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You are here: Home / Open Threads / White Suburban College Educated Women Quietly Changing Politics

White Suburban College Educated Women Quietly Changing Politics

by @heymistermix.com|  March 9, 20186:04 pm| 104 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Lara Putnam and Theda Skocpol have a piece in Democracy about the anti-Trump forces being led in suburbs by white college-educated women:

[…] Nancy Reynolds, the retired librarian, worked throughout the fall of 2017 with a tight network of women (their partnership forged on a chartered bus to the January 2017 Women’s March) to coordinate phone canvassing and door-knocking across Hampton Township. They elected three Democrats to a five-person township council that had been all-Republican as long as anyone could remember. As Reynolds tried to explain to a party strategist aggrieved that the party’s online calling tools went unused, “My friends won’t make calls for you. They’ll make calls for me.” In this exchange, as in many others we have witnessed, we’ve seen to what extent the ones needing education in political organizing are actually the nominal political professionals. The “amateurs” already get it.

The whole thing is worth reading, but I want to add in my experience in the suburb where I live. Last fall, we elected the first two Democrats to serve on the town board in quite a while, one of whom was the first person of color to serve in the history of the town. The other night, I went to a meeting of the group principally responsible for getting those two elected. The leadership was almost all college-educated women ranging in age from around 30 to probably 60 or 70. They were goddam impressive. It was a specifically non-partisan event by an avowed non-partisan group, but it just so happens that Democrats are more in line with the goals of the group than Republicans. I met a candidate for another local office, and he gestured to a group of women and said “they are my campaign staff”. He said they had it all figured out – who to call, what to do. He was just taking orders.

These women are a juggernaut. Republicans have done a decent job running this town over the years, and the Democratic committee in town was almost inactive, even though Democrats have an advantage in registration. No more – having an “R” after your name here is now toxic. If, as the two authors of this piece argue, the experience in my town is replicated in many other suburbs, we are looking at a real change.

(via Kevin Drum)

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Previous Post: « Of Microbes and Men — and Women and Children
Next Post: You can’t blame the youth, you can’t fool the youth »

Reader Interactions

104Comments

  1. 1.

    Just the Facts

    March 9, 2018 at 6:05 pm

    Time will tell.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    March 9, 2018 at 6:08 pm

    @Just the Facts: In the immortal words of Alex Kingston:
    “Hush now, Mummy and Daddy are busy.”

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    March 9, 2018 at 6:10 pm

    @Just the Facts: And smells will smell! Oh, yuck!

  4. 4.

    Baud

    March 9, 2018 at 6:15 pm

    Good to hear.

  5. 5.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 9, 2018 at 6:15 pm

    Old troll with a new nym has reappeared!

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    March 9, 2018 at 6:18 pm

    I got two or three promotions for innovating the way we did things when I worked for the big company. One manager asked me how I had so much luck dealing with the opposition and I told him that I was nice to their secretaries/admin assistants/whatever they called the women who really ran offices but got none of the credit or pay. Also I compromised instead of “winning,” so everybody got something they wanted.

  7. 7.

    Yutsano

    March 9, 2018 at 6:18 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Can I still play with it like a cat toy?

  8. 8.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 9, 2018 at 6:20 pm

    OT: Over the last three years I have bored you guys by sharing my discoveries about Hindi movies over the last two years. If I were to blog about it, or do a podcast, would you be interested? I am thinking making a form and will put it on my blog soon to get feedback.
    Thanks.

  9. 9.

    ruemara

    March 9, 2018 at 6:20 pm

    Well, however they wish to resolve the problem 53% of them caused, I fully support it.

  10. 10.

    khead

    March 9, 2018 at 6:21 pm

    I’ll take the hit:

    Better late than never, I guess.

  11. 11.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 9, 2018 at 6:22 pm

    To be fair wrt Just the Facts, “Time will Tell is pretty innocuous.

  12. 12.

    TenguPhule

    March 9, 2018 at 6:24 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: To be fair, white women voters in general have a lot to make up for from 2016.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 9, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Basically, if the nym includes something about “truth” or “facts” or the eternal “verities” in any language, we can be pretty sure it’s our same old troll. I’ve finally learned to read the code before engaging in the comment.

  14. 14.

    Thoughtful David

    March 9, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    @TenguPhule: Not as much as white male voters.

