When GOP wins; we all lose

I know we all kind of expected it. But I think my coworker said it best, “Whose excited about elections results?” in the saddest voice ever with slumped shoulders. So the GOP took the House and Senate, which was pretty much expected, and in Maryland the GOP took back state Governor.

A few things, yes mom, I still have a job. Larry Hogan isn’t going to dissolve our contract with the state…he can’t. We are protected by the Legislature. Now, if they turned on us, we’d have to talk.

Second, time to show your colors, conservatives. My coworker and I were talking about how well, if they are going to win now they have to take a stance. Remember when I was bitching about how the GOP controlled House kept passing anti-choice legislation? Everyone kept telling me (and I’m looking at some of you specifically with narrow eyes and general disgust on my face) it will never pass the Senate. Well, now it will pass the Senate. See these GOP Senators are going to have to take a stance or risk not being reelected. So bring on the anti-choice legislation kids, because we’re about to watch the US Congress try to systematically take control of women’s lives and bodies and the disenfranchise people of color. Couple this with the Supreme Court shit show, we’re in for something alright.

The final count is 52 Republicans and 44 Democrats in the Senate with 243 Republicans and 174 Democrats in the House. John Kasich remains Ohio’s Governor, and Wendy Davis lost Texas.  On the good side of things, Baltimore City expanded collective bargaining, and voters fought back personhood amendments in a few states.

Breaking the GOP still doesn’t know how to talk to women, and somehow this is still news

Last week this was everywhere, and for good reason of course. The idea that talking to women like they are you know people, and somehow requires some special training makes it seem as though women aren’t people. Of course, we all remember the GOP says ridiculously stupid things about women, rape, abortion, sexual assault, etc. Damn, feels like that list should be longer.

We also know that the GOP has resorted to gerrymandering instead of developing policies and positions that endear them and demonstrate their interest in special populations. So naturally, sensitivity training because women vote, though they seem to be ignoring the fact that white women are the most likely women to vote for the GOP…so maybe work a little on the race thing?

Shakesville had a post about it late last week noting the Politico article called “GOP men tutored in running against women.” So they are teaching the GOP men how to talk to women and not look like misogynists. Damn glad, I don’t have that job. Although, step one: talk to women like people; step two: treat women like people; and step three: don’t be an ass. And done.

Speaker Boehner approves of this because he had some of his top aides meet to discuss how lawmakers should talk to women constituents. One was quoted as saying, “Let me put it this way, some of these guys have a lot to learn.” Truth.

Apparently, there have been multiple sessions with the National Republican Congressional Committee NRCC where aides to incumbents learned “messaging against women opponents. This all comes down to the GOP learning to disguise their messages of discrimination to sound less threatening and rebranding their message, but not changing their policies.

In the 2014 election cycle, 10 races include House GOP men incumbents facing off against Democratic women challengers. This is a preliminary count there could be more, and Politico didn’t mention how many of these races were in gerrymandered districts. Though, it does note that women challengers face a host of challenges to election including gaps in fundraising.

Republican women, largely way saner than their men counterparts

Last week several lawmakers were on the Capitol steps making small talk pretending they gave a damn about their jobs for what Sen. Rand Paul (the anti-woman zealot) called a bipartisan “coffee break.”  However, it was Sen. Susan Collins of Maine who pulled the senators, all men, into a huddle to actually talk about what matters. And what matters? Getting her colleagues to push Congress into deal-making.

Suzy Khimm and Jessica Taylor wrote about the Republican women who are trying to fix the government for MSNBC. I know I don’t go there much either. However, for six days no one heard anything from Sen. Collins, until Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Ayotte signed a six-month budget agreement to reopen the government while giving agencies more flexibility on sequestration and repeal Obamacare’s medical device tax. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and some Democrats think this is an idea worth considering.

Khimm and Taylor are quick to point out that this isn’t going to be the final bill we see if we ever get a solution, but it is a nice reminder that while the extremists are grabbing for power there are some moderates somewhere trying to work together. They also point out:

“Many senators say Collins’ moves reflect another dynamic as well: while male leaders of both parties have barely been speaking to each other, much less negotiating, Republican women have never stopped talking to their Democratic counterparts in the Senate.”

Actually, these women have continued to work on some serious issues like military sexual assault and mental health. Khimm and Taylor pose the question, “Would Washington be a different place it the tactics of women senators, who make up just 20% of the Senate, were the norm?”

The word on the Hill among the other women, yes, yes it would. Some Democrat women say that the only people who are talking to them are the Republican women, and they are trying to do something here. The women for example appear to be regularly getting together to talk informally. It is very reminiscent of years gone by. And interestingly enough, when these women were getting together for a dinner, Rep. Paul Ryan and seven of this male colleagues were sitting across the table from empty chairs in a feeble attempt to same Senate Democrats into meeting with them.

