Repubs have lost young women forever

[Kath1]

My daughter, 24, and I went to a popular local bar/restaurant after voting. We stepped outside after having dinner and there were three waitresses, ages 21 to 23, on their smoking break. My daughter knew one of them and asked, sort of jokingly, if she'd been a good citizen and voted. All three spoke up at once and said, basically, "Hell, yeah, we voted and we voted for OBAMA!" They were all excited and talking at once but the gist was this - You are not going to take away my birth control options. You are not going to outlaw abortion. You are not going to start another stupid war. You are not going to let the rich slide while I work my ass off. - Afterward, my daughter said she always thought her friend was pretty apolitical. I know I am in the blue state of Maryland but I don't know one young woman of voting age who would support a republican.

[seabeyond]

1. does my heart good. i sure do like hearing young women speaking up. give your daughter

a hug from us.

[Kath1]

6. I'll be sure to do so.

She'll be thrilled about this thread!

[Kath1]

9. I sure will.

Great to see young working women standing up for themselves and making their voices heard.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. radio rightwing woman - went to wedding, all the women were saying "women's rights"

This was before the election. Clearly the war on women struck in women's minds until election day

[Kath1]

10. The war on women didn't work so well for them.

Excellent!

[ProudProgressiveNow]

3. K&R nt

[Cha]

4. I know, Kath.. it amazes me how many people weren't apolitical

this election time. So glad they were Paying Attention! They heard the republicons loud and clear in what they were conveying to the American Public.

To Maryland 'cause it's such a Cool Blue State!

[Kath1]

7. Thanks, Cha!

This is a cool blue state! Marriage equality - yes!!!

[calimary]

5. My daughter is 23. She told me all her friends had voted and voted for Obama.

I've talked to her about the fight to keep the right to have the last word, indeed, total sovereignty over her body. I've told her about the women's movement and how hard we've struggled and for how many millennia women have been considered property. We've talked a lot about the right to choose and how under seige it is. She told me all her girlfriends voted Democratic, and she added - "don't worry, Mom. We get it."

MADE ME SOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

[Kath1]

8. That is awesome

I watched the election returns with my daughter and a group of her friends and it was amazing how concerned they were about this election and how elated they were with Obama winning! Give your daughter a big hug from Kath!!!

[calimary]

44. Shall do! She's coming home in two days, for Thanksgiving week!

We miss her but we're awfully proud! She's 23, graduated college, very level-headed, same with her boyfriend, and they're already off to the races together!

Isn't it impressive how their generation is turning out? Poor baby - she had to suffer me all those years while she was growing up and I just could hardly get off my soap box! Yep, there goes Mom, sounding off again and yelling at the TV... And all those anti-Iraq War marches to which I took her and her little brother. They were even interviewed on local TV at the candlelight vigil the night before the hostilities started. She's incredibly wise and an independent thinker and she'll NEVER be taken advantage of by any man, she's strong and determined as hell and she is every bit their equal. She has a bullshit detector better than just about anyone else's! She is her own starship captain AND navigator. And we do like her boyfriend a lot! His whole family is wonderful and very open-minded. They celebrated his older sister's marriage to her longtime partner, and their Christmas card last year had all the wedding photos on it, including one of our daughter and their son! SO cool. Nice people. If he's "The One," she chose well.

[Kath1]

48. Wow! Are we ever on the same page!

My daughter is 24 and sounds much like yours. Very opinionated, very smart, college graduate, liberal as hell and a free thinker. Attended her first demonstration with mom - March For Women's Lives 2004 - at age 16. We went to several of the DC (we live in Baltimore) anti-war demonstrations together. She too, won't be taken advantage of by a man.

I am very impressed with how this generation is turning out. My daughter's friends are also smart, liberal, independent young women.

Boyfriend and his family sound like very wonderful people.

Congratulations, Mom. You done good!!!

[Ilsa]

38. That is such great news.

I had begun to wonder if the struggles of the past were being taken for granted, or possibly forgotten.

