Women Are Men's Equals! (Except When It Serves Them To Be Benevolently Infantilized)
The latest way this plays out is the notion that it's "sexist" to vie for a powerful position if your opponent is a woman.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has presided over debacles large and small -- like passing Obamacare to find out what's in it (to name a ginormous one).
Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Dem, is angling to challenge her for her position as House Minority Leader.
Ian Millheiser, the Justice Editor at Think"Progress" (scare quotes are mine), deems this sexist:
@imillhiser
This thing where an obscure male backbencher thinks he deserves to replace the most accomplished woman in Congress is how sexism works.
Okay, so she's "accomplished" -- in objective terms.
In what other sphere do we accuse somebody of sexism because they maybe have kind of a long shot political race ahead of them?
Seems long shots sometimes do pretty damn well in this country. Consider who's President-elect.
via @JonathanTurley
Newbs challenging oldies is pretty much how politics worls
NicoleK at November 27, 2016 11:50 PM
But these days, notice how this accusation -- which I think really wouldn't have been made till now -- flows out so easily...is so assumed to be true by this guy...the so-called "Justice Editor" at a major left site.
There really has been an abandoning of the principle of women being equal and deserving of equal treatment. People don't even pretend anymore. Women are supposed to get special, kid-glove treatment. Even a woman as powerful as the minority leader of the House.
Amy Alkon at November 28, 2016 5:22 AM
It's all part of the "it's my turn" mentality that infects the Democrats these days. It is assumed that if you are of a privileged class, you earn things simply by existing. Conversely, anything that a person of a disfavored class has, it is assumed that he got it by illicit means; therefore, there is no moral problem with taking it away from him, and not letting him have anything else. If Ryan actually wins the Minority Leader position, then by definition, he will have cheated somehow.
Also notice the continuing denial of reality. The Democrats need new leadership. But the existing leadership doesn't see it that way. The way they see it, the problem is not to change their policies to make them more attractive to America, the problem is to change America to fit their policies. It's an example of Cluster B thinking -- "I'm not the one that has the problem; everyone is insane except me."
Cousin Dave at November 28, 2016 6:22 AM
Why Pelosi cannot be jailed for malfeasance of office is almost as unbelievable as anyone supporting her after she urged Americans to swallow poison.
Contemptible.
Radwaste at November 28, 2016 6:30 AM
All animals are equal. It's just that some are more equal than others.
It's the socialist way. Remember, the worst thing to do to a socialist is to make him/her/xer live under socialism that's run by people who are not their friends.
I R A Darth Aggie at November 28, 2016 6:44 AM
Keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.
MarkD at November 28, 2016 7:47 AM
Pelosi made me regurge on day one:
The images as California Democrat Nancy Pelosi took office last week were striking -- and stirring -- in their unfamiliarity. Pelosi, holding her infant grandson swaddled in a white receiving blanket, as she sat in the well of the House, awaiting her election. Pelosi, with the assurance of a mother experienced at dispensing cookies to impatient toddlers, giving each child his -- and her -- turn with the gavel. Pelosi raising her hand to take the oath as her grandson, at her side, fiddled with grandma's papers.
"Fiddled with grandma's papers."
She is/was a goddamn executive, not the nation's maw-maw. Give me a Thatcheresque ballbuster any time over someone who lets her grandchildren play with the Speaker's gavel.
Kevin at November 28, 2016 8:38 AM
The "most accomplished woman in Congress" was the most politically inept Speaker of the House in recent years and possibly ever. She presided over a majority party that bullied the minority party. Obama care passed with not a single Republican vote. And now the Democrats wonder why there are no Republicans willing to defend it.
Pelosi exemplified Mark Twain's worst kind of con man, falling for her own con. She bought into the Democrat's propaganda; that the Democrats alone passed Social Security and the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. In reality, Republicans helped pass Social Security in enough numbers that when President Eisenhower wanted to eliminate it, he found himself opposed by a significant number of his own party and dropped the issue. The original Senate version of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was dead in committee, until Hubert Humphrey (D) and Everett Dirksen (R) teamed up to create a new bill and bypassed the committee process. In the end, a larger percentage of Senate Republicans voted for the final bill than did Senate Democrats.
