Tag: Politics

Oh, good lord.

Oh, good lord. I just had somebody fling an accusation of racism and sexism in my direction because I’m less than enthused with Kamala Harris as the likely Democratic front-runner. Several things to consider:

  • I won’t be voting in the Democratic Party primary, as I’m not a Democrat. (I am also not a Republican, before you set your hairs on the fire.) So, no, this isn’t about preferring an old white dude (Bernie, I suppose), over a woman of color. My objections to Harris are entirely about her really troubling record as a prosecutor, and the fact that she’s largely Hillary 2.0: a corporatist war hawk that I don’t want in the Oval. But, again, I won’t be voting in the Democratic primary, so I can’t swing your primary one way or the other.
  • Since 1996, I have voted for:
    • Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke twice, in 1996 and 2000.
    • David Cobb and Pat LaMarche in 2004.
    • Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente in 2008.
    • Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala in 2012.
    • Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka in 2016.

…if I had a problem with women or people of color in the Executive, I wouldn’t have voted for them in every single election over the last twenty-odd years, don’t you think?

I have zero problems with the fact that Kamala Harris is black (yes, I’m aware of her parentage, don’t play the “buuuut her mom is Indian” thing, people – she’s more than black enough for it to matter to racists, and you know it), or with the fact that she’s a woman.

Neither of those things are why I won’t be voting for her for President unless the polling in NJ is close enough that I’ll have to. (Just like last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, etc etc).

Sigh.

Democrats, look: if you honestly think Harris is the best qualified candidate to lead the country, go with your chosen god. I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. I’m well aware that my politics and my priorities are waaaay to the left of nearly all of you.

But if you’re going to give the left shiz over its voting priorities, can that criticism be based on why we’re actually voting, and not the fantasy critique that lives in your head?

Please?

It’s gonna be a long campaign season.

War on Poverty: It’s Over?

Poverty’s over, you guys. The administration says so.

The Trump administration has a new argument for dismantling the social safety net: It worked.

Republicans for years have proclaimed the federal government’s decades-old War on Poverty a failure.

“Americans are no better off today than they were before the War on Poverty began in 1964,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) wrote in his 2016 plan to dramatically scale back the federal safety net.

Now the Trump administration is pitching a new message on anti-poverty programs, saying efforts that Republicans had long condemned as ineffective have already worked.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/white-house-declares-war-on-poverty-largely-over-amid-push-to-revamp-social-programs/2018/07/13/8f9536ea-86b2-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html?utm_term=.9952a9901f00