[calimary]

46. Yeah, it kinda shook me up, too, Ilsa. I was VERY worried. I'm one of the many women you heard

(and you probably said this yourself, too), wondering WHY THE HELL WE'RE STILL FIGHTING THIS ONE???? This was SETTLED. DECADES ago!!! WHY do we still have to fight this? WHY is it still coming up? WHY is it still an issue - now that we've moved into the 21st Century? WHY are we still having to protect and defend this right that we fought for, AND WON, YEARS ago????

There was one day when I found myself back on the ol' soap box again, in front of my daughter and a couple of her friends. I looked 'em straight in the eye and said - "you know, we FOUGHT for these rights, we FOUGHT to preserve a woman's right to choose, we FOUGHT to secure a woman's right to have the last word, the FULL sovereignty, over her own body. We fought, we marched, we lobbied, we petitioned, we campaigned, we wrote letters and made phone calls and carried signs, we complained to our legislators again and again, we were disrespected and denounced and vilified, and legions of know-it-alls and holier-than-thous and bedroom-busybodies stood in the way, EVERY WHICHAWAY, and tried with all their might to pull down and destroy what we were trying to build, and keep us firmly in our places as second-class citizens. And some of us died. Women DIED. Shit, it's happening NOW - just did, in Ireland, where a young woman died because she couldn't get an abortion. A deliberately untreated faulty pregnancy cost her her life! The news about that was THIS WEEK.

But we kept on and wouldn't give up, and we eventually reached critical mass and made the difference. It was WORK. All arduous and all uphill. Over years and MORE years. It was a real struggle to achieve. And it's been allowed to backslide ever since. The gains we made have been under seige from the very beginning! People are STILL trying to deny us that right - to choose what WE need for OUR bodies and OUR physical health. To have the last word over what happens to OUR bodies. I mean, does anybody butt in on men with legislation aimed at governing their testicles and/or dicks? Maybe some of the women newly elected to Congress or the Senate could start something like that? I tell you, I just resent it SO DAMN MUCH!!!!!!! But then again I'm probably taking it a little too personally.

And I told my daughter and her friends these things. And I said "we in my generation worked and slaved and sacrificed and struggled to win this right, and YOUR generation needs to remember that. Because there are forces NOW, THIS MINUTE, doing everything they can to take that right away from you. NOW. THIS MINUTE. I'm not exaggerating, either, or just trying to scare you or something. Your generation needs to protect that right that we fought so hard to win - for ALL of us, especially our future generations.

They listened. I didn't think they were really taking it in. Judging from the results of this election, perhaps I underestimated them. They're the youth vote we talk about. Them. On their first or second time voting for President. Her little brother voted - his first time - this year, too. For Obama. And I think they may be the generation that fixes a few things. Definitely I think the gay prejudices and hostilities and misinformation bullshit will be forced into near-oblivion. They'll always be around, but there are too many broader-minded young people reaching voting age, and they're participating. They're appreciating what they've been given, and they're making use of those gifts. Yeah, wrongney. Gifts. And they're gonna make sure some of the old bad narrow-minded crap dies out. Or, perhaps more accurately stated, the old bad narrow-minded crap will die out on its own, and they'll be the ones replacing it with open-mindedness and tolerance and high-information voting habits.

But that part of it is up to us - the ones who broke through, or witnessed those times. We know how it was before those rights were won. We're old enough to remember, and it's on us to pass that history down to our youngers, to educate and inspire and keep the record set straight. So that they know. So that they have a sense of cause and effect, and an understanding of how and why all this came to be. They need that information if they're to carry the torch onward and FORWARD, from here.

[Ilsa]

47. The story in Ireland really grieved me

When I heard about it this week. That level of disrespect for women and unreasonableness in accepting that if the mother dies, the baby dies, too.

And twenty years ago, I was at a prochoice protest in Dallas and actress Lee Remick was talking about how bad it was before 1973, that women had to fly to NY or CA or a handful of other states to get an abortion. And there were women in their fifties asking, "Why are we still having to fight this battle?"