Any halfway decent politician knows that if you want your bill to outlast your party's majority, you get the other party to help pass it. That way, when the other party retakes power (and it will), you have enough votes and support to sustain it. The passage of Obamacare was a textbook example of how not to pass a bill that will last.
Pelosi has been unwilling to compromise with Republicans, whether her party is in the majority or the minority. She proudly announced when George W. Bush became the president that any and all of his proposals were "dead on arrival." Way to govern, there, Nance.
Past speakers (Tip O'Neil, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, et al) have vilified the opposing party publicly, but have recognized the importance of the bipartisan passage of bills and have worked with the opposing party to achieve that.
Replacing Nancy Pelosi for the Democratic Party is not sexism, it's survival.
As for "the most accomplished woman in Congress," Pelosi got her start in politics by using connections provided to her by her father (former mayor of Baltimore) and her husband (philanthropist and real estate developer). She has done nothing in her career but be a politician. She has never run anything, even a government agency. She has never made a payroll or a budget. She has never sat at the desk where the proverbial buck stops.
"The most accomplished woman in Congress?" Claudia Tenney (R) started her own media company. Stephanie Murphy (D) was a college professor and a national security specialist with the Department of Defense. Liz Cheney (R) worked for the State Department as an expert in Near East affairs. Val Demmings (D) was an Orlando police officer and the first woman police chief of the Orlando Police Department. What has Pelosi accomplished to make her more accomplished than these women, except claw her way to the top of a good ol' politician network using her husband's money and connections?
Conan the Grammarian at November 28, 2016 8:56 AM
Remember the shit fest she threw when people dared mentioned she was attractive?
Lmao. You wear $3,000 suits with $800 shoes and you like to pretend your appearance doesn't matter.
Ppen at November 28, 2016 11:00 AM
Ppen +1000
Bob in Texas at November 28, 2016 11:11 AM
Hey, I finally got the ending for my book!
"And thus the Democratic politicians commenced to feed upon one another and, bellies full, slept another four years, leaving America to complete her cleansing fast in peace."
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 28, 2016 1:33 PM
Not really off topic; but, some folks don't get how much more "equal" men really are:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/good-samaritan-shot-and-killed-at-wal-mart-identified/ar-AAkNT0o?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=DELLDHP
It was a man, a real man, who stepped up to help a woman he didn't know and he paid for it with his life.
Would a Pelosi do that?
charles at November 28, 2016 6:00 PM
Very noble, yes, but as the commentators (elsewhere?) pointed out, when you have a spouse and kids to think about AND the situation looks like a violent one, it makes a LOT more sense to call the cops and hope they get there in time. Somehow I expect his widow will be angry at him at some point.
lenona at November 29, 2016 8:40 AM
If a woman were to stand back and call 911, no one would say she was unwomanly. However, society still puts pressure on men to intervene in situations like this one, to stand up to bullies for others, to rescue damsels in distress. Even a feminist would look down with scorn on a man who stood by allowed a woman to be killed in front of him in a mall parking lot, even if he called 911 and avoided getting involved out of concern for his wife and child's futures. How's that for "equal?"
Conan the Grammarian at December 1, 2016 4:19 PM
Name two such cases, please. Just because she's a woman with a crazy set of expectations as to what some male stranger should be doing doesn't make her a "feminist." (Chances are she doesn't call herself that, anyway.)
It's a big world and there will always be at least a few awful people who can't be bothered to keep their mouths shut when they should. It doesn't say anything about any particular large political group.
And to go onto a tangent, from what I see, both men and women still get attacked for being childfree, while CF women get it worse than men, but what men get attacked for, more than women, is refusing to find someone to marry and/or refusing to get a job that could possibly support more than one person. But...WHO is doing the attacking? Conservatives like Kay Hymowitz (author of "Manning Up"), plus average women. Not famous feminists, as a rule. Some reasons are: they know that women wouldn't be happy with husbands who don't want to be married; women are supposed to be able to support themselves even when already married, in case of an emergency, and so there are obvious reasons for feminists not to be too sympathetic to those young women who want nothing but to be housewives all their lives, regardless of their political stances in other areas. (I'd love to know just how many such housewives have been able to write their opinions in Ms. Magazine in the last 30 years. Very few, I'd guess.)
lenona at December 2, 2016 11:16 AM
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