ALSO, Tonight we are hosting a fundraiser to help Heidi Li and her group, Democrats for Principles before Party, place an ad in Congressional Quarterly. The ads Heidi and her partner Marc Rubin have placed were tremendously effective at changing the pre-Denver narrative.
If everyone reading tonight donates just $5 (or $10 if you’ve got it) we can put Heidi over the top!
What a crying shame. Barack Obama will be remembered as the politician who turned the blue states RED this year. Howard, Nancy, and Harry, it’s time to GO. For the sake of unity in our Party; for the sake of your own personal dignity and integrity, it is TIME TO GO.
You treated the Puma Movement as a bunch of bitter Cassandras and now the disaster we’ve been predicting since April is exploding in your faces. You may be able to deny it for the next 50 days, but on November 5th you’ll be getting a visit from the Payback Fairy.
Fair warning: Expect assumptions to be challenged in this post. It’s part of my gadfly approach. That approach is probably the result of my working class upbringing, filled as it was with all the right values propped up by all the wrong lies, as well as my eventual over-education (for my class), which provided me with strong research and reasoning skills, an instinct for critical thinking, and the ability to articulate well. What that education did not provide me with was unvarnished truth, only a means to pursue it. And so it is that we go about the business of peeling off the lies here, of locating that center amongst the petals of rhetoric. Whatever the cause, I am driven to seek core arguments, to push away the decorations and trappings of our discourse, and to try to assert what really matters.
What matters today is the roiling exposure of authoritarianism on the left. It is symptomatic of the Neoprogressive reach, which is itself symptomatic of the neoconservative reach. Most of those who self-identify with the left, and that includes disaffected Clinton supporters (DCS), would agree that one of the goals of the neocon faction was to drive the center into solidly conservative territory. Parties who succeed in getting their opposition to join them don’t have to compromise much, do they? As I have noted in many posts at P&L, this election season is littered with what must look like delicious irony from the outside. It hurts like hell from the inside, but those with no vested interested must be howling their asses off at how quickly things have flipped.
Sadly, the Democratic Party, long billed as the Party for Women, has attempted to drive the ultimate wedge to prevent a feminist revival. Ironically, while they have succeeded in their own party, they have failed in the culture at large. PUMA and the choices DCSs make November 4th, as well as the attention they have gained and the momentum they have achieved have already constituted a revival among some women. The New Democratic Coalition, a.k.a. the Progressive Dude Nation, has already demonstrated its tolerance for sexism and authoritarianism, as well hypocrisy, which they display so aggressively and to such effect when they pursue Republican strategies they were railing against four and eight years ago. And they continue to be oblivious to their own weaknesses. The consequence is fuel for that feminist revival.
A couple of days ago I published a post called More Politics of Fear. I hesitated to publish it at the time because it was critical of two of the more respected bloggers in the DCS-sphere (doesn’t quite have the PUMAsphere ring, does it?). I think it was a good post and people responded to it, but I hadn’t realized at the time I posted it that I wasn’t done fleshing my issues out. This morning I realized two things: a) I am hurt by the argument that anyone who casts a vote for John McCain can’t possibly be a progressive, and b) what troubles me most about the argument is not the hurt, but what the argument says about the infiltration of authoritarianism on the left. To argue that one’s identity is tied to one vote, like the helix in mortal coil, is to make an authoritarian argument. As I said in More Politics of Fear, it is akin to the old one-drop rule, or the structure of the Indian caste system. There’s also another institution that practices that kind of rhetoric; it’s called a church.
But there’s a softer side to this authoritarianism too. It is personified in the I-could-never-vote-for-a-Republican-but-I-can’t-blame-you DCS. I know a lot of people like this, and I don’t judge them either. Everybody owns their vote. But I must take this moment to ask you if you are of this mindset: Do you think the Democratic Party will suddenly feel like home November 5th? Do you entertain fantasies that all of this madness will go away once the election is over?
