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?
Re: Wilileaks
Autumn, It’s not a good day for Hillary. Wikileaks released hacked emails from the Hillary campaign showing they were paying trolls to push back on Bernie. I hope these trolls here aren’t getting any money! And just as good, on the same day she picks Citizen Kaine; the Virginia Supreme Court ruled her butt boy’s order[Terry McAuliffe under FBI investigation himself and soon to be a felon] restoring voting to 200K convicted rapists and killers is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. She needed those rapist and killer votes to win Virginia.
Autumn, Actually a poll came out yesterday that showed that the military favors Gary Johnson. You are right that they do not like Hilary but they think Trump is way to crazy to be commander in chief. If I remember I will link it tomorrow. Are you sure you are not a Trump supporter? It is past my bedtime.
Nick,
The Guardian ran this today: “At least President Trump would ground the drones” I was surprised as they are usually shillin’ for Hil and tearing down Bernie and Trump.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/22/president-trump-obama-republican
Just no comb over.
It was as narcissistic as Trump.
I saw it live on CNN.
DWS & Rose,
You two are living in a fantasy world — the majority of people in the military are all about Trump and many were for Bernie. HRC is despised as they know she will promote wars. Trump has turned out more voters in the primary than Ronald Reagan. And more voters than the Demoncrats. Too bad y’all chose to back such a sordid candidate. And Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s days are numbered. Tim Canova is gettting donations from all over the country as Bernieorbusters are supporting him.
The Daily Mail is one of the few papers to call Obama on his blatant lack of empathy.
I encourage all to watch the presser. He briefed the cops on Munich, joked about his daughter, then went back to the terrorist attack. It was a radical Islamic Iranian terrorist BTW. The tape speaks for itself.
@Rose
Jesus H. Christ, it seems to happen everytime one of them is in front of a judge for something. I read, and hear, Judge So and So was appointed by (fill in the blank republican). Here, Trump criticized a judge basedon his heritage and association with La Raza. Pat Buchanan said it well:
The arrow of that does not run just one way, to the good side. It can also run to the bad side. Why do we mention the Freddie Gray judges are black? Because otherwise there would be a democratic presumption of discrimination.
And stuck on yourselves??? It ain’t “school girl” if its true. And I have fussed enough with SWM to know that she is one of those la-di-dah liberals who disdains anything conservative or Texan, or Southern. Yet, she seldom deigns to explain her position, or do much beyond calling names.
Frankly, the “nose in the air” attitude of liberals is sooo apparent that it is frequently written about, and not in a general name-calling sort of way, but with a great deal of descriptiveness. Outside of the taxonomy, you have the very obvious refusal of the hoity-toity liberal to actually confront the horrible conditions in the hood, for example. The “let them eat cake” (or brioche) attitude is thicker with liberals than with Marie Antoinette.
I know both sides say the same things about each other, sooo I try to judge which side is right by looking at the results of the beliefs. The results are that the liberals are usually flatly wrong. I say that as somebody who is socially conservative and economically progressive. So while I am currently a Republican , that is fluid should the Democrats ever regain their sanity and morality.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Rose,
The TPP will undermine our sovereignty by allowing foreign corporations to bring lawsuits against the U.S. and bypass our judicial system – look up ISDS. In addition according to Lori Wallach of Public Citizen (http://www.citizen.org/TPP)
If passed, the TPP would:
make it easier for big corporations to ship our jobs overseas, pushing down our wages and increasing income inequality,
flood our country with unsafe imported food,
jack up the cost of medicines by giving big pharmaceutical corporations new monopoly rights to keep lower cost generic drugs off the market
empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards,
ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs,
roll back Wall Street reforms,
sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom,
and undermine human rights.
Nick didn’t watch the CSPAN tape.
The president was meeting with cops not the press. He spoke for 10 minutes praising them and the jobs they do protecting us. Nick couldn’t possibly disagree with one thing that Obama said to those cops. It wasn’t a Munich presser. It was thanking cops for the work they do. Obama got a standing ovation from them.
Nick comes blowing in here without knowing what he is talking about.
Nick is the cultist here. And a damn fool.
I’ll ignore the stupid remark about laughing about kids being killed.
She thinks it’s cute to laugh when children were targeted by an Iranian terrorist.
And Rose does not mind her cult leader laughing during a presser involving the Munich attack. I know the MSM and cultists don’t mind, but voters do. And I know the smart people in the Clinton campaign went ballistic. Maybe Obama is a mole. We know he hates Hillary and really hates Bubba. Obama is Machiavellian.
SWM, In case you haven’t noticed, Hillary ain’t Obama. She not only won’t get all his voters to show up in November, some will vote for other candidates. Hillary played it safe w/ Kaine. I think that is a mistake. He won’t inspire any enthusiasm. She couldn’t swallow her pride and put a bold pick like Warren. She needs to shake things up, but her machine is on autopilot, 2008 redux.
And all you women have a real problem w/ lesbians. I am not snickering. I’m fine w/ lesbians. I like watching lesbian sex, well not Hillary, but hot lesbians. You are all evading the lesbian elephant in the room, Hillary. There are issues, and a big one is hypocrisy and integrity. Hillary beat up on gay marriage most of her career, just coming around of late.
I can’t recall any Democrat raving about the judge’s heritage, race, or religion who presided at his trial. Please cite a couple of examples.
Stuck on ourselves? We disagree with you and you resort to a schoolgirl’s comeback?
@SWM
BeeEss. As far as insulting the judge, we hear about that every time a Republican judge sits on a Democratic Party defendant. Really, the Dems will have to stretch to find ways to impugn Trump while they are having to stretch to find ways to laud Hillary. I used to be for her myself, but being a free thinker, I changed my mind about her when all the email stuff came out. That being said, I never thought she was honest. I overlooked that because I figured just as big a crook would be running on the Republican side.
But, Trump has integrity. He is a genuine good man. If you and Rose were not so stuck on yourselves, you would be able to see that. But you have played with the Dark Side too long, and now you are just jaded political hacks. That is a shame.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
How many vets are gonna volunteer to kill the families of terrorists? Damn few I’m guessing. Killing kids tends to tear them up inside – to say nothing of PTSD.
But the guy who spent his time during Vietnam fighting STDs, knows just how to take care of our vets.
PTSD….STDs. Close enough, amiright?
Swarthmore.
Yeah. I’m not too sure that most vets are too sure about torture either.
But – remember! Obama laughed at the Munich Presser!!!!