“The better part of my career in public life has been working with victims,” said Ms. Heitkamp, a former state attorney general. “Did you ask him how many victims during this process he actually sat down with, and survivors he sat down with, and visited with personally?”
Then Ms. Heitkamp’s voice grew thick with emotion.
“I think it’s wonderful that his wife has never had an experience, and good for her, and it’s wonderful his mom hasn’t,” she said. “My mom did. And I think it affected my mom her whole life. And it didn’t make her less strong.”
With tears welling in her eyes, Ms. Heitkamp stared intently at a reporter and continued: “And I want you to put this in there, it did not make my mom less strong that she was a victim. She got stronger and she made us strong. And to suggest that this movement doesn’t make women strong and stronger is really unfortunate.”
I’ll tell you what I don’t get about Republicans. They act all tough and joke about pointing their guns at their daughters’ dates. But then when somebody actually gets raped, they just cry about PJ and Tobin and Squi. Fuck them.
Heidi’s in a tough, tough race. Let’s help her out some more.
Mnemosyne
Those of us who have already donated to Heitkamp got an email alerting us that she really, really needs volunteers on the ground in ND:
My bum knee and I can’t go, but maybe we could do some fundraising for someone who has the time and/or physical ability but not the money to go?
ETA: Aleta provided the actual quote from Heitkamp’s email in one of the threads below.
The Moar You Know
They blame their daughters. I’ve never met one who didn’t.
MisterForkbeard
I was getting annoyed with the constant mails from Heitkamp, but it’s apparent she actually MEANS it rather than just asking for money.
She’s also been excellent during this and other recent events. I’ll probably donate again, but I can’t help out much in other ways. Too busy, going to be out of the country for a big chunk of this month, etc.
Frankensteinbeck
Why is this confusing? They see sex as men taking what they want from women. They take it for granted that men will do so whenever they think they can get away with it. This is a bedrock assumption of their worldview and arguments. Their sympathy is overwhelmingly with men, but since sex is predation, of course they want to protect their property or loved ones. Or at least make a show of it. A lot of the time they don’t actually care what happens to their daughters, but it’s important to make the public announcement that you protect what is yours and are a Good Father. And conservatives are natural whiners. It’s built into their freakout that the world only caters to them 90% of the time now.
schrodingers_cat
Beware, it is a NYT link with the horrible Jonathan Martin byline.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I can’t stand Jonathan Martin either. Out and out Republican, and frames everything GOP.
Adam L Silverman
She can also sing!
Martin
Just further reinforces my view that conservatism is mostly cowardice rebranded. They’re not brave enough to be rejected, or to consider that they may be part of the problem. They’re afraid of having a proper relationship with their daughters boyfriends, so they substitute the threat of violence. They’re afraid of protesters, so they call them a mob, in the hopes they can criminalize it.
I know a lot of conservatives have run into battle and whatnot, but bravery comes in a lot of different forms, including the courage to face failure.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Isn’t he a Politiho alum?
Villago Delenda Est
Republicans prove repeatedly that they are utterly unworthy of living in this country founded by a bunch of deists who were steeped in The Enlightenment.
Fuckem’, indeed.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Aren’t most of them? They colonized. Politischlock.
Elizabelle
@Martin: They are cowards. And retrogrades. And the easily manipulated.
It’s become quite dangerous.
tobie
She did the right thing and the courageous thing and deserves our support. I’m phone banking for her tomorrow from home. It’s easy to sign up to do it through her campaign website. You give your email address and they write you back. McCaskill’s looking for texters for her campaign and I may give that a try, though I’m worried that I’m not too nimble with my fingers and will end up typing gibberish.
Elizabelle
@tobie: Texting is good. I will email you about helping out with that.
I never know who is going to answer a California cell phone number from out of state …
bemused
Perhaps there are women in Cramer’s family who have had bad experiences with men but are reluctant to share with a less than empathetic and clued in guy like him. Just a thought.
James E Powell
They’re assholes who enjoy cruelty, mostly vicariously.
Elliott Gorelick
Not only is cramer disgusting but a liar as well https://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/derek-bollinger-sentenced-to-years-in-prison-for-killing-his/article_a9861bb8-01a4-11e1-95a0-001cc4c002e0.html
gene108
@Adam L Silverman:
Honestly, if we could do a proper reapportionment in the House, after the 2020 census, and add seats to reflect the increase in population, the over representation of small states in the Senate wouldn’t matter so much. It would reflect what this country was designed to do, with the House giving populace states more pull and the Senate giving less populace states more pull there to balance things out.
As it is, both the House and the Senate are skewed towards over representation of rural interests.