  15. 15.

    Yutsano

    March 9, 2018 at 6:39 pm

    @Thoughtful David: Today is National Get Over It Day. There’s quite a few rural white males who could do some getting over things in their lives. Sometimes shit just happens that’s out of our control.

  16. 16.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 9, 2018 at 6:39 pm

    @Yutsano: ok, but you have to put money into the troll food jar.

    @schrodingers_cat: I would read it but I only listen to like one podcast.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    March 9, 2018 at 6:39 pm

    White women overall voted for Trump, but the majority of white, college educated women voted for Clinton. And they’re pissed and energized in a way I’ve never seen in a couple of decades of following politics from the POV of that demographic.

    Putnam and Skocpol’s analysis matches what I’ve seen on the ground. If we stick together, we can turn the tide.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 9, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Yes it is, in and of itself, but with this “commenter” there is a history (for Steve in the WHRVR, make that “AN history”).

  19. 19.

    Yutsano

    March 9, 2018 at 6:41 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: *sigh* fine. It’s not like I wanted that sandwich after work anyway. Ba-Ka.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    March 9, 2018 at 6:45 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Over the last three years I have bored you guys by sharing my discoveries about Hindi movies over the last two years. If I were to blog about it, or do a podcast, would you be interested?

    Sure. Especially if you reference movies that are available to the average viewer and have English subtitles.

    You might also look around to see who is doing similar stuff. Desi Geek Girls sometimes talk about Indian films.

  21. 21.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 9, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Thanks, blog is what I would start with, podcast to be added later.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    March 9, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    I wish I could find an old B.C. comic strip (really old, from back around Nixon). Three women are standing around, talking about the lousiness of the world. In the final panel, they all have brooms and are sweeping the ground. One woman mutters something to the effect of, “We’re always the ones to clean up the messes!”

    We’ll definitely need women, and not just white suburban college-educated women, to clean up this mess!

    Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is a sycophant.

    Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is a sycophant.

    White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is a sycophant.

    And now, in an effort to please the President of the United States, they will put on a show in the White House. It will be billed as a show about the US economy, of which they are all now in charge. But it will really be a show about victimization, revenge, and some really good sound bytes — that’s the kind of show Donald Trump likes.

    There will be no facts, there will be fewer figures. They’ll tell the American people that trade wars “are easy to win” and have no consequences. They’ll tell the American people debt and deficits don’t matter. They’ll tell the American people whatever Trump, who thinks that people still get milk from the “local milk people,” tells them to say.

    The healthy debate Trump claims to foster in his White House is part of the joke. The debates will all end in agreement with him, and that means we’re in danger of starting a trade war that could spike prices at a time when the economy is already inflating.

    Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.

    The three stooges.

  23. 23.

    debbie

    March 9, 2018 at 6:50 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I know nothing about Hindi movies, but I’d be interested in reading what you have to say.

  24. 24.

    ThresherK

    March 9, 2018 at 6:51 pm

    Has anyone done some Venn diagrams which split WSW into evangelical and non-evangelical?

    The votes are more gettable for the latter methinks. What states and CDs are we talking about here?

  25. 25.

    cosima

    March 9, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    When I was volunteering for the Obama campaign in 2012 the ‘official’ campaign leaders (in Denver) were so awful. We learned to ignore pretty much everything they said. There were two volunteer women, both of whom lived quite near me, fortunately, who were amazing. I will never forget the complete incompetence of the people working for the campaign. It wasn’t just that they were young (they were, probably all between 22 – 28), it was that they were so full of their own importance, that whatever it was that they were taught in some conference somewhere was all that they needed to know. 2012 was actually a bit of a slog, in my opinion — there were a lot of people who thought Obama was going to fix all of societies’ ills in his first 4 years, and I listened to a lot of ‘why bother voting? doesn’t make any difference! they’re all the same!’ blah blah blah, and those infants hired by the campaign were completely oblivious, because they weren’t making the calls, or walking the pavement themselves. It was the worker bees that got shit done, not a single one of the infants with their stupid inspirational posters they’d draw up for the office. Ugh. If that was the sort of people that Hillary used for her campaign it is no surprise to me at all that it was a total shitshow. I was out of the US soon after the 2012 election, so not in a position to say one way or the other about that.

  26. 26.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    March 9, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes!

