who knows.
We had five callers Tuesday. Four were women. All of the women mentioned the war on women. We were all smiling benevolently and constantly at this guy, too, in a mildly creepy way that might have made him uncomfortable, because, you know, he’s helping us. He was not actually there to do that, help women win the the war on women, specifically. For all I know he came because he’s concerned about marginal tax rates but we just collectively decided he was there for us:
I think the response to the onslaught of commands targeted at women was one of those things that bubble up. It had the slow-build feel to me of authentic anger that comes from ordinary people, slowly but surely. That’s why it was so heartening (and really interesting) to watch it develop, here locally, on the site and elsewhere. In purely practical terms, I think the state-by-state nature of the thing helped. Women were watching this crazy single-minded focus in state after state after state, where they live, for close to two years. When it blew up nationally, with Komen and then Obama versus the council of clerics and Rush Limbaugh, they, we, a lot of us, were already halfway there. I know that Democrats and political pros saw it and named it and pushed it, I recognize all that, but I think that was a collateral assist to something authentic that was actually happening “on the ground”. Too, female congressional Democrats are constantly talking about these issues, and they’re usually completely ignored. This was different.
There are some comparisons that fit, I think. One that comes to mind is Issue Two in Ohio, where a really massive majority rejected gutting collective bargaining. Unions ran a great logistical campaign, but all they did is focus what was already there. That’s not nothing, what unions did, it doesn’t matter how many grim and determined people one has if they don’t have a path to translate that into something productive, but the union organizing and spending on ads was tapping into what was there. I passed petitions and held events, but I wasn’t doing any persuading. I was quite literally just collecting signatures and holding events.
The Culture of Corruption (2006) was another one that felt this way to me. The GOP Congress that year was really corrupt, and people really did know that. The state issue here in Ohio, the thing that bubbled up from below, was that the state-level Republicans were ALSO incredibly corrupt in 2006. By the time Culture of Corruption was national, big majorities here were wholly convinced. National Democrats named and pushed something that already existed.
These issues had a nice, us against them, underground feel to me, talking to people here. It’s like there’s this “national conversation” (everyone hates unions, rightfully, because everyone knows unions suck; women are whiny sluts and most people will side with the bishops; Tom Delay isn’t THAT corrupt, both sides do it) and then there’s this whole other conversation going on. I love when that happens, because those issues are ours, they belong to us, if only for the time before the professionals grab them and frame them. When that happens, when we become pundit-fodder, they’re all but proclaiming that hostilities have ended and they’re pushing us back into some boring, comfortable groove that they love like The Mommy Wars, something safe and familiar, because, Jesus, talking about mandated trans-vaginal ultrasounds and aspirin between our legs is uncomfortable. That’s a little too…real. It couldn’t last.
The war on women was over for political media the moment Mitt Romney’s handlers came up with a strategy, and Ann Romney and professional pundits then began discussing, framing, defining and then redefining the issue. They’re done with ordinary women and what I believe was our authentic anger on this. It’s now in the hands of the pros and it will be put into context and watered down and explained away. I think it was inevitable. It was just a matter of time and the right opportunity. It doesn’t necessarily mean the authentic ground-level energy goes away, but I was still sad to see it happen.
samara morgan
wallah, Kay is an insurgent.
asymmetrical warfare for the win.
Frankensteinbeck
The pundits don’t give a damn about human happiness or suffering. They want to talk about optics, because politics is a game. They will bail on any legitimately anger causing issue as fast as they find a way to cover it as pure politics.
The pundits also are not actual America, no matter how much they want to pretend they are. The question is, are women still angry?
(Disclaimer: The other half of the question is ‘Are the Republicans still waging a war on women?’ but we all know the answer to that.)
Veritas
POLITICO: Secret Service Prostitution Scandal Overshadows Obama Trip
It is just bad news after bad news after bad news for Obambi this week isn’t it? How much did the administration know and when did they know it? It is a result of either their incompetence or their malice. We need to know more.
