Well it was the substance of the protest that resonated with people though. If their protests were just essentially "Boo Obama!" then I don't think it would have influenced that many people. From what I remember their big thing was a return to fiscal responsibility and not simply jacking up taxes to pay for a greatly inflated budget. People liked the sound of that so they managed to get people elected that promised to work towards those goals. Now if Trump and the GOP actually do something that the left can protest and it's something that resonates with the public, then they have a chance to strip power from the GOP in the next election......but they aren't helping themselves out by having group therapy sessions in the streets before they have something of substance to protest.
I see it the other way though. I think the people that protest likely cared enough to vote. So how do you know the protestors that protested weren't the ones that voted against Trump? I think it's far more likely that those who stayed home are staying home again, because they are indifferent to who won anyway. I think if you are in a swing state and stay home you are showing your indifference and if those people didn't feel like spending the time to get out and vote I don't know what sense it makes for that same person to spend even more energy protesting something that they didn't care much about to influence in the first place. In the end, you can still have not voted for say Clinton and be against Trump. There were many conservatives against Trump after all.
Thanks for your post Juan, I really did want to get a "feel" for what was present and I think you did a great job of communicating that. While I fell like a "protest" with such a lack of focus will probably not have much impact, I appreciate that people in this country still have passion. I also appreciate the concern that many have about Trump considering the vomit that seems to flow freely from his mouth.
I thought the women's marches were surprisingly inspiring. And I dont always have kind words on the approach to women's issues. Even though women do too much cramming of differen issues under one umbrella, I thought the marches were very appropriate. By itself they may not mean much. I dont think its turned half a billion men into feminists. Its a largely symbolic move, yes. And maybe the marchers just needed a live hug. But it can be a light spark to future united causes
So is this because they couldn't elect Hillary or because more than 50% white women out there didn't vote for her? To claim or enshrine roughly half the population as a homogenous group is ridiculous.
It depends on what issues we are talking about. They aren't homogenous on every issue. No group is. They do have common hurdles that they face because of nothing else except the fact that they are women. On that issue they have homogeny.
One of the leaders in the Women's march here in the United States is a muslim girl who is pro Sharia. Let that sink in for a second. Keep this crap up and Trump will be re-elected.
Wait! Really? Are you serious? Oh no!!!!!! We are being taken over. Everybody panic!!! Run for your lives!!!!!!!
You are referring to Linda Sarsour? I see she is heavily demonized in right-wing blogs. It's funny how all you have to do is say "Sharia" and the Trumpers all go crazy. You might be right that she gives Trump ammunition to undermine dissent. Her participation kinda strikes me the same way as participation of prolife women's groups -- not on board with everything, but still find solidarity in feminism. Yet, there will be people who will say this group and that group can't cooperate; you're a traitor if you march with this person. So political opponents of feminism pick these women out to force a false dilemma of choosing between an illegitimate big tent or an immaterial purist small tent. Tea Party accepted all kinds of views in their movement, I don't see why feminism would be different.
Are you serious!?!?!?!?!?!? She actually favors Sharia!!!!!!!! Get a grip man!!!!! We're DOOMED!!!!!!
It just blows my mind that this **** is happening in the United States. I mean what the **** is wrong with these people?
I don't know if anyone's knocking a pro-life feminist but like I said before it seems like these liberals are lost and confused. A veil is not a symbol of women's freedom. It should be a symbol of oppression, something they say they're fighting. You want someone who represents women's freedom? Look at Ayaan Hirsi Ali, someone who was the victim genital mutilation and is fighting real oppression. Instead of embracing someone like her, the left attacks her. Souther Poverty Law Center calls her an anti-muslim extremist. This is the leader of the women's movement. Liberals are eating themselves up.
I don't really keep up with the who's-who of feminist personalities. I had to google your reference just to find Sarsour. She seems to have some bad blood with Ali. Okay. I don't know or care about their squabbles. I'm betting 95% of the millions that showed up for the women's march don't give a **** about one organizer either. This is the fallacy of the argument that we keep seeing get played --"this leader in the feminist movement is pro-Sharia," "this leader in BLM advocates reparations," "this leader in the pro-life movement really just wanted to reduce black births," "this leader in the Tea Party says Obama is a closet communist Muslim homosexual terrorist from Kenya," and now "this leader in the alt-right says America should only be for white people." These movements do not consist of a handful of leaders with legions of sycophants. They might have been catalyzed by a couple of a couple of named individuals but they've all grown out of the control of any one person or group of people; these are a mass of like-minded but autonomous people who organize around a subset of ideas they can agree on and agree to disagree everywhere else. You can criticize Sarsour or whatever individual, but you can't paint with a broad brush all these other people because of what one person has said. This argument is stupid and fallacious and spurious and facile and ridiculous. Stop doing it. And, if you ever see me doing it, quote this post and throw it in my face and watch me shut the **** up.
Don't know why republicans and trump supporters hate women so much that they want to attack the Women's March and related movements, but hey, knock yourselves out...
The closer anyone gets to the fringes of either side, the more unhappy and angry they get. It probably just seems like liberals are more angry and unhappy because right now so many have moved so far to the left recently....also this board is pretty far to the left so there's a lot more examples of it here. Angry and hateful extreme conservatives are a thing too.
How dare you deconstruct RockLedge's arguments. Your naive objectivity is blinding you to the truth! Let me fully indoctrinate you to the cause with a brilliant counterpoint. Richard Spencer was at Trump's inauguration. Let that sink in for a second. He also showed up to CPAC before the more savvy PR folks stepped into suppress the bad optics. Based on this clearly irrefutable evidence Conservatives in this country are all pro white supremacy... Spoiler This post provided by the strawmen posts for Rockledge coalition
Absolutely right. The extremists on both sides need to chill out. I've written resumes for 100s of highly successful female executives, and every once in a while the topic comes up. Seems to me that the majority of these women acknowledge that a problem exists, and that women do need to support continued equality- but they also know many women who complain a great deal without actually doing anything about it. The one I consulted with just this morning- she was a former Ambassador to Canada for a South American country- has dealt with all kinds of misogynistic behavior- she acknowledged the problem, but she's tough as nails and always gets promoted b/c she overcomes the negatives and proves to upper management that she does as good, or better, of a job than others. She's been promoted over several men throughout her career because of this. So, as usual, the solution is somewhere in between. Fight for equal rights, but take personal responsibility too.
