Election Day Reads
Posted: November 8, 2016 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics 85 Comments
Good Morning!!
The great day has arrived! I’m going to go and vote as soon as I can wake up enough to function properly. I couldn’t get to sleep last night. I watched Hillary’s rallies in Philadelphia and Raleigh and then lay awake for a couple more hours, unable to stop my mind from racing. I think my body is registering how important this day is to me, even as I try to stay calm.
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wondered why I wasn’t allowed to do all the things boys and men could do? Why couldn’t women be lawyers, doctors, priests? Why couldn’t girls even be “altar boys?”
When I was in elementary school, I sometimes fantasized about being a boy–not because I actually wanted to be male, but because then I would have the freedom to do what I wanted to do and not what I was “supposed” to do. It’s amazing to me now that I realized even then that I was considered less than in my culture.
Hillary Clinton speaking in Philadelphia last night.
When I was in high school, it was still a basic assumption in our society that “real women” didn’t want careers. The height of a girl’s dreams was supposed to be to get married, raised children, and help her husband become successful.
When I was a junior in high school, I read The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan; and suddenly I began to understand why my smart, college educated mom often seemed dissatisfied and frustrated. That book changed my life; it reinforced the inner feelings I had always had that girls and women didn’t deserve to be treated as less than boys and men.
Next month I’ll be 69 years old. I’ve waited all my life for the day when I could vote for a brilliant accomplished woman as President of the United States. That day has come and I plan to enjoy it to the fullest.
I know this won’t instantly change the culture we live in; in fact the sexism and misogyny will almost certainly get worse–just as racism got worse after we elected the first Black President. But if this is what we have to go through for girls an women to someday be treated equally, then so be it.
Tonight Hillary Clinton will be President elect. Little girls will know that they can be anything they want to be, even though they still will have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to achieve the same level of success, and even though their achievements will still be denigrated and ignored. But we will have moved a bit closer to real change and real equality.
A few reads for you before I head to my polling place:
Claire Landsbaum at The Cut: So Many Women Put ‘I Voted’ Stickers on Susan B. Anthony’s Grave That the Cemetery Is Staying Open Late on Election Night.
On November 8, 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for illegally casting a ballot in the presidential election. More than a century later, single women are the nation’s most potent political force. Anthony’s grave in Rochester, New York, is a popular destination for women who want to honor her memory by doing their civic duty, and according to the Democrat & Chronicle, this year the city’s mayor is making it even easier to do so.
Mt. Hope Cemetery, where Anthony is buried, usually closes at 5:30 p.m., but on Election Day, it’ll be open until voting ends. “Visiting Susan B. Anthony’s gravesite has become an Election Day rite of passage for many citizens,” Rochester’s mayor told the paper in a press release. “With this year’s historically significant election, it seems right to extend that opportunity until the polls close.”
Kevin Kruse at Politico: What It Took. How a lifetime of compromises and concessions brought one woman to the brink of history.
In early 1979, on a community access television program called In Focus, the wife of the new governor of Arkansas was peppered with question after question about all the ways in which she was an untraditional woman.
“The thought occurs to me that you really don’t fit the image that we have created for the governor’s wife in Arkansas,” the host, a self-described “newsman,” said to 32-year-old Hillary Rodham. “You’re not a native, you’ve been educated in liberal Eastern universities, you’re less than 40. You don’t have any children. You don’t use your husband’s name. You practice law. Does it concern you that maybe other people feel that you don’t fit the image that we have created for the governor’s wife in Arkansas?”
Audience for Hillary’s midnight rally in Raleigh, NC last night
She looked through her large, thick-lensed glasses and smiled.
“No,” she began, “because just as I said before … ”
She had made a choice. In 1974, she had moved to Arkansas to be with her boyfriend, Bill Clinton. It was a decision that would dictate so many others, big and small, for decades to come—and here, in this spartan studio, on this rinky-dink show, was one of them. How to respond to this man?
This issue of wifeliness was being put to the first female lawyer at the finest firm in Little Rock. Rodham had been 1 of just 27 women among the 200-plus students in her law school class at Yale. She was one of only three on the staff of 44 attorneys on the Watergate impeachment team. She could have responded to the interviewer by pointing out any of these things. It was the ‘70s: She could have responded with an impassioned lecture about feminism, or chauvinism, or women’s lib. But she didn’t. She responded with an equanimity that must have been a challenge to muster. “That doesn’t bother me, and I hope that doesn’t bother very many people,” she said.
You already know the story, but I hope you’ll read the rest anyway.
J.J. Holmes and his sister with President Obama
You know about this story too, but this article about the disabled 12-year-old boy who was kicked out of a Trump Rally is really inspiring: An anti-Trump disabled boy was booed at a rally. The next day, he got to meet President Obama.
Twelve-year-old JJ Holmes has been enamored with the 2016 presidential election.
