Hekate
Hekate's JournalFrom where I sit, I watched the methodical working-out of a plan to change the laws...
And the laws changed.
A key component: the POTUS is Commander in Chief of our military forces.
First, there was the Pentagon survey about how military personnel felt about LGBT soldiers and same-sex marriage. Result: the younger generation on the whole does not care. I think a lot of us already knew that.
A few more steps, and the military declared it would recognize the same-sex spouses of military personnel. This was HUGE, because may I remind you there are military bases in all 50 states, and all 50 states are bound to recognize legal contracts from other states. Military personnel live in the civilian communities surrounding those bases, forcing recognition by locals.
Naturally the SCOTUS decision played a really big part, but in my opinion an absolutely major step was taken when the CIC directed the US Armed Forces to come into the 21st century, just as the Armed Forces were directed to racially integrate a few generations before that.
But hey, I know Obama didn't ride in on a unicorn that farted rainbows and he didn't have a magic wand.
He just got the job done.
More OPs excoriating Rachel Maddow and Katy Tur: what's with that, folks?
For those whose memory doesn't go back that far, look up Aaron Brown in our archives and watch how our esteemed progressives turned against him on a dime.
DUers can be fickle. Think about it.
Poor Bernie has only one analysis to work with, and it is reductionist...
Or, put another way, he studied Classical Marxism -- you know, the economic theory/philosophy from well over a century ago.
To my mind, it is too reductionist. Perhaps because I am both a woman and of mature years I recognize this more readily than the young white men who were so enamored of him. POC see the reductionism as well.
Bernie Sanders is obviously well-meaning, but he's the kind of man who would say he "doesn't see color" and "doesn't see gender." Sadly, that means he doesn't see how different the challenges are for people who happen not to be white men. We are not all the same.
My husband really likes Bernie Sanders to this day. For one thing, culturally they could be cousins. He feels like he understands him at a level I never can.
Even so, my husband was the one person I was able to talk through my frustrations with during the campaign. Back when we were all a good deal younger, he studied philosophy (including reading Marx and Engels) and economics. He put his finger right on my dilemma with Bernie -- the fact that not every social problem can be reduced to a single economic theory, no matter how well-intentioned and just. (Just as a single gendered instance: only women will ever need to find a place to pump their breasts. Bernie, afaik, seems to think such considerations are a non-issue readily solved by wage-parity and/or raising the minimum wage.)
So once again, Bernie Sanders has offended POC and he does not even know why or how.. Sadly it seems that neither do his most ardent fans -- although they, mostly being a lot younger than their hero, are hopefully able to learn.
Somebody down in Jackson Miss needs to be reminded that in the last 15 years 3 Prez campaigns...
...have been won by Democrats. We seated Barack Obama twice and Hillary won by 3 million votes over the Trojan Horse. It took a massive conspiracy against the democratic processes of this nation -- including a hostile cyber-invasion -- to prevent Hillary from being in office.
The "failure" wasn't the "Democratic business model."
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Gender: FemaleHometown: Central Coast, California
Home country: USA
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 90,662