Schlemizel
I stopped reading early because I just have to comment on your assumption that a man could not be concerned about the war on women. My wife & daughter are women and even if they weren’t I can still understand the damage being done and feel strongly about reversing that. Same with color, I’m white but I feel the wrongs done to people of color can be corrected and we as a nation will be better off when they are. I was a Christian at one time but I still sense the attacks on non-Christians to be wrong. I have medical insurance but I know many people do not and we will be a better nation when they do.
The politics of self-interest is of course important but we really need to think outside ourselves and understand no man is an island. We also need to understand that just because someone does not fall into “our group” they may just want to help all groups do better.
Chyron HR
@Veritas:
“Even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work.” – Mitt “I Hate Stay At Home Moms” Romney
The fact that you’re trying to pimp (ha ha) this prostitution scandal is pretty clear proof that your Messiah Romney probably runs a brothel out of one of his five houses.
Kay
@Schlemizel:
I didn’t say that. I don’t know why he was there, because I didn’t ask him. I’m sure he “could” be there for any number of reasons. I actually helped with Issue Two (initially) because I know and like (some) union members here. They didn’t ask me why, and I didn’t tell them.
Schlemizel
@Kay:
Sorry if I misread that but it looked clear to me.
Kay
@Schlemizel:
It was a joke, Schlemizel, and I try not to attribute things to people I actually encounter in “real life” unless I know for sure.
If I don’t ask, I don’t tell :) He was (actually) an excellent canvasser, I must say. He’s good with people.
waratah
Kay, the war on women may be over for the pundits, but I do not think it is over for women.
Schlemizel
@Kay:
See, I went and violated my prime directive – first assume no ill intent!
thanks for explaining without whacking me with a deserved 2×4
c u n d gulag
The MSM simply HAD to smooth over that little “War On Women” thingy.
With all of the “Citizens” money to be spent on political advertizing, they can’t have the election be a run-away.
They’re already looking rove Obama and the Democrats, and coming up with all sorts of ways of saying, “Look, they do it TOO!!!”
Jebediah
@Veritas:
And yet he is still way more popular than Multiple Mittens. Maybe Mittens will do as well as Mondale. But I wouldn’t take it to the bank.
becca
Dave Wiggles said the War on Women is over.
Back off, bitches. The Wiggles has spoken.
Linda Featheringill
@Schlemizel:
We know you’re a good guy.
But your reaction illustrates a trap we could fall into: male vs female.
This is not a war between men and women. It is a war of sanctimonious assholes vs what women need in order to be healthy and happy and productive.
Maybe we should all be careful.
Kay
@c u n d gulag:
I actually think Citizens has the potential to be one of those issues I’m talking about. I hesitate to even say that, because the creeps will take it and run with it, and turn it into some boring pundit-safe “global” theory. IMO, people almost instinctively know this is bad news, unlimited and secret money washing around, and they’re RIGHT. It polled (originally) at 80% opposed. That’s amazingly bad.
Linda Featheringill
It doesn’t matter if the meme of The War Against Women survives for a long time.
It only matters that people remember to vote for their own interests.
Kay (no, not that one)
I’m with waratah
I think the ‘war on women’ issue has legs, even if it may need to be re-labelled occasionally to suit changing circumstances. The republican crazy ain’t going away, and it can’t go away because they don’t see that what they are doing, what they think, is the problem.
The pundits tried to push the corruption scandal under the covers in 2006 too. One big difference in 2006, though, was Gov. Dean’s 50-state strategy. We were able to take advantage of voters’ disenchantment with the republican party because we had decent candidates running in nearly every district where a republican stumbled.
The biggest mistake Pres. Obama made, at the behest of Rahm Emmanuel, was ousting Dean and ending the 50-state strategy.
Yutsano
@becca: Oh, so all the state laws mandating forced ultrasounds and other various oppressive measures have been overturned there Davey? No you say? Then STFU.
Kay
@becca:
:)
c u n d gulag
@Kay:
Yeah, what you said – and even some of the Republican politicians are complaining about it!
Newt and Santorum got a full blast of “Citizens” ammo from Mitt.
ABL 2.0
@waratah: it’s definitely not over. it’s just a guerilla war now.
jeffreyw
cat yoga
becca
@Yutsano: Sheer disgusted snark on my part.
