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You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Open Thread: Darcy Burner at Netroots Nation 2012

Open Thread: Darcy Burner at Netroots Nation 2012

by Anne Laurie|  June 10, 201211:04 pm| 46 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Open Threads, Vagina Outrage, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

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Praise goddess and the spirit of Ada Lovelace that we who are prone to avoid IRL human gatherings can still eavesdrop on such events. Via Adele M. Stan at Alternet, here is Burner’s keynote address at the NRN “2012 and the War on (and for) Women“:
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Apart from the analogy comparing the Democrats to Lotus and the Republicans to Microsoft, I suspect very few people at this blog are liable to complain about Burner’s suggestion at the 13:35 mark:

As an exercise of moral power, Burner called on the audience to “fight for something big.”

“For the women’s movement,” she said, “it is high time we followed our great-grandmothers’ lead, and pass the Equal Rights Amendment.”

Most Americans — some 80 percent — “think the Constitution already provides equal rights for women,” Burner said. So the ERA is no longer the controversial idea it once was, she said, but it is hugely symbolic.

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Next Post: Another Take on the Burner Keynote »

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  1. 1.

    MikeJ

    June 10, 2012 at 11:09 pm

    Apart from the analogy comparing the Democrats to Lotus and the Republicans to Microsoft,

    Mitch Kapor sold Lotus for $20 million because he said that was more than he or his children would ever spend. He’s my idol.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    June 10, 2012 at 11:18 pm

    @MikeJ: He can give it to me. I’d give it a go.

  3. 3.

    The Dangerman

    June 10, 2012 at 11:30 pm

    @MikeJ:

    Mitch Kapor sold Lotus for $20 million because he said that was more than he or his children would ever spend.

    $20M, the same amount the State of CA settled with Jaycee Dugard, out of court, for having some employees that were idiots. As a former employee of the State (oh, oh, that might be a hanging curveball over the heart of the plate), I can say that there are a LOT of them. Really sad to see up close and personal…

    ETA: Have to add to my baseball reference – Stony Brook taking out LSU and going to the College World Series is a fine, fine thing….

  4. 4.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    June 10, 2012 at 11:35 pm

    I’m considering siblingnapping. my baby sister is adorbs… conning my spouse cuz I can’t drive a stick and our automatic is dead.

  5. 5.

    David Koch

    June 10, 2012 at 11:47 pm

    “fight for something big.”

    Word.

  6. 6.

    Origuy

    June 11, 2012 at 12:08 am

    Just got a text from my friend in La Porte, Colorado. She’s evacuating because of the High Park Fire. 20,000 acres and 0% contained. She got her horses out and is loading up the dogs and poultry. Think good thought for her and many others. It’s really bad there.

  7. 7.

    Origuy

    June 11, 2012 at 12:09 am

    Just got a text from my friend in La Porte, Colorado. She’s evacuating because of the High Park Fire. 20,000 acres and 0% contained. She got her horses out and is loading up the dogs and poultry. Think good thought for her and many others. It’s really bad there.

  8. 8.

    Paul

    June 11, 2012 at 12:10 am

    Lately I have been wipesawed between despair and hope (and not much of that) over the election. I have had these horrible dreams of waking up on November 7th to learn that the Republicans held the house, won the Senate and that Romney is going to be our next President. However, I did attend NRN and heard Darcy Burner speak. I have swung back to hope. She is very impressive.

  9. 9.

    Origuy

    June 11, 2012 at 12:15 am

    Sorry about the duplications. Monitor Twitter #highparkfire; lots of messages about places to board pets, scary pix of fire.

  10. 10.

    Warren Terra

    June 11, 2012 at 12:22 am

    Can someone remind me why a two-time loser for office (not looking good for time three) who lacks a notably compelling biography or rhetorical gifts is a darling of the GOS and a keynote speaker at Netroots Nation?

  11. 11.

    sfinny

    June 11, 2012 at 12:51 am

    The video was interesting to listen to and I agree with much that she said. First that I started on Lotus products and loved them, but Microsoft won out. All of the big companies that we did business with used Microsoft, soon did we.

    Big thoughts for all of you in Colorado.

  12. 12.

    techno

    June 11, 2012 at 1:09 am

    WTF?

    We saw CO 2 in 400 ppm. in northern stations this spring (remember when we were warned that 350 was doom), we have insane levels of unemployment among the young around the world, we have re-introduced debt peonage on an industrial scale, Peak Oil happened in 2003 and folks are still arguing its existence, fools in DC are ginning up another war, and a keynote speaker at NN wants us to believe that passing a symbolic gesture like the ERA is a BIG idea.