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    March 9, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    @Betty Cracker:

    To be fair, white women voters in general have a lot to make up for from 2016.

    Not really. White women overall voted for Trump. But we don’t count votes “overall” and in many states outside the South white women voted Hillary. In my happy state of California, 66 percent of all women, and 57 percent of white women voted for Clinton.

    That said, I am happy to see women transforming their resistance into power, and voters uniting behind good candidates, embracing diversity.

  28. 28.

    cosima

    March 9, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    @ThresherK: 53% of white women voted for the orange fart cloud (according to something my daughter posted to my FB page recently). So, could one presume that that number fairly accurately mirrors evangelical vs non-evangelical? Or is the 53% a combination of evangelical + incredibly ignorant/racist (40% +13% — numbers I’m completely making up)?

  29. 29.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 9, 2018 at 6:55 pm

    @Brachiator: Thanks, I will take a look. People who are blogging and video podcasting (on You Tube) about Hindi movies in this country are either mostly white, mostly female, who don’t speak Hindi. Of this genre, I like Beth Loves Bollywood.
    Then there are You Tube channels and blogs of noted film critics in India itself like Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra.
    FWIW I detest the word Desi to denote from India or the subcontinent. Desi ==country.

  30. 30.

    VeniceRiley

    March 9, 2018 at 6:55 pm

    This article is GREAT! I’m going to be sharing it later with many many people.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    March 9, 2018 at 6:55 pm

    @cosima: Hillary won Colorado.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    March 9, 2018 at 6:56 pm

    @cosima: Southern whites skew the numbers. Not sure what the Midwest was like.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    March 9, 2018 at 7:02 pm

    @ThresherK:

    Has anyone done some Venn diagrams which split WSW into evangelical and non-evangelical?

    You get close to this in some exit polling and related data that look at voting by religious affiliation, regular church goers, etc.

    Abortion, even more than gun rights, is a big sticking point for evangelicals. So I agree that they would be tough to peel away from the GOP. But again, among women, education, youth and marital status, tend to make them more amenable to non-fundamentalist messaging.

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    March 9, 2018 at 7:09 pm

    @Baud:

    Southern whites skew the numbers. Not sure what the Midwest was like.

    I’ve been going back and looking at some of the exit polls. As I suspected, Independent voters do not vote like typical Republicans. But I was surprised to see that according to Ohio exit polls, only 36 percent of white women voted for Clinton, with 56 percent voting for Trump.

    By comparison, only 27 percent of white men voted for Clinton, with 68 percent voting for Trump.

    @cosima:

    53% of white women voted for the orange fart cloud (according to something my daughter posted to my FB page recently). So, could one presume that that number fairly accurately mirrors evangelical vs non-evangelical? Or is the 53% a combination of evangelical + incredibly ignorant/racist (40% +13% — numbers I’m completely making up)?

    National numbers are misleading. The South is solidly Republican, other states not so much. Religion is hugely important in the South, not so much in other states. And as always, “battleground states” can move in either direction, favoring Democrats or Republicans.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    March 9, 2018 at 7:16 pm

    @Brachiator: Cross out religion and insert guns.

  36. 36.

    Citizen Alan

    March 9, 2018 at 7:18 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    Not nearly as much as white working-class men do, but unlike white working-class men, at least Suburban white women are making the effort. And I remain convinced that the real problem with that 53% of white women who went for shitgibbon lies in the pernicious influence of Evangelical Christianity which has raised so many women to be willing slaves of the patriarchy.

  37. 37.

    cosima

    March 9, 2018 at 7:21 pm

    @Baud: Yes, I did watch that come in. For a time the map showed CO red, and I despaired. However, my thought was that as difficult as it was for Obama in 2012 (the on-the-ground discussions that I had with voters, attitudes, etc. etc.) it was going to so much more difficult for Hillary — so, she’d have needed a top-notch team in place everywhere, and if she recycled the pathetic lot we were stuck with in our area of Denver, she did herself no favours. Or, dog forbid, considering kids like that to be ‘seasoned’ or ‘experienced’ and foisting them off on people in a competitive/challenging area. Those kids didn’t do anything in 2012, ergo they didn’t learn anything, but I’m sure that they consider themselves the centre of some political universe somewhere.