Zombies ate Wiggles brain, not mine.
Pangloss
The media framing reminds me of how upset I get with someone when they try to tell me what I’m REALLY upset about, and they’re way, way off.
Betty Cracker
Great points about how real issues build over time and are bolstered by numerous events on the ground. I’m with the camp who say even if the pundits are bored with the “war on women,” it ain’t over. Not by a long shot.
Kay
@Kay (no, not that one):
I disagree with this. I sat through the 50 state strategy power point, and I don’t think that idea was dependent on one person. I haven’t noticed any difference, at all, in recruiting candidates in tough districts, then and now. It was hard then and it is hard now. Locally, these people are the same people. We had the “Dean” organizer become the “Ohio Democratic Party organizer”, and then the Obama regional organizer. These things are cumulative. I don’t really buy the One Necessary Supreme Leader theory.
Kerry’s campaign set the ground for Obama’s campaign, in terms of lists and outreach to young people, but Obama’s campaign was better. It’s not like turning on and off a spigot.
Yutsano
@becca: Oh I know you’re snarking. I realize I got a little subtle with Weigel’s name in my comment. :)
Kay
@c u n d gulag:
John McCain! He trashes the SCOTUS constantly on Citizens. Weirdly, we never hear about it.
I heard he and Feingold on it and Feingold was like a little bipartisan kitten compared to McCain, who was trashing Scalia. Strange bedfellows!
rikyrah
I like your writing on this, Kay. I do think it will be hard for the GOP to water this down.
Oh, women care about economic issues?
What’s more a basic economic issue than if a woman does the SAME JOB AS A MAN SHE OUGHT TO BE PAID THE SAME.
And, if she’s not, she should have THE RIGHT to go to court and sue.
What’s more basic than that?
Lilly Ledbetter doesn’t say that the woman has to win – it just says that the woman has the right to have her day in court.
And Willard couldn’t come out for it. And, has yet to answer the question as to whether he agree with what the turd in Wisconsin is doing.
So, I don’t think it will die away or even abate.
Linda Featheringill
Citizens United:
It is possible that Citizens United will wind up destroying the Republican Party, at least as a viable opponent. I suspect that the Rs are relying on truckloads of money and aren’t spending too much effort to field good candidates and/or organize boots on the ground.
Also, sometimes a media blitz with lots of money goes for quantity instead of quality. That’s a mistake.
Kay
@Kay (no, not that one):
In my district, Marcy Kaptur recruits Democrats to run. We’re adjacent to her. She does that now and she did that then. That’s where they come from. She finds them.
HRA
Where what is being done to women’s health state by state ever equate to Lady Mittens getting her knickers twisted in a knot?
Really!!?
According to Lord Mittens, she is canvassing women for him to define what is most important to women and her results are the economy. I very much doubt those canvassed women are the ones who need the health services sought by those women without or unable to pay for health care.
You would think that a woman who survived breast cancer would really understand the need of others.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I think it’s been a long held belief of conservatives that ordinary people don’t belong in court, any court. Civil courts are for contract disputes between business interests. Get your raggedy ass out of those hallowed halls ‘o justice, they have no time for your bullshit whining about “pay” or “pensions” :)
Walker wants no one in court, gumming up the works.
PaminBB
The political media may be done with the issue, but that won’t make it go away – this issue is too personal. I think that in 2006, the backlash against the Terri Schiavo over-reach was probably more important than the Culture of Corruption in turning people against the repubs. They know it, and they want to change the subject, but they can’t un-shit that bed.
Kay
@PaminBB:
Thanks. You got it in five :)
Yutsano
@HRA:
Why? All she had to do was show up for the appointment. She never had to worry about whether the doctor got paid or if the insurance company will fight them over the bill. Her health care experiences barely parallel anyone else’s in the country. That is why Ann Romney does not understand women’s issues.
Lolis
The fact that Veritas is so gleeful about Romney’s strategery on this, is one more example of how short-sighted and dumb it is turning out to be. This in the 1950’s and very few women want to be stay-at-home Moms anymore. Women can very clearly tell the difference between the rich Ann Romney and women they know who have kids.
