{"id":73652,"date":"2014-01-25T12:01:36","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T17:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=73652"},"modified":"2014-01-26T12:40:05","modified_gmt":"2014-01-26T17:40:05","slug":"how-much-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/planet-waves-fm\/how-much-longer\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Longer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But then I remember the old saying, “Behind every great woman there’s a man. . . trying to force an ultrasound while cutting her pay.”<\/em><\/p>\n

–Lizz Winstead, comedian and co-creator of The Daily Show<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here in the Pea Patch, most everything has come to a full halt. Below zero wind chill and temperatures in the single digits surely have a dampening effect on any but the most necessary activities. This is Missouri’s second pass at arctic temps this season. A third is due next week, and I worry about the locals. There’s usually just enough in the rural bare-bones budget to handle food and meds, but not extraordinary costs like doubled heating bills or — now that corporate America has discovered heady profits exporting fracked natural gas overseas — overpriced propane. Adding to the angst, this extreme weather doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to move along.<\/p>\n

\"Political And that’s not all that’s not moving along. It seems to me that politically, we’ve come to rest — briefly, I trust — in a place I’m titling “rock and hard spot, part deux.” A lot has changed in our national consciousness these last months, but, all too typically, a clear way forward remains as calcified as long buried brontosaurus bones. Meanwhile, important movement toward civil liberties and social investments is falling back to another round of budget wars, an ambitious new\u00a0infusion of Koch money<\/a>\u00a0and doubled-down Republican strategy.<\/p>\n

Those of us that have been trying to change the conversation from same-old, same-old for over a decade have finally settled into a populist demographic, thanks to massive failure of the conservative party — for, lo, these many years — to serve any but the most elite on the social\/financial spectrum. Still, the 20-odd percent of those still claiming loyalty to the GOP remain as tone deaf and resistant to the evidence around them as they were when they declared pre-election triumph in 2012.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After internalizing that resounding drubbing, the Republican party decided it needed a face lift. Taking several weeks to digest their shock that nobody wanted the Mittster as their president, the Pubs barely whimpered last year, around this time, when Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal told them they must “stop being the stupid party.”<\/p>\n

Mainstream leaders talked about widening the tent, making it a welcome place for immigrants and women, leaving “purity” behind in order to capture a larger share of votes to sweep them into the Oval Office. And while that sounded like reality finally dawning in the hallowed halls of the Grand Old Party, thus far, government-whacking Baggers have kept the upper hand, their mainly rural and mostly religious point of view leeching out to color the whole of the conservative movement, keeping them on point.<\/p>\n

Here’s the good news, even if it doesn’t yet have legs. Even though the Talking Heads keep telling us how equally divided we are in this nation, well over 50 percent of the voting public heartily disapproves both Republican tactics and austerity measures, leaving the smoke and mirror machines to obscure the fact that the system itself is out of kilter, allowing the slimmest margin of political thought to hold the nation — and the world — in thrall.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, they can’t win. The numbers — and time — work against them. Pubs haven’t won a popular vote in this nation in several elections, and their limited understanding of what it will take to recreate themselves finds them still focused on putting space between themselves and the black guy, even if it makes them abandon their own cause and look like boobs.<\/p>\n

Today, for instance, the RNC came out against the NSA spying program — clearly all Obama’s doing — and called for amendment to the Patriot Act. “Wait, what?” you ask. “Are you kidding?”\u00a0Au contraire<\/em>. All those things the Pub brand has proven true of them in these last years — systemic class intolerance, religious and corporate favoritism, patriarchal and authoritarian militancy, a sprinkling of paranoid xenophobia — all that must be countered if they are to get out from under the elitist banner their own actions and allegiances have wrapped them in. And, except for puzzling reaction like this awkward NSA resolution, the party has been unable to figure out how to go against its own materialistic interests without hurting its profit margin.<\/p>\n