    Perhaps where we will actually begin to make progress in formerly non-competitive areas is through the people who live there, solidly Dem, know the area, the bones of everything, saying to the ‘professionals’ ‘we got this — you can watch & learn.’ And show the ‘Our Revolution’ folk the f*cking door. I was annoyed as hell to see Indivisible gloating over the defeat of a DCCC backed candidate — Indivisible now an OR group, I guess, so time to print off their guide and ignore everything else they say or do.

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    March 9, 2018 at 7:22 pm

    @Brachiator: Not sure why you included me in a response to a quote I didn’t write, but yeah.

  39. 39.

    Tenar Arha

    March 9, 2018 at 7:23 pm

    @debbie: Banking bill is pissing me off something fierce. Two things really. Democratic Senatorial acquiescence to something they should be from hard experience against, unless they’re from Alabama, West Virginia, or Montana, since they have recent history to understand what they’re risking. And that though Sherrod Brown & Elizabeth Warren are both vocally, fiercely against it, only Warren is being criticized in print for her tone with the Democrats who are planning on voting yes. All of that blended stupidity makes me wanna spit nails.

    ETA typo

  40. 40.

    Corner Stone

    March 9, 2018 at 7:24 pm

    I am never watching a moment of air that has Megyn Kelly on it.

  41. 41.

    TenguPhule

    March 9, 2018 at 7:25 pm

    Quick, Expected & Depressing.

    The National Rifle Association immediately filed a federal lawsuit over gun control legislation that Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed today, saying it violates the Second Amendment by raising the age to buy guns from 18 to 21.

    The lawsuit came just hours after Scott, a Republican, signed the compromise bill this afternoon.

  42. 42.

    cosima

    March 9, 2018 at 7:25 pm

    @Brachiator: Yes, and yet, why are they ‘solidly Republican?’ What is being seen in TX, the change from red to purple (not quite blue), the mayor of Houston, progressives in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio. What we are seeing here is that where we thought an area was solidly republican we now see there were a bunch of progressives hiding, not voting. I knew a few of those when we lived in Texas…

    As always, it is now well past my bedtime, so I have chimed in and now have to go to bed.

  43. 43.

    Corner Stone

    March 9, 2018 at 7:25 pm

    @Tenar Arha: That banking bill should die a dishonorable death. No D’s should vote for it. None. Not in red states, no where.

  44. 44.

    Corner Stone

    March 9, 2018 at 7:27 pm

    @cosima: Texas still has a few years, and laws, to go.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    March 9, 2018 at 7:28 pm

    We will see in 2018.
    We will see.

  46. 46.

    Shana

    March 9, 2018 at 7:32 pm

    We had a coordinated campaign staffer living with us for about a month or so recently until she found an apartment much closer to the office. She was lovely although we hardly saw her, of course.

    Anyway, she told me that she got an intern, a college student, and the first thing she had him working on was a list of all the Indivisible et.al. groups in the area with their contact info, how they like to work, all the stuff that we’ve learned from that NYT Magazine article about the campaign in Virginia last year. I have high hopes for this year.

  47. 47.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    March 9, 2018 at 7:33 pm

    @cosima:

    Well, hopefully those young people are six years wiser and more competent.

    The Florida high schoolers are showing pluck and resilience. I have hope for the younger generation. They’ll make mistakes. Some will become future Roofs and Kleibolds and such, but far more will become creators and inspiring leaders.

    There are wonderful and terrible people in every and any grouping. One inevitably now invites a snarky #NotAllMen or
    #NotAllAthletes (or whatever) by pointing out that some of us are self-aware and informed, but the truth is that we’re all in this together. Some of us will be good and creative and compassionate most of the time. ALL OF US will have moments of ignorance, spite and bigotry in our lives.

    I want to believe that the long arc of history does, indeed, bend towards justice (and enlightenment and compassion). That’s my hope.

    Okay, off the soapbox.

  48. 48.

    Doug R

    March 9, 2018 at 7:33 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    OT: Over the last three years I have bored you guys by sharing my discoveries about Hindi movies over the last two years. If I were to blog about it, or do a podcast, would you be interested? I am thinking making a form and will put it on my blog soon to get feedback.
    Thanks.

    Only if your first post is about Chandni Chowk to China

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    March 9, 2018 at 7:36 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Not sure why you included me in a response to a quote I didn’t write, but yeah.