[fujiyama]

11. The fact that the right is still trying to wage a battle on birth control

and contraception shows how completely out of touch the party is. They lost this battle almost half a century ago with Griswold. I think this election made the contrast starker than ever - between Rush Limbaugh's attempted "slut shaming" and Akin's outcries over "legitimate rape" (oh and don't forget Murdouch's "it's God's will&quot , I don't know how any young woman could have voted republican. What fucking century is the party even living in?

People aren't going to forget this crap so easily. They're doubling down on the culture war, just as they're being defeated on several fronts - abortion/contraception, gay rights/marriage equality, and even marijuana legalization. No one in my generation (I'm 31) gives a crap who marries whom and who has sex whomever is just stuff of idle gossip. Contraception is just common sense. And marijuana is just a plant.

[Kath1]

59. Right on, fujiyama!

I'm 54, and I speak for a lot of women my age when I say I agree 100%. They are losing the "culture war."

[CTyankee]

12. This is what happens when you try to take away people's rights!

We Dems are all about expanding civil rights in a democracy. Of course, they have lost young women forever! And women seem to be their Final Frontier. They're "getting" the immigrant backlash and the gay backlash. Now it is up to the women to beat them back into their caves on women's issues...

[left coaster]

13. "Now it is up to the women to beat them back into their caves on women's issues..."

I would hope that progressive men would want to support our issues as well.

[CTyankee]

40. Yes, of course. I was only referring to the knuckle-draggers. Progressive men, such as my

husband, are totally pro-reproductive rights, for women and men!

[ReRe]

14. I don't have any daughters. Boo-hoo

K&R

But I do have a few sons. I am proud to say I cornered one of sons girlfriends and asked her if she was going to vote for Obama. She said if she voted, that it would probably be Republican, as her family was "Republican." Anyway, we discussed the women's rights business a while. I told her to vote, no matter who she voted for. And assured her that when she went into that booth, no one knows who you vote for, that she didn't have to tell her family who she voted for. Well, guess what? She voted for Obama! I was so proud of her. I think we have a van-full to come to the Inauguration and she wants to come. Of course we're going to bring her!

[Kath1]

16. I love hearing one to one stories like this!

I'll be at the Inauguration, too!

Hopefully, she won't have to stay a "closet" Obama supporter but will come out loud and proud in support of President Obama.

He's going to need it. The right wing republicans are going nuts and will do anything to discredit him in this second term.

I'm proud of you. Family brainwashing changed by a simple conversation. Awesome! Peace!!!

[ReRe]

19. I swear........

....... I did NOT strong-arm her. I just let her know that I would like her any way she voted. I find you win more over by not being pushy. If they think you are being pushy, there's no way you can win them over.

[Kath1]

20. Very coo!

You done good, ReRe!

[CrispyQ]

42. That, "I don't care who you vote for, just vote!" goes a long way!

Loving these stories of young women fired up to protect their rights!

Fuckin' A!

[ReRe]

45. That phrase does go a long way...

... because if you apply too much pressure on someone to vote your way. it really does turn them off. I find diplomacy and tact works best, in the end.

[Paka]

15. But will they go out and vote in 2014?

We must not let a repeat of 2010 happen in 2014. All this young enthusiasm has to be harnessed and expanded in 2014! We need to retake the House in defiance of all the gerrymandering.

[Kath1]

17. Agreed!

We definitely need the house in 2014! That is when real change will begin.

[JDPriestly]

39. We need to start organizing now for 2014.

Obama has a great organization supporting him. But we need a strong Democratic Party to attract good candidates and get out the vote in 2014. The OFA (Obama for America) organization is too personality-centered to do that.

I hope that Obama successfully transfers his organization to the Democratic Party.

In my area, OFA and the Democratic Party regulars did not work together at all. I guess there are legal reasons for that (fundraising reasons), but we need to be united in the mid-terms.

This is what we need to talk about now.

[oswaldactedalone]

61. ^^ Very true here in

my part of NC as well.

