{"id":647,"date":"2017-10-16T11:28:59","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T15:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=647"},"modified":"2017-10-16T11:28:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T15:28:59","slug":"bernie-and-the-womens-march-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/bernie-and-the-womens-march-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie and the Women’s March Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Progressives and people of conscience need to be a united front against the insanity that took over the White House in 2016 and has been pervasive in the Republican Party since the advent of Gingrich.<\/p>\n

That being said\u2026<\/em> we all know that is not how progressives\/liberals work. We have to engage in endless arguments about the minutia of policy. Which makes our policies better. We don\u2019t work in sound bites or tweets. It takes more than 140 characters just to name an issue much less define it. We have \u201cmarshals\u201d at every turn reminding us who is included and who needs to be included. Hundreds of voices from thousands of experiences of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, ability, age\u2026 all seek and demand input. I\u2019m proud of that. I am proud that is who we are and how we work. It is also the reason we are vulnerable to simplistic ideas expressed in short phrases. That, and the fact that the Right uses our diversity to divide us. Hell, we do that all by ourselves.<\/p>\n

Which is why I hesitate to say anything at all about my argument with Bernie and the Women\u2019s March. We desperately need to be a united front against the travesty of the Trump regime. We desperately need to unite to vote Tea Party Republicans out of office (the no compromise party that puts its extremist values above the well-being of the nation). We desperately need to humanize political discourse.<\/p>\n

With apologies to those whom this does not apply, I find Bernie followers to be the worst. I don\u2019t disagree with or deplore their ideas but I know in a democracy ideas are compromised both as part of our tradition of governing and of our legislative process. We cannot afford to mirror the Republican Party in some inauthentic search for purity.<\/strong> None of us is so elevated that we do not need to listen to one another.<\/p>\n

Bernie supporters were hacked and played by Russia and many still believe the lies \u00a0circulated about Hillary. During the election, many of his supporters behaved like (and were) privileged, cis-gendered, white men. They demanded immediate change, not understanding that change is an ongoing process filtering through laws, family life, work relationships, religious life, community, and political life. Those without privilege could have informed the conversation were not that so many Bernie supporters absolutists. He dismissed women\u2019s issues (e.g. Planned Parenthood) as unimportant and failed to understand the centrality of our issues to his economic and social agendas.<\/p>\n

Right now I am angry because Bernie is the opening speaker at the Women\u2019s Conference in Detroit. I\u2019m sorry if you don\u2019t understand. As a feminist of 40+ years I have seen this before. It is not about inclusiveness, it is about privilege. Invite all the men you want, I would welcome them, but let them come to \u00a0listen.<\/em>\u00a0Imagine a white person being the opening speaker at a Black Lives Matter conference. Could she or he speak as well to the issues as a person of color who has lived them? The choice is tone deaf. I will leave it there.<\/p>\n

So now what? I don\u2019t know the answer but let\u2019s start the conversation. It is one thing to disagree, even vehemently, and quite another to dismiss and demean one another. We are ALL needed to turn this horror around. If you are angry that I am speaking my truth, be angrier still at those who are subverting democracy. If you are angry that I don\u2019t trust Bernie, show me that you are trustworthy and don\u2019t dismiss me because you don\u2019t think my ideals are pure enough. If you get that women\u2019s issues are human issues and that no political theory is valid without a substantial critique of issues that effect women then I will work with you. If you begin to listen to those of us outside your wheelhouse, I will work with you. Me and my feminist hoards will work with you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Progressives and people of conscience need to be a united front against the insanity that took over the White House in 2016 and has been pervasive in the Republican Party since the advent of Gingrich. That being said\u2026 we all know that is not how progressives\/liberals work. We have to engage in endless arguments about … Continue reading Bernie and the Women’s March Conference<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,8,23,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}