The article concludes with this from Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan when asked about women leading the way out of the fiscal mess, “We all used to balancing family budgets and dealing with children that are bullies and misbehave. And so sometimes that comes in handy.”

Now the article makes a lot of assumptions about the nature of women, some coming from quotes from the women lawmakers. That said, there is a lot of true to the socialization of women. We are taught to value compromise over victory, and to talk out problems oppose to yelling and shouting over one another. This doesn’t always work in our favor though, see the Wendy Davis filibuster. In the US government these skills are very valuable especially as the men in the House and Senate can’t seem to have any kind of discussions.

I’m not endorsing the plan that Sen. Collins came up with because I haven’t read it and I don’t think we should compromise too much because well, Speaker John Boehner is doing this and the House GOP need to learn a lesson. It does seem like a step in the right direction.

All the politics aside though, maybe it is time we start putting an emphasis on socializing boy identifying and male born children in the same ways we socialize the girl identified and female born children? Girls have their problems, see Mean Girls, but the value of compromise and working together to meet a goal does take priority over a lot of other things. And honestly, I’d rather my elected representation work together then play king of the mountain.

Women are still grossly underrepresented in the House and the Senate, but this is as good a reason as any to get more women elected.

How we got here?

I was listening to my favorite podcast earlier this week, Citizen Radio, and they were discussing the government shutdown. Allison stated the government shutdown isn’t really about healthcare it is about ideologues who want to abolish the government and those who want to have government.

This is what we have. We have a government run by an elite few who can afford to run for office, which is exceedingly expensive, and then these representatives are puppets for money, which translates largely to corporations and their fanatical base. These representatives are the most privileged amongst us, and continue to represent privilege as they cling to power like dying men to breath. As a result they buy into and prop up the American mythos of the self-made-man, women’s work is housework and motherhood, people of color are burdens on the system, LGBTQ individuals are deviant, and Christianity supersedes all other faiths among many other examples. Thus trying to prevent any power shift to those they believe to be a threat.

The Government shutdown (2013) is entirely the GOP’s fault. Dems aren’t obligated to debate with them over something that is already law and was upheld by the Supreme Court. That’s not how government works, and if our elected officials don’t know that then they need to fund schools ASAP. But they do know that, which is why we’re shutdown because that was the end goal here. Now, why would they want the government to shut down? I’m not entirely sure. I know their base are a bunch of fundamentalists who think end times is approaching, but this isn’t going to reinforce the belief that government isn’t needed. Instead it is going to demonstrate just how much a federal government is needed.

In a GOP wet dream, everyone will realize that government isn’t needed because nothing changed during the shutdown, or maybe because this is a wet dream, all social welfare programs and Obamacare ended immediately. You know a throw back to the days of the Confederacy. I don't agree with something my government does, better quit. Regardless, everyone will rejoice because capitalism will be straight up the law of the land, not entirely different than life now except we have the federal government with its regulations to protect us a bit.

However, what we’re going to see is more like this: the immediate shutdowns of parks, etc. This will be mocked by the right wing without any thought given to the workers out of work. Then in a week or so, underfunded social welfare programs are going to feel the burn. This might not impact the Right’s whole base, but some of them are going to be. How do we know? Because red states disproportionally use social welfare programs…might have something to do with capitalism run amok without regulation. But sure, enough of the wealth GOP backers are fine with this as with the shutdown of OSHA. However, they might start singing a different tune when we get to the federal agencies in charge of our food. Sure private companies can take a lot of the workload except the federal inspections. Hey meat eaters, you may want to cut back next month, right in time for Thanksgiving. So how many people need to get sick before the government can reopen?

I’m a labor person. To me, then I heard shutdown I knew Congress members were still going to collect paycheck. And probably continued to be piss drunk on the floor, but I thought about the low-wage workers who are getting screwed.

I’m not absolving the Democrats. They have a lot of problems too, but in this specific instance, it isn’t us. I will say that the left has contributed to the system where this is possible. We don’t hostage take like the right, but we gerrymander too, which is what enabled this. There are Tea Party reps on the House floor because state GOP redistricted to accommodate. The Dems did too in Maryland, and lefty places, but we didn’t elect as many left wing reformers.  I’m not advocating answering the GOP with leftists, though I would support leftist candidates.

So yes, the GOP shutdown the government because they are having a tantrum that they think will yield more votes for them in the future, and because they can go home and say they stood up to big government by shutting it down for a day, a week, a month, whatever. But every US citizen is to blame for letting our political leaders do this. We didn’t hold the Dems responsible when they started giving into the GOP’s hostage taking, and we didn’t take them to task for it. This all conditioned the GOP to think this was a perfectly good way to get their agenda across.