[liberal_at_heart]

56. 2014 will be my daughter's first vote

She is so excited. I've told her congressional elections are in some ways more important than presidential elections because it is Congress that writes legislation. And believe me she did not care for all the rape and anti-birth control comments she heard this past campaign cycle. She's pretty fired up.

[KharmaTrain]

18. And The Rushpublicans Aren't Listening...

In their blame game they blame the messengers, not the message for why they lost. It was Akin or Murdoch or rushbo...or maybe it was they weren't "conservative" enough . I have yet to hear any of these hyenas realize their 19th century view of women...as chattle...a possession...as the "weaker" sex needs to be revised. To them it's all about "marketing"...and if they put the same bullshit in a nicer looking package then the problem will go away...

[Kath1]

28. They want us to go back to the '50s or earlier

and we are simply not going to go there. One of the Obama 2012 slogans was "forward." That is where we want to go. Just the phrase "legitimate rape" makes my blood boil. Calling an intelligent, beautiful and eloquent young woman like Sandra Fluke a slut? You have to be kidding me! She has more style, grace and courage than all of them. Want to limit access to contraceptives? Fine. Want to ban abortion? Fine. Women will continue to vote in droves and you will lose election after election. Women of today, 2012, demand access to contraceptives, the option of safe and legal abortion, equal pay for equal work, equal opportunity and respect as human beings. Is that really too much to ask? Get with it! This is 2012, not 1012. They want to get "more conservative?" I really hope they do because I love seeing them lose and forward-thinking people like Barrack Obama win!

[Renew Deal]

21. I'm glad that young women stood up for themselves.

I remember hearing the shock in the newscasters voices on election night that more young people voted than in 2008. That's when I knew it would be a good night.

[WinkyDink]

22. I thought so, too, once---in 1968.

[Le Taz Hot]

23. Yep.

I know too many who are PROUD members of the Republican party and vote accordingly.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

24. Can't say the same about young women here in my part of KY.

There's a few, but the rest of them have a kid on each hip, get every government check they can find, and still vote Republican.

I just don't get it.

[Berlum]

25. The Republican WAR ON WOMEN has been a soul-ugly fiasco from the git go

[distantearlywarning]

26. I spent election night with a handful of 30-something women

They all said the same thing, Obama voters every one of them. They didn't talk about Bill O'Reilly's "free stuff" or anything like that. It was all about the perception that the Republican Party is trying to force them back into the Dark Ages with regard to birth control, sexual norms, abortion rights, the role of women in the workplace, etc. etc. They talked about it all night and all of them were just absolutely furious about all the rape comments, the comments about Sandra Fluke made by Limpballs, the birth control fights, the panel of all-male doctors who testified before Congress. They perceive all of this behavior as condescending and aggressively sexist, and they absolutely refuse to take it.

Personally, I think that horse left the barn (women's rights, birth control, and so forth) 40 years ago, and there will be no putting it back in. Young women today have a lot of political and financial power, and they have no intention of giving it back to a bunch of old men.

[Kath1]

30. Absolutely!

I watched the returns with my daughter and four of her friends, all in their 20's, and two of my friends in their 50's. It was a similar experience, as far as the conversation. It had nothing to do with getting anything for free. It had everything to do with respect as human beings.

"Young women today have a lot of political and financial power, and they have no intention of giving it back to a bunch of old men." That is something I am so happy to see!

[Jennicut]

69. The Repubs are so in the dark ages with regard to women.

I am a 30-something myself and just don't get the contraception and rape talk they keep spouting out. This was already settled to me, before I was born.
The truth is that in high school lots of us were on birth control already, sometimes just for our periods. Contraception was the norm in the 90's. Women in the workplace is the norm as well now. All the mothers I am friends with go to work, even if part time.
Too late for the Repub party as two generations of women are used to this way of life. Gen X and Gen Y women really think the Repubs are stuck in another time and place.

[ejpoeta]

27. good to hear. I am 40 and have always had these options available.

It seems that a lot of women didnt think it was possible for them to lose them. So I guess in a way it is good that the republicans have been working overtime to show just how not safe any of our reproductive rights are.

