Loretta Lynn: "The Pill"
Hillary Clinton's Planned Parenthood Address
I have more to say on this extraordinary speech at BNR.
Transcript:
Thank you. Hello. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all. I have to say, pink never looked so good.
I want to thank my friend, and your courageous leader, Cecile Richards. Cecile really is the definition of grace under pressure. She has proven that time and time again over the course of her career, particularly over the last few years. She really is like another great American, her mother, Ann Richards, who was a friend of mine, and I just wish Ann were here to see this election. She'd have Donald Trump tweeting double time.
We reached a milestone together this week. Thanks to you, and people all over our country, for the first time, a woman will be a major party's nominee for President of the United States.
And yesterday, I had the great honor of being endorsed by President Obama and Vice President Biden. And by Senator Elizabeth Warren.
So it's been a big week. And there's nowhere I'd rather end it than right here, with the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
I'm grateful to the entire Planned Parenthood family. You made this campaign your own. Whether you knocked on doors in Iowa or rallied in California, this victory belongs to all of you.
It belongs to the one thousand young activists who came together in Pittsburgh last month to get organized.
It belongs to the staff, the donors, and to the providers. Providers like Dr. Amna Dermish in Texas, who called out Donald Trump when he said women should be punished for having abortions. And the open letter she wrote defending her patients' right to make their own health decisions should be required reading for every politician in America.
I am deeply conscious of the reality that this victory belongs to generations of brave women and men who fought for the radical idea that women should determine our own lives and futures.
And it belongs to the women and men who continue to fight for that idea today, even in the face of threats and violence.
When a man who never should have had a gun killed three people at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, leaders in this room voted unanimously to keep health centers across America open the next day.
The CEO, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains made a promise to patients in Colorado and beyond when she said: 'Our doors – and our hearts – stay open.'
That is really what Planned Parenthood is all about.
So today, I want to say something you don't hear often enough: thank you.
Thank you for being there for women, no matter their race, sexual orientation, or immigration status.
Thank you for being there for Natarsha McQueen in Brooklyn, who told me how Planned Parenthood caught her breast cancer when she was just 33 years old, and saved her life.
Thank you for being there for college students getting STD testing. The young people who have the tough questions that they're afraid to ask their parents. The sexual assault survivors who turn to Planned Parenthood for compassionate care. The transgender teens who come for an appointment and find the first place where they can truly be themselves.
Thank you for being there for your communities – whether that means taking on hostile politicians in Louisiana or handing out clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan.
And thank you for being there for every woman in every state who has to miss work; drive hundreds of miles sometimes; endure cruel, medically unnecessary waiting periods; walk past angry protesters to exercise her constitutional right to safe and legal abortion.
I've been proud to stand with Planned Parenthood for a long time. And as president, I will always have your back.
Because I know for a century, Planned Parenthood has worked to make sure that the women, men, young people who count on you can lead their best lives – healthy, safe and free to follow their dreams.
Just think when Planned Parenthood was founded, women couldn't vote or serve on juries in most states. It was illegal even to provide information about birth control, let alone prescribe it.
But people marched and organized. They protested unjust laws and, in some cases, even went to prison. And slowly but surely, America changed for the better.
51 years ago this week, thanks to a Planned Parenthood employee named Estelle Griswold, the Supreme Court legalized birth control for married couples across America. When I used to teach law, and I would point to this case, a look of total bewilderment would come across my students' faces. And not long after that, Roe v. Wade guaranteed the right to safe, legal abortion.
So young women were no longer dying in emergency rooms and back alleys from botched, illegal abortions. And this is a fact that is not often heard, but I hope you will repeat it: America's maternal mortality rate dropped dramatically.
And it turns out, being able to plan their families not only saved women's lives, it also transformed them – because it meant that women were able to get educations, build careers, enter new fields, and rise as far as their talent and hard work would take them – all the opportunities that follow when women are able to stay healthy and choose whether and when to become mothers.
Rage. Seethe. Boil.
[Content Note: Violent rhetoric; racism.]
Earlier today, at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's annual conference, Republican Senator David Perdue urged attendees to pray for President Obama, citing a Psalm that is a prayer for someone's death. Naturally, he says he was just joking around hardy har.