    You had noted that “White women overall voted for Trump” My response included a consideration of that sentiment.

  50. 50.

    Suzanne

    March 9, 2018 at 7:36 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    I am never watching a moment of air that has Megyn Kelly on it.

    That is a sanity-saver right there.

  51. 51.

    AM in NC

    March 9, 2018 at 7:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Exactly. This is my demographic, and we are pissed and energized. I don’t see men of my age/race/income bracket doing much, but the women are bringing it, on the local, state, and national levels – running for office, volunteering for campaigns, fundraising, and speaking out in public. I am in North Carolina, but this is holding true for friends all over the country: Iowa, Chicago, DC, Colorado – they are reporting incredible sustained engagement from suburban (and urban) moms.

  52. 52.

    Suzanne

    March 9, 2018 at 7:40 pm

    Looks like it’s true: girls DO go to college to get more knowledge, and boys go to Jupiter to get more conservative.

  53. 53.

    Washburn

    March 9, 2018 at 7:40 pm

    Trying to get votes from white women os almost as pointless as trying to get votes from white men

    The key to electoral victory is to concentrate on raising turnout of black women.

  54. 54.

    VeniceRiley

    March 9, 2018 at 7:42 pm

    Forget Cynthia Nixon. I wish Hillary would primary the effer Cuomo. She would win!

  55. 55.

    Feebog

    March 9, 2018 at 7:44 pm

    @Corner Stone: Kelly was just on hardball pimping her interview with Putin. She is really full of herself.

  56. 56.

    Magda in Black

    March 9, 2018 at 7:45 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Yes! Please !

  57. 57.

    Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California)

    March 9, 2018 at 7:46 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I’ve been lurking and haven’t posted in a while. But count me in- I would be very interested in a blog about Hindi movies.

  58. 58.

    Doug R

    March 9, 2018 at 7:48 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: ….and if you posted about Indian adjacent movies like Bend It Like Beckham or influenced movies like Ella Enchanted.

  59. 59.

    Brachiator

    March 9, 2018 at 7:49 pm

    @Washburn:

    Trying to get votes from white women os almost as pointless as trying to get votes from white men

    This is categorically false.

    But thanks for playing.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    March 9, 2018 at 7:50 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    It sounds like there’s a space for a blog like the one you’re thinking of that could help explain Indian films and Indian history to an American audience since you’ve lived in both countries. I vote YES.

  61. 61.

    Fair Economist

    March 9, 2018 at 7:50 pm

    @Tenar Arha: I’m really not sure why the banking bill is arousing such ire. The modifications to the bill would leave it adequate to prevent the 2008 financial crash – Lehman would have been thoroughly stresstested, and that failure is what brought things down. Bear-Stearns would no longer be subject to extra extra stresstesting – but it went down without major consequences beyond its own stakeholders.

  62. 62.

    Elie

    March 9, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    @cosima:

    I don’t think Hillary’s campaign was a complete “shit show” like you are saying. In WA state, our organization was great and effective. Be sure to be a little more careful in your assessments around Hillary’s team performance until we get straight about the very real voter interference that may have occurred in a few key states. Yes, the election was close. But it may truly also have been stolen. In any case, you are going way way way too far in your assessment about Hillary’s campaign.
    You had your narrow experience in CO. That is all you can talk about knowledgeably. Just sayin

  63. 63.

    debbie

    March 9, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    @Tenar Arha:

    You’ll get no argument from me. The feeling of deja vu all over again is very strong.

  64. 64.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 9, 2018 at 7:53 pm

    @Doug R: Is that a movie? I have never heard of it.

  65. 65.

    marcopolo

    March 9, 2018 at 7:53 pm

    This is just a comment on D party call lists & making calls with them: they often suck donkey balls. They suck donkey balls often enough that normal folks who unknowingly agree to use the information often find them next to worthless (first, there are the bad #s, second, with today’s caller ID tech & voicemail & people being tired of being spammed at home by just the fuck about everybody and not answering the phone in the first place you don’t reach real live humans particularly often; third, when you do many times it ain’t the person on the list; fourth, a fair amount of the time they do not ID the way the list says they should) and thus after a few iterations of wasting their time making a lot of ineffectual calls no longer want to even be in the phone calling business. Honestly, where phone calls work best is to do GOTV calls the weekend & Mon prior to election day to make sure that ID’d supporters get the fuck out and vote.

