cathyw | Entries tagged with us politics

I've talked about how the Republicans aren't good faith partners in democracy... but that's not the problem, the problem is that the political classes among Deep Southern whites were never good faith partners in democracy, and even the Tidewater gentry wanted to limit it to their idealized-to-the-point-of-myth "yeoman farmer".

We can't shame Mississippi into improving their health and education systems (or their representatives into improving the nation's) by pointing out "you're dead last" because the political class among Deep Southern whites is somewhere between "doesn't care" (those who deserve education and medical care will still get it) and "actively hostile" (why are we wasting tax money on education and medical care for the rabble???)

I've also talked about how the "heritage" of the Appalachians has nothing to do with the Confederate battle flag, that the forebears of the Appalachian people who wave that flag fought for the Union - but it does accurately represent their "heritage" of screaming "you're not the boss of me!!!" at anyone who seems to be telling them what to do. Fly that flag, boys, I won't argue with you anymore. (My heritage is still "shooting at people flying that flag" though...)

And then (and ask me how many times I heard this from my half-Appalachian mom) there's the resentment politics of "they are getting something for free that I had to work my ass off for." ("If we had a bigger budget for freebies, you could have gotten it for free too..." "No, I'm proud of how hard I work! Everything I have, I got on my own...") (and I guess that's still better than 'The Company gave me everything I have and I'm grateful for it')

and meanwhile my Yankee ass is up here like "what do you mean deserve education and medical care???" "what do you mean, 'on my own'? you went to public schools, you drive on public roads, the government insures your bank deposits and makes sure the people who sell your food aren't poisoning you...")

We used to find common ground to agree on even if we had to straight up make some up. The Supreme Court used to occasionally make us put on a get-along shirt. (Mileage varied as to whether the Yankees or the Deep South got to decide which way we were collectively going...) But there doesn't seem to be the willingness to do that anymore, and the Supreme Court is definitely letting the Deep South steer right now...

How can we have a functional society when a third of the people don't even agree that we live in one?

Current Mood: pessimistic

am reading Colin Woodard's "American Nations" and while I have not completed the book yet these are my thoughts so far:
- the politics of the American Revolution were a lot more complicated than either my high school history classes or the movie 1776 let on
- also the Civil War
- like nobody ever talked about how outside the Tidewater gentry and their fascination with yeoman farmers the Southern elites were somewhere between 'suspicious of' and 'actively opposed to' democracy and said this out loud?
- also nobody ever talked about what led up to the Whiskey Rebellion (and how it was Alexander Hamilton's fault), only that George Washington gloriously put it down, but Woodard at least gives the impression it was justified?
- I knew racism almost prevented the annexation of Hawai'i but I did not know that racism actually did prevent the annexation of most of Mexico in the 1840s (paraphrase: 'yes, we will take Texas and some of the border territories where there are already a lot of Americans living but... while we have validly conquered the rest of Mexico we do not want to be in charge of all these icky brown people, go about your business.')
- Appalachian folks: 'we hate all of you but we will team up with the enemies of the ones we hate most to fight them' - yeah that tracks (and for all that Appalachian people now loudly wave the Confederate battle flag and scream 'this is our heritage!!!!', in the Civil War the ones they hated most were the Deep South planter elites, ever so slightly more than they hated the Yankee busybodies, so they joined the Union army, even forming an Alabama unit)
- also in fairness given that most others held a view of Appalachia that boiled down to 'my god you are barbarians, have you considered civilizing yourselves according to my preferred model' I kind of see where that comes from?

- it is a miracle the United States has held together for 200+ years and in my cynical moments I wonder if it might not have been better if it hadn't

Current Mood: thoughtful

So, I was Team Liz, 100%, all the way. I know *she was not perfect*, but she seemed to share my vision of what government was for: to assure that the benefits of living in a society reached everyone in it.

She's still on my ballot. I still might vote for her.

Meanwhile my brain has been torturing the "driving America off a cliff" metaphor a bit - the one where Trump is driving America off a cliff and a third of the passengers are cheering him on, either because they have crash suits or because they're willing to risk a broken leg if the people they don't like on the other side of the bus die. Out of the two remaining "viable" candidates...
- A lot of people like Joe's odds of steering the bus successfully because he sat next to the last driver who was any good and watched him. Joe seems to think he can work with Team Cliff, and doesn't seem to recognize that they've jammed a rock under the brake. His plan is to give the wheel a slight nudge to the left, which is likely to leave one wheel dangling over the edge and require a few people to be jettisoned for balance. He might listen to people telling him to turn the wheel just a little more, but it's not guaranteed.
- Bernie has driven a moped before, which is sort of almost kind of close enough? Bernie may or may not know the rock is under the brake, but he doesn't really care. He can just yank the wheel hard to the left and do a skid turn away from the cliff, and then we all get to drive off safely. For this to work out almost everyone needs to smush together on the left side of the bus. Almost everyone who believes he can actually do this without flipping the bus has already smushed, and he's working on a few people who are willing to chance it, but Team Cliff will not smush under any circumstances and they're busy telling everyone who will listen that Bernie *wants* to flip the bus, and a lot of the passengers believe that even if he doesn't outright *want* to flip the bus, he's not a good enough driver to avoid it. He does not like back-seat drivers; he is going to turn the wheel exactly the amount he thinks it needs to be turned.

