Month: February 2019

When the news first appeared that Karen Pence, wife of V.P. Mike Pence, had taken a teaching job at a school which prohibits gays, it was, for me, like a whack on the side of the head. Here was an act of professed bigotry against  millions of Americans all in the name of religious freedom. 
Karen Pence, as a private citizen, has the right to seek employment at any school she chooses.  However as the Second Lady of the country, she should be held to a much higher standard.  Choosing a fundamental Christian school which publicly claims that homosexuality is an individual  choice and that young people can be turned into heterosexuals through  some wacky conversion therapy flies in the face of  the latest scientific and medical research.  
Foisting this mumbo jumbo religious ideology onto the national stage  elicits both painful and potentially ugly, violent  consequences for millions of people who identify with the LGBTQ community. And think of the vulnerable young people who are currently struggling with their sexual identity in high schools and colleges who  look at the message Mrs. Pence is sending and suffer even more.
Most Administrations caution their First Ladies (and Second) to keep their helpful ’causes” as neutral and non-controversial as possible. Mrs. Pence instead of helping to unify and help the country divides the nation and stirs up misinformation, controversy and hate.  The Pences through their righteous determination to be out front with their religious beliefs trample on the nation’s principles of societal as well as religious tolerance.
And to support the notion that the Pence’s are seriously out of line comes this article in the The Washington Post   by Richard Cohen.  He criticizes Karen Pence’s job choice by using the Bible and  slavery to buttress his arguments.. He states that bigotry is bigotry – one type no different or repugnant than another. He compares Virginia’s  Gov. Northam’s racist choices as no different than that of the the bigotry of the Pences. In the end, Cohen concludes that  Mike Pence should resign due to his bigoted position on homosexuality and Karen Pence’s deciding to work at a school which prohibits gays.  

See what you think of Cohen’s persuasive skills and whether he deserves some debate points for his arguments. And if you agree with him that if Northam resigns, Pence should as well. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-just-northam-republicans-must-confront-the-bigotry-of-the-pences-too/2019/02/04/a807063c-28b4-11e9-984d-9b8fba003e81_story.html?utm_term=.1ec123d31c95

As the 2020 presidential campaign starts picking up steam, be on the lookout for the various ways in which journalists, describe the women candidates who have opted in to the 2020 election. Outright sexist descriptions will likely be less prominent than in the past, since most good political writers have been completely sensitized to the issue.  
You probably won’t see words like ‘abrasive”, ’emotional’, or ‘strident’ used when describing Senators Harris, Warren or Gillibrand. unless the writer has just emerged from a 20 year coma or writes for conservative publications.  You also won’t see many efforts at describing the candidates’ appearance either which has become unacceptable.
But there still remains  ways for sexist language to slip  into political descriptions of female politicians. Am reminded of an example I read years ago which appeared in an article describing former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s  participation in the annual Labor Day walk across the Mackinac Bridge. (Can’t remember which Michigan newspaper it appeared in.) 
She was described as “scampering  across the Bridge,”  When I read that line, the word ‘scampering’ jumped out immediately.. A man would never be depicted as scampering across anything in print unless the writer intended it to be a derogatory remark.. ‘Scamper’ is a word one uses to describe children and little animals….not a governor of a state or any woman for that matter,.  
If the media  has learned not to dwell on  a candidate’s appearance, there is still a personality feature they still want to  address  and that is the notion of likeability.  Here is an article from The Guardian which tackles that question head on and discusses how prevalent it happens to be in discussing female candidates in the mainstream media. 
Of course any woman alive to day in this culture understands the role  likeability plays in their life. For most, it is important to be ‘nice’ socially and especially in the workplace. In the past it was key to advancing one’s career..Maybe that notion of pleasantness  is changing more in today’s world  but evidently still hangs around the neck of woman politicians.  
Challenge yourself to see if the quality of likeability surfaces in your assessment of the various women  candidates.   Would you like to see Elizabeth Warren be less ,,,,, you fill in the blank.  Did your word have something to do with personality or ideology?  (Persoanlity for me,) What about Kamala Harris?  and Kirsten Gillibrand?  We are all products of our culture and to root out sexism we need to start with ourselves. 
 Sexism remains an endemic part of the American psyche. So watch for it in our politics. And please send along an example or two if you read or hear any examples as you peruse the news. I will publish the list if we collect some good ones.
Enjoy the article.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/04/why-the-likability-question-pursues-2020-female-candidates-even-as-they-make-history