    Anyways, that’s my 2 cents but I personally stopped making calls off of party lists a decade ago–however the last time I heard other folks complaining about the lists was in the past three weeks. I would much rather go door-to-door canvassing in 90 degree weather on hilly streets.

    (edit: I have also been a part of phone banks that have the computer dial the numbers and only hook you in when it thinks they have a real live human on the other end–it ain’t much better)

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    March 9, 2018 at 7:54 pm

    @Washburn:

    I think ARGB is trying out a new post-massacre persona. ?

  67. 67.

    TenguPhule

    March 9, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    @marcopolo: I eagerly await the first Democratic candidate to swear that they and their organizations will not do phone calls to voters. Might be worth a few more points in their direction.

  68. 68.

    Ohio Mom

    March 9, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    @Shana: Good for you for putting her up!

  69. 69.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 9, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    @Feebog: @Corner Stone: Kelly was just on hardball pimping her interview with Putin. She is really full of herself.

    seems to me MSNBC is doing more promo for their retrospective on Gary Hart (which I really don’t get, unless they’re trying to subtweet trump somehow) than for MK’s interview with Putin, which should be pretty fuckign newsworthy. I get the sense they know she’s a bust.

    One thing I was curious about, trying to see out of my own bubble. MSNBC has been hitting the Stormy Daniels story all day today. Is it outplaying the North Korea thing on CNN, too? Is the story getting traction or is MSNBC feeding its base (of which I am a part, and enjoying the spectacle)

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    March 9, 2018 at 8:01 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    I can’t believe they’re trying to legitimize her on one of the pundit shows. She comes across as dumb, dumb, dumb. I watched two minutes, and she was even dumb with Vladimir Putin. She asked him if he tweets. Maybe that was just supposed to be provocative, but five seconds on Twitter would answer the question. So what’s the point? It’s not provocative, it’s stupid.

    And Chris Matthews needs to retool his game or retire. He is sounding increasingly like the cranky uncle, badgering his panelists with pithy but nonsensical questions. “How many elections did that guy win?” (Dismissing some policy guy’s legitimate point.)

    And he misread his notes and said that Florida had instituted a three-year waiting period to buy guns. I wish.

  71. 71.

    Doug R

    March 9, 2018 at 8:01 pm

    @schrodingers_cat

    I have never heard of it.

    :
    Whaaaat?
    Chandni Chowk to China (2009) Official Trailer

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 9, 2018 at 8:07 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I would definitely read the blog. Podcast, probably not. Have not had good experiences so far.

  73. 73.

    Johannes

    March 9, 2018 at 8:08 pm

    @Yutsano: This, River Song 2020.

  74. 74.

    Feebog

    March 9, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Chris Matthews is well past his sell-by date. He can’t ask a question without turning it into a marathon. Would love to see Joy Anne in that slot.

  75. 75.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 9, 2018 at 8:13 pm

    @Steeplejack: In a contest of wits between Megyn Kelly and V. V. Putin, I know who I’m putting my money on.

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    March 9, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    She also seemed oblivious to the fact that Putin was looking at her like he’d like to go a few rounds with her in his torture dungeon in the Kremlin basement. Like a little bunny rabbit oblivious to her surroundings. But maybe I was having a flash of Criminal Minds PTSD.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    March 9, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    People seem to either love or hate podcasts. G loves them, but I just can’t get into them.

  78. 78.

    RSA

    March 9, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    @Brachiator:

    White women overall voted for Trump. But we don’t count votes “overall” and in many states outside the South white women voted Hillary.

    Yes. And of course that’s true for many southern states as well. It’s too common to blame a general demographic like “white women” or “white men” or “southern states”–unless the topic is something like whom to approach to persuade to vote for a Democrat, the group of people who have something to make up for is just people who voted for Trump.

  79. 79.

    Shana

    March 9, 2018 at 8:18 pm

    @Ohio Mom: We’ve done that a lot. The girls are pretty much out of the house and we have a guest room with it’s own bathroom in the basement so it’s pretty easy. And once I got a special ticket for an Obama event in 2012 through our staffer.

  80. 80.

    glory b

    March 9, 2018 at 8:20 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I’d be interested. I got into watching Bollywood movies on the late, lamented AZN network (on Comcast).

