DougJ is fond of pointing out that were it not for women and minorities voters, the United States probably would have slipped into a fascist dictatorship by now. Here’s another data point:
On Wednesday morning, Sen. Barbara Ann Mikulski (D-Md.) announced her support of the Iran nuclear deal, becoming the 34th Senate Democrat to do so. At this point, President Barack Obama has enough votes to sustain his veto of a promised resolution of disapproval from the Republicans. In other words, barring some unforeseen catastrophe, this deal is going through.
Throughout the months-long debate, women have largely led the way, both in the negotiations and in doing the work to help ensure the deal’s success in Washington (including calling out Republican bullshit).
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman (once referred to as an “iron fist in a velvet glove”) worked as the lead U.S. negotiator with Tehran and is largely responsible for actually finalizing the terms of the deal.
In Washington, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been at the helm of the effort to ensure Democratic support for the deal, making a major push to whip undecided Democrats this summer, and sending out email blasts every time a Democrat publicly supports the deal. Pelosi also enlisted a team of at least 12 other Democrats to help make calls.
In an interview with The Hill, team member Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said she spoke with Pelosi almost every day about the effort, that they divided up their targets to maximize efficacy, and that she was “particularly calling women.”
Read the whole thing, as they say.
Speaking of electing good women to Congress, does anyone have any update on the race between Donna Edwards and Chris van Hollen? The last I heard was that she was up by 5 points, but that was two weeks ago. I’ve written about Edwards before, and I saw her a little while ago on Real Time with Bill Maher and continue to be impressed.
In addition to money, is there anyone on the ground there working with her campaign? Can we help make calls?
Yatsuno
IIRC Edwards is from Baltimore. So her natural constituency (if they come out to vote for her) will be there. And something tells me if Marilyn Mosby gets on her side that gets her in even better.
DougJ
“By now” is the key phrase here…we may still yet.
Cervantes
Lazily, the press keeps saying this, and lazily, people keep repeating it, even here!
Mikulski is the 32nd Senate Democrat to back the deal.
The two other votes that keep being elided are those of Independents Angus King and Bernie Sanders, without whose support the deal would still be in (more) jeopardy.
Related: In Teheran they’re comparing Obama to Lincoln.
RP
I think that’s true, but there’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. A big part of the reason the white men are itching for a fascist dictatorship is precisely because those uppity women and minorities are voting and taking part in civil life. They’re scared as hell, and that’s driving their loony views.
Cervantes
Subjective but certainly arguable and worth arguing.
Original Lee
Edwards represents the MD 4th District, Fort Washington/Oxon Hill, which is south of DC. Here’s the map. Really depends on whether or not Steny Hoyer, Anthony Muse, and others from southern MD help her out, and if she can garner support from Baltimore, Annapolis, and the Eastern Shore. Van Holland is from north of DC, IIRC.
I really like what I’ve seen of Edwards so far. Van Holland, not so much. He’s very Montgomery County, IMO.
Gin & Tonic
Read the whole thing, as they say.
If there were a URL, I would.
BGinCHI
In slightly related news, this from the Beninator 2000:
I can only assume that his diligence in letting people get to know him is what cemented his feet in the cellar.
BGinCHI
@Gin & Tonic: This is a medium service blog, sailor.
Cacti
Many thanks to those who came out early in their support of the Iran deal.
Golf claps for people like Mikulski who dragged their feet, but eventually did the right thing.
Jeers for the remaining cowards who still haven’t announced a position: Bennet, Blumenthal, Booker, Cantwell, Cardin, Heitkamp, Manchin, Peters, Warner, and Wyden.
Brickbats for the traitors: Schumer and Menendez.
Frank Bolton
@RP: Feh, fascism is just one of that monster’s many masks. Historically, without the votes of women and racial minorities societies still had no problem (and in fact were downright eager to) descending into theocracies, feudal plantations, and ethnic-based autocracies. All the privilege distress and status aggrievement of class-submissive, socially-dominant males determines is whether the official uniform contains a pair of jackboots or shamanic raiment.
RSA
DougJ also probably points out (I don’t remember specifically) how Republicans will say that Democrats only win elections by getting out the women and minority vote–you know, appealing to not-real-American voters.
shell
@BGinCHI: And didnt he win Iowa last time.? Howd that work out for him?
Mandalay
In a normal world a bilingual Republican candidate who can reach out to Hispanic voters would automatically have an advantage over his rivals. But crafty Trump managed to turn it into a noose, and hung it around Jeb!’s neck:
Both despicable and masterful.
Clinton in a landslide over the angry white party.
BGinCHI
@shell: Familiarity breeds…..
jl
@RSA: And them damn sponger kids, all of them, they’re not real Americans either, soaking up all that dough with their college and nonsense.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: Here’s link to John’s blockpost.
It’s from Jezebel.
West of the Cascades
@BGinCHI: oh, google is your friend, google is your friend, high ho the merry-o, google is your friend.
theslot.jezebel.com/women-saved-the-iran-deal-from-washingtons-bickering-do-1728099444
Chris
@RP:
This.
pat
@Gin & Tonic:
Same here.
