There is a little reported story out of the Democratic National Convention where two Sanders delegates have been barred from attending the event. The problem was not their credentials or their conduct. State Sen. Tim Ashe (right below) and Ken Dean are men and the DNC ruled that there were simply too many of that kind in the delegation. Vermont was ordered to replace them with women, any women, so long as the delegation was equal. Ashe and Dean have filed challenges for good reason.
Coupled with a growing controversy over the determined effort of the Democrats not to release a list of donors to the media, this is hardly a good story to trigger days before the opening of convention. The national party appears to be imposing a quota system on delegates based on gender despite the fact that such delegates can claim that they are qualified through the democratic process. After all Dean and Ashe were elected as delegates on June 11. Then, on July 5, the state party was ordered to remove them due to their gender deficiency.
Of course, the infamous superdelegates remain untouchable. It is just those elected by the people that can be negated solely on the basis for their gender. Notably, eight of 10 Vermont superdelegates are men.
The Democratic party leadership appears to be moving away from the fight against gender discrimination in guaranteeing equal opportunity to the fight for gender equality with the use of quotas to force gender balance. Ironically, it was Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in United States v. Virginia (1996) who warned that “Today’s skeptical scrutiny of official action denying rights or opportunities based on sex responds to volumes of history.” Not only are these delegates saying that they are being denied position due to their gender, but the DNC is negating the choice of Vermont voters — male and female. There is such a thing as individual achievement and choice. The Vermont voters are allowed to select people on the basis for their individual merits rather than categorical exclusions based on race, gender, religion, or other immutable characteristics.
This point was made by the Supreme Court in University of California v. Bakke (1978):
[R]ace, like gender and illegitimacy, . . . is an immutable characteristic which its possessors are powerless to escape or set aside. While a classification is not per se invalid because it divides classes on the basis of an immutable characteristic, see supra at 355-356, it is nevertheless true that such divisions are contrary to our deep belief that “legal burdens should bear some relationship to individual responsibility or wrongdoing,” . . . and that advancement sanctioned, sponsored, or approved by the State should ideally be based on individual merit or achievement, or at the least on factors within the control of an individual.
Those concerns are heightened in my view when alleged gender discrimination negates the results of a democratic process like delegate selection.
What do you think?
@RudyM
J’adore Steve Reich. I’ve seen him twice here in Charleston during Spoleto. When I first heard his “Different Trains” composition it was evocative and painful (I grew up in Deutschland) that I had to leave the venue. Wow! Too bad we don’t subsidize such amazing artists so more people could hear them…
“What if those 2 men said that today they feel like a woman. And then they used the ladies room. Could they stay then.”
There you go. Or maybe they are feeling a bit gender fluid and they could decide they are men at the last minute.
Glad my idiot party is there to inform me that a person with a penis can be a woman on his own say-so.
“The Secretary of State has no troops so how did she personally kill all these people. Now, I know some of you think that she killed Vince Foster with her bare hands but she has never been a commander of troops.”
She has been directly instrumental in US aggression on more than one occasion, and she has gleefully celebrated and bragged about it. More people are involved in these processes than simple the Commander in Chief (and admittedly people who aren’t actually office holders are probably even more responsible). She bears some responsibility for the destruction of the African state with the highest standard of living and for the ongoing attempt to destroy Syria (and partition is definitely part of the Yinonist game plan).
And har, yeah, the Clinton Body Count is just one innocent coincidence after another. And I’m sure Bill knew nothing about how the CIA was using Mena.
What if those 2 men said that today they feel like a woman. And then they used the ladies room. Could they stay then.
@slohrss29
I totally concurr: “If they think the RNC show was nuts, why don’t they listen to what NATO commanders are saying? They are ready to sacrifice as much of civilization as necessary to live out their 80’s cold war fantasies. If they screw up, and it can happen in the “fog of war,” people won’t be talking about “divisive social issues.”
It’s almost surreal to me that I find myself in the position of defending Trump because of the DNC’s arrogant insistance of supporting HRC!! We will be at war with Iran and Russia if she gets in the WH.
The handle “swarthmoremom” says it all. Talk about a wealthy left/liberal bubble.
My mom grew up in Kesington (Philadelphia). Was nice to go see Steve Reich free at Swarthmore College though when I was a Temple student. All that capital comes in handy at times, no doubt.
Oh, and I did vote for Berie in the Democratic primary, but I never accepted him as my political Lord and Savior.
NBC interviews Syrian president Assad on July 13, 2016.
Video is 43 minutes. But it gets interesting at the 12:57 mark. The sign of a weak U.S. president. Then Assad discusses former foreign policy under, Bush, Clinton & Obama. Then Assad tries to figure out Trump. Assad wants to sit face to face with Trump @ the 19:00 mark.
Just another reason to give the Donal Trump middle finger to my party.
Here is something else on the Democratic Left intolerance. It is about Milo, the gay conservative dude. I put it here because maybe it explains how liberals manage to continually self-delude themselves by staying in echo chambers:
#freemilo
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@SWM
Oh, it is very hot here, too. Too hot to even go get in the pool! Sooo, I am just staying in and stirring up trouble on Twitter. Writing songs and stuff. It is sooo hot that even the birds are staying in the shade, because usually there are at least a half a dozen at my door eating.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky, You are right. I did hear some right wing nut job say that she killed Vince Foster with her bare hands.Have spent way too much time on the internet annoying people today. It must be the heat. 🙂
Oh my, I forgot about Kagan. I think your mind can only hold onto so many of these sordid details. It seems though most of the liberal/progressives do not sympathize with people outside of our country. As I say, most, not all. If they think the RNC show was nuts, why don’t they listen to what NATO commanders are saying? They are ready to sacrifice as much of civilization as necessary to live out their 80’s cold war fantasies. If they screw up, and it can happen in the “fog of war,” people won’t be talking about “divisive social issues.” But I usually get the blank stare when I bring this up too.
@slohrss29
Ah yes, I had forgotten about Victoria Nuland and neo con hubby Robert Kagan. Both amoral peeps enriching themselves off perpetual conflict. Small wonder they are so close to HRC.
@SWM
Oh, you just heard somebody else say it, so you repeat it. What a poseur!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
SWM – I dislike the Donald immensely, but I fear HRC. Trump is a maybe evil, HRC is a known evil. She is totally depraved. Instigating the removal of Ghaddifi turning Libya into a hellhole, supporting the coup in Honduras to help her corporate buddy out which has resulted in becoming one of the most dangerous countries – and I take the latter personally as one of my close friends from high school is (was??) an environmental activist and was disappeared several months ago.
I will be voting Jill Stein, but never HRC.
Secretary of State has no troops, but with the likes of Samantha Power and Victoria Nuland (my fav, personally handing out cookies to demonstrators pretty well knowing they’ll be in sniper fire). Of course a lot of Ukraine does predate Hillary, but we know she was all in for having Ghaddafi sit on a bayonet. You know, “we came, we saw, he died…” If I was any other leader over there, I think I would at least have to scratch my head. And stop any color revolutions before they get rolling so they don’t turn my own population against each other. That is the kind of progressive Hillary is.
It’s the Democrat Party, so why don’t two people with testicles simply say they identify as women until after the convention? Problem solved!
Autumn, You don’t sound all that progressive too me. You are too willing too over look Trump’s ties to white supremacists and anti semites. A true progressive could NOT do that. His red faced fascist like rantings about muslims and mexicans sicken the true Bernie progressives.
“…so how did she personally kill all these people.”
If only Stalin knew.