This is turning out to be like the Catholic Church/birth control thing. Republicans begin to think they are winning and go overboard with their extreme messaging, once that extreme messaging sinks in, women are replulsed by the sexist and patriarchal message. Team Romney may think this is a winning issue for them, but it is not. Women want someone who is strong on economic issues and understand that Ann Romney has no knowledge of their problems/concerns. Ann Romney is only likeable when you compare her to Mitt. She has already made several questionable comments about her wealth. I can’t wait till she is front and center in the campaign.
Kane
There is outrage and there is OUTRAGE.
The OUTRAGE is generally the response that we witnessed by republicans over the Hilary Rosen comment. It takes the form of a charade where they know and the media knows and you know and I know and everyone else knows that they are feigning OUTRAGE, but it still receives a great deal of attention for a day or two.
And then there is outrage. This is the silent slow-building outrage where all of sudden (surprise-surprise) several polls are showing that President Obama has a 20-point advantage over Mitt Romney with women. This form of outrage is lasting as it grows over time and it resonates.
kideni
Great analysis as usual, Kay. The War on Women is definitely over, not by a long shot. A couple of weeks ago the Democratic Party of Wisconsin sent out a strategy plan for the recall, and one of their main issues is going to be Walker’s anti-woman, anti-family positions, so they obviously think it’s a strong issue. Walker certainly gave us a few more talking points by signing on to bills eliminating equal pay, adding new abortion restrictions, watering down sex education, etc.
As a side note, Walker will have an opponent in a Republican primary. One of the stalwart activists, Arthur Kohl-Riggs, decided that, after reading up on the origins of the Republican Party and its progressive roots that he wanted to challenge Walker as a Lincoln/La Follette Republican. This isn’t a tit-for-tat response to the fake Dems the Republicans are running in Democratic primaries — Arthur calls Walker a fake Republican, since the party has become a corporate entity. Also, Arthur’s never been a Democrat. He’s drafted a progressive platform (and seeks additional input on his Facebook page, Art for Gov) and is running a campaign. He’s starting to get more media attention, so we’ll see where this goes. (This does, of course, benefit the Dems, since it means that Republican voters will have to think twice about trying to muck up the Democratic primary — if not enough people vote for Walker, then he could be out after the primary.)
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
i think it helps to remember that most pundits, are anonymous to most people.
if you took america’s 100 top pundits, and asked people to guess, or even gave them multiple choice, i don’t think most people would score, even in the teens.
and that is just on some sort of basic recognition, if you tried to score them on knowing which pundit is for this, or that, you would find that pundit q scores are as inflated as rush limbaugh’s ratings.
boss bitch
After watching Dean’s appearances in the last few years, I doubt that very much.
quannlace
@Veritas:
Ha-ha. I wondered how long it would take for some idiot to try and blame Obama for that.
fuckwit
Wasn’t the first bill the Teabagger Congress passed when it got sworn in January 2011 a bill to decriminalize rape, and the second one to outlaw abortion? Or did I get the order of them wrong?
I noticed a war on women since January 2011. It obviously has been brewing longer, given all the ALEC stuff and statehouse coordination.
Yeah, the teabaggers saw Dean’s 50-state strategy, realized it was smart, it scared the shit out of them, and they came up with their own 50-state strategy, a very literal one (statehouses), and within a very short time they just took over, leaving Dems stunned and going “WTF happened?”
gogol's wife
@Linda Featheringill:
I take heart from all the money Linda McMahon wasted in Connecticut. She was on television constantly. All that happened is that everyone who didn’t know who she was began to loathe her as much as those who did, and she lost, despite the best efforts of the New York Times to smear Blumenthal. She’s going to try again; we’ll see what happens this time.
Amir Khalid
@Veritas:
This incident of misconduct by an advance team of Secret Service agents took place before the President arrived. Obviously, the White House does not directly supervise Secret Service agents; the Secret Service itself does that. Nor would the White House want to embarrass the country or itself by tacitly instigating or encouraging the agents to misbehave while abroad. Nobody has even hinted otherwise in any forum that I know of, nobody but you. Do you have supporting evidence?