Elizabelle
@Cacti: Column in the Richmond Times Disgrace: Warner wrestling with himself on Iran deal.
Short take: it’s all about Warner and his political ambitions.
In Warner’s defense, the RTD commenters are toxic. Monkeyflew straight in from Town Hall or Red State, perchance. Doubt they’re representative of Virginians, but probably what Warner’s office is hearing.
Right to Rise
Funny how progressives on this thread, just like Trump, are dividing America along racial and gender lines for political gain.
Same thing Trump is doing, but from a different direction.
We need someone who can unify, not someone who can divide.
Mandalay
@Cacti:
One man’s traitor is another man’s Zionist.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I saw an internet theory the other day that Mikulski was hanging back to be that 34th vote to save Booker or Bennet or Warner from being “THE DECIDING VOTE!”
Also, one of the good HRC emails that slipped out of the latest batch was one from Mikulski celebrating the power of nuns , specificially wrt the ACA. All bad punctuation and wild capitalization like a text from an older relative. It makes me a little sad that the former social worker is leaving the Senate
catclub
@BGinCHI: He did actually win Iowa. Unfortunately, the party bosses did not get the count right for a few months, so Romney was the reported winner.
jl
I’m not good at political tactics stuff like some here, but I wonder whether people should still be calling their congress people to get more Democrats on board. Not sure how important that is, but WaPo whip count shows a number of these layabouts still sitting around doing nothing
President Obama’s Iran deal just hit Magic No. 34
Layabouts and laggards:
Blumenthal
MANCHIN (Cole didn’t curse him out loud enough?)
Bennet
Booker
Cantwell
Cardin
Heitkamp
Peters
Warner
Wyden
washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/07/14/whip-count-where-the-senate-stands-on-the-iran-deal/
Edit: sorry I missed the list and D laggards above. Anyway, would be good to get more on board. Maybe some snark about how brave they look, and how impressive their fence sitting is to voters will work.
Calouste
@catclub: And in the end Ron Paul played the rest of the caucus process the best and got almost all the delegates, with poor old Ricky ending up with exactly zero delegates from Iowa.
Cacti
@Right to Rise:
You can rest easy knowing that no one here will be supporting Donald Trump.
Also, big shout out to Bush family confidante Dick Cheney and his vociferous public opposition to the Iran deal. It served as a very stark reminder of what the sides were in the public debate.
Germy Shoemangler
@jl: Booker let a lot of people down. I hope he votes for the deal.
nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/crunch_time_for_cory_booker_to_back_the_iran_deal.html
Roger Moore
I disagree. While it may be women and minority voters who are preventing that right now, the urge among white men to create a fascist dictatorship is driven by resentment over loss of privilege. If we didn’t have women and minority voters, there wouldn’t be the same resentment, relieving the driving force. That’s why we managed to avoid fascist dictatorship for all the years before the 19th Amendment, and when the 15th Amendment was either not enacted or not enforced.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jl: I think it’s a good idea. Let them know the “free vote” isn’t so free, and if they side with Dick Cheney against Obama (and Brent Scowcfroft and Sam Nunn and Ricard Lugar and…) that at least one constituent will remember. The other side hasn’t given up.
Elizabelle
From the Richmond Times Disgrace link:
Columnist Jeff Schapiro contrasts Warner’s twisting and turning in the wind with Tim Kaine’s full and early support.
Bit of a valentine to Senator Kaine, quite honestly.
Also: re the “liberal base staying home”: it was midterms. And polling showed Warner up — a lot. Gillespie truly came out of nowhere at the very end.
Cacti
Dick Durbin whipped support for the Iran deal.
Could someone tell me again why he isn’t the one poised to be the Senate Dem leader when Harry retires?
scav
@Cacti: ¡jeB! is certainly bringing the country together in a unified snicker. Success!
Elizabelle
@Cacti: I’d like to see Durbin taking Reid’s slot too.
Gonna remember Schumer’s self-dealing, and gonna call my Virginia senators when that issue comes up, once Senator Reid retires.
Perhaps Senator Warner will have made a decision on the Iran deal by then.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Kaine > Warner.
jl
@Cacti: DougJ… er… I mean Right to Rise did riff off the title of the post. Give some props for initiative and quick thinking!
Calouste
@Mandalay: Trump is just trolling the GOP, is he? Well, it’s not actually trolling, because trolls are expecting an opposite reaction. Trump instead is daring the rest of the GOP to go along with him or attempt (and fail) to out-do him.
From a horse-race perspective it makes sense for Trump to rile up the base against Hispanics. Cruz and Rubio are Hispanics, and Bush3 is married to one. Those three were pretty high up in the polls not that long ago.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
if you’re having a bad day, you can watch the photo-bombing beluga whale from Connecticut
Elizabelle
@Baud: Yup.
I collected a lot of signatures to get Warner on the ballot, but didn’t do anything beyond that. Figured he had lots of money and staff and staff wannabes.
Plus the constant “I work great with both sides” rhetoric out of his mouth chilled my enthusiasm, having watched constant GOP intransigence.
Warner seems to prefer the rumored moderate centrist Virginia Republican unicorns to the Democratic base that turned out for Obama and McAuliffe.