    No WONDER no one takes the left seriously.

  13. 13.

    David Koch

    June 11, 2012 at 1:09 am

    @Warren Terra: group think.

  14. 14.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    June 11, 2012 at 1:14 am

    @Warren Terra: I don’t get it either.

  15. 15.

    Brachiator

    June 11, 2012 at 1:20 am

    “For the women’s movement,” she said, “it is high time we followed our great-grandmothers’ lead, and pass the Equal Rights Amendment.”

    This is fucking stupid. Republicans are doing everything they can to oppress women, and the response is “let’s do something symbolic?”

    What a bunch of dopes.

  16. 16.

    Anne Laurie

    June 11, 2012 at 2:29 am

    Dudes, are you trying to get me in trouble?

    Seriously, I think we can work to pass the ERA as well as re-electing President Obama, electing Elizabeth Warren to the Senate, and fighting the Republican efforts to suppress the vote of anyone outside the “elite”. We’re women, we’re used to multitasking.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    June 11, 2012 at 2:36 am

    @The Dangerman:

    20M, the same amount the State of CA settled with Jaycee Dugard, out of court, for having some employees that were idiots

    There weren’t just idiots. They were fools whose failures allowed a horrendous evil against Ms Dugard. The settlement was far, far, too small.

    And note that I am not simplistically assigning blame to the state employees. I wish to God that a lot of people had done more, and some of the due diligence failures were near criminal, but others were a sad series of missteps that might still have happened even if the state employees had been perfect.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    June 11, 2012 at 2:40 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    Seriously, I think we can work to pass the ERA as well as re-electing President Obama, electing Elizabeth Warren to the Senate, and fighting the Republican efforts to suppress the vote of anyone outside the “elite”. We’re women, we’re used to multitasking.

    How, specifically, would passage of the ERA prevent the current assault on women’s reproductive rights happening at the state level?

    And what does the ERA have to do with suppression of voting rights? And how would you get GOP dominated states to pass the ERA?

  19. 19.

    James E Powell

    June 11, 2012 at 2:43 am

    @Warren Terra:

    I was wondering the same thing.

    I don’t know how hard it was for her to win those elections, so I don’t mean this as a slam against Darcy Burner. But I have to wonder why she’s so highly regarded.

  20. 20.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    June 11, 2012 at 2:52 am

    @Brachiator: Damn right, you put that silly woman in her place, dog. How dare she talk about something she’s interested in.

    You sack of shit.

  21. 21.

    David Koch

    June 11, 2012 at 2:59 am

    @James E Powell:

    I don’t know how hard it was for her to win those elections,

    It was a D+3 district that Obama won by 15 pts, but Burner lost by 6, which means a whopping 21% of voters simultaneously voted for the black guy and against Burner, during a landslide year for Dems.

  22. 22.

    hhex65

    June 11, 2012 at 3:58 am

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: hear, hear. srsly, what was that?

  23. 23.

    hocaloza

    June 11, 2012 at 4:14 am

    Can someone remind me why a two-time loser for office (not looking good for time three) who lacks a notably compelling biography or rhetorical gifts is a darling of the GOS and a keynote speaker at Netroots Nation?

    Because she really spells out an a new way of thinking about the struggle for freedom and equality. She doesn’t back down, and she doesn’t apologize for holding strong positions. It resonates with people. She’s doing well in the polls, but instead of campaigning, she took her time to address progressives across the nation as a whole. And people liked what she had to say.

  24. 24.

    middlewest

    June 11, 2012 at 4:19 am

    The netroots loves her because of, not in spite of, her unelected status. If she were actually in office she would be forced to deal with messy politics and make actual, grown-up decisions, and they would lose interest faster than a frat boy at Lilith Fair.

  25. 25.

    goblue72

    June 11, 2012 at 4:32 am

    Darcy Burner is a complete nut. She’s never actually won a single election, managed to lose TWICE for a House seat so far, and is currently causing havoc once again in the race to fill Jay Inslee’s seat – and will likely get her ass handed to her AGAIN, and cause the WA-01 seat to flip from D to R. She’s such a tool that she thinks calling Obama a Republican is a path to victory in a swing district.

    The fact that Nutroots Nation had her as a KEYNOTE speaker tells you everything you need to know about how far down the rabbit hole Kos and his firebagger brigade has gone – and why the Obama administration and the rest of the Democratic establishment feels free to completely ignore the netroots at this point.

    Politics is a team sport – and these tools can’t seem to get the message. And then they wonder why we lose.

    As for the ERA, great. Wonderful strategy. Great use of resources. I’ll pin that one on my to do list right next to “Achieve World Peace” and “Fly to Mars”.