    I’d like someone curating and explaining them.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 9, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    @Feebog:

    Chris Matthews is well past his sell-by date. He can’t ask a question without turning it into a marathon.

    Serious question: Could he ever? I can’t remember a time since Chris Matthews has been on the air that he hasn’t stammered and sputtered and interrupted his way into every interview or conversation. He can’t allow a guest to state their position without butting in, and he can’t ask a simple question without setting it up in the most boastful self-serving way this side of Trump. I was done with him a long time ago.

  82. 82.

    Doug R

    March 9, 2018 at 8:23 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Maybe I need to do a guest post.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 9, 2018 at 8:27 pm

    Skocpol routinely uses Bob Putnam’s cooked “Bowling Alone” data set. Neither one of them should be taken seriously. They are two of the biggest frauds political science ever produced.

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    March 9, 2018 at 8:31 pm

    @RSA:

    And of course that’s true for many southern states as well. It’s too common to blame a general demographic like “white women” or “white men” or “southern states”

    The majority of southern states are pretty consistent. But if we were doing a deep dive into the polling data, yeah differences become important. I don’t think anyone has ever claimed that all white men everywhere were Trump voters.

  85. 85.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 9, 2018 at 8:36 pm

    @Doug R: What in God’s name is that? Although I did recognize Akshay Kumar and Deepika.
    @Doug R: Sure! But find something else besides Chandni Chowk to China.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    March 9, 2018 at 8:36 pm

    @Washburn:

    Trying to get votes from white women os almost as pointless as trying to get votes from white men

    The key to electoral victory is to concentrate on raising turnout of black women.

    We should be trying to get more votes wherever we can find them. That means encouraging turnout among groups that traditionally favor Democrats and trying to convince anyone who looks like they might be convinced. We need huge wave elections in 2018 and 2020, and that means leaving no stone unturned when looking for votes.

    There’s also a matter of letting each person do what they think they have the power to do. Even if it’s true that black women are much better prospects for the Democrats, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to be equally good at getting them to vote. With any group of voters or potential voters, the people most likely to convince them are people who know them well. That means white women are more likely to do some good by trying to convince other white women they know than they are trying to talk to black women they don’t know.

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    March 9, 2018 at 8:37 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    For a lot of 2017 Matthews was holding it together. It was like the shock of Trump’s election woke him up. He asked good questions, he followed his panelists, he did a pretty good job. But the last couple of months he has been regressing to form. It’s like he just didn’t have the stamina to keep it going. And I think he’s lapsing back into his default view of the political world as sort of a “Tip and Ronnie” soap opera. He seems to forget how outside of the norm Trump is and how dangerous he is. And he sounds most clueless when he whines about why don’t the Democrats do something, forgetting their minority position and the way that McConnell and Ryan have completely broken the legislative process.

  88. 88.

    Doug R

    March 9, 2018 at 8:38 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: As a lover of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, I liked it. As a Bollywood/Kung Fu crossover I thought it had some nice things to say at how close India and China are, more than you’d think on the surface.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    March 9, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    @Doug R:

    It was probably also a smart business decision to make a movie that would be appealing to two of the largest movie audiences out there. If it doesn’t play well in Europe or the US, who really cares?

  90. 90.

    khead

    March 9, 2018 at 8:49 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    There’s also a matter of letting each person do what they think they have the power to do. Even if it’s true that black women are much better prospects for the Democrats, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to be equally good at getting them to vote. With any group of voters or potential voters, the people most likely to convince them are people who know them well. That means white women are more likely to do some good by trying to convince other white women they know than they are trying to talk to black women they don’t know.

    Well, is it ok if I ask those white folks – politely of course – why the fuck it took them until after 2016 to “get so woke”. I mean, will it hurt their fee-fees all that much JUST TO ASK while pursuing their vote and asking them to convince others? I’d hate to hurt their fee-fees.

    Because that’s really what I want to know.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    March 9, 2018 at 8:52 pm

    @khead:

    I’m a middle-aged married white woman. I traveled to Nevada to campaign for Hillary on my own dime. So I would be kinda pissed if you demanded to know why I wasn’t “woke” enough in 2016.

    Just sayin’.

  92. 92.

    khead

    March 9, 2018 at 8:57 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    You’re my age. I think the key phrase in your post is “I traveled to campaign for Hilary on my own dime”. Pretty sure that actually happened before the election. So, you’re good.