I have a post about this at BNR:
Seven-and-a-half years, I have watched — and I have seethed — as the President comported himself with professionalism and dignity and respect for his ideological opponents, and they have treated him in return with nothing but contempt.Click through the read the whole thing.
So I am certainly not surprised by Sen. Perdue's reprehensible "prayer" for our President. But I am nonetheless angry.
Along the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton often says that President Obama doesn't get the credit he deserves for his accomplishments. I agree.
And he doesn't get the respect he deserves, either. Not as the President, and not even as a human being. Not from Republicans — and shame on them for it.
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie, caught mid-roll as she flailed contentedly on the carpet.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
I live-tweeted Hillary Clinton's speech to Planned Parenthood today, and I've Storified those tweets, if you would like to read them.
[Content Note: Climate change] Damn: "The Paris floods, that saw extreme rainfall swell the river Seine to its highest level in decades, were made almost twice as likely because of the manmade emissions driving global warming, scientists have found. A three-day period of heavy rain at the end of May saw tens of thousands of people evacuated across France, and the capital's normally busy river closed to traffic because the water levels were so high under bridges. As artworks in the Louvre were moved to safety and Paris's cobbled walkways were submerged, the French president, François Hollande, blamed the floods on climate change. Now a preliminary analysis by a group of scientists, including the Dutch weather agency and the University of Oxford, has concluded the risk of the flooding event in Paris was almost doubled—multiplied by a factor of 1.8—by humanity's influence on the climate."
[CN: Rape culture] A couple of updates on the Stanford rape case: 1. "USA Swimming, the governing body for the sport in the United States, told USA Today that Turner was not a member of the organization at the time of the assault, hasn't been since, and would not be eligible for membership in the future." 2. "More than a million people have signed a petition calling for the judge in the controversial Stanford University sexual assault case to be sacked. Judge Aaron Persky has been heavily criticised for giving student Brock Turner six months for assaulting an unconscious woman last year. Two other petitions have reached 115,000 and 175,000 signatures each. The petitions have no legal force but organisers hope they will increase pressure on politicians to act." 3. "Judge Aaron Persky, who is under fire for his lenient sentencing of Brock Turner, a former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault, made several controversial rulings in a 2011 civil trial stemming from the alleged gang rape by members of the baseball team at De Anza Community College in Cupertino, California. ...[He] allowed defendants accused of gang-raping a 17-year-old high school student to show the jury photographs of her wearing a revealing outfit when he presided over another controversial case involving college athletes."
[CN: Worker exploitation; video may autoplay at link] "Donald Trump casts himself as a protector of workers and jobs, but a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation found hundreds of people—carpenters, dishwashers, painters, even his own lawyers—who say he didn't pay them for their work." I'm not surprised, but I am angry.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Donald Trump needs to pick an experienced running mate because 'he doesn't know a lot about the issues' and strongly urged him to change course on his rhetoric." Maybe don't support him then?!
Republican Senator from Maine Susan Collins says she hasn't ruled out supporting Hillary Clinton, because Trump is such a dirtbag. Whoa.
Democratic Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley, who was the lone member of the Senate to endorse Bernie Sanders, says he now supports Clinton.
Smart: The Clinton campaign "has hired Bernie Sanders' director of student organizing to serve as her national campus and student organizing director, a Clinton official confirmed to POLITICO. Kunoor Ojha is the Clinton campaign's first major hire from the Sanders campaign, and her move to a role where she will work with the state teams to mobilize young voters represents a significant step in the former secretary of state’s outreach to the Vermont senator's most ardent backers."
Do you want to read Melissa Harris-Perry interview Serena Williams?! Well, if you do, here you go! (P.S. It's great!)
And finally! "Bulldog Has Interesting Bridge Crossing Skills!" LOL! Indeed.
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
Wow
[Content Note: Disablist language.]