How quickly we forget, sadly if we ever knew, the struggles of Stanton and Anthony, and Paul and Burns. Do you think that any one of those great, fearless women would have hesitated to cross a party line in the effort to secure a right for women? Did Alice Paul ever say, “I’m sorry Mr. Wilson, but you belong to a war-mongering party, so I can’t possibly petition and lobby you for relief”? And isn’t respect for and power for women, the opportunity for them, finally, a right worth securing? Women have the opportunity this year like no other to emerge as a super-constituency, to force both parties to notice and respond to us and some of our issues. It’s already working on one side of the aisle, even as it exposes deeply troubling sexist rhetoric on the left. That sexism will not magically disappear on November 4th. If Obama wins, the beast will just be caged until he and his faction need it again. If he loses, it will get worse, much worse for a while, before it gets better.
If we are an Army of Monsters in the eyes of the left, why does it matter if you cast a protest vote for John McCain? Have you ever considered that a huge feminine swing toward McCain as a result of his Palin pick may be all that is necessary now to achieve that super-constituency? And have you considered what a valuable opportunity this might provide Americans to reform the Republican Party? What if we could tame those beastly factions within it, and jerk the Republican Party more to the mainstream? What delicious irony, right? I certainly think that’s a much more (and truly) progressive strategy than adopting wholesale corrupt Republican strategies to win, all the while hypocritically claiming to hold on to liberal values.
I’ve recently given some thought to this whole notion of labels. I said in Barry and The Neoprogs that progressive was a good word for them because all they cared about was naked progress in the form of winning. They weren’t concerned with the long-term in the least. Joseph Cannon over at Cannonfire recently articulated the better argument against progressives. To wit:
As readers know, I am careful to describe my politics as “liberal,” not progressive. What’s the difference?
ALL PROGRESSIVES LIE. ALL.
Bolding his. I think that’s generally, though not so stridently, true because I can understand the distinction now between a liberal and a progressive. It’s basically the difference between the Stevensonian and FDR coalitions Anglachel articulated so well a while ago. And the Stevensonian faction, make no mistake, has been the one consistently flirting with conservative values and candidates over the last 40 years. Now that the convention is over, though, it’s not just that faction that is expressing its authoritarian beliefs. Unwittingly infected themselves, some of those on the left, especially those who left working class culture in the dust when they succeeded in bettering themselves, but who have preserved an affection for it, are now spouting these ridiculous purity arguments, either for others or for themselves.
As a Midwestern Democrat-turned-independent, a voter in a swing state planning to vote McCain/Palin, I have to ask myself, are we going to be expected to do the heavy lifting this November, even as we get no credit, and suffer ridicule for it? In case you weren’t aware, in the wake of the sham Convention, you have only two choices: Obama or Nobama.
If Obama wins, his faction gets credentialed and their values get adopted in the DP, but if Obama loses, and regardless of what happens in the Republican Party, none of that other stuff happens in the DP. This election has already proven to be the strangest in my lifetime and a lot longer, and I really can’t believe anyone in any red or blue state can feel certain they know how their state will go. How can they just kick back and rest assured that they won’t have to violate any personal values to achieve their goal of Nobama, without even trying to self-reflect on whether or not the value that argues all Republicans are evil is even rational? Leave it to the close-minded hicks in those swing states, right? Ain’t that the mother of all ironies?
Note: Whatever minor issues I may have with Anglechel over this particular rhetorical aside, I still think she is the best political analyst in the DCS-sphere by far. I do not speak for Murphy or other PUMAs either, only for myself.
Originally posted at Peacocks and Lilies. (I thought y’all would like it too)
Reminder!
We have 52 Days to stop the DONC.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to Sheila Jackson Lee yesterday. I will post the final tally later this morning.
We will be mounting a weekend Fundraiser starting later today to raise funds for Canvassing and Outreach for our Protest of the Election. Get a jump now and donate this morning if you can, and THANK you! You can Contribute HERE!
QUICK UPDATE: Be sure to listen in tonight to The Lion’s Share on Puma United Radio (PURrrr) at 8pm eastern. Sheri, Riverdaughter, and I have a jam-packed show planned for tonight. Listen live HERE!