They seem to catch occasional flashes of light from their mirrors, but they can’t quite nail down a more palatable self-image. Unwilling to tread on their actual Holy Grail — the Free Market — there is only one place where they can afford to swing a cat: culture issues. At their recent RNC winter meeting, Mike Huckabee (former Arkansas Governor, presidential candidate, Baptist minister and friend to\u00a0FOX News<\/em>) chided them to be careful of their purity tests if they want to win in 2016. He also attempted to redirect accusations of repressing women’s rights back on the Dems, telling his followers that, \u201cRepublicans don\u2019t have a war on women. We\u2019re having a war for women. To empower them to be something other than victims of their gender.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he was truly interested in bringing women into the conservative fold, he probably should have stopped right there, pretending to champion the females in the audience, but once you’re on a roll — well, you know. Mike, who is a darling of evangelicals, just couldn’t keep himself from\u00a0adding a few words<\/a>\u00a0about Obamacare’s funding of contraceptives, words good Christian women everywhere would surely understand:<\/p>\n

If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them […] a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it. Let\u2019s take that discussion all across America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh my! What a terrible shock it is to find I have an Uncle Sugar who is taking care of me, encouraging me to do all kinds of things that might\u00a0not be very nice<\/a>\u00a0by providing me with something that tempts my naughty parts to go all tingly and out of control! And imagine my surprise to find that Uncle Huck, who had no problem insisting on contraceptive coverage when he was Governor of Arkansas, only wants to help me by keeping temptation out of my oh-so-naive little hands (unless I get preggers, of course, and then I’m obviously just a slut.)<\/p>\n

I suppose there are women out there who will buy that argument for a buck, but if they do they’ve missed the point that they’re still getting permission from someone — in this case, not just a male but a politician — to rethink the slim parameters of their Saint\/Slut definition. They will be required to presume that they are unable to make those choices for themselves, and that in order to be considered a responsible human being, they will have to find and dutifully take their place in the hierarchy of conservative thought. Even worse, they will have to admit admiration for the genius that not only advised a nation of such insipid pap but stands behind it.<\/p>\n

I suspect that many of those who worship in the sanctuary of the Fair and Balanced — or perhaps, whose menfolk do and let them in on the absolutes, after the fact — aren’t ready for any kind of self-awareness on this issue, and that’s pretty remarkable, really, when all around them the mirrors are flashing, decisions are going forward that point out their antiquated sociology and repressive theology. I do understand that they refuse to make the leap for fear of — you know — their immortal souls, bless their bony heads. The most important step in their enlightenment will not be reconsidering their position on sexuality, it’s letting go of fear in order to do so.<\/p>\n

I saw a brief bit on cable news the other night, a woman who was heading up a pro-life protest. The look on her face, her demeanor, was similar to that of some “freshly medicated” addicts I know. She was certain, she said enthusiastically, that the nation had finally come to its tipping point on abortion. The polls showed, she asserted, that the majority of American’s were against taking the life of the unborn. She noted that the brain-dead, pregnant woman being kept alive by a Texas hospital that refused to terminate despite the family’s wishes was a clear sign that the fetus came first. The interviewer mentioned that there were some concerns about the health of the fetus, but the woman brushed past that, already celebrating a clear win seen only in her own mind. (Tests have since found the fetus\u00a0no longer viable<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

And — although she may have convinced some who watched her — she’s dead wrong regarding Roe being tipped. The majority of Americans believe decisions about pregnancy and abortion are best left to each individual woman, her family and physician. Need a reminder? The Pubs’ 2012 attempt to capture authority on the issue of women’s reproductive health lost them the women’s vote by resounding numbers and brought more than a million\u00a0new members to Emily’s List<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According\u00a0to Huffy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Forty-one years after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Roe vs. Wade, two-thirds of the American population believe that decisions on abortion should be made between a woman, her family and her doctor, according to a HuffPost\/YouGov poll conducted last week.<\/p>\n

But a majority of the country’s elected officials see things differently. Only 40 percent of Congress, one-third of all governors and a quarter of state legislatures support the legal right to have an abortion, according to a new report by NARAL Pro-Choice America. More than half of elected officials fully oppose legal abortion, a position held by only 14 percent of Americans, while a small fraction of lawmakers have a mixed voting record on the issue.<\/p>\n