Donald Trump, y'all:
Trump loves talking about the contrast [between his campaign and Hillary Clinton's]. In an interview with TIME on June 8 in his Manhattan office overlooking Central Park, he gleefully rattled off the sharp differences in staffing. On this topic, he had no doubt that smaller was better. "We had 73 people. She had 873," he estimated. "It's called lean and mean." His numbers understated his staff and overstated hers, but the ever-fluctuating ratio stands at about 6-to-1."My voters don't care and the public doesn't care." He may be right about his voters, but I'm not sure the general public is going to agree that they're cool with just trusting that he'll "do a good job once you're there." Policy schmolicy—we'll just take your word for it!
For Trump, the idea of hiring an aide whom he might never meet is a recipe for waste. "Hillary's campaign is crazy," he continued. "I look at her staffing, and I mean she's got the United States government there." He even mocks her focus on putting out so many policy proposals, a longtime tradition for major party nominees. "She's got people that sit in cubicles writing policy all day. Nothing's ever going to happen. It's just a waste of paper." (The Clinton campaign counts that paper as a point of pride: 73,645 words of policy and counting.)
It's an ironic pose for a businessman who built his brand on flaunting size, wealth and charisma. But it's also a pitch that Trump plans to bring to voters in the fall. A candidate who can run a frugal and effective campaign, he says, can also run a frugal and effective government, though that same frame means he doesn't need to give specifics. "My voters don't care and the public doesn't care," Trump says. "They know you're going to do a good job once you're there." His theory of the race echoes advice given to salesman for Trump University, the shuttered seminar program that is now the subject of class-action lawsuits. "You don't sell products, benefits or solutions," the school's training manual read. "You sell feelings."
I mean, no amount of detailed policy is going to change my mind about Donald Trump (unless it's to give me a yet lower estimation of him, if that's even possible), but I'm not exactly in his target demographic.
Normally, neither are Republican Senators, for example, because the Republican nominee tends to have their support stitched up. Trump doesn't. They're the ones who need some damn policy details. That Trump doesn't get this—or care—is incredible. And, somehow, entirely typical at the same time.
Elizabeth Warren Endorses Hillary Clinton
Last night, on Rachel Maddow's show, Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed Hillary Clinton. And what an endorsement it was!
I think that it's clear now that we need to start thinking about all of us together, and we need to think about the difference between us and the Republicans. That's, for me, what the heart of this is about.(Video here.)
But, you know, I want to add another part to this, because I think it really matters. I like our talking back and forth, but I just want to be sure I get this on the table, and get it on the table early.
Hillary Clinton won. And she won because she's a fighter, she's out there, she's tough. And I think this is what we need.
Look at who she is: For 25 years, she's been taking the incomings, right? The right wing has thrown everything they possibly can at her. And what does she do? A lot of people would just hang up their spurs. They'd say, "You know, I've had enough of this." And she doesn't.
What she's done is she gets back up and she gets back in the fight.
As a Democrat, one of the things that frustrates me the most is there are a lot of times we just don't get in the fight. …You ought to be willing to throw a punch. And there are a lot of things that people say about Hillary Clinton. But nobody says that she doesn't know how to throw a punch.
YES! She also said: "I think having a fighter in the lead, a female fighter in the lead, is exactly what this country needs." Hey, me too!
Her endorsement, by the way, followed a barnstormer of a speech in which she laid waste to Donald Trump yet again. On the same day Vice President Joe Biden also delivered "a blistering appraisal of Donald Trump's unprecedented attacks on the judge presiding over his Trump University case."
Hillary Clinton. President Obama. Michelle Obama. Elizabeth Warren. Joe Biden. Harry Reid. Nancy Pelosi. They're all coming for you, Trump.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 9, 2016
I hope when Republicans hear Warren's scathing indictment of Trump, and her fiery endorsement of Clinton, they remember that she was on their team not so very long ago. And they lost her.
Whoooooooooops.
On another note: Remember how many millions of times some misogynist Bernie harasser in comments here, and everywhere else, and all over social media, claimed that they definitely weren't misogynists because they totes love Elizabeth Warren? And remember how I was all "I bet Senator Elizabeth Warren loves having her name chanted like an incantation by misogynists as proof that they aren't misogynists" and all "Women are always more 'likeable' until they decide to take up more space" and, about a zillion different times in comments, all you only like her in the abstract but as soon as she were running or does something you don't like...