They are so scared. More scared than they’ve been since Hillary Clinton moved into the White House. They do this every time they get this scared, and they never get this scared of a man. Other people might wonder how politics and the media can be filled with so many pearl-clutchers when there are so few women in either profession, but such is the case. Some might suggest these folks were a little too close to mamma to grow up to be functional men, if you know what I mean. Still others might suggest it’s an intimacy-issues thing, the result of being cuckolded by empowered, irritated, unsatisfied wives. Whatever the source of this neuroses and dysfunction, the result is always the same:
Gary Kamiya’s article in Salon was graced by that picture of Palin. That picture of Hillary is from Spy Magazine, circa February 1993, just a month after she and Bill arrived in Washington. This is the Fourth Estate’s enfeebled attempt police the political class. But it only shows how distorted and mentally diseased they are, how much privilege they’ve been able to secure, which is to say, way too much. Maybe we need to run a Psychiatrist for president, so we can have these images translated for the media as they publish them.
What they don’t think about, because it’s so far outside the limited borders of their bubbled brains, is what effect this sort of propaganda has on some people, especially people aware of and open to feminist sentiments. That Spy Magazine cover made me a life-long fan of Hillary Clinton at the tender age of 22, and articulated in one image what she’s had to fight as a woman in politics all her life. It also made me shed the bullshit rhetoric swirling around women in my age group at the time that feminism wasn’t necessary anymore, and was odious to boot. The sympathy it created in me spurred the birth of a barrier wall in my brain, which grew with every dirty trick Republicans of the 1990s threw at Hillary or Bill. A lot of other Americans experienced this too. This wall of static sound developed for a lot of people, so that by 1995 all most people heard when they listened to Clinton critics and naysayers was a whole lot of what Lucy and Charlie hear when adults speak in a Peanuts cartoon: Waa-WAA-Waa-WAA-WAA.
But there was a danger I wasn’t aware of at the time, and the thought of that missed danger plagues me today. The kids of the 1990s weren’t able to build that wall of static, they absorbed and internalized all of those unfounded charges and characterizations. And because they were too young to understand what was going on, because parents felt uncomfortable talking about it to them because of the Lewinsky-sex issue, the little seeds of hate Republicans were trying to sow at the time landed in a lot of young, fertile hearts. And look where we are today. We’ve got young women so stupefied from all the confusion they can’t even see overt, rank sexism before their very eyes. We’ve got other, older women so hooked in to the white male power structure they’re unwilling to risk losing anything, to risk being put into leather and chains themselves, even if just in pictures. We’ve got a lot of young men monkeying those Republicans from the 90s, even some young men ostensibly smart enough to know better. These are monsters built in the ideological ovens of the 1990s. This is the legacy of 1990s, of all those Republican hit jobs.
This is the also danger we face today. Make no mistake about it. You cannot just go back to your couch, to watching Lost and House and whatever reality TV show it is you follow. Young women and men today, my 14 year old daughter among them, are absorbing the heat of the hit jobs this year. It is baking into their very flesh. IF Hillary runs in 2012, my daughter will be old enough to vote. What choice will she make after all she’s seen this year? So far she’s still an Obama fan, even though she now understands what Hillary had to deal with, and sympathizes with me over the sexism she herself can now identify. But just yesterday, as she sauntered off to bed, she couldn’t resist snarkily throwing this little gem in my face: “Why do you want four more years of Bush, Mom?” This is where she is after living her whole life with a feminist Hillary Clinton supporter. After all she knows about what happened this year, and because I am her mom she knows the whole sorry tale (and is sorry to hear it again), this is still the argument that works for her in her politically budding mind.
This is why we fight. We fight for my daughter and the millions of girls like her who are endangered by the sexist rhetoric that passes for media these days. We fight for the millions of boys who are looking at the Progressive Dude Nation right now, at their style, their pazzazz, their irreverence, and who are wanting to posture the same stance one day if they haven’t adopted it already. There is more at stake than just this year, this election, or the next four years. There are legions of young minds being shaped, and we must inform them, using rhetoric that is natural to their intellect, of what is going on right now and what is possible for the future.