  26. 26.

    goblue72

    June 11, 2012 at 4:34 am

    @David Koch: She’s about to do the same thing with Jay Inslee’s old seat. She’s like a fungus that just won’t go away.

  27. 27.

    Raven

    June 11, 2012 at 5:22 am

    So, this Darcy Burner is quite the popular person?

  28. 28.

    Warren Terra

    June 11, 2012 at 5:56 am

    @hocaloza:
    Please explain to me why this makes her any flipping good at her supposed job – which is to get elected and implement some of those new ideas – heck, any ideas. Basically what you seem to be saying is that she makes the Purity Trolls and Firebaggers feel good about themselves, which is fine in the sense that I probably wouldn’t mind if those communities were setting policy; but when she loses a winnable seat trailing Obama at the head of the ticket by twenty percent, that’s not a good sign, and she has spent the last four years not noticeably learning anything, improving at her chosen profession, or accomplishing anything other than making the Netroots feel good about themselves: she hardly seems like keynote material. I understand that Harold Stassen was a great man, but you may note he was never President, and you’d be hard pressed to find his fingerprints in his party today.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    June 11, 2012 at 6:07 am

    @David Koch:

    It was a D+3 district that Obama won by 15 pts, but Burner lost by 6, which means a whopping 21% of voters simultaneously voted for the black guy and against Burner, during a landslide year for Dems.

    I don’t have anything against Darcy (although I don’t know a lot about her) or against Democrats who lose elections (can’t win them all), but that’s a brutal loss.

    @Anne Laurie: I think there is an upside to talking about the ERA. If Romney wins, we’re one Justice away from a radical reinterpretation of equal protection. It’s good to be prepared.

  30. 30.

    Raven

    June 11, 2012 at 6:12 am

    Stop the presses, Halperin is defend Obama’s “private sector” comment.

  31. 31.

    Corbin Dallas Multipass

    June 11, 2012 at 6:15 am

    The responses in this thread are pretty lame. Attack the messenger and ignore the message.

    DougJ on a post Komen high from https://balloon-juice.com/2012/02/06/instant-komens-gonna-get-you/

    I think the Komen story is important for two reasons:

    (1) We need scalps. The right scares the fuck out of the press (for example) because they got people at NPR fired recently, ended Dan Rather’s career a few years ago, etc. The left needs to scare people too. Nothing scares comfortable people more than the destructions of careers and organizations.

    (2) It’s a way of moving the reproductive rights battle from abortion—where Republicans have the upper hand—to cancer screenings, contraceptives, and other places where Democrats can have the upper hand.

    Do you know how that scalp was won? Networking and advocacy, and going on the offensive – the central thrust of the argument in the video. Komen’s fall was a brilliant show by women and advocates. Keep that attitude up.

    But whatever, the speaker lost two elections and takes policy positions that are untenable to my precious sensibilities. Also, Firebaggers and Jane Hamsher something something. Ignore her, post haste!

    https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraiser/28134

  32. 32.

    Baud

    June 11, 2012 at 6:15 am

    @Raven: Gotta find some way to keep the issue alive.

  33. 33.

    Raven

    June 11, 2012 at 6:17 am

    @Baud: Oh, Joe and Nicole are doing their best.

  34. 34.

    harlana

    June 11, 2012 at 6:44 am

    forgodssake, will someone please put up the Van Jones video? it is awesome, retweeting it all over the place

  35. 35.

    Warren Terra

    June 11, 2012 at 6:54 am

    @Corbin Dallas Multipass:
    No one in this thread has criticized her positions; some have questioned whether the ERA is the priority right now, which seems like a reasonable question given that (1) no frigging way does a Constitutional Amendment pass and get ratified; (2) we are currently struggling to pass a fair pay act, which seems more pressing; and (3) the ERA is irrelevant to a lot of the War On Women, ie birth control and lifestyle issues.

    I doubt I would mind a world where Darcy Burner’s legislative goals are all realized. I do mind a world where a two-time loser proven to lack outreach and movement-building skills, lacking a stellar resume and any history of accomplishment in politics – heck, any history of involvement in politics that I’m aware of, other than to run repeatedly for office and acts that seek to boost her profile in order to run for office – sucks up the attention, love, and money of the Netroots.

    Earlier I compared her to Harold Stassen – but she seems to be emulating the last forty years of hs life, having skipped the impressive first forty years. I’m not sure I can think of a good comparison for her. Alan Keyes comes close – deeply adored by a significant part of his party’s base, a part that talks largely to each other and not the wider world; feeds them red meat; repeatedly utterly fails electorally – except that she has more dignity, and he has a more impressive resume.

