Motley Moose – Archive

Today’s weather was bearable, for February in Michigan. The temperature was around 27°F and the air was calm when Al and I headed out for our walk. Our neighbor, Beau, who you met in an earlier diary, must have been craning his neck to see us as soon as possible. He practically sprinted out of his house before we even reached his driveway. Something was obviously up.

I’ve known Beau for a few months now, ever since he moved here from Mississippi. I know him well enough to recognize when he’s wearing a smug grin. It didn’t take long to find out what had put it there.

The votes in the Senate came down 60-40, as expected. Not one, not a single Republican voted for health care reform, not even GOP “turncoat” Snowe. Despite all the concessions — all the revisions — not one Republican cast a vote in favor of the American people early this morning. That is why I will stand beside Barack Obama and his allies on this bill. Not because I like the bill personally. Certain aspects of it already horrify me, and I haven’t even read the thing yet. But I will stand beside it because it is, at this time, the best we can do — and because it is likely better than we will be able to do in a year’s time. The people hollering “Kill the bill!” are as unrealistic as the ones who thought Ron Paul had a shot at the White House. The last time health care reform died in Congress, we didn’t get another shot at it for over a decade. What makes anyone think it will be any different next time around?

And the only reason we’ve gotten so far this time?

Exhausted, actually.

It’s used against Democratic politicians by their opponents during elections, and now it’s being used against all of us in the health care debate. What’s worse, it is Democratic Senators and Representatives who are holding health care for ransom, their votes for reform contingent upon greater restrictions on my body and my rights. A few weeks ago, I watched the House vote to limit my reproductive freedom in such ways as were legally possible, and now I am watching the Senate haggle over my options as well. Why is this acceptable in our society? Why do I have to limit my choices and see my autonomy over my own body compromised because of the wishes of a bunch of stuffy old men? Why are my rights subject to their whims?

I have waited to write this diary because I knew I needed to cool off. The health care debate has been a rollercoaster for months now, and the up-down-left-right topsy-turvy nature of the whole ordeal has been turning my stomach for a long time. Over the months, we’ve been bombarded with a dazzling and dizzying array of mixed messages. I’ve allowed myself, at times, to become as hysterical as the worst alarmists in the blogosphere, and just yesterday morning, I was ready to get up in front of all of you to curse Reid, condemn Obama, and prophesy doom. (Not my finest moment, admittedly.) But as I examine and reexamine the dialogue on this issue, my moods and thoughts are as wildly mercurial as the volatile health care debate itself. I have been torn and troubled all along, but the latest news from the Hill has me more perplexed and conflicted than ever. More mixed messages, more obstruction, more disputes — more infighting, alarm, compromises, concessions: A sea of contradictions, contravention, and confusion, well-poised to overwhelm and unravel even the steadiest among us.

So how do we navigate these roiling waters?  

To start with, let me be clear: The oppression and general subjugation of women is not an exclusively Republican issue. The Stupak-Pitts amendment, which is an attack on women’s reproductive rights and was drafted by a Democrat from Michigan, makes that clear. Nor is the oppression and subjugation of women even an exclusively male issue. I don’t want to get into an argument about the “blame the victim” mindset, but the fact is, a lot of women adhere and/or contribute to the doctrine of male domination. Now, is that because they have been indoctrinated to do so? Sure. However, the same can be said of sexist men. Despite all the calls for political correctness and the efforts of feminists throughout the country and the world, everyone who has grown up in the United States has been influenced, in one way or another, by the pervasive and prevailing mindset of masculine domination. Some of us are more resistant to indoctrination than others, but few, if any, are entirely immune. We are all subject to the influences of gender stereotyping, no matter how careful our parents may have been to prevent it. Every day, we are inundated with indoctrinating images and ideas, through television, literature, music, and innumerable other mediums. What is most important isn’t that we are completely free of assumptions about the opposite sex, or even our own, but that we strive to understand the causes and effects of sexism and rail against it when we perceive it.

I think it’s a reasonably well accepted fact among educated individuals that Republicans aren’t known for believing in or supporting women’s rights. Whether it’s the traditional party policy of standing against a woman’s right to choose, conservative gubernatorial candidates joking that rape victims should “relax and enjoy it,” presidential nominees voting against equal pay legislation for women, or the unofficial GOP spokesperson Rush Limbaugh himself popularizing the term “feminazi” to describe women who refuse to live their lives barefoot and pregnant in front of the oven, Republicans have come up with plenty of creative ways to demean women and oppose gender equality.

Image from Republicans For Rape

I just heard Representative David Dreier, Republican of California and Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, say that the $50 Million in the Stimulus Bill allotted to the National Endowment for the Arts was “not stimulative.”

I have to take issue here, and, as an example, I will point to my little village of Shepherdstown, West Virginia (at the last census with a population of 800). We’re about an hour and a half from Washington DC or an hour from Baltimore, and our local Shepherd University is the home of a wonderful arts event, The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) which will enter its nineteenth season this year.