[Kath1]

31. Yes

I think it was a wake up call. Intelligent, informed and free-thinking young women are their nightmare.

[JustAnotherGen]

32. 39 turning 40 in February

I wonder if many of the mothers of Gen X who had friends "sent to Aunts" or almost died maybe were able to share their first hand/personal experiences with us . . . So we know how thin a thread our reproductive rights hang on? I'm thinking those of us with mom's in the 60+ crowd?

And now - we have to make sure our Daughters and Sons NOT of voting age, and those not yet born hear and hold those narratives? There is a big difference in life experience between a woman who came of age in 1982 and one who came of age in 1962 - and the life narratives their children heard?

And now - we have a tremendous gift. As angry as my 65 year old mother was that we were having a "do over" of the sixties - she made a good point . . .

These 20 somethings? They now have something MORE in common with her than her own daughter does. . The examples I gave - death and being sent away? Those were two of her girlfriends. I can't imagine being 21 and risking my life for an abortion - but the Republucans have just created a new generation of women who can imagine a back alley abortion. They've done it to themselves.

[Kath1]

58. Exactly

Romney & Co. brought the terror of a back-alley abortion to the forefront of my daughter and her friends. I won't go back and neither will they. Republicans need to realize that this is 2012, not 1012.

[brokechris]

29. I am in one of the reddest counties

of a very blue state. My ex co-workers (from before I got laid off), neighbors, etc are nearly all Republican. I only know 2 Democrats in real life--and of them is pretty moderate (she is a tub thumping Christian and very much against abortion).

[Freddie]

33. Us (getting) old women too!

Reproductive rights are not a personal concern for me anymore but I have a 20-something daughter and a little granddaughter and their rights to control their own bodies--and therefore, their destinies--will remain the #1 issue for me.
When I was a young teen in the early 70s I saw the messes that girls not much older than me made of their lives due to "oops" pregnancies. I vowed that I would become a mother only when *I* decided the time was right and I was able to keep that vow. A promise that every teenage girl should make to herself and we need to be sure she can have the tools and education to keep that promise.

[Kath1]

34. Agreed

I'm 54, so I'm with you. But I also have a 20-something daughter. Peace, the economy and other issues will always be a concern but a woman's right to control her own body comes first and foremost for me because it is so personal.

[CrispyQ]

43. Every day I give thanks for Planned Parenthood,

where I got my first BC pills, without anyone but me knowing about it.

I remember my Mom pulling me aside when SCOTUS ruled on Roe v Wade & discussing it. I was 16. I visited Planned Parenthood about a year later.

[Kath1]

49. I come from a very strict Catholic family.

College roommate drove me to Planned Parenthood and they gave me the BC pills. What a liberating experience for a Catholic girl! Just an awesome day, thinking for myself and taking control.

I stand with Planned Parenthood! Really pissed me off when they spoke of de-funding them.

[CrispyQ]

66. I put PP in my will this year. :)

Fuck these asshole men who want to limit health care for women! They are just pissed off because they see the world changing & it's a world where old white men are no longer held in reverence over every other life on the planet.

[Kath1]

68. That is excellent, CrispyQ

I think PP is a great organization. On of the first things I did after my divorce was take my daughter there to get her BC pills. I agree 100% about men who want to limit women's choices. I am sure it is upsetting to see all of your values and beliefs rejected, but when your values and beliefs SUCK, that is what you get!

[eilen]

35. What about just the basic rights to make decisions about your body?

My mother was told by her doctor she could not have her tubes tied after she had her second child. She was told she was too young-- and that she didn't have enough children... and she needed her husband's permission. Four years later (1972) she had #3 and still had to get her husband's "permission." She got it and promptly filed for divorce. How society thought that forcing a woman to have five children with an alcoholic was "moral" I don't know.

[Kath1]

36. Thank you, eilen

I think your story says it all. Hopefully, we are seeing that society changing.

