Wednesday Wonk: Watch out, haters

Hi, I’m baaaack. How have you been, newsjunkies? As you know, a week is a whirlwind in sex and politics, so… prepare yourself for a very un-fancy link feast…starting with some items on Our Gal Gals, of course.

Wendy 2014, Hillary 2016

• The Liberal Agenda posted the meme to the right on Tuesday. What a difference five to six years makes… with pieces like The Atlantic’s “How the Left Wing Learned to Love Hillary.”  As evidenced by Daily Kos’ hilarity in the forms of diaries titled “Hillary Clinton will be a very, very cool president” and such.
• I really am wary of this “perceived inevitability” crap in the progressive feeding trough, though. We’ve been to that rodeo before–pass on Meet the Beast all over again. Hillary’s likely running–we see all the political movement opening the way for her to essentially be drafted into doing so. But, she’s not inevitable, thank you very much David Axelrod and co.
• Please, remember as a true Hillary stalwart–Peter Daou–has cautioned in his “A Reader’s Guide to Anti-Hillary Themes.” Repeat after me, Sky Dancers: Hillary is not inevitable. “No matter what she says about working hard, staying focused and not taking anything for granted, detractors create this perch then try to knock her down from it.” –Daou
• And, though I can’t see the lovely Liz Warren primarying Hillary, damn the debates we could have from a match-up of that kind would be epic and exhilarating. If only the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones were still alive (not that she would primary Hill either). Now, that would really be a primary season to savor.
• Wonkgirl daydreams aside… I *welcome* a healthy primary contest. May the best shero win–it will only make her stronger as a candidate and Madame president. Maybe good ol’ Joe can change his name on the ballot to Robinette Biden. I know, bad Wonk. Just can’t help myself. I still remember his philosopher king distinction on the campaign trail in ’08 that “girl-girls are tougher than boy-girls.” (I would link if I could find a source that wasn’t batshit rightwing. Google at your own peril. I do remember Joe Biden saying this, though. Just nobody on the left wanted to look at it because he was on the Obama ticket by then.) Seriously, I can’t wait for a healthy primary debate.
• And, don’t forget. Before 2016, we’ve got the 2014 election cycle with which to smash and weaken the hell out of the patriarchy first. I’ve got a bunch of Stand With Texas women links up on Sisterhood of the Pink Sneaks. A very small taste, via Burnt Orange Report: Texas Democratic Organizations Urge Wendy Davis to Run for Governor. Draft Wendy. Draft Hillary.
• I know, we’re all preparing for the onslaught of backlash. We’ve already seen some claws come out–iron my shirt slapping Hillary and such. I know Fox News et stupid al. still can’t shut up about the Weapons of Mass Destruction they found in Benghazi. Channeling my best Kiki McLean here to say: They’re STUPID. And, they are bleeding anybody who doesn’t have political derangement psychosis. Let them eat their Joker cake…
• If they think Hillary fatigue is a concern this far out, they ought to actually worry about Hillary/Woman hater fatigue. The more desperate they get in their respective Hillary and Obama derangement, the more they will “radicalize hundreds of thousands of us” that will turn into millions and millions of us scary hairy feminists who “don’t give a flying frigidaire about your Boehners, Weiners, or Spitzers” at the national ballot box or elsewhere. Or, you know. Just normal everyday people who don’t want a bunch of Newt Gingrich clones on stupid-steroids running this country into the ground with a Second Contract against America.

Chris Christie: Teanderthal extraordinaire

• Flashback to last August:

“For instance, I hear people talk all the time about female voters. I think it’s condescending to women to say we have to have a different message for women than we have with men. I’m going to lay out a message for our party tonight [at the Republican convention] that I think will resonate just as much with women voters as it will with men voters.”

–Chris Christie

• Uh, keep that up, Chris…. no wonder Christie can’t even win in a matchup against Hillary in Texas, according to this recent Marist-McClatchy poll. Gee, maybe Texas women exist outside of hypothetical binders where Republican messages magically appeal to them just as they do to men. No wonder he and Ayn(-Rand) Paul are so desperate to conjure up an “irrelevant” fight (as dubbed by Daddy Paul). Gosh, the ‘intellectual flourish’ on that side is just off the charts with policy substance that will appeal to all reasonable humans, regardless of gender, race, or class.

Herstory

• An old but classic gem from the Guardian in 2009 that popped up in my radfem reads this week: Sandi Toksvig’s top 10 unsung heroines. Love this list. Do you know who invented the cotton gin? Hint: Her name wasn’t Eli Whitney. (Incidentally, she’s also the wife of American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene.)
• Oh I actually have a ton more links on this and other things feminist (and just plain fascinating to me,) but I’m going to have to cut this post short and cover them in another installment. Maybe on Saturday, or earlier! I’ll leave you with one more for now, a series of images and text on body image that I just knew I had to share here when I saw it (which I guess if you hate the female form, you’ll find vulgar or NSFW…). Now, that’s HER STORY.

Be-YOU-tiful, Sky dancers! Have at it in the comments. I’ll talk to y’all later tonight.

Right now, I’m off to go take care of a few things before my doctor sister’s White Coat ceremony this evening. This is the girl who rolled her little eyes at me for making her do “really hard” book reports on pandas when I played teacher and she, reluctant/only teacher’s pet. Well, look at her now. My Little Sweetheart forever, all grown up! I may be older than her by a gazillion years, but she inspires me to keep going…

…not unlike Hillary or Harriet Tubman. (“If you hear the dogs…keep going.” –Hills, DNC 2008.)