Getting older has quite a few drawbacks, namely the aches and pains that come from an abused body, but it also has some benefits. One of those benefits is a lifetime of experience and memories. That bank of memories tends to keep older people from getting too excited about the newest fad. If anyone is entitled to co-opt the phrase, “Been there, done that”, it’s older people with lots of life experiences. Perhaps that’s why the only age group that failed to go overwhelmingly for Obama was the older age group.

Because I am a member of that older age group, my political experience goes back quite a bit. The Presidential election of 1964 was my first direct involvement with politics. I was 17 years old that year. Like most young people at the time, I was devastated by JFK’s assassination. Because of that desolation, it was easy to back his party in the ’64 election. It didn’t hurt that LBJ’s opponent seemed like a scary whacko. Politics was in my blood.

We were successful in 1964. Although I was too young to vote in that election, I had great hopes for the future. Today, I can only shake my head at such naivety. Unfortunately, in the 10 elections that were held from 1968 to 2004 I’ve only voted for the winner once – Bill Clinton in 1996. None of the choices I had over the years were what I would call inspiring. In fact, I haven’t felt inspired by a politician since the death of Bobby Kennedy.

(Update: CNN now puts Merkley ahead by 10,000 votes with about 80% of precincts reporting.  The Oregonian calls the race, although AP, burned once before in MN, holds off.  That’s one down and three to go.)

I’m sure I’m not the only one that was extremely disappointed with the lackluster Senate results yesterday.  For the time being it seems that the most likely result is a lower than expected 56 seats for the Democratic caucus.  It’s a respectable majority, but keep in mind that the GOP used a record 104 filibusters in the 110th congress, and there’s no reason to believe their further marginalization in the 111th will make them more compliant.  Sure, we’ll pick off enough few moderates to get things done, but not without serious watering down of most bills.  Large scale reforms of the kind Obama was elected to implement like universal health care don’t stand a chance.

But all hope is not lost, as there are still four seats that are not officially decided.  Two of them won’t be for a month at least.  If Democrats somehow sweep all of them, we can still hope against hope to hit that magic number.  Each seat  seems to favor the republican to be sure, but we stand a reasonable chance of picking off at least one.  

As of this morning convicted felon Ted Stevens looks to have pulled off an extremely improbable (Nate Silver’s final projection was 0%.) re-election by about 3,300 votes, but it turns out that thousands of ballots cast early haven’t been counted yet — turnout is impossibly low.  I trust the Palin administration about as far as I can throw it, and after her prior abuses of power, I’m afraid this election might already have been stolen.  I also don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that Palin would to appoint herself to the Senate after Stevens is kicked out.  She couldn’t be much worse than old ‘tubes’, but I was really hoping to have seen the last of her until she announces her candidacy for 2012.  (Update: thanks to chrisblask for pointing out this post from Mudflats with more info on the remaining votes.  It also makes the claim that the AK Supreme court has ruled that the governor can’t appoint a replacement senator.  So the question seems to be: will Begich pull it off or do we have a special election coming up?)

Associated Press called the Minnesota race for Republican Norm Coleman, then retracted the call after deciding that the razor thin 572-vote spread is small enough to be affected by the mandatory recount.  Despite some early boasting by Minnesota officials of their ability to perform a very speedy recount, it now appears that it will take a month or more.  Plenty of time to make sure there weren’t any irregularities, not to mention check into that questionable $75,000 contribution.

Georgia incumbent Saxby Chambliss dropped below 50% ever so slightly while the last votes were being counted, triggering a runoff election to take place in December.  His Democratic opponent Jim Martin lost by about the number of votes third party candidate Allan Buckley received, although as a Libertarian, a majority of his votes will likely go to the Republican in the runoff.  It will be tough to turn out GA voters in December without Obama’s substantial coattails, but we can expect democrats to pour massive resources into this race.  We essentially have a second chance here in a race that we can now concentrate on exclusively, with the potential for president-elect Obama to play a role in the campaign.  According to TPM, volunteers are already flocking south for what promises to be a spirited contest if nothing else.

Finally, Oregon is still up in the air, with turnout improbably low compared to 2004, a margin of about 7,000 when 30% of votes haven’t been counted yet, many of which are in heavily democratic precincts.  This was another seat heavily leaning blue, so it’s surprising that Smith is the favorite at the moment.

The more seats we have the more we can get done.  Americans may favor divided government, but Obama was elected in a landslide because Americans want real change, not a bunch of wishy-washy compromise bills that take weeks to hash out.  This election is far from over.  There’s not all that much we can do about the races, other than donate to the Democratic party to help it with potential court costs and GOTV ground operations in Georgia.  A filibuster-proof majority is just within our reach, and our arms have been growing steadily longer in recent years.  The 111th congress is poised to be one of the most progressive in years, but a 60 vote majority is our best opportunity to make truly historic sweeping changes.  

Watch these races like your country depends on them.

Another day of WTF as everyone tries to figure out what this complete financial and political debacle means for their homes, their jobs, and their pensions.

A bit of historical insight from Howard Fineman which some of you might have missed in yesterday’s welter of bad economic news: Bailout Ushers in the Era of Obama