Calouste
@Roger Moore: I don’t think there was much of a practical difference for a lot of African-Americans between a fascist dictatorship and the actual way the US was governed for a large stretch of the country’s history. They didn’t have rights either way. It’s about a white male dictatorship, the “fascist” bit would just be a means to an end.
wyliecoat
Link??
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Hope Warner gets his act together for 2020.
beltane
@Elizabelle: Warner is a throwback to the 1990s, and I mean this in the worst way possible.
Elizabelle
@wyliecoat:
Here’s the link. Jezebel article.
theslot.jezebel.com/women-saved-the-iran-deal-from-washingtons-bickering-do-1728099444
pete
Every time I read about Nancy whipping people I get a freeze down in my knees
Redshift
@Elizabelle:
Research shows that very few voters switch which party they support (there are almost no true “independents”, just people who avoid a party label). That means the difference between polling and outcome was almost entirely how enthusiastic their supporters were and how well they got their voters to turn out. If Warner could actually learn from that, he might grasp that he needs more than “bipartisanship good, deficits bad” to do well (and to better represent his constituents), but nothing seems to change his mind on that.
Chris
@Calouste:
That’s entirely true, yes.
rk
@Mandalay:
I don’t think republicans have ever had respect for anyone who speaks Spanish. Or at least if there was such a time, it lasted a nanosecond. What’s so astonishing is that Trump is going out of his way to antagonise the Hispanic population. He’s called Mexicans rapists, wants to build a wall, anchor babies slur and now if anyone talks to them in Spanish it’s not allowed because of course they should learn to speak English. By the time he’s done maybe he’ll send robocalls personally insulting every Hispanic person.
Cervantes
@rk:
Pinochet.
Elizabelle
@Redshift: On target.
Would that Mr. Warner could learn. To be continued.
Kay
I was hoping, but I didn’t know for sure :)
That needs to be in the October debate so Bush will have to back it too. And he will.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Good god. None of them want to win.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
They all want to win, but they’re so worried about winning the nomination that they aren’t thinking of the general election.
Patricia Kayden
@Right to Rise: You’re still running your racist mouth here? Why don’t you mosey on over to Storm Front? Wasn’t it you who went into a frenzy and posted a bunch of anti-Black links?
Why don’t you go volunteer for Jebbie’s sinking campaign? LOL
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s beautiful though because Trump could go after them on it before the primary is even over.
His fans love Social Security. He vows to protect it :)
Kerry Reid
@BGinCHI: Got 99 Counties, But a Nomination Ain’t Won
SRW1
@Right to Rise:
Didn’t we have one of them Bush clan uniterers already? How did that work out?
Thoughtful David
@Cacti:
As a Virginian I am really getting to hate Warner. He just won re-election last year, and he’s now voting exactly like that teabagger that almost beat him (Gillespie). He barely won, and now seems to think that if he goes hard right the wingnuts will love him in 5 years. However, the reason he lost was that he ran about the worst campaign I’ve ever seen. He ran away from Obama and Obamacare and ran as a milktoast conservative, and even his campaigning, when he did it was, as tRump would say, low energy and pathetic.
I really hope he gets primaried in 5 years. I’ll work for whoever runs against him in the primary.
Ken
The deal is going through no matter what. The question is whether the US will be joining Russia, China, Britain, Germany, et cetera. I side with the
cynicsrealists who say that the corporations will make sure we do.Tommy
@Ken: God lets hope.
Tommy
Let’s get it on w/ the nuclear shit. Treaty done, next!
One of my earliest memories was of my parents and me. Me sitting Indian style, like six or seven. Parents getting the TV machine going. On it this nice man came on, Jimmy Carter. Seemed to me it was like a ball for him. All these people yelling and screaming ….
I know now know it was the DNC and his nomination to be POTUS.
Let’s recall those days. Let’s rock n’ roll. Have some fun!
B Cates
@Yatsuno:
Edwards represents the district next to mine, and represents the rest of the county I live in. I get emails from her staff since I am only a few miles outside of her district.
She is not from Baltimore. She represents a part of Prince George’s County, which is majority black and Democratic and a part of Anne Arundel County, which is majority white and Republican.
Maryland is one of the few states where the districts are gerrymandered in favor of Democrats.
Heliopause
If only white males had been allowed to vote in 1932 FDR would still have won easily. In fact, female voters tended to be Republican prior to that election and voted for FDR in lesser numbers than did males. FDR of course easily won three more elections in an era when white males were a much higher proportion of the total electorate than they are now.
According to this source the gender gap in German voting (in terms of voting for the Nazis) narrowed in the early 1930s and in some areas women actually voted for the Nazis more than did men.
Might be wise to avoid the simplistic formulations.
Omnes Omnibus
@Heliopause: Golly, a witticism turned out to be not accurate across the span of history. I’ll alert the media.
Heliopause
@Omnes Omnibus:
Is that what it’s called nowadays?
Tommy
Just went to my Facebook (me cringing) feed. Some total BS. But 90%, total hope in a very good way for the future of human kind!
redshirt
Thank G*d for women. Without them….