Mark S.
Free Bacon idiot Matthew Continetti puts a picture of Patton up and proclaims, “We will win this war on women”:
oh baby
I don’t get the last line, but otherwise it’s a fitting concluding paragraph to an unbelievably stupid column.
gogol's wife
@Mark S.:
The parts you quote are so breathtakingly stupid that I’m tempted to click, but am resisting the temptation mightily.
waratah
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick: I agree most people do not know or read or listen to the top pundits but the message filters down to local news a lot of the time.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Mark S.: And then afterwards, he’ll ask his granddaughters “Why aren’t you pregnant yet?”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gogol’s wife: I had to click just to see if the smarmy little shit (this is Bill Kristol’s SIL who a few years back was yammering about Chamberlain and appeasement when Tweety, in a flash of blind squirrel insight, asked him to explain how Dems were like Chamberlain, and the boy had no idea who Chamberlain was) actually used that headline. He did. He really fucking did.
ETA: “I don’t get the last line,” I’m guessing a shot at traitors like Steve Schmidt and Michael Steele who give aid and comfort to the enemy by talking to Rachel Maddow.
I was glad to see Kristin Gillibrand bring up Romney’s “hero” overturning WI’s equal pay law. Could it be that we’re learning how to play this fucking game?
kay
@Mark S.:
So dishonest. Mexico city rule and PP.
Nothing about Title X or the vastly expanded conscience exception?
If thier cause is so just, one would think they’d quit lying about it.
Maude
@Amir Khalid:
The Secret Service is in Homeland Security, It used to be in the Treasury Department.
gogol's wife
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Okay, I clicked too. Pretty bloodcurdling. I forgot he was the one that Tweety caught out about Chamberlain. That’s some skincrawling television, there, but satisfying.
catclub
@Yutsano: “That is why Ann Romney does not understand women’s issues.”
Well, I would guess that for her time, Eleanor Roosevelt was on a similar plane as Ann Romney. So it is not just personal experience that gets you to understanding women’s issues.
Eleanor Roosevelt clearly made the effort. It is not as clear with Ann ‘Dressage’ Romney.
nellcote
May 19-21, 2010 – At Skybridge Capital’s Alternatives Conference 2010, Mitt Romney says that those who have never had a job in the private sector don’t understand how the economy works. Isn’t that what Hilary Rosen said about Ann Romney? Romney also says, if you’ve never signed the FRONT of a payroll check, you don’t understand how the economy works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AH3LGpxDXHk
FlipYrWhig
@Kay (no, not that one): I remember the discussion of the 50 state strategy to be a clash between two ways to get more Democrats elected: one, the Dean view, being to distribute funds more or less equally between districts, including places like Idaho and Utah; the other, the Emanuel view, being to target certain districts (often suburbs) and dump lots of money into them, ideally with candidates that already had a lot of cash to draw upon. Front pager Kay, is that the way it looked on the ground?
Bex
@Amir Khalid: Re supporting evidence: No, but he’ll be happy to pull some out of his…hat for you.
FlipYrWhig
@nellcote: It is what Rosen was saying, but Mitt et al skewed it to focus only on “work,” as opposed to the economy. The loophole by which he could maintain consistency would be to say that in his opinion moms work, but only employers understand the economy.
David Koch
BREAKING: MITTENS SPITS ON MOTHERHOOD!
BWAAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHH
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romneys-past-views-unearthed-on-working-women-stayathome-moms-20120415,0,611519.story
BWAAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHH
AHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
AHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
AHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
AHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
Gawd, I can’t believe it! Romney’s and his whole campaign staff are retarded.
Ralphie;
Atrios names Andrew Sullivan 2nd runner-up in Wanker of the Decade mashup.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@nellcote: Fuck him. If you’ve never been laid off, you don’t understand how the economy works.