The American public has long been evenly split on abortion from an ideological perspective. The new poll finds that 48 percent think abortion should be generally or always legal, while 47 percent think it should be generally or always illegal. But even among those who think abortion should be generally illegal, more think it should be legal in some circumstances (33 percent) than think it should be banned entirely (14 percent).<\/p>\n

And the new poll suggests that a strong majority of Americans think those exceptions should not be defined by politicians, but by women themselves. Sixty-four percent said “decisions about abortion should be made by a woman and her doctor,” while 24 percent said that “government has a right and obligation to pass restrictions on abortion.” Only 35 percent said they would be in favor of Congress passing new restrictions on abortion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know all this. Clearly, astrological readers are going to be painfully aware of the dynamics with which our secular nation has been pummeled by Christian orthodoxy. But I think it’s important to clarify the dichotomy of religious\/secular thought that still creeps into both our conversation and our consciousness. We are not a Christian nation and — tricky little step here — we are not NOT a Christian nation. We are not either\/or, we are both\/and, and to suppose ourselves defined so narrowly, one way or another,\u00a0does not dignify our expanding humanity.<\/p>\n

We are a big diverse multicultural nation that encompasses many religions and belief systems, including numerous different interpretations of Christian thought, and NONE of these should contribute to any political agenda. It is tragic that we’ve given away the clearly drawn barriers that for so long kept the callow and cynical from hijacking religious fundamentalism for the perpetuation of an elitist corporate agenda. That should, by now, be so obvious as to insult each and every thoughtful citizen of this nation.<\/p>\n

In response to the Huckabee commentary, a female RNC member from West Virginia responded, with typical lack of nuance, that, “We don’t need to move away from our core values. We need to more clearly communicate those values.” No, it’s not her party values that need to be clarified, we’ve already seen them in action. They’re a muddied amalgam of religious taboos, financial loopholes and fear for the future. And held hostage to big money driving the political equation, the Dems aren’t much better at this point.<\/p>\n

It’s time for some democratic values, human values that support\u00a0and treasure our differences as well as our similarities. Rel<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>igion should NEVER have been part of our political conversation. Asking any potential candidates about their religious belief should only be a point of interest in assessing their style and manner. The Constitution of the United States is the document they will be required to swear fealty to, and the Bill of Rights their list of commandments. These are the higher aspirations of the United States of America. We are badly in need of a renewal of separation of church and state, if we are to survive the critical ethical challenges of our day.<\/p>\n

There is no other reason but religious to deny contraception insurance. There is no valid rationale to keep a decomposing woman ‘alive’ as incubator to a first-trimester fetus. I think it’s clear that the coming Aquarian signature of this new Era will help illuminate and then codify a new way forward on this kind of murky cultural discussion, but it is in our best interests to engage that conversation right now.<\/p>\n

We will not find an effective way into the 21st century until women everywhere understand that they need defend their sexual choices to no one, nor is their worth defined by them. That’s the bare minimum required before we can even begin a discussion about an Equal Rights Amendment that would create women as legal equals to the men of the planet, and that can be dismissed no longer.<\/p>\n

We’ve come a long way, baby, but we’re not there yet. It’s ridiculous to still be fighting such a battle for modernity in this nation. How can we stake a claim for the dignity of humanity and end to tribalism when we can’t even come to mutual respect among the sexes? As we start a new era, such an obsolete concept as gender superiority has had its day and the frightened old
\nmen on this planet better just step back.<\/span> Huckabee can go pound salt, but you and I, we’ve only just begun.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: A Texas judge has ordered our brain-dead sister to be removed <\/a>from artificial life support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves But then I remember the old saying, “Behind every great woman there’s a man. . . trying to force an ultrasound while cutting her pay.” –Lizz Winstead, comedian and co-creator of The Daily Show Here in the Pea Patch, most everything has come to a full halt. Below zero … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1735],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}