Screed

Mansplainers and Proverbial Frogs

Mara Gay Nov 11, 2009
WHO: Kate Harding
WHERE: Salon
LENGTH: 2022 words of warning to the Democratic Party
THESIS:
Women should build their "swell of righteous indignation" over the pro-life Stupak amendment into a revolt against the Democratic Party
THE THREAT: Kill the Stupak amendment or women will ditch the Dems.
THE REWARD: Women will longer be told to "quit being so picky and oversensitive about our 'single issues' and take one for the team."
MODERATE DEMOCRATS:  "Would be obvious conservatives in any era marked less by far-right lunacy"
WHY WE SHOULD PURGE 'EM: "If the point of women voting for 'moderate' Democrats is to avoid a majority that's actively hostile to women, then those who voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment just proved that there's no point at all"
THE LAST WORD:

So the wise, objective, pragmatic mansplainers can go ahead and tell us little ladies How This All Works one more time, but now we're telling you: We've not only heard it, we've tried it. We've tried electing "moderate" Democrats who would be obvious conservatives in any era marked less by far-right lunacy. We've tried compromising our values in hopes of taking baby steps forward. We've tried sacrificing the rights of women and every minority group under the sun, so as not to look unreasonable or oversensitive to those who resent having to share this country at all with people they find undesirable. And we've seen where it leads: "We choose to play nice, our party trades on our freedoms. We choose to object, our party resents and blames us for failure."

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