Schlemizel
@catclub:
Bingo! and exactly to the point I was making when I didn’t get the joke in the original post. Some people can understand other people problems and the pain while others tend more to sociopath & feel no empathy but expect everyone to care about their problems
OzoneR
@Veritas:
LMFAO. Wow
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub: The Roosevelts and the Kennedys had, as different as their backgrounds were, a sense of noblesse oblige, not to make that sound necessarily pejorative. Rose’s motto IIRC was “From those to whom much is given, much is expected” (and I’m sure there were some upstairs maids and gardeners who had a pretty low opinion of the compassion and generosity of Eleanor and Rose). George and Lenore Romney were also, from everything I’ve read, pretty mensch-y. I think Mitt is so infatuated with his own success, he’s become a Randian, whether or not he’s read those silly books. The notion that he was “given” anything would gravely offend him. As it no doubt would the hundred million dollar Mittlets. How Ann Romney, recent breast cancer survivor and less recent Planned Parenthood supporter, can sit idly by while her husband joins in the PP bashing is beyond me. But I suppose she works on the “oh, he doesn’t really mean it” assumptions that Republicans of her kind and class (cashmere tote baggers?) have been deluding themselves with for thirty-plus years.
Jennifer
@Ralphie;: I hope he’s saving the #1 spot for himself.
kay
@FlipYrWhig:
It did, but the Dean Theory makes no sense, because the end result was more conservative Dens in more conservative districts, because that’s who RAN and WON. More doesn’t mean better, no matter who runs the thing.
You can’t both attribute blue dogs to Rahm and prmote the Dean Theory.
It’s more complicated than that. Too, there is some confusing a very good year for Democrats with a magical strategy here. Those two things happened at the same time but I’m not at all sure there’s a straight line causal effect.
That’s probably too easy to be true:)
We have two challengers in my district, one state and one federal. They’re both stronger than the 2004-6-8 challengers. Why? I don’t know. Beats the hell out if me.
Cacti
Women have forgotten all about the GOP’s concerted national effort to pass overtly anti-woman legislation because…
Ann Romney had 5 kids and shut up, that’s why ! Your social betters have spoken. Now get your slutty selves back out of sight.
kay
@FlipYrWhig:
I’m always wary of counterfactuals. It’s OK to speculate, but that’s ALL it is.
Would 2010 have gone differently with Dean in charge? I don’t know. I think 2010 was bizzare.
FlipYrWhig
@kay: The Dean theory was that party-building was worth the cost even if the prospects of winning were quixotic at best. But I agree that neither strategy seems likely to pull in new progressive candidates. I remember well Dean’s statement about wanting Democrats to be the party of choice for people with rebel flag decals on their pickup trucks. Those votes aren’t likely to go to progressive Democrats. So both organizing strategies, if successful, would pull in… non-progressive Democrats. Six of one, etc.
Cacti
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Don’t know much about Ma Romney, but George’s family crossed the border to escape the marauding of Pancho Villa, with little more than the clothes on their backs.
He also got mocked in school and called “Mex” because of his birth in Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua (former Mormon polygamist colony).
Because of his hard-scrabble childhood, I think George went overboard in making sure Mitt had an easy go of it. So much so, that despite getting sent to Cranbrook and Harvard, buying his first house with 42k from his old man, and entering the workforce with the CEOs of American Motors and Marriott Hotels as personal references, Mitt thinks himself a self-made man.
Amir Khalid
@Maude:
Yeah. If i understand the structure correctly, agents are supervised by the agency, the agency’s director reports to the department secretary, the department secretary reports to the President. Organizationally, that’s three levels below the White House before you get to anyone directly responsible for agents’ discipline.
JWL
Kay, you’re just bummed by the fact the democratic party is a dysfunctional joke of a political organization. It is capable of fucking-up any issue, and unfortunately that’s no lie.
kay
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s different in practice, too. Our first Dean organizer was terrible. They were openly guffawing at him when he arrived, because he had this crazy amount of work we were supposed to do.
There were like ten of us. It was so unrealistic we were like the delinquents in the back rows in high school, jeering at “teacher”. I recognize this because I was a delinquent in the back row in high school.