Well, go read the replies to any tweet about Warren endorsing Clinton or the comments on any article about it, and witness the breathtaking misogyny being unleashed at her because she's a "sell-out" and a "traitor." For being a liberal Democratic senator endorsing a liberal Democratic presidential candidate.
And, presumably, for stealing their precious token away from misogynists by actually having the nerve to demonstrate her agency and humanity. By being more than a female name.
Hillary Clinton to Deliver Speech at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund Today
Today, at the Planned Parenthood National Conference in DC, Hillary Clinton will deliver her first speech after clinching the Democratic nomination.
That's right: Clinton's first post-victory speech as the first female presidential nominee of a major party in the nation's history will be to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
As she pivots to the general election, speaking at the Planned Parenthood conference in the nation's capital sends a strong—and unmistakable—message about her priorities.
First: That her commitment to women and families—which has been a centerpiece of her career from her time as an attorney to her tenure as Secretary of State—is unwavering. Access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare has always been a crucial part of the polities she's championed. That hasn't, and will not, change.
Second: That she recognizes the importance of making sure all people who need access to abortion have it. Black women and Latinas, who are disproportionately likely to live in poverty, are also disproportionately likely to have their access to abortion limited by state-level abortion restrictions and by the inability to personally fund abortions. To that end, Clinton will reiterate her support for repealing the Hyde Amendment.
Third: That she has zero tolerance for Republicans' hostility toward abortion and contraception access—or, for that matter, for Donald Trump's contemptible attitudes toward women generally. Get ready for her to bring the fire!
I am very excited that Clinton is making Planned Parenthood her first stop as the nominee. I am grateful to her for making reproductive rights such a visible priority.
This, right here, is why it matters that Clinton is a progressive woman. She understands, as a woman herself, as a person who had to balance family and career, as a mother, as a grandmother, as a boss to other working moms, how important having control of one's reproduction is. She understands what's at stake—how difficult it is to navigate, and to succeed, even when you are parenting children who are very much wanted.
She knows that because she's done it herself, and she knows that because she listens. She listens to other parents, to their struggles. She listens to women who don't want children, to their fears. She listens to pregnant people, to their needs.
Here, for example, is then-Secretary of State Clinton at a Congressional hearing on reproductive rights in 2009, sharing a little bit of what she's learned by listening:
[Full transcript here.]
When I think about the suffering that I have seen of women around the world—I've been in hospitals in Brazil where half the women were enthusiastically and joyfully greeting new babies and the other half were fighting for their lives against botched abortions. I've been in African countries where 12- and 13-year-old girls are bearing children. I have been in Asian countries where the denial of family planning consigns women to lives of oppression and hardship.Clinton is a candidate who carries with her the stories of women she has met all over the globe. Our successes and struggles, our joy and heartbreak. And she doesn't see us as a special interest group, but as half the world's population. Of which she is a part.
...We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health—and reproductive health includes access to abortion.
She recognizes our reproductive healthcare needs as both vast and urgent—and, unlike every other person who has held the office to which she aspires, she does not have the luxury of pretending that these needs are somehow separate, and secondary, to all the other issues being discussed.
When she talks about economic justice, she knows that half the population's economic security is inextricably tied to our ability to control our reproduction.
When she talks about workers' rights, she knows that half the population's employment opportunities and security are inextricably tied to our ability to control our reproduction.
When she talks about foreign policy, she knows that half the population's freedom, or lack thereof, which is inextricably tied to our ability to control our reproduction, can mean the difference between stability or extremism.
Over and over and over, Clinton has spoken about how women are key to peacekeeping. How we must be empowered to participate fully in every nation. How we are wasting half the world's talent when we oppress women. And she knows that all of that is inextricably tied to our ability to control our reproduction.
No other candidate in this election has articulated so clearly a vision of a world in which women are given, must be given, every opportunity to participate, fully and on our own terms.
No one else would make Planned Parenthood their first port of call.
This is what a feminist presidential candidate looks like.
Question of the Day
Who, whether it be an elected Democrat, an activist, a celebrity, or whoever, are you most excited to see speaking out against Donald Trump during the next five months?
Decisions, Decisions
I can't decide which of these is my favorite from President Obama's endorsement video.