I would like a driver who can steer away from the cliff firmly enough that nobody has to be thrown overboard but gently enough that nobody is worried about the bus flipping. I'm not getting one? so I think my best course of action is to work on getting the rock out from under the brake pedal.

Current Mood: disappointed

We've heard about the hair-sniffing thing, right? Lucy Flores, whose campaign rally Biden attended in support of her, said he made her "uncomfortable" when he came up behind her, sniffed her hair, and kissed her on the back of her head. She didn't think he did anything illegal, she didn't feel as though he'd assaulted her, but she felt like her personal space had been invaded. And the Interwebz got all, well, a-twitter about it. "Is this his #MeToo moment?" "Oh, come on, it's not like he grabbed her pussy..." "Oh, come on, that's just how Joe is..." "Her personal space? Should I have the next guy who stands too close to me in line arrested?"

The thing is, there's a lot of space between "sexual assault" and "okay", especially when you consider the context.

We Americans don't necessarily stand on a lot of formality, even in the workplace. We call our bosses and even their bosses by their first names. But there's still a line or two we don't cross. For example, we tend to greet each other with handshakes in professional settings.

Hugs are just a little too personal, too familiar, for most work or business relationships - especially when initiated by the person with more power or status. A kiss on the cheek, even more so. Maybe okay, depending on the person, depending on the relationship - but very dependent on the personal preferences of the person being hugged or kissed? Even outside work, it's better offered than assumed to be welcome.

Touching a woman's hair, face, maybe shoulder depending on how you do it? that's getting past "familiar" into "intimate". Especially if you're coming up from behind her and doing it by surprise. (See also: George W Bush giving Angela Merkel a backrub.) Sniffing her hair - again, having come up behind her? A tender kiss to the back of the head? So intimate, so personal, that you should probably not do it to any woman you are not actively dating, and not at a WORK EVENT. Not ever.

So... okay, yeah, if you want to make the distinction, it's not like he walked up to Lucy Flores (or anyone else who has made this claim) and grabbed her boob and stuck his tongue down her throat. But he did - in a professional, work-related setting - initiate intimate physical contact, by surprise. At a minimum, if these claims bear out - and this is not the first time I'm hearing about hair-sniffing! - he feels no obligation to behave professionally towards women he has status advantage over. And maybe it's true that it's just "Joe being Joe", that he's done this all his life, that nobody's ever called him on it before, but that doesn't make it okay.

It also means Joe... might have some work to do. If he wants to go down as America's Cool Uncle instead of America's Creepy Uncle, he's got to... stop talking and listen, which I understand is a tall order. He's got to accept that it isn't okay. And he's got to find a different way to relate to women.

And maybe he's got to not run for President this time around.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

You know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, if I'm getting her story right, is someone the GOP should be holding up as a success story.

"See? Her parents worked hard. They grabbed every opportunity to get an education for their daughter, even if it meant long hours at menial labor. And she herself put in the work to get into one of the nation's elite colleges. And now she's been elected to Congress."

I mean, that's some serious bootstrap-pulling action going on, right? This is exactly what they say you're supposed to do. Work hard, work as hard as you can, and you'll make it out of poverty, plus you'll be setting your kids up for a better life, they'll get a good education and go on to better jobs than you could have hoped for...

Instead they're taking every chance to discredit her - especially the idea that her family was poor when she was young? They're disputing the very idea that she could have possibly worked her way from that background to Congress? (Meanwhile their own candidates are being presented as "real people" despite getting by on inherited wealth - remember Mitt Romney explaining that he was so poor in college he had to sell some of the stock he'd been given as a wedding gift, one share at a time, to pay the rent? My heart bleeds.) And... oh, my gosh, did you hear she went by Sandy in high school? And may have danced in public once or twice???

The thing is, she did the wrong thing once she hit the elite level. She was supposed to embrace her new privilege, pull up the ladder behind her, hold herself up as an example of "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, anyone can do it"... and she didn't. Instead she was more like, "no, man, I did it, it was freaking hard, not anyone can do it, I'm the exception not the rule, you shouldn't have to work three times as hard as anyone else to get an education and opportunity if your parents are poor, gotta build more ladders."

Qu'elle horreur...

Meanwhile, she gives all appearances of being absolutely wonderful; she is not 100% perfect, she has flaws, but I believe she is absolutely genuine about wanting to make improvements in the day-to-day lives of both the residents of her district and all Americans. (Also her social media game is very strong.) Best of luck to her.