  36. 36.

    amk

    June 11, 2012 at 6:58 am

    @middlewest: Bingo. Just wait for nutroots throwing EW under that proverbial bus the day after she is elected. Running for office and running the office are two different things.

  37. 37.

    WereBear

    June 11, 2012 at 7:00 am

    Oh, YEAH. It’s not like women really need equal protection under the law or anything; especially not NOW, when the Republicans, Men in Red Beanies, and random state legislators are ready to have half the nation declared farm animals for tax purposes.

    Pushing for the ERA is exactly the right thing from a tactical standpoint. She might not be good at getting elected, but as a idea, this gets my vote.

  38. 38.

    kay

    June 11, 2012 at 7:31 am

    @Corbin Dallas Multipass:

    It’s a way of moving the reproductive rights battle from abortion—where Republicans have the upper hand—to cancer screenings, contraceptives, and other places where Democrats can have the upper hand.
    Do you know how that scalp was won? Networking and advocacy, and going on the offensive – the central thrust of the argument in the video. Komen’s fall was a brilliant show by women and advocates. Keep that attitude up.

    To me, Komen’s fail was a brilliant show of solidarity between women of all classes. Women who have health insurance (generally) don’t rely on clinics like PP for health care. Poor (and young) women do.
    If you listen to the complaints on Komen, it was “don’t politicize access to health care” (in this case PP), to reach abortion (which is what conservatives were doing).
    Women who have access to health care were rallying around women who don’t have access to health care (except through PP) against their common enemy, which is breast cancer.
    What Komen did, their big sin, was they divided women who have found common cause around breast cancer by class. They said “we’re going to stop funding PP, even though we know that’s where poor women get cancer screening in order to satisfy one small group of supporters on their issue, which is abortion, not cancer”.
    That’s what was unforgivable. Komen threw poor women under the anti-abortion issue bus.
    Middle and upper class women were having none of that :)

  39. 39.

    kay

    June 11, 2012 at 7:49 am

    @Corbin Dallas Multipass:

    to cancer screenings, contraceptives, and other places where Democrats can have the upper hand

    Democrats don’t have the upper hand on those things for some abstract reason.

    Democrats have the upper hand on those things because they have a plan and a push to deliver to them to all women, regardless of class or ability to pay.

    Komen did two things, in my opinion. It showed that anti-abortion activists will happily close clinics that offer screenings to poor women if that helps them reach abortion, thereby showing ONCE AGAIN that they see women as reproductive vessels rather than whole people, and it showed (me, anyway) that the women who advocate for organizing against breast cancer completely get that access to health care in this country is rationed by income.
    Good for them. They have it all over political media and conservatives if they recognize that simple (but extremely uncomfortable) truth that must never, ever be spoken and they do.

  40. 40.

    isildur

    June 11, 2012 at 7:53 am

    Burner’s problem up until now has been that she’s been running against Reichert. He’s the guy who caught the Green River Killer as the sheriff of King County. He’s got name recognition and a kind of ambient good-will. He’s a moron, and possibly has brain damage from a head injury, and he’s incapable of public speaking, but in a local race that really doesn’t hurt him.

    Why Burner’s polling so far below Koster, I couldn’t tell you.

    I send her money every election, and cross my fingers.

  41. 41.

    Southern Beale

    June 11, 2012 at 8:26 am

    The Equal Rights Amendment? Are you fucking kidding me? Talk about a waste of time.

  42. 42.

    Ron

    June 11, 2012 at 8:39 am

    OT, but this was listed as an open thread: Is it too much to ask that a spoiler post about a movie NOT be put out on the opening weekend? Or at the very least that the spoiler part be put in a “Click here to see the rest of the post” sort of thing?

  43. 43.

    Mino

    June 11, 2012 at 8:54 am

    Funniest thing, but this thread appears to be pretty divided. I wonder why? Shut up is why, I guess.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    June 11, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    Damn right, you put that silly woman in her place, dog. How dare she talk about something she’s interested in.

    Your handle is well chosen, dumbass.

    I have no interest in ever “putting a woman in her place.” I can disagree with anyone’s conclusions anytime, especially when it comes to political strategy.

  45. 45.

    nastybrutishntall

    June 11, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    Google Chrome is substituting Cypress Hill’s “Hits from the Bong” on the frontpage for the Burner video. This works in so many ways I thought it was intentional.

  46. 46.

    PanurgeATL

    June 11, 2012 at 8:18 pm

    I’ve got this idea that people out there think the ERA was actually ratified; I don’t think that much of a stink was made about it when the deadline passed. OTOH, apparently some young people aren’t aware it ever existed. Something could be made of this.

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