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| Reflections on the Glass Ceiling |
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| Lipstick on a Skull |
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| Shiny Objects |
It's been decades since I've heard anything so misogynistic as comments made by Eric Fehrnstrom, senior campaign adviser for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
The health, personal freedom, and paycheck equality of over half of the US population is an economic issue. To call these issues "shiny objects" designed by the Obama administration to distract featherbrained voters from the "real" issues put forth by Republicans (e.g., birther claims, Obama preferences for Muslims, voter fraud) belittles and harms women. These backward concepts show Americans just the tip of an iceberg of repression coming our way if Romney is elected.
He and his supporters will not heal or even help the economy according to world renowned economic experts. I don't need to read the latest book written by Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz to understand that the republican fixation with Reagonomics is guaranteed failure, particularly the trickle down effect of tax cuts for "job creators." The republicans have no new ideas. Instead, they believe that making the same economic mistakes will yield success. For them, success is measured by increasing the wealth for the wealthy while milking the rest of us dry. Even their basic survival instincts of lying about their contempt for the poor, disadvantaged, women, children, people of color, non-Christians, gays, .... is pre-empted by arrogance and disdain. Romney's spokesman is not speaking to the 99 percent of Americans. He is speaking to and for the one percent of the rich corporate drones.
So, who has a real voice in this democracy? Money talks and Citizens United has guaranteed that money has the loudest voice. It is a fact that both parties benefit from wealthy contributors, but the republican party is the clear winner in this area and uses its money to relentlessly pound "battleground" voters with any message that supports its candidates. Whether the message makes sense or tells lies is inconsequential because the "end justifies the means" as far as republican media strategists are concerned. The goal is to convince middle class and lower income voters who have the voting numbers- still - that the rich care about them enough to throw them some jobs, cut their taxes, wage a couple of wars, and miraculously eliminate the federal deficit, too. Simple logic says that such claims are false and republican budget proposals inadvertently tell this truth. Simple logic and experience tells me that equal pay issues should be non partisan. But, republicans are more concerned with the "burdens" on employers than on non-discrimination and fairness.
According to the tea party-ites and republican right wingers, women are paid less than men because they leave their jobs more often to take care of their families and/or jobs are not as important to them. These are bogus and demeaning claims. These are the shiny objects of distraction that corporate public servants put forth. The truth is that employers discriminate against women in the workforce and the latest democratic party effort to right this wrong has been defeated by republicans. So women work harder and longer for their paychecks and must work harder and longer to elect public servants who represent the 99 percent of Americans.