Reminder: We DO need funds to keep our momentum. Our budget has always been lean and mean — no salaries, consultants, lobbyists, etc etc — but even the grassiest grass-roots effort needs help. Please consider a donation today. You can contribute HERE, and THANK you!
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The other side, suddenly, they’re saying ‘we’re for change too,” Obama told the crowd. “You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It’s still going to stink after eight years. We’ve had enough.” Barack Obama, 9/9/08.
Yeah, Barack — we’ve had enough too.
So, WHAT DID OBAMA REALLY MEAN? Why did he chuckle and wait for the jeering laughter from his crowd of followers?
Obama, I think today even you are starting to realize that you have 99 problems and a “bitch” certainly IS one.
UPDATE 9/10/08 AT 12:06pm eastern: In response to the furor over yesterday’s “lipstick on a pig” remark, today Obama told us, “Spare me the phony outrage.” Well, okay then. We’ll spare you the phony outrage Barack and give you the authentic variety on November 4th. That sure will be Sweet-ie.
Vote for Democrats for every slot you in good conscience can. But vote for Obama? After what he did to Hillary Clinton? After he didn’t even consider her or her 18 million voters when he chose Joe BoringBiden. After what he did to Alice Palmer? After what he did to his grandmother? After what he did to Geraldine Ferraro? After what he did to the Sweetie Reporter? After what he did to Sarah Palin? After what he did and continues to do to all of us?
I don’t think so. No matter what shrieking shade of purple or red lipstick the increasingly Desperate One tries to put on today to spin his way out of this one, IT IS STILL A SEXIST PIG.
Oh, and because I just can’t resist taking one more jab at these hate-filled demagogues who have used every slimy tactic in the Swamp Misogyny guidebook to get us to shut up, sit down, and do as we’re told, let’s put some lipstick on this Sexist Pig.
Reminder: We DO need funds to keep our momentum. Our budget has always been lean and mean — no salaries, consultants, lobbyists, etc etc — but even the grassiest grass-roots effort needs help. Please consider a donation today. You can contribute HERE, and THANK you!
News last night from The NY Times, via Riverdaughter, that Obama has run home to Big Sister to plead with her to fight his battle with Saracuda Palin for him. Oh, the poor Precious! Can’t face a tough woman on his own, huh? What’s the matter Barack? Just tell Saracuda that she’s likable enough. Call her a Sweetie and tell the media that she gets moody and bitchy periodically when she’s feeling down. That oughtta work. Or send Sebelius — woo-hoo! I’m sure she can take on Palin and come out of the encounter victorious.
Or, in the words of Anglachel (“Audacity Defecit”):
“Biden is a sign of weakness because of who Obama passed over.Whether or not you would have wanted to see Hillary as VP, that choice would have been a measure of his confidence in working with a more senior politician with her own dedicated power base. There is no corollary for McCain to choose from on the Republican side because there is no one of that stature in his party. I mean, can you think of anyone? To have selected Hillary would have fallen somewhere on the “no guts, no glory” scale between JFK offering the post to LBJ (grudgingly, wanting a rejection, knowing it was the key to victory) and Bill asking Al (unafraid of the competition, respectful of Al’s greater national statute, gambling on a powerful adminstrative team). Biden has mocked Obama in public, there is no synergy in the pairing, there is not enough contrast to produce creative counter balance, and Biden stands as repudiation of all the message of change.”
OR, BARACK — IF, AS HAS BEEN THE CASE SINCE JANUARY WHEN YOU FIRST DECIDED TO SIT BACK AND ALLOW THE SEXIST ONSLAUGHT FROM YOUR CRONIES IN THE MAINSTREAM AND NEW MEDIA DO YOUR DIRTY WORK FOR YOU, YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON “LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE” POLITICAL THINKERS LIKE THE GEMS AT THE DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND TO PUT THIS KIND OF STUFF OUT THERE FOR YOUR BENEFIT. (h/t to Taggles for finding this scum)
In case you’ve forgotten what we are fighting, please watch this youtube. Watch the whole thing — it gets even better at the end.