FlipYrWhig
@kay: Agreed on 2010. I think it was basically a blurt of pure rage: “the economy sucks and you want to give new benefits to Those People? We can’t afford it!” That and regression to the mean from young voters and new voters who dug Obama but didn’t really care about local races. I didn’t expect it to happen this way, but it kind of seems like the health care law had the effect of the Civil Rights Act as far as galvanizing outrage, and as far as being the right thing to do even if it’s politically a bad bet.
julie
I was chatting with some old high school friends the other week and the MEN brought up the subject of the GOP war on women.
it’s out there at the grassroots level and it’s not going away any time soon. WOMEN NEVER FORGET.
Davis X. Machina
@JWL: Whereas the GOP is indistinguishable from the 1941-era Wehrmacht, as evidenced by their 2008 presidential campaign.
2010’s election is as dispositive, and as typical, as 1974.
Everything in politics is over-determined anyways. There are far more causes than there are effects needing them, and far more people who need to claim credit, or assign blame, than there are things needing theml
kay
@FlipYrWhig:
I think you’re closer to the truth on Dean than the Dean Theory is.
Lately I have been thinking it is very important to political professionals to claim that an awesome global strategy is essential or irreplacable because that’s why they get paid.
But that’s blasphemy, so don’t tell anyone :)
MikeJ
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any political party anywhere in the world that acts as our progressive betters seem to believe the Democratic party should. Republicans, Democrats, Labour, Tory, Green, Social Democrats, they all have infighting, backstabbing, people who aren’t loyal enough for the true believers, people who are more interesting in winning their riding/district than party purity.
Dems/Labour tend to have their arguments in public.
OzoneR
@kay:
I think it might have been worse. I was never a big fan of the 50 State strategy because it does not translate into legislating. Yeah, its great we elected Democrats in Boise, Idaho; Dothan, Alabama; Southhaven, Mississippi; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Danville, Virginia, but what good did it do when they didn’t vote for anything and we had to keep watering down legislation for them to vote.
The 50 State strategy births blue dogs.
Then again, there’s an argument that the 50 State strategy was a good idea and Obama ruined it by being black.
FlipYrWhig
@kay: Shah, bloggers do that too.
kay
@OzoneR:
To be fair, the idea was to then move gradually left, once the generic Dem was in.
But people have their own agendas and ideas and ambitions and they wouldn’t comply with The Plan.
kay
@FlipYrWhig:
I agree. I just haven’t been around long enough to see the whole thing in blogs, or my view of the “whole thing”, my opinion.
I didn’t start reading blogs until after the 2004 election. I actually got to them thru election law and interest in voting process.
FlipYrWhig
@MikeJ: If all Democrats were lïberals and agreed on most everything in their hearts, it would make sense to keep trying to come up with the reasons why liberalism keeps not happening — such as by blaming inept communication/”framing” or the warping influence of Big Money. It would have to be something external to the system perverting it in the shadows. But the sad fact is that the reasons why more liberalism doesn’t get squeezed out of the sausage factory is that there aren’t more liberals in the public in the first place. We need to be working on making new converts and sympathizers, and then the politics will slowly shift in that direction. See the struggle for gay rights. It’s fucking hard and takes decades and makes people very frustrated in the process.
PurpleGirl
@HRA: Ah, but she has access to all the health care she needs, both in relation to the breast cancer and the MS. She has no second thoughts about being able to afford anything at any one time.
I have friends who have MS (or a relative does) and the drugs they have these days ain’t cheap. And you need a support network in concert with the medicine. One friend’s brother died in his early 40s because his form of MS was aggressive and without a job he couldn’t get the health care he needed.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay,
I don’t understand your article. Are you claiming that Righties are winning the argument now that the Romneys/Conservatives are trying to distract from the Republican war on women by claiming that the Democrats have a war on moms (based solely on Hilary Rosen’s unfortunate comment on CNN)?
The Democrats have to get out there every day and simply point out all the legislation that Republicans have either passed or tried to pass which either impede women’s right to choose or women’s access to contraception. There are so MANY examples of this. I just don’t think it will be spun away just because the Repubs want it to disappear.
Odie Hugh Manatee
When my wife got home today she told me that one of her very conservative (emphasis on “very”) coworkers asked her who she was voting for this November. My wife told her “Obama” and the coworker said “good” and that both her and her mother are voting for him too. She said that Mitt Romney scares both her and her mother (she’s in her early 60’s and her mom is in her 80’s) and that the “war on women” has put that scare into them. She can’t believe that they have decided that this war would be something that women could ever support.