I guess I don't have to choose a favorite. I LOVE THEM ALL!
I know, I know. I promise I'll calm down eventually. But y'all know that their friendship is one of my favorite things ever, and so I will probably be a little OVERLY STOKED for awhile.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John: "That's What Friends Are For"
Daily Dose of Cute
So, after I finished reading Paul Feig's Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin, it was just lying on my desk, and, one morning, I found it on the floor. So I put it back on my desk. And the next morning, I found it on the floor.
Basically, Matilda has decided that Superstud is her new BFF, and I find it in a different place on the floor every morning now.
She has always loved carrying around pieces of paper—especially envelopes—parading around the house with them while mewing proudly. But she's never taken a shine to a book before.
That is the magic of Paul Feig, I guess. A favorite even of feminist cats!
* * *
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
OMG. Let the blubbing begin yet again: "Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Thursday welcomed President Barack Obama's endorsement, telling Reuters in an interview that it 'means the world' to her that her former rival has her back in the 2016 campaign. 'It is absolutely a joy and an honor that President Obama and I, over the years, have gone from fierce competitors to true friends,' Clinton said."
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Bernie Sanders headed to DC today to meet with President Obama at the White House, ahead of the President's endorsement of Hillary. I bet that was a fun conversation! Afterwards, he didn't really say anything he hasn't said before: "I look forward to meeting with [Clinton] in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent." Cool. But that doesn't suggest he acknowledges her as the nominee, nor that he'll be supporting her, not merely "working together" with her. If it means he'll stop attacking her, though, that's something.
[CN: Guns] Whoa: "Firearm owners have no constitutional right to carry a concealed gun in public if they face no specific danger, a divided federal appeals court in California ruled on Thursday, in a victory for gun control advocates. The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sets a legal precedent in western states, was seen as unlikely to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future. ...'We hold that the Second Amendment does not protect, in any degree, the carrying of concealed firearms by members of the general public,' Judge William Fletcher wrote in a 52-page opinion." That is a pretty big deal!
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] After Donald Trump used "We Are the Champions" as his entry music at his rally on Tuesday (as if Freddie Mercury wouldn't hate the everloving bejeesus out of Trump), Queen "is exploring legal options" to stop Trump from using their music. Said Brian May: "My personal reaction to Donald Trump using our music? We'd never give permission. We are taking advice on what steps we can take to ensure this use does not continue." Because simply asking Trump not to be a fucking thief who uses other people's property without their consent won't do it.
LOLOLOLOL LOVE: History > bedtime.
[CN: Anti-immigrationism] Oh Republicans: "House Speaker Paul Ryan is unveiling the House Republican national security agenda Thursday... The 23-page document includes broad themes on terrorism, securing the border, strengthening alliances, reforming the State Department and modernizing the military. ...[T]he agenda also contains some gentle pushback to Trump's foreign policy pronouncements—including his border wall with Mexico... House Republicans propose more Border Patrol agents, 'high fencing' and better surveillance." Yeah, fuck that wall! We need "high fencing" instead.
The Sierra Club has endorsed Hillary Clinton: "We firmly believe Secretary Clinton will be the strong environmental champion that we need to lead our country, which is why the Sierra Club is proud to endorse her and her vision for America."
[CN: Transphobia] Another must-read piece on an important legal issue by Imani Gandy: "Dignity Health Sued over Refusal to Offer Insurance Coverage for Transition-Related Care: 'I was shocked when Dignity, which is supposed to be in the business of healing and holds itself out to the public as a bastion of 'human kindness,' told me they would not authorize insurance coverage for my doctor-prescribed treatment,' Joe Robinson said in a statement released by his attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union."
This is a great profile of Kimberly Peeler-Allen and Glynda C. Carr, the co-founders of Higher Heights for America, a group formed to support Black women candidates: "Statistics for Black women in elected office are pretty abysmal. ...Black women's underrepresentation in office comes within the context of their extremely high voting rates. With 64 percent voting in 2008 and 74 percent in 2012, Black women have the highest voter turnout of any race/gender subgroup in the U.S. 'Black women come to the polls because we recognize the importance of government,' says Peeler-Allen. 'I think we're now just coming up on the first generation who may not have someone in their household who was part of the Civil Rights Movement. It's still a really fresh battle to get the right to vote.'"