By Election Day, the boy would encounter two of the most polarizing figures in this campaign season — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and President Obama — and his experiences with them would be vastly different.
For months, JJ, who has a severe case of cerebral palsy, has been sitting on his knees at his home in Longwood, Fla., using his nose to type searches on his iPad for “Mary Poppins” plays and Trump events, his mother said. Throughout the election, she said, he had been itching to go to a rally — to express his disdain for Trump, who came under fire last year for mocking a reporter with a disability.
“I wanted to go because Donald J. Trump made fun of disabled people,” JJ said in a video statement Monday to The Washington Post, using his computer vocalization device.
Please go read the whole thing. You won’t regret it.
Adele Stan at The National Memo: Pantsuit Feminism Is Real Feminism.
On November 8, if America doesn’t make history by electing its first former beauty-pageant owner and reality-show star as president, it will do so by electing the first woman to occupy the Oval Office. A woman in a suit; a suit that has pants.
Much is made of Hillary Clinton’s sartorial choice of the matching jacket and slacks as her signature look. But whether the subject of celebration or mockery, the response stems from the same fact—that a woman in public life who shucks nylons and pumps in favor of the freedom of movement long afforded men, well, that’s a woman who is claiming power.
Hillary with LeBron in Cleveland
Some might claim that the pantsuit is merely a symbol of feminism, one that can belie the motives of the woman who wears it. Symbol though it be, there is nothing “mere” about it: the pantsuit, as worn by the first presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party, is feminism itself. Its existence as an acceptable form of female dress in the halls of power is the result of thousands of years of feminism, and in Western culture, particularly the last few hundred.
The battle to unbind women from corsets and crinolines and bustles and busks was the work of feminists. It’s hardly a coincidence that the doffing of the corset in the 1920s, together with the adoption of a shorter dress that hung loosely on the frame, coincided with the time women gained the right to vote. But pants were another thing entirely. Pants were—and often still are—symbolic of something other than comfort or even ease of movement. Pants are a symbol of power and self-possession. Pants encase and protect the genitals while skirts offer access. A woman in pants is claiming her body as her own, treading her own path in the world.
Yes! When I was in high school in the 1960s, girls weren’t allowed to wear pants. We weren’t even permitted to wear culottes, which were very popular then. Today as an old retired lady, I wear jeans most of the time and the heck with anyone who disapproves of it.
The New York Time Editorial Board: The Question for James Comey.
That was the message James Comey, the F.B.I. director, sent to Congress on Sunday in his latest headline-grabbing interruption of the 2016 presidential race.
Having dropped a bomb packed with innuendo on Oct. 28 when he informed Congress that there was a new stash of emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, Mr. Comey had to dig himself out.
On Sunday, he reaffirmed his original decision in July to recommend against charging Mrs. Clinton for her careless handling of emails containing classified information when she was secretary of state. The new emails — on the computer of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Mrs. Clinton’s close aide Huma Abedin — contain nothing except personal messages and duplicates of emails that had already been reviewed, investigators found.
But you can’t unring a bell. The damage Mr. Comey’s back-and-forthing has done to the election, to his own reputation and to that of the F.B.I. is profound. Nine days of early voting passed after he made his rash announcement about the new emails, an announcement made when he and his investigators knew nothing about the content of those emails because they didn’t even have a search warrant. That was nine days during which millions of voters went to the polls under the false impression — created by Mr. Comey’s action — that there was new evidence against Mrs. Clinton, showing possible criminality.
More at the link. Too bad the political reporting of the story at the NYT was so horrendous and irresponsible.
One more read from a man who saw his abusive father in Donald Trump. Don’t miss this one: My Father Donald Trump, by Oliver Lee Bateman. I’m not going to excerpt from this essay; I hope you’ll go read it at Medium.
I’m going to head out to vote soon, but I’ll be around all day. Please post your thoughts and links in the comment thread and have a fabulous election day! If this thread gets too long, I’ll post another one, and so on until the election is decided tonight.
I love you all!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
TIME TO GET IT ON
Thank you Mouse! I just came home from voting. Yes, I cried, but with pride!
HILL A REE! HILL A REE! HILL A REE!
This is going to be the longest day of our lives.
I voted! Now I hunker down for an political junkie’s dream day.
I’m with you sister!
Me, too! Every minute!
HILL A REE! HILL A REE! HILL A REE!
Perfect! Fireworks and music! Let’s add some champagne and tacos! Ready to party for our warrior woman!
and we need to ROAR !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vOjwXMw7s
That’s for HILLARY who WON DIXVILLE NOTCH, NH!!!!!!!!!!
THEY ALWAYS GO RED! So, I’d say that’s a very good sign!!!
Yes it is!