[Freddie]

62. Scary how that stuff wasn't that long ago

In 1985 my son-in-law's mother was 22 with 3 kids and begged to get her tubes tied. She was refused because she was "too young". So she had 1 more (4 babies in 5 years!) and changed doctors and was finally able to have the surgery. I can't imagine that happening today.
Baby #4 is my son-in-law so all things happen for a reason (we like him).

[Tsiyu]

37. What's funny is that these assbackwards men thought

that women would just be silent, like we are dumb animals or something who can't speak for ourselves. This tells you how low women are on the humanity scale to conservative men.

Secondly, why are men using women's bodies to make themselves feel more holy? If Scott DesJarlais hadn't made his wife have two abortions and hadn't seduced his patients, he might look moral - a little bit. Instead, he wants to deny women the right to a safe, legal abortion to MAKE HIMSELF LOOK HOLY! Talk about USERS and LOSERs. They can't be decent people, so they try to USE OUR BODIES to PRETEND they are decent. USE YOUR OWN BODY to do what's right and LEAVE MINE ALONE!

Thirdly, I've heard men scream that we women were so SELFISH to worry about such a trivial thing as our OWN BODIES and we ignored the FISCAL CLIFF and voted for Obama out of SELF-INTEREST.

"How dare you let your own bodies trump my bank account?" say the old losers and users.

When one of them cuts off his balls to help my bank account, I'll give a flying fuck.

[Kath1]

50. Damn right!

Thank you. My ex had the loser/user mentality. That is why he is ex!

[smirkymonkey]

65. Excellent rant!

"When one of them cuts off his balls to help my bank account, I'll give a flying fuck."

That's going down as a classic!

[Tsiyu]

67. When you have to live around all these holier than thou

"Christian men" and you realize they elected a slimy, perverted, adulterous, cheating, unethical, mob thug, lying HYPOCRITE it just galls you.

The Republican men in Tennessee disgust me beyond my ability to express.

They live in a fantasy world where they can do anything evil they want, then they turn and point the finger at the weakest, at rape victims and children who are victims of incest.

What disgusting, perverted, lying, immoral PIGS...


okay don't get me started again




Thanks, too


.

[CrispyQ]

41. This is very heartening news!

I don't think a lot of people knew just how disgusting these (mostly) men are, until they started spewing their rape comments. Also, it was like watching a video loop over & over again. One asshole would say something awful & the next week another asshole would say something awful & week after week, the assholes just couldn't stop themselves.

Hey assholes . . .

[Kath1]

51. Love it!

Yes, the assholes couldn't stop. Very glad that women did Remember In November!!!

[man4allcats]

52. I hope all women, young and old, will always see it this way.

Of course I know some will not, but I have faith that the majority will use their vote again, as they did this last time, to speak against the bigotry of republicans.

[Kath1]

55. I think time is on our side

because the young are on our side.

[man4allcats]

57. + 10

Ten is almost always the best I give.

[hrmjustin]

53. K&R!

[CountAllVotes]

54. Puke women

They do exist, do not forget this.

However, it is a good thing that YOUNG women today know the reality of what these despicable pukes have in store for them!

The puke women are a disgrace!

Hopefully they'll see the light soon and wake up and never learn to worship the likes of these freaks!

When it is suddenly your reality, it becomes very important!

Glad to know that young folks today give a damn!

Your daughter and her friends sound "awesome" to me!

[Kath1]

63. I know they exist.

They exist in my own family. Younger sister came to the light this year and voted for Obama, much to the chagrin of my brother in law. Others are totally brainwashed by a combination of Fox News and hate radio. Others have very RW, racist, sexist husbands they are trying to please. They should know better. I do think, though, that we have reached a tipping point among young women and they will vote progressive/democratic in 2014 and 2016. At least I am hopeful that is the case!

And, yes, my daughter and her friends are awesome!

[Dirty Socialist]

60. I Live in SW Ohio

And most women I know ( and almost all men I know) vote Republican. Nice to know other regions don't.

[Kath1]

64. Wow

We are overwhelmingly Democratic in Maryland and most women, especially, are progressive.