You know Folks, sometimes I think that the country really is going to split in three politically this year. The xenophobic/kleptocratic/fundamentalist/men in the Republican Party; the weak-willed/ineffectual/bullying/crybaby men (like this maniac) in the Democratic Party; and the women and everybody else in the Puma Movement and New Democratic Party.
Sarah Palin’s daughter is 17 years old. That makes her a kid in my book. My oldest will be 17 in January, and I know she’s not a baby, but lord knows she is not an adult. I cannot even imagine what that poor girl is going through right now knowing that she is the biggest story in politics and being ripped apart by the so-called liberal media and blogosphere. Imagine how guilty and responsible she is feeling about the effect this is having on her mother. Having a baby when you’re a teenager is not fun. I know because, like probably every person reading these lines, someone very close to me became a mother when she was still a teenager. At least six of the girls I went to school with were pregnant before they were 17 and they all had the babies and became very young mothers. Results were mixed, as was to be expected.
Contraception MUST be widely and easily available to ALL teenagers in this country so that kids don’t get stuck with awful decisions like the one the Palin daughter has been facing the last five months. But, let’s not be hypocrites. Choice means choice. It means choosing to give birth or choosing to terminate the pregnancy. It is established law based on the right to PRIVACY. This is a PRIVATE matter. It is also a matter involving a very young person. Let’s leave her alone.
And to all the so-called progressive blogs out there, run by men who showed just how shallow their commitment to women’s rights are this past year, why don’t you all take a long walk off a short pier. Your opinions on this matter are irrelevant and your credibility is long, long gone.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA INQUIRIES: 978-505-3933
Puma PAC Official Schedule of Events
Denver, Colorado
SUNDAY, AUGUST 24
PUMA PAC HQ, 1325 Delaware Street 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Meet and Greet MEDIA AND DELEGATES WELCOME. All Pumas, Hillary Supporters, and Friends of Puma PAC WELCOME! Come and meet all the Pumas from around the country who are gathering in Denver for the Convention. We will have signs, buttons, stickers, t-shirts, and other PUMA Gear for you to take with you on your travels through Denver and beyond. We will also have snacks and drinks to keep you refreshed and energized. Restroom facilities and parking available on premises. This is the place to go for ALL of the info you need: schedules, maps, instructions, shuttle rides, rally signs, sign supplies, flyers and handouts. Visit OFTEN during your stay.
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Live Blogging Wireless and wired internet access, printers, office supplies, and community for all your live blogging needs. Access email and catch up on the news. Bring your own internet-ready laptop. If we get too crowded we will begin scheduling internet access.
Puma PAC Media Loft - PRIVATE LOCATION 8:00 p.m. – Audacity of Democracy Screening and Party This is an invitation only event for Puma PAC members, Puma Friends, members of the Press, and Delegates. We will be screening the latest installment of our documentary, “The Audacity of Democracy,” at 9:00 p.m. Doors will close when we reach capacity. Cash bar and hors d’oeuvres will be available.
MONDAY, AUGUST 25th
PUMA PAC HQ, 1325 Delaware Street 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Rise and Rally! MEDIA AND DELEGATES WELCOME Puma PAC HQ will be open ALL DAY and evening as a resource center, meeting place, and rest stop. You can pick up signs, t-shirts, goodies, and refreshments here anytime. This is the place to gather BEFORE the Beautiful Protest and Rise at Cheesman Park. We will be making signs and handing them out. You can get your t-shirts and buttons and candles here. We will have some shuttle vans/cars taking people over to the Park – but if you have your own car, please bring it! We’ll put you to work helping get people to the park!
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Live Blogging Wireless and wired internet access, printers, office supplies, and community for all your live blogging needs. Access email and catch up on the news. Bring your own internet-ready laptop. If we get too crowded we will begin scheduling internet access.