Tooting Bridge Magazine’s horn one more time. 
https://www.bridgemi.com/center-michigan/bridge-earns-fourth-straight-michigan-newspaper-year-award

The Green New DealThe term Green New Deal has begun to creep into mainstream media reports more often these days so it becomes worthwhile get greater clarity on what the term entails.. According to this CNN article, Green New Deal  is an evolving term which encompasses two major goals – to fight  climate change and  provide green jobs for anyone who wants to apply.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Green New Deal as part of her campaign for the House in 2018 but she was not the first to use it. Thomas Friedman used the term in 2007 and President Obama talked about green jobs as part of his stimulus packages. But Ocasio- Cortez gets high fives for her efforts to publicize the term and to capture endorsements from several of the 2020 Dem presidential contenders.. She has written a resolution along with Sen. Ed. Markey of Massacusettes which give  legislative heft to the term which they will introduce to Congress next week. 

The resolution will include several elements: moving to clean and renewable energy by 2030, creating green jobs and directing the money that will be used for this huge effort toward  communities which will be most hurt by the effects of climate change. 
The are many elements in this resolution to extol. It is a positive, exciting idea which has encouraged a whole host of groups concerned about climate change both environmental and otherwise, to come together into a powerful cohort. These groups have been providing their  expertise and promises of  support to Ocasio-Cortez and Markey  helping to make their resolution a symbol of increasing interest in the potentially cataclysmic threat to the world.
 More importantly it gives the Dems a campaign plank which gives climate change believers, aka voters, a reasonable, valuable environmental and job   package to rally around and embrace. it will make the GOP  appear  clueless and weak. It leaves Trump on the sidelines as an ignorant, hapless leader of  the largest existential threat to ever face mankind. And it will bring the deadly risk of global warming back onto the nation’s front pages where it rightly belongs. 
The Green New Deal is coming along hopefully in the nick of time to change the direction of global warming. We will stay tuned to this evolving set of ideas and cheer the perseverance of lawmaker Markey and newbie -Ocasio -Cortez. hopefully a majority of Americans are ready now to face the true risks of global warming,  become pro-active and with good fortune line-up behind the Democrats in 2020. 
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/31/politics/what-is-the-green-new-deal/index.html

Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor and currently professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkley likes the looks of Dem candidates both announced and unannounced for 2020 who are highlighting workers as their  top campaign priority. He discuss the candidates  Sherrod Brown, Kamala Harris,  Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in an article today in The Guardian. 
These four candidates are hammering home the point that workers comprise one of the most overlooked and legislatively maligned groups in all segments of society. And it was millions from this segment  who comprised the core of voters whose heads were turned by the demagoguery of Donald Trump.
In considering why so many millions stampeded to the Trump bandwagon calls for a fairly simple analysis. He threw them a faux life raft in a roiling sea of lost jobs, the disappearance of labor unions, and wage stagnation. These workers felt ignored by the elites in Washington, personified by the man in the White House who served as a daily reminder of their imagined loss of status.  They were primed and ready for a person like Trump and once they had assimilated his message became steadfast believers, no matter how contrary the evidence that he was a phony and a liar. .
Trump’s message was simple.He promised them everything they could have possibly hoped for   – the rebounding of manufacturing jobs, the resurrection of the coal industry and a return to the glory days of decent middle class wages. He made these promises over and over at every campaign stop until his hyperbolic, (duplicitous) messaging sank in. Trump, the successful businessman, became a dream come true.He became their savior. He, with relish, took pot shots at all those hated Washington elites, kicked PC language to the curb and threw in outrageous, vulgar  commentary at immigrants, racial groups and the disabled.  This over the top rhetoric became  icing on their resentment cake .
Turn now to today and think of these Dem candidates as the antidote to Trump;s message of hot air in 2016. According to Reich they are proposing substantive programs that with legislative support would  provide relief and a boost to the American worker. While Trump’s promises proved to be empty, these candidates offer real change..
Sanders,, Warren, Brown and Harris  right now are promoting work programs which will put employees in positions to directly influence company policies. They are  highlighting the dignity of work and the importance of the American worker. They are taking this latent perspective to all workers irrespective of political allegiance  as a counter to capitalism’s crushing autocracy.  
They suggest that workers should not be viewed as simply cogs in the machinery of production with  little  job security or leverage. Instead they say, that workers should be held up as valuable contributors with rights in the American economy and be considered  -the lifeblood of a thriving society.
How refreshing.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2019/jan/25/election-2020-capitalism-democrats-workers