"You'll soon see four new names on the periodic table of the elements, including three that honor Moscow, Japan, and Tennessee. The names are among four recommended Wednesday by an international scientific group. The fourth is named for a Russian scientist. ...Joining more familiar element names such as hydrogen, carbon and lead are: moscovium (mah-SKOH'-vee-um), symbol Mc, for element 115, and tennessine (TEH'-neh-seen), symbol Ts, for element 117... oganesson (OH'-gah-NEH'-sun), symbol Og, for element 118. The name honors Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian [and] nihonium (nee-HOH'-nee-um), symbol Nh, for element 113. The element was discovered in Japan, and Nihon is one way to say the country's name in Japanese. It's the first element to be discovered in an Asian country."
[CN: Moving gif at link] And finally! "Boy Sneaks into Neighbors' Garage Every Day to Hug Their Dog." Aww lol. This could have had an unhappy ending, but it doesn't! So yay!
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
#WomenTrumpDonald
In other #WomenTrumpDonald news: "Donald Trump has spent his entire life not treating women as his equals. And now he's getting a face full of women who aren't afraid to confront him, won't be intimidated by his juvenile bullying, and can run circles around him: Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren—and now Republican Christine Todd Whitman is joining the chorus." Enjoy!
President Obama Endorses Hillary
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!
Transcript:As I said at BNR: "I thought I was all cried out after Hillary's moving victory speech. But what I failed to consider is what it was going to do to my heart when the nation's first Black president endorsed his party's first female nominee in history."
President Barack Obama, first on camera and then in voiceover, over video of Hillary Clinton and images of them together: For more than a year now, across thousands of miles, and all 50 states, tens of millions of Americans have made their voices heard. Today, I just want to add mine.
I want to congratulate Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
Look, I know how hard this job can be. That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it. In fact, I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She's got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done.
And I say that as somebody who had to debate her more than 20 times.
Even after our own hard-fought campaign, in a testament to her character, she agreed to serve our country as Secretary of State. From the decision we made in the Situation Room to get Bin Laden, to our pursuit of diplomacy in capitals around the world, I have seen her judgment; I've seen her toughness; I've seen her commitment to our values up close. I've seen her determination to give every American a fair shot at opportunity, no matter how tough the fight was.
That's what has always driven her, and it still does.
So I want those of you who've been with me from the beginning of this incredible journey to be the first to know that I'm with her.
I am fired up and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.
I also want to thank everybody who turned out to vote and who worked so hard for our candidates. This has been a hard-fought race. I know some say these primaries have somehow left the Democratic Party more divided. Well, you know, they said that eight years ago as well. But just like eight years ago, there are millions of Americans, not just Democrats, who've cast their ballots for the very first time. And a lot of that is thanks to Senator Bernie Sanders, who has run an incredible campaign. I had a great meeting with him this week, and I thanked him for shining a spotlight on issues like economic inequality and the outsized influence on money in our politics and bringing young people into the process.
Embracing that message is going to help us win in November, but, more importantly, it'll make the Democratic Party stronger, and it will make America stronger.
Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders may have been rivals during this primary, but they're both patriots who love this country and they share a vision for the America we all believe in. An America that's hopeful. An America that's big-hearted. An America that is strong and fair, and gives every child the same chance that we had. Those are the values that unite us as Democrats. Those are the values that make America great.
Those are the values that are going to be tested in this election. And if we all come together in common effort, I'm convinced we won't just win in November, we'll build on the progress that we've made and we will win a brighter future for this country that we love.
[Onscreen: Hillary's campaign logo]
As soon as I heard him say "I'm with her," I completely lost it. ♥
I'm with her, too, Mr. President!
Unity Comes Slowly But Surely, and in Spite of Outlying Harassers
[Content Note: Harassment.]
I've got a new piece up at BNR on the contingent of Bernie supporters who are harassing female reporters and writers, and how they won't prevent Democratic unity, no matter how hard they may try:
The harassment has come via phone, email, and social media from self-identified Bernie supporters. Though there has been well-documented and sustained harassment of (particularly female, and especially women of color) Hillary supporters and/or Bernie critics throughout this primary, there was an escalation with a focus on reporters following the AP's announcement that Hillary had enough combined delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.Head on over to read the whole thing.