Keep it up you dumb fucking Republicans, keep pissing on the largest voting block in the country and see where it gets you.
kay
@Patricia Kayden:
No. What I’m saying is I’m not willing to let Anderson Cooper or Mitt Romney’s handlers or the cast of Morning Joe define this for me.
I thought regular women were doing great without their tutalege :)
So, no, this isn’t a political projection.
OzoneR
@kay:
That doesn’t mean the constituencies will move with us. and that leads to 2010 situations.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@nellcote:
So does this mean Paul Ryan won’t be the VP?
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Veritas:
My theory: Obama sent his bumbling minions down there to harvest fresh young organs from the third-world to support Obamacare, and got caught in the act. It’s clearly the only logical explanation. This whole tale of “prostitutes” is obviously just a cover story, thrown up by MSM to hide the real truth. Besides, everybody knows that Obama’s men are all homosexual anti-capitalists, who would neither ask a lovely young Columbian woman for sex, nor even be capitalist enough to offer to pay for it.
Only Mitt Romney cares enough to put a stop to this horrible practice.
ROMNEY 2012: END OBAMA’S THIRD WORLD ORGAN HARVEST! VICTORY!
trixielarue
The War on Women continues as long as there is any denial of a woman’s right to choose – this includes sex ed (with accurate information), birth control, access to abortion. It’s as simple or concrete as that.
askew
@Kay (no, not that one):
Any proof on that conspiracy theory? As a Deaniac, it irritates me that bloggers continue to use him as a bludgeon against Obama. Dean was always going to leave as DNC chair after the 2008 election. Didn’t matter if Obama won or lost or even if Hillary would have gotten the nod.
On the other hand, your post on the war on women rings true. I am hearing lots of comments from non-political women about how angry they are with Republicans.
askew
@askew:
Sorry for mixing you up with the other Kay, Kay.
JWL
@Davis X. Machina: Well, you lost me there.
slag
I just had a conversation at the gym about the W.O.W and I never have conversations at the gym. (let alone political ones) Gotta hand it to the Komen Foundation/Republican Party…they’re uniters.
Kay (no, not that one)
@Kay: Kay, I wasn’t referring to the presidential level – the Obama campaign was and is second to none in organizing, IMO. I meant instead the provision of funding for the selection, grooming, and promotion of dem. candidates in all 50 states and districts, even deep red ones. Republicans have been doing this for years, starting with school board and city council positions, and supporting promising candidates to go further. It’s part of the reason they were able to take advantage of the negative climate for democrats in 2010.
kay
@Kay (no, not that one):
I know what the 50 state strategy is. I sat thru the presentation.
My experience is quite different than this global theory I’m always reading about. Maybe it’s anecdotal, but I don’t see this the way you do. I don’t think Republicans are master political strategists, and I don’t think they have a deep bench, which they SHOULD have if what you say is true.
Anyway, it’s complicated so we’ll just disagree on the Dean Theory.
Betsy
@waratah: Oh yeah. The bitchez have long memories. The GOP is screwed for a generation.
4jkb4ia
Kay, this whole thing looked so stupid that I am glad there was a holiday and I missed it. I have no idea why Matt Yglesias picked Friday to get married, but it is clearly his life. (Mazel tov)
I guess I knew it happened, because Taegan Goddard had it on Thursday. For as much as I had time to think about it, I thought about how much things had changed since 1992 that it was an attack that someone doesn’t work. I said to my husband that some women would probably prefer not to work and he said (more shortly) “Keep digging”. (I have an MS in CS that I don’t use)
4jkb4ia
And obviously, Matt Yglesias is under no obligation to celebrate Passover for 8 days. That is only because seeing the moon in Jerusalem cannot be trusted to get to us in America, even with modern technology and all. (Yes, that is sarcastic.)
Deb T
@JWL:
I always quote Will Rogers when I hear things like this.
“I’m not a member of any organized party. I’m a Democrat.”