If you are on FB, Delphyne just shared a link with me. It’s a live feed from Susan B. Anthony’s grave site. The reporter, from WROC 8 Rochester, said his station just told him to go out and get a sunrise shot this morning and he found a stream of people coming by to pay tribute. It’s incredible and it keeps going on. I’ve shared it publicly on my FB page.
I’d love to see the link, but not on FB…..Can you or Delph share it here?
I have no idea how to do that. I’m Janice Wierzbic Newell on FB so if you are on it, just go to my page, I’ve shared it with the public.
I sent you a friend request. I’m crying now. Thanks Janice and Delphyne!
I know! Every time I step away and then go back to it I am moved to tears all over again. Talk about a sleeping giant! The reporter is so cute, he’s completely amazed at what is happening there.
Here’s the link:
http://www.rochesterfirst.com/election/national-election-2016/live-broadcast-susan-b-anthony-being-honored#.WCHlqKjswzU.twitter
I just found your FB page. Thank you!
You might have more success going right to the station’s FB page. What comes up on mine is the first several hours of the event but then they shut it down because traffic was getting crazy so they isolated it to their own page. It’s WROC 8.
Oh, sorry, I just noticed you said you were not on. Just get on, it takes a couple seconds and you don’t have to do anything beyond that. You have to see this.
I just commented on your page. That photo was great! Maybe someone will be able to post one here.
It’s a FB live stream and I don’t know how to link it anywhere. I think you have to watch it on FB. I am mesmerized by it.
Here’s the article with photos.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/11/07/anthony-grave-site-will-draw-a-crowd-on-election-day/93424370/
That was fantastic. I’m tearing up. We owe so much to those who came before. Too much to return, so we just have to pay it forward. I think that’s part of what Hillary meant when she said it’s humbling when she voted for herself this morning. Thanks Janicen, BB and all the Skydancers who pay it forward every day.
Get your ass out and vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtTZ2M8FBwg
Here we go!!!!!!!!
I’m ready baby!
Very heartfelt post, BB. Enjoy casting your vote for the first woman president!
I am thinking of my grandfather this morning. He was a Quaker who grew up on a farm in Indiana. Neither of his parents had a college education but they were readers and social justice was very important to them. My grandfather was a Republican all his life and conservative in the traditional sense of the word. Back then the GOP was still considered the party of Lincoln, the man who had freed the slaves.
My grandfather left the farm after high school, went to the big city and became a doctor. He also had several daughters. Did he encourage them to be good housewives and mothers? No, from an early age ( this was back in the 1920’s and 30’s ), he wanted them to be doctors, too. He told them: “Have careers of your own. Don’t get married or you will be stuck for the rest of your lives cooking, cleaning, and changing diapers. You deserve more than that.”
Well, all of his daughters did get married and have children. I think that is what they wanted. None of them became doctors. But they were strong educated women who were always independent thinkers. I often wonder what it was that made my grandfather so ahead of his time regarding women’s roles in society. Maybe it was his Quakerism. All I know is, he was an inspiration to his daughters and granddaughters.
Cheers to your Grandfather, a 19th/20th Century Feminist
Are you taking care of yourself? Please don’t neglect yourself today in all of this excitement.
Thank you for caring, Jslat. I wanted to post a couple things. Now I’m going to lie down for a while. You all can carry on without me very well!
It’s going to be an exciting and exhausting day and evening. I hope the results will come in soon after the polls close and that it will be a early call for Hillary. I know she is going to win.
See you later today.
Please get some rest and come back later on. I’ll miss you if you don’t.
I have my grandmother’s picture on my mantle with a tealight lighting up her image. She loved to tell stories about protesting for the vote and then finally be able to vote. She was a Southern suffragette who loved to reminisce about those days. Now that I’m an old woman everyone tells me they can see my grandmother in my face and eyes and that is a source of pride for me. So this morning, as I was washing my face, I looked at myself in the mirror. laughed out loud and said “this day’s for you grandma”.
That is a lovely story, Mouse. When I look in the mirror, I see my mother’s face. People say I look and sound just like her. That pleases me. She was a fighter.
On an historic day like this, the family memories come flooding back, don’t they?
Memories sure do come flooding back. I went with her to vote every presidential election from Truman through LBJ. I don’t remember going to the polls for Truman in 1948, I suppose I was too young, but I have vivid memories of voting for Adlai Stephenson in 1952. She lived to be 98 years old, she outlived my mother by a year, but my grandmother was also my mother because she basically raised me. The last votes she and my mother cast were for Bill Clinton. We cast those votes together. One of my most cherished memories.
Those rallies in Phiilly and Raleigh were explosive! Hillary looked so happy. She was beautiful and loving and strong.
This will be a long and exciting day.
I had to go to bed being a worker bee and all – but YES! What I briefly saw was inspiring and Hillary and everyone were having a wonderful time.
P.S. Could Jon Bon Jovi BE sexier????
