16 Comments
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Dave Parker's avatar

Hahahaha! Every day is April Fools’ Day! Will we ever fix it?

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Lisa Ciorlieri's avatar

Thank you for raising the question of why we have never had a female president. I think about this a lot. (Americans' concept of who we are does not correspond to who we actually are.) Kamala Harris' handling of Trump's bullying of her (the 'well, is she Indian or is she black' nonsense) was brilliant. She shrugged her shoulders and conveyed to the world that she has dealt with the race issue her entire life and would not waste her energy dealing with him on the issue. I also loved the fact that she did not make being female aa campaign issue as Hilary did.

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Vela Ramos's avatar

Wonderful conversation with so many good points! Thank you both!

Ann is so right about the book we ought to have on why 2 very smart women were NOT elected but an idiot man was.

I don't know if America is NOT ready for a woman president or a gay president.

I was sure that America was NOT ready for a black president... and then it happened. (And racial bigotry is & has been just as prevalent and potent as misogyny and homophobia.)

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Dorothy D's avatar

Obama had a very long time to make his case and win the nomination. He was also a GREAT CANDIDATE! We need another person like him!

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The Unk's avatar

[Ann: “I know a lot of people don’t have a lot of sympathy for federal workers….”]

…and state workers, and teachers, and anyone else who has a “cushy government job”, because they’re all lazy and don’t really do anything, but still get top pay and benefits.

People’s ignorance and especially envy cause them to create false images of public workers as well as those who work in the scientific, medical and academic fields. Our nation is waist deep in resentment of all those who “have it made”.

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ira shapiro's avatar

MAN SMART (WOMAN SMARTER)

Let us put men and women together

See which one is smarter

Some say men, but I say no

The women got the men like a puppet show

Believe me, it's the people that say

That the men are leading the women astray

But I say that the women today

Are smarter than the men in every way

That's right, the women are smarter

That's right, the women are smarter

That's right, the women are smarter

The women are smarter than the men today

Lyrics By: Norman Span 1936

Sung By: Grateful Dead and others

First verse and chorus

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Audrey Eve's avatar

An oldie but goodie!

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Arkansas Blue's avatar

Unfortunately, it's not the male bigots so much who will never vote for a woman. Much worse are the female bigots who will never vote for a woman because of jealousy, envy, etc. They are the ones who really hurt the chances of a woman ever becoming president of this country.

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Liza Donnelly's avatar

Both groups did. Women can be equally participants in the patriarchy, as men, believing what the system tells them.

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The Unk's avatar

Truth! Millions of women young and old have always been indoctrinated into our patriarchal culture. Even if there is no formal religious upbringing, the patriarchal values are still taught.

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Susan Pate's avatar

As if, eh?

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Dorothy D's avatar

Both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris waged poor campaigns. Kamala was also hampered by not having been primaried and by having too little time to campaign. Both Biden and his coterie's fault. It's not just the fact they are women .

Further to the Biden book -- better to have this discussion now than closer to the election. We have to address the coverup by his close staff and family that kept him in office and led to Trump's victory. Should we have cognitive tests for candidates after they are 70? Should we abolish the Seniority System in Congress that rewards doddering old people? Should there be a way to legally stop an obviously cognitively flawed candidate from running for high office?

We are capable of fighting against the horrors of the Trump administration and figuring out how to reform the Democratic party and our democracy at the same time.

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The Unk's avatar

I agree that their campaigns were poor. I voted for both of them without hesitation, but I wasn’t surprised when the other guy won.

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Elaine Waxer's avatar

Our country was built by Conservative Christians. It’s still dominated by them.

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Audrey Eve's avatar

So entertaining and so glad you and Liza plan on making this a regular gig!

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Denise Wallace's avatar

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with dialogue! I found this very enjoyable. I also do not understand the resentment of government workers. We are going to be lost without them. I really didn’t have too much contact with government offices until I enrolled in Medicare and signed up for Social Security. The workers were wonderful answering my questions and making sure I filled out everything correctly.

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