Women in Congress

This week has been a revelation in how far women still have to go to get close to parity with men in the political realm. Just when you think that maybe they are making progress by winning seats in Congress, a lot of people are comparing them to sheep and the KKK because they chose to wear the colors of the suffragette protestors from a hundred years ago.

I’m seeing lots of ridicule and demeaning posts on social media, which doesn’t surprise me. What surprises me is the number of women who I thought were aware and enlightened who are joining in the merriment.

One in particular surprises me, because I know her well enough to believe if she had been of the right age one hundred years ago she would have been in the vanguard of the women who tore off their hoop skirts and girdles, put on white blouses and bloomers and marched in the streets by the thousands to get the right to vote.

Now she criticizes the women’s caucus for wearing white in unity for women’s rights at the State of the Union speech last week. I think their demonstration on the floor was a great display of their anger and intent toward the “pussy grabber” in chief of the country. There are still those who believe all women should remain barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen.

“Well behaved women seldom make history.”  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Carolyn and I through the years spent many days walking from house to house in Nevada, registering people to vote, encouraging them to make the effort on election day, and make a difference in the country. I have volunteered in two different political parties to try to wake people up to what the rich and powerful are doing to the rest of us.

It is too easy to sit on the sidelines and snipe and criticize those who are actually out there on the political stage trying to make a difference. I seldom agree with every political stance of every politician running for office. I can’t think of any that I totally agreed with on everything. But I will fight for those I think best represent my wishes and needs.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

I am very proud that my former state of residence, Nevada, has become the very first state to have a female majority in the state legislature. I don’t know if women will do better at governing than the “old white men” who have had a monopoly until now, but they sure can’t do much worse.

I was also proud of the thousand of teachers who demonstrated in the Oklahoma state capital last year. It was a good demonstration of the power of unity. If one teacher at a time asks for a raise or school funding, they get brushed aside. But if they organize and fight as a group, people in power notice. 

Unfortunately, school history books are written by people who don’t want people to learn of the pitched battles, bombs and machine guns and bullets it took to get workers organized into unions and get working conditions and wages up to respectable levels. Nobody understands that until Franklin Roosevelt got the Labor Relations Act passed in the Thirties, it was illegal to form a union, and you could be shot for trying.

Unless people take it upon themselves to read and discover what they don’t want you to know, they will continue to fight for their rights as individuals, and be picked off one by one. 

The coming election will be a bellwether of the direction the country is going in the future. Neither political party seems to represent the will of the people anymore. That’s why populism is taking over on both sides of the political spectrum. A large percentage of the population realizes that the government no longer represents their interests. Both parties are bought and paid for by Wall Street banks and corporations, Nobody is defending the small businessman, the homeowner, the tradesmen, or the family farmer. 

Right now it looks as if the country is bitterly divided between left and right, liberals and conservatives. I think the truer divide is between elites at the top and serfs at the bottom. The elites like the left/right divide. They fear the day when the serfs at the bottom figure out what’s going on and unite to take back their country. 

If this nation doesn’t find a leader who can unite the people for freedom and prosperity, we will fall into the Fascist trap of military rule. Donald Trump, with his disdain for the Constitution, his ignorance of history, and his penchant for executive action, scares hell out of me. 

Hard times are coming. Hang on.