To be clear: This is a very small minority of Bernie supporters. There is a larger majority (71 versus 64 percent) of Bernie supporters who say they support Hillary in the general than Hillary supporters who said they would support then-candidate Barack Obama at this time in 2008. "And yes, it did take time, but those skeptical Clinton supporters did gradually come around to help elect Obama."
...Unity came slowly but surely then, and it will come slowly but surely this time because the fact is this: Hillary and Bernie are both progressives, whose primary difference is in approach, not in beliefs. Hillary is a pragmatic progressive who knows how to work the system to get things done, and most progressive people will come to see that, if they don't already.
One thing Clinton's nomination has made abundantly clear: You might be able to intimidate some women into silence, but you can't stop us in the voting booth. If anything, you just make us more damn determined to show up when it really counts.
An Observation
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Yesterday, I read some cool articles by dudes who have recently (in the last 48 hours) discovered that Hillary Clinton is actually quite a good politician, a solid candidate, and/or well-liked by many people!
These remarkable articles with their totally trenchant observations were widely spread among progressives, with enthusiastic exhortations about how they were soooooo great.
Sure. They were amazing.
It's always amazing to me to see dudes getting props for saying shit that I—and other feminist women, and our allies—have been saying for weeks and months and literally years.
I've been making the case for quite some time, ahem, that Clinton is a savvy politician and a great candidate and a likeable person who is liked by many people who like her.
But, in the same familiar pattern that happens with all sorts of feminist writing, any woman who says something for years and years, who establishes herself as an expert on a subject, gets pegged as uncredible—compromised by virtue of her womanhood and attendant "lack of objectivity."
I'm just a stupid shill. But some rando non-feminist dude suddenly notices that Hillary Clinton is not, in fact, history's greatest monster, and he's instantly credible. He says the same shit I've been saying, and suddenly he's the belle of the fucking ball.
Because my having been in it, at no small cost, for years was the very reason that I was written off as a fangirl who can't be taken seriously.
This is exhausting. It is demoralizing. And it is sexist as fuck.
What Is Even Happening?
[Content Note: Bigotry.]
On the day Hillary Clinton was making history, Donald Trump was making a pee-pee joke. Which is part of the reason why the Republican Party is in utter disarray, with some Republicans actually un-endorsing Trump (as though they only just became aware that the man whose opening salvo in his candidacy was "Mexicans are rapists" is a racist nightmare) and others desperately trying to defend their support of him with the faintest of praise, like Newt Gingrich offering "Trump is learning, a gifted amateur."
It's truly something to behold. I mean, get a load of Arizona Senator Jeff Flake—yes, this Jeff Flake—on Trump:
Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona says there is "some mixture of fear and loathing" of Donald Trump among his Senate colleagues.Trump is so toxic he's got Jeff freaking Flake sounding like an intersectional feminist.
Flake, who has said he will not vote for his party's presumptive nominee, criticized Trump for appealing to what he called white "identity politics."
Flake also noted "there's not a lot of enthusiasm" for Trump in the Senate Republican caucus. (How about fully eleventy millions stories on that enthusiasm gap, media?) And added: "To have somebody from the party of Lincoln play with the identity politics that he's been playing with, basically saying that if you are descendant of Mexican heritage that you're disqualified to sit in judgment with someone who might disagree with your positions. It's just wrong. It's just wrong."
Now, let's be perfectly clear: It's not like the Republican Party objects to racism, misogyny, and sundry other bigotries. Upholding privilege is the centerpiece of their platform. This isn't newfound decency, but familiar opportunism.
Still. That's how egregious Trump's bigotry really is. After decades of running on a platform that trades on fearmongering, scapegoating, and dogwhistling, Trump has gone so far beyond their already highly objectionable bigotry that many of them wouldn't take a selfie with him for ten wishes from the bootstraps fairy.
And it's only going to get worse. Because I guarantee you that Team Clinton didn't blow their oppo load in the first days of the general election. Trump University is only the beginning.