On yesterday’s Capitol Hill chase, Miriam Carey, 34-years-old, was a mom with a history of mental illness including postpartum depression. She tried to drive through White House barriers and then set off the chase that ended by the Capitol building. Finally, when she got out of her car, she was shot by several police officers. A law enforcement official says she was unarmed, and it is not known whether she posed immediate danger. Carey was traveling with her one-year-old daughter, and the girl was unharmed but is now in protective custody. Carey was also a black woman, which adds to the controversy around this. We can obviously talk about how the police protecting everyone on the Hill yesterday are working without pay, but I think we need to address that Carey was unarmed when she exited her vehicle. Also, maybe now we come back to that conversation post-Newtown about mental illness in this country and the lack of available resources?

I’m rarely good at tragedies immediately after they occur. I’m better a few days later when everyone is ready to be rational. I have emotional responses like everyone else, but I’m not the type of person to be lost to them, so my initial responses can be off-putting to those who expect similar emotional views. So when everyone is ready to have a conversation about postpartum depression and women’s healthcare let me know. Until then, I’ll be over here.

And we have shutdown

Ok, so I’m actually writing this before the shutdown has happened or been averted. But I am publishing this the morning the shutdown would go into effect. Once we had a government capable of performing the tasks laid out for it. This is no longer the case.

As usual, the House of Representatives is hostage taking with their threat to shutdown the government. This time it is contraception, specifically, that Obamacare requires employers to use insurance that covers birth control pills without a copay. Naturally, RHRealityCheck had a piece by Adele M. Stan on it. USA! USA!

So as of Monday morning, the most recent threat is that the GOP wants Obamacare delayed for one year, but specifically on the implementation of the mandate that says employer provided healthcare plans have to offer birth control pills without a co-pay. They are calling this a “conscience clause.” Just a reminder, Republicans believe that by controlling the reproduction in society they can control society, and they aren’t wrong. If there are questions about my theoretical bases for this or examples let me know, and I’ll write one up.

So why the shutdown? Senate Majority Leader and useless individual Harry Reid (D-NV) said he won’t send any spending measures that include cuts to Obamacare to the Senate floor before the government runs out of funding. However, the actions by House Republicans almost ensure a government shutdown. A reminder of what the shutdown will do: furlough close to a million federal workers and cut off services for millions. I'm not sure how this will impact DC because Mayor Gray has promised the city will be open tomorrow. Also, is the US defaults on its debt the global economy would take a hard hit. So I guess I should have moved the USA chat here?

The article includes a quote from a statement from the Pro-Choice Caucus, Led by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Dinana DeGette (D-CO):

“While the American people need Congress to focus on passing a continuing budget resolution funding all services and resources for the American people, House Republicans are more intent on focusing their efforts—and now our precious time—on limiting a woman’s access to contraception. This egregious attack on women’s health could result in potentially taking away health services for millions of women and families. House Republicans’ pursuit of an extreme crusade against women’s health is bringing the federal government to the brink of a shutdown.”

 It is worth noting that the specific targeting of women’s health care services should be a seen as a civil rights issue because women are people being denied health care services because they are women. The measure the GOP is targeting also appears to delay the demand for insurers to cover the co-pay for preventative care such as mammograms and cancer screenings for women. Yep, someone tell me again that they care about women’s health. The Democrats are refusing to negotiate over a program that is already law, and was reinforced with President Obama’s reelection.

So we’re exactly where we have been, and I’m still left with a need for the Senate to protect us from zealots. The article concluded with a letter from the anti-choice nut-jobs that think Obamacare is pro-abortion. One day, one day I hope these people read what they are bitching about. It will make conversations go faster because I won’t have to explain the required reading beforehand.

So for the fun-times. ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum pulled together a list of 21 things the Republicans have demanded in exchange for not shutting down the government and/or tanking the global economy.

1. A balanced budget amendment [Link]

2. Approving Keystone XL [Link]

3. Eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood [Link]

4. Medicare privatization [Link]

5. Tax reform, as outlined by Paul Ryan [Link]

6. The REINS Act, which would require Congress to approval significant federal regulations [Link]

7. Means-testing Social Security [Link]

8. Defunding Obamacare [Link]

9. Allowing employers to eliminate insurance coverage for birth control [Link]

10. An expansion of off-shore drilling [Link]

11. Preserving all the Bush tax cuts [Link]

12. “Trillions” in budget cuts [Link]

13. Slashing funding for food stamps [Link]

14. Protecting mountaintop strip mining [Link]

15. Stripping the EPA of authority to regulate greenhouse gases [Link]

16. Loosening regulation on coal ash [Link]

17. Delaying Obamacare implementation by one year [Link]

18. Repealing a tax on medical devices [Link]

19. Eliminating Social Service Block Grants [Link]

20. Expanding drilling on federal lands [Link]

21. Restricting the child tax credit [Link]

Twelve of these directly impact the poor and/or women, they are those that are in bold. Six are anti-environment. Three focus on shrinking government. I’d like to shrink the government right now, by tossing these people out of office. There was also rumors going around over the weekend that members were drunk. I hate when people go to work intoxicated. Where is the conscious clause over that?