    I had a MUCH longer post for this thread but I shelved it. All I will say is that I am guessing there are POC here at BJ who find this whole “white women are so woke NOW they will save us” bullshit to be a little trite and insulting. I’m as whitebread as a loaf of Wonder and even I can see it.

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2018 at 9:01 pm

    @khead: What Mnem said. I travelled to 4 states for Obama in the primaries in 2008 and a LOT of the people who were in Iowa were middle-aged people like me.

    So you can’t just tar all middle-aged white women – or all of any group, or even all of any state like TX – with a broad brush. So if you want to ask the question, you cannot assume in the content of your question that the person or people you are people who didn’t show up until recently.

    *not meaning to be scold-y.

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    March 9, 2018 at 9:01 pm

    @khead:

    I will now be a little bit mean to my fellow college-educated white women: I think some percentage of them still held a grudge against Obama from 2008 and thought that all of the shit that was flung at him and Michelle wouldn’t happen to Hillary. And then even worse happened to Hillary, and they are pissed.

    They believed that “both sides” was a real thing and that Republicans weren’t that bad. Now they know better. Totebaggers finally woke up.

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2018 at 9:02 pm

    @khead: I think it’s gonna be the black women who save us, along with the rest of us who are sane.

  96. 96.

    RSA

    March 9, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    @Brachiator: Yeah, I’m afraid of slipping into a kind of concern trollery. I think @WaterGirl expresses the issue very well. That is, it’s what I thought you meant in responding to TenguPhule, that the members of a demographic group aren’t all responsible for other members’ votes.

  97. 97.

    khead

    March 9, 2018 at 9:30 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Then, by all means, let’s get the MSM to write as many stories as possible about those “woke white women”. That’s a sure way to get those black women to help us. :)

    I don’t think you are being scoldy at all and I have no beef with you, Mnem, or anyone else – we seem to be talking past each other a bit – but these stories remind me quite a bit of David Brooks’ column last week that made all of BJ so angry. I don’t NEED gun nuts to lead the charge against gun control. I’m much more likely to ask them – “where have you been?”. Same with the suburban white women who have voted GOP. You want to come along for the ride? Hey, that’s great. But have a seat behind my friends like you who have already been there.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    March 9, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    @khead:

    I think it’s partly a framing thing by the MSM, which is — surprise! — framing things to put the people they’re most comfortable with at the center of the action. Most of the women being profiled are working for other women, often women of color. And yet the MSM’s story is Middle-class white women are doing stuff and not Women of all races are banding together to empower women of color to run for office.

    In short, I think we can all agree that the MSM missed the real story. Again.

  99. 99.

    Michael Bersin

    March 9, 2018 at 9:41 pm

    @Feebog:

    I heard a promo segment on the Today Show. Something along the lines of, “and she even asked him about those topless photos.” We’re doomed.

  100. 100.

    OGLiberal

    March 9, 2018 at 11:22 pm

    44% of white college educated women voted for Trump in 2016 v. 51% for Hillary. She won a bare majority. There might be some opportunities to get some of the 5% who voted for Stein or Johnson or wrote in Wilmer but those 44% – much too high a number, given who the man is – are lost and beyond recovering. If you could watch him talk about grabbing womens’ private parts or mocking the physical disabilities of a reporter then you are beyond changing…for a few because they are rich but for most because they are racist. Best to focus on those white women across all income strata and race – especially lower and working class – who don’t usually vote.

  101. 101.

    SFBayAreaGal

    March 10, 2018 at 12:30 am

    I find it interesting that once again white women are getting credit for waking up when the majority of college educated black women have been awake for years.

  102. 102.

    cosima

    March 10, 2018 at 4:01 am

    @Elie: Which is why I had it in quotes.

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    March 10, 2018 at 9:34 am

    @SFBayAreaGal: Dead thread but I’ll answer anyway. Twas ever thus, and it’s not about race, for once. Think about a kid who gets straight As in school vs. a kid who usually gets a grade of C, but this time they got an A. It’s a big deal when the C student gets an A.

  104. 104.

    J R in WV

    March 11, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I don’t do podcasts, but I have always enjoyed your comments about Indian film and culture, and enjoy the film clips that you post links to. So yea, Go for it!

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