She’s my favorite Beata. She left us too soon.
Over the Rainbow
FEELING GOOD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfJRX-8SXOs
I have similar memories, BB, starting with wearing skirts from first grade through high school in North Dakota’s freezing winters because girls couldn’t wear pants.
Here’s the link to the TV station with the live feed from Susan B. Anthony’s gravesite. H/T again to Delphyne.
http://www.rochesterfirst.com/election/national-election-2016/live-broadcast-susan-b-anthony-being-honored#.WCHlqKjswzU.twitter
Thank you Janicen. And thanks to Delph
Thank you so much for this. I have had it playing in the background all day, and it is oddly relaxing.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/304922-clinton-declared-winner-in-guam
It was so awesome watching the feed when Congresswoman Louise Slaughter came up to place her sticker. She was so moved by how many people were there and her voice cracked as she placed her sticker and said, “Thank you Susan…” I’m in tears.
Yes it was very moving.
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Good riddance!!!
Indeed, mouse! I hope we see very little of him from now on.
I put on my taupe pinstripe pantsuit this morning and went to our local elementary school and cast my vote for Hillz and the other democrats. Boy did that feel good!!!
Me too. The dustbins of hell would be a good place for him. And Bravo on your vote.We’re on our way to victory.
After casting my ballot I sat in the car letting my emotions override me. What an historic day that made me appreciate how much this same emotion must have been experienced 8 years ago by the black community on behalf of Barack Obama. A swelling of pride to be an American regardless of the struggle to achieve what is rightfully ours.
It is easy for us to experience this pleasure but I can only imagine how Chelsea Clinton must feel watching both her parents achieve the highest office in the land! Amazing!
Three cheers for Madam President!!!! She belongs to the ages.
Hip hip Hooray! Hip hip Hooray! Hip hip Hooray!
Very well said, Pat.
I don’t know if it is different for a male. I just know that I am full up.
Reading the stories of senior ladies and their daughters,and granddaughters.
Seeing Hills up there with Barack and Michelle, the whole thing.
I am proud enough to burst.
I have been counting on you guys since the Confluence/Puma days….
I am sooooo ready for this to happen already!!!
Thanks for the article on why wearing pants is freeing for women. My mother was born back before women had the right to vote. She had me later in life for childbearing than was usual around the time. And she would have loved being able to wear pants to work!
So good to read all the excitement and joy here! I won’t be commenting again until later — will be at work — but am so looking forward to celebrating with you all as we toast Madame President-elect!
Hello Sky Dancers! Just stopping by to say, it’s been a long, LONG journey, but today we will elect Our Girl as the first female president of the United States. The most qualified candidate of our time, who happens to be a woman. I am so happy we all made it, and made it happen!
Hi Madamab, great to see you!
and i’t’s been a long strange glorious trip!!!
Hey Madam
This Sam Bee video is a little rough on Bill, but it’s spot on about what the MSM and the GOP did to Hillary.
He deserves it. Bless his heart.
I agree, Mouse.
How long is Bill supposed to wear a hair shirt?
I was just watching this. I love the way she ends it:
“If you can’t bring yourself to vote for Hillary Clinton, I get it. I’m not voting for Hillary Clinton, either. I’m voting for HILLARY GODDAMN BRILLIANT BADASS QUEEN BEYONCE RODHAM.”
Now that was terrific, Mouse!!!
This….
https://twitter.com/antheabutler/status/796049492860669953
I think Melania just wants to live a spa rather than the White House. She’s probably counting the days until Donald trades her in for the next child bride.
Does Donald Trump not trust Melania to vote for him?
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Actually, I think he needs some help reading the ballot.
Well…it has begun…T-rump campaign files lawsuit in Clark county Nevada…
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-campaign-files-lawsuit-in-nevada-over-early-voting/
What a whiney ahole he is.
He has only himself to blame – he woke up one heckavu sleeping giant when he trashed Latinos straight out of the gate. And kept doing it!
Moron
The judge gave his lawyer a tongue lashing he’ll never forget.
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RFLOL – I hope this is expanded!!!!! First of all it needs to have Kellyanne on there bigtime. Mark Burns, Corey Lewandowsi, AJ Delgado…I’m sure there are more.
She is the very best of our generation, and I am so proud of her.
I know I’ve posted this before but now Gabriel is somewhere smiling broadly:
“The only new idea that could save humanity in the 21st century is for women to take over the management of the world. I believe that male hegemony has squandered an opportunity of 10,000 years. We men have belittle and ridiculed feminine intuition and on the other hand, we have historically sanctified our ideologies, almost all of them absurd or abominable. The masculine power structure has proved that it cannot impede the destruction of the environment, because it is incapable of overcoming its own interests. For women, on the other hand, preservation of the environment is a genetic vocation. The reversal of powers is a matter of life or death.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author.
New thread…