CHEESMAN PARK - East 8th Avenue 4:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Beautiful Protest and Rise
MEDIA AND DELEGATES WELCOME.
A Celebration of Hillary Clinton’s Historic Presidential Campaign! What makes this historical event special? It’s not just because it’s named after Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Rise,” but that it will also close with the lighting of candles to pay tribute to Hillary and all of her achievements, while also symbolically reigniting the flame of America’s great Democracy and Lady Liberty’s torch. Candles will Rise as participants at Cheesman Park and communities across the nation will recognize Senator Clinton’s achievements in one harmonious gesture of celebration. This will be a marvelous opportunity for those who worked on Hillary’s behalf and her supporters as well as all who believe in and appreciate our Liberty and Democracy to come together and enjoy an afternoon and evening of festivities. This is a free event; all Hillary supporters/fans are welcome. Puma Pac activities begin at 4:00 p.m. and end at 6:00 p.m. The Rise 2008 takes over at 6:00 p.m. Speakers and entertainment begin at 7 p.m.. The festivities will end with the national “RISE” candle salute to Hillary, Democracy and Lady Liberty at precisely 9:45 MDT.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 26TH
PUMA PAC HQ, 1325 Delaware Street 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Ambassador Day MEDIA AND DELEGATES WELCOME. Puma PAC HQ will be open ALL DAY and evening as a resource center, meeting place, and rest stop. You can pick up signs, t-shirts, goodies, and refreshments here anytime.
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Live Blogging Wireless and wired internet access, printers, office supplies, and community for all your live blogging needs. Access email and catch up on the news. Bring your own internet-ready laptop. If we get too crowded we will begin scheduling internet access.
7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Hillary Clinton’s Address to the Convention MEDIA WELCOME. We will have a 46″ flat screen TV set up for everyone to watch Hillary’s historic address on the 88th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage. Drinks and light food will be served.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27th
PUMA PAC HQ, 1325 Delaware Street 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Ambassador Day
MEDIA AND DELEGATES WELCOME. Puma PAC HQ will be open ALL DAY and evening as a resource center, meeting place, and rest stop. You can pick up signs, t-shirts, goodies, and refreshments here anytime.
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Live Blogging Wireless and wired internet access, printers, office supplies, ETC for all your live blogging needs. You can also check email and check up on the news. Bring your own laptop.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28th
PUMA PAC HQ, 1325 Delaware Street 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. – The Lion’s Share Closing the convention with our community. Gather to share your experiences, your thoughts, your emotions. Celebrate our achievements and plan for November.
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WELCOME TO ALL NEW PUMA PAC MEMBERS!
To be an active participant on the blog, we ask that you share our mission and our motto – NObama.
We ask that all conversation be civil, respectful, and absent of any sexist, racist, misogynistic, ageist and all the other -isms that have been thrown around in this election. We work very hard to keep the forum positive and powerful.
There are 3 Rules for Posting on Puma PAC’s forums
1. No sexism
2. No racism or homophobia
3. No insulting other Pumas, including condescension
Join us in our fight to take our democracy back to the people!
NHFORHILLARY is challenging all PUMAs to join her in supporting a mock ROLL CALL to take place in Cheesman Park at 4:00 p.m. on Monda, August 25. Speak for YOUR state! Sponsor a STATE sign for $5.
Imagine what an exciting event this will be in DENVER! Envision fellow PUMAS holding signs from ALL 50 states and the cheers of support for Hillary as we start!
Arkansas, how do you vote?
New York, how do you vote?
As we go through each state you can cheer at home in solidarity and support for Hillary!
Get involved and make HISTORY!! We can have more than one sign per state! Use the link above to sponsor a sign for your state. Put ROLL CALL – (your state) in the PURPOSE field on the donation form.
Post on the blog which state you’re sponsoring for the ROLL CALL so NHforHILLARY can keep track!
We will have live video from the event and pics that will be posted as soon as we can get them uploaded.