Adam L Silverman
@gene108: Yep.
gene108
@Adam L Silverman:
I wish I had the contacts to get this into the ears of actual Democratic Representatives, so they could do something about it, come January 2021, if they are in control of the House.
Edit: With all the internet talk of packing the SCOTUS or changing how the Senate apportions members, this seems to me be the easiest way to rebalance our government to look like the rest of America. Plus it doesn’t have to be a partisan thing, like court packing. The last increase in seats was done in 1911. It’s time to update things after 110 years.
scav
Their sympathy and empathy — as much as they can manage the emotions — and certainky ambitions are inevitably with the predators because that way their natural tendencies lie. They’d have their hands in the puies and in the tills even more constantly if they could manage the nerve.
Theirs is a culture of predation that must be preserved.
Elliott Gorelick
So kevin cramer’s adopted son had a substance abuse problem that killed him. He was someone who had violent fights with women. The mother of isaac cramers son was killed in a horrific domestic abuse murder and cramer still says this stuff. How many gop politicians need mental health help for their denial.
justawriter
Cramer’s ratfuckers dropped their October surprise today. Heidi, back when she was attorney general, investigated abuse at what was then called the Wahpeton Indian School. Cramer’s attack is she didn’t overrule the local state’s attorney who declined to prosecute in the case. Ergo, Heidi is guilty of sanctioning abuse of Native children. Of course, the fuckers released this through the “fair and unhinged” Fox News.
Barbara
@gene108: If you use the smallest state by population (around 600,000) as the base number of people needed for a congressional district, you would have around 535 representatives, or around 100 more than we have now. Increasing the House by even half of that would help a lot. Half the population of the U.S. lives in the 10 largest states.
NotMax
@gene108
Neither insurmountable, but two flies in the ointment do come to mind.
1) Presume a D in the White House after 2020. Reapportionment would kick in for the 2022 elections, and historically the party holding the presidency loses seats in midterm elections.
2) There isn’t the physical space in the House chamber to allow for any more than the most modest expansion.
Working to nullify extreme gerrymandering at the state level would accomplish more, and more immediately.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@gene108:
This may sound like a ridiculous concern of mine, but I was doing some reading about Hungary and Poland’s turn to authoritarianism, and the gist I got from it was that it was far-right populist majoritarianism that was breaking down the limits on it’s own powers. I’m afraid all of those tactics could backfire on us and be seen as the above.
I’m not sure what else to do, however, given the situation we find ourselves in
Adam L Silverman
@gene108: The reason the last update was over 100 years ago is that they changed the rules before the next round of apportionment. They had figured out that the demographics in the US were finally tipping from majority rural to majority urban. So while the representatives from rural areas/states still maintained a majority, regardless of political party, they got together, wrote, and passed legislation that locked in the rural advantage regardless of demographic changes. As a result we reapportion House seats between states, but we don’t increase them, as happened every decade up until the 1920s, from the founding of the country. If this changed hadn’t been made the House would have over 700 members, the vast majority representing the 75% of Americans who live within 50 miles of the coast. Because that’s where the citizenry actually is. Unfortunately, to change this back to how it is supposed to be would 1) require that Americans, let alone their elected officials, actually know this history – the vast majority don’t and 2) that it not only pass the House, but also the Senate and then be signed into law by the President. Even if the Democrats manage to thread that 20 to 25% chance of flipping the Senate needle, they won’t have the votes in the chamber to overcome the filibuster for legislation for this to pass Congress. And even if it did, the President certainly wouldn’t sign it.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Damn. Sounds like we should have done that in 2009-2010 if we ever were going to have a chance.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Also too, there was no reapportionment* following the 1920 census, instigated mostly by southern interests in order to keep the status quo. Before the next census, the statute “permanently” ensconcing 435 was put through (in 1929).
*Only time that has happened. Or rather, not happened.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: It isn’t on anyone’s agenda because almost no one, including members of Congress, have any idea how things got this way. Unless you’ve got an undergrad polisci professor who includes it in the discussion of Congress and apportionment, you’re not going to know about it.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Yep. Far too much of this country’s history has involved capitulating to reactionary elements, usually originating in the South/what was the Confederacy, in the hope that it will all just somehow work itself out.
Barbara
@Adam L Silverman: No, it would be something that could be done only after 2020.
Elizabelle
Heidi is the hero(ine) that Susan Collins pretended to be.
Very proud of Senator Heitkamp. If we didn’t have such an excellent and close congressional race in my district (Abigail Spanberger! vs. Teabagger Dave Brat) I would be so tempted to request supporter housing and head to NDakota for a few weeks. Don’t have an SUV either … but she is worth every moment of working on her behalf.
