My friends in Cambridge and the rest of the Boston area are excited about the Women’s March on Washington. I asked some what they were protesting, given that Donald Trump hasn’t actually done anything yet as president. One said that she was protesting him appointing the least qualified people imaginable to be cabinet secretaries.
Perhaps the assumption that the march is intended to have an effect on policy or Trump’s governance is incorrect. But let’s assume that the marchers want Trump to follow their instructions. Wouldn’t protesting the guy before he has done anything work against this goal? Couldn’t Trump reasonably infer from a protest prior to him taking any action that he will never win the support of these people and therefore there is no point in considering their point of view? (Kind of like Mitt Romney acknowledging that 47 percent of Americans could never be reached by a politician advocating for a smaller government and reduced handouts.)
(At a minimum, the march does promise some innovation in the English language: “I Stand with the Women’s March” (photo below from a child support profiteer’s temporary Facebook profile picture)
)
It seems quite obvious that President Trump has no intention of considering the demonstrator’s point of view; it seems unlikely he was their intended audience.
Mr. Greenspun posits an interesting new standard for political candidates. Apparently, it appears to matter not one wit to him what the candidate ever said or how the candidate ever behaved. Because once elected, Mr. Greenspun and fellow apologists will set the clock back to zero, erase the slate, etc., because the newly elected official “hasn’t done anything yet.”
If that’s the case, then how can we decide which candidate to elect if, no matter what, they will be forgiven for anything and everything?
The sign is from NARAL, but I do not hear anyone saying Trump is vigorously pro-life. At best he is more so than Hillary.
That remembrance is why President Hillary never would have received a security clearance.
marching in place
He will probably appoint justices who in theory would overturn Roe v. Wade. Were that to happen in ten years, or whatever, maybe five rural states would change abortion laws. It would have absolutely no impact on the people freaking about their “bodies.”
I bet you that a lot of these marching women are mixed up in the health care or education rackets, which are ultimately fueled by fed-bucks. If Trump does anything serious about student loans or medical costs a lot of these broads might be looking for a job.
As a community activist and short-term US senator who mostly abstained from senate votes, one could say the former president Obama actually hadn’t done anything before he was elected to the White House and, shortly thereafter, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Perhaps let us consider the Shakespearian use of the word “stand”. Here is the quote from MacBeth. Guess what “stand” means here?
PORTER
Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him
Get it! you can not both stand and march. We did not need the bold to give us the hint Phil!
@SWOTI:
> won the Nobel Peace Prize
Many Obama supporters, including me, recognized the inappropriateness of the prize, inappropriate because it was given primarily for not being Bush and on the assumption that Obama would be a peace president and correct the martial excesses of his predecessor. Obama himself saw this (IIRC as I think back eight years) but decided to accept the prize anyway for the chance to address the world and express his views. He proceeded to set the Nobel committee and us straight in explaining that he was not averse to the war and we shouldn’t expect things to change quickly.
@RS: Yes, good points. Nearly as many Americans died in Iraq and Afghanistan under 8 years of Obama as did under 8 years of Bush. There are stats available. It’s something close to 60/40.
> One said that she was protesting him appointing the least qualified people imaginable to be cabinet secretaries.
So we have American’s who are able to conclude — even before those appointees start their job — that they are the least qualified but year-after-year, they keep sending their kids to be taught by non qualified teachers and schools that produce kids ranking very low in education compared to other developed nations and yet they do nothing about it?
Makes me want to ask if those *marchers” are themself the least qualified to march.
All the feminists 20 years ago married bald, fat, rich guys like The Donald after they protested them & the current generation will too. The poor, skinny, middle age confirmed bachelors which surround you for your entire programming career are living proof of how people execute what they’re told but don’t believe any of it.
No, most feminists did not pull a Gloria Steinem and can’t anyway. That is a pretty big myth.
I don’t know in what world you are living. I personally know exactly five of the local protesters – a nurse, a high school math teacher, a librarian, a lawyer and a post-doc researcher. I am proud to be a friend of each and every one of them.