NotMax
@Barbara
Current district apportionment is (rough number) 735,000*, with any state with less population getting one at large seat. Difference between 600,000 and 735,000 is, really, pretty paltry.
*Total population divided by 435.
@Adam L. Silverman
One of the built-in hazards of a system designed for operation by majority rule, not majority dictates.
The speed of the political pendulum varies but it never stops moving.
Barbara
@NotMax: It may seem paltry but by my calculation it would net California an additional 10 seats in Congress, while the smallest states would effectively remain with the same number of seats they have now. The point I was making is that it would be calibrated to all states having approximately the same proportional representation. It’s probably impossible to do perfectly, but it would be much fairer to more populous states than what we have now.
Adam L Silverman
@Barbara: As long as there is a legislative filibuster in the Senate, it cannot be done. The legislation would pass the House, but die in the Senate because of a Republican minority legislative filibuster.
NotMax
@Barbara
No guarantee all the additional 10 would lean D.
Also too, back of the envelope calculation would give Texas +7 and Florida +5 or 6, so mostly a wash.
gene108
@Adam L Silverman:
Why does the Senate get a say in the size of the House? I thought setting the size of the House was a matter handled by the House itself, without needing approval from the President or Senate.
MCA1
@NotMax: No one’s thinking doing this means a net +100 for Democrats in the House. I think the consensus, however, is that Democrats would garner more than a majority of those new seats, because the bulk of them would be placed in bluer states generally. Look at the top 10 states, which hold something like 55% of the US population: California’s 40% bigger than Texas; New York and Florida are a wash in size and NY is heavily blue while FL is basically a split purple; Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan are all skewed at least as far D as Ohio, NC and Georgia are R. And the next three states in population are New Jersey, Virginia (which continues to get more and more of a bluish tint to its purple), and Washington. A net swing of +15 seats as a base would not be unreasonable to foresee for Democrats.
Gerrymandering to ringfence dense population areas would be harder to do going forward, too. If you shrunk the size of a district by 100-150,000, that’s 100-150,000 more city and inner ring suburban folks who bleed out into districts currently dominated by exurban GOP types.
Barbara
@MCA1: Suburban districts would be harder to gerrymander. VA10 is an example of a district that has been gerrymandered multiple times to expand out further and further away from Fairfax.
JustRuss
@gene108:
I just don’t see the need to “balance things out”. California has about 60 times the population of Montana, the notion that it’s “unfair” that it gets more representation is, frankly, nuts. Especially given the Senate’s powers to confirm and obstruct.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
There are many things I hate about Replicans, but I get why they do those things. For example, they can be complete rule breaking boorish assholes, and then as soon as Democrats push back, point to the rule book and call the comity police. It’s infuriating but as long as the “both sides” press keeps blaming both sides for the rancor and dysfunction it’s pretty easy to get why they do it.
They are always the victim – and the perp. They get to have it both ways because.
SFAW
The Sky is Falling, the Sky is Falling!!!!!!
According to Josh and CNN, the Dem lead on the generic ballot is only 13 percent. That’s DOWN by minus-3 percent since the previous poll. [In other words, the generic Dem advantage has increased by 3 percent.]
So, it looks as though KavanaUGGH has really turned things around for the GOTP. Let’s hope that continues, so we can see more bad news like this.
SFAW
@Elliott Gorelick:
Any relation to Steve or Jamie? Or is that just a nym/nom you chose?
MCA1
@JustRuss: Fair point. I think permanently doing away with the filibuster might be helpful in this regard, at least when the problem is obstruction by a minority. Doesn’t much help when the problem is, as is currently the situation, a tyranny of the minority, though. So I’m sympathetic to other approaches.
I don’t, however, think just abolishing the Senate would be a good solution (not that that’s what you’re advocating, but it seems to move in that direction in your post, and others have called for it). Wyoming and Rhode Island may as well give up their statehood if the only representation they get in Congress is a .1% vote in the House. Maybe we keep the filibuster but increase the size of the Senate or something to have something that’s more proportional than 2/state no matter what the size. Anything that negates the ability of 38% of the population to hold the rest of us hostage works for me, ’cause I’m tired of these revanchist f’ers from Mississippi and Idaho slamming on the brakes on progress over and over and over again, against the will of a substantial majority of the country.
JustRuss
@MCA1: Yeah, I’m not sure what the solution is. I’m not advocating for getting rid of the Senate, but I can’t come up with a good argument against doing so. Wyoming can still be a state and make local laws that make sense for Wyoming, but I have no problem with them having a very tiny voice in what the rest of the country does.
SoupCatcher
@JustRuss: North and South Wyotana.
Another Scott
Donated++
Cheers,
Scott.