lavendertook (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lavendertook) wrote2020-05-15 10:18 pm
lavendertook) wrote2020-05-15 10:18 pm
Entry tags:
I believe Tara Reade.
So who the fuck am I supposed to vote for, asshole?
I owe some fun posts here, but I need to vent politics right now and there are more feminists I can depend on here on DW than on FB where I've been posting my political thoughts and links the past year or so. So feel free to scroll on by if this is not your topic.
I was so livid last night it took hours to get to sleep. My fault for looking at the news before bed. Yes, I am responding to Joe Biden's 'If you believe her, you shouldn't vote for me." which is addressing me, personally, directly. And a whole lot of women, mostly, who have written eloquent, reasoned, principled articles and essays on believing Reade, and why they are voting for Biden anyway. Some with despair and anguish at making this choice. And fucking Biden just kicked sand in all our faces.
There are ways to thread this needle, to address her accusations, even if he believes himself innocent without making further offense, difficult as it is. But to attack all the people supporting her who have planned to vote for you anyway is beyond the pale. No, he does not get to express his feeling of offense that we dare take his accuser seriously anymore than Kavanaugh did and have it believed that he is any ally to women--and I'm tired of having his work on the Violence Against Women Act toted out as feminist credentials. You can be a complete patriarchal sexist and be opposed to violence against women, and work with feminists on it, without being in the least feminist. "We must protect the frailer sex" comes to mind, without a thought for how patriarchal oppression compounds size and physical differences.
But I do take his statement as a kick in the face when so many have written about the difficulty with which they have chosen to vote for him and of which he has to be well aware. What he is saying is "I am not your candidate and I don't need you to win", when he knows we are over a barrel because we can't vote for Trump and believe kicking Trump out is better for the world, including rape survivors and Reade herself, and chose voting for a man we believe to have sexually assaulted Reade. It is nastily manipulative, and remarkably echoing Reade's report of him telling her, "You are nothing to me!" when she proved non-pliable to his wishes. We are nothing and our votes don't matter. Fuck you, Biden.
And it's not just how absolutely incensed I am to be insulted by this politician for saying my vote doesn't matter to him. I think it's dangerously malevolent. Though plenty non-feminist reporters are finding his response wonderfully unexpected and honest, I think they are enjoying watching feminists get kicked by a man in power--it's a very traditional sport for misogynists. Is this how he's going to govern when crossed? How about all those progressive ideas the left is being told he will consider and how well he will respond when crossed? I don't trust him to not further punish feminists and other progressives when we cross him when he's in power. I don't trust him to not sell out the right to abortion. I could just as well see a move toward the Handmaid's Tale under him as well as Trump.
And I don't think you can represent the Democratic party when you can respond in so many ways to allegations against you, and instead tell other Democrats to not vote for you and cede their involvement in the Democratic party because they have hurt your big ego. If you're not trying to represent all Democrats, how are you going to be the President for all of the country like we need? And what a fucking risk he is taking with losing the vote and giving Trump another term by turning away committed Democratic voters like this? We had so many candidates and now we're stuck with this asshole who is putting his wounded ego before the country and the world's survival? No. Just no.
As others have said, I am also resenting how he has put women in a position to defend him and turn against Reade. I have lost respect I had for Abrams and Gillibrand for playing ball with him on this, but I know the manipulator behind this is Biden and the DNC. I am sick of the game of what lovely lady is Joe the Man going to pick to be his Vana. . . er . . .Vice President. I don't trust what he is doing to women in so many venues right now.
So for now, I rescind my commitment to vote for Biden, just as he suggests I should. But I still plan to vote Democrat and his nomination is not a done deal, and we need to find a way to get represented by a contestation in the Democratic convention. I need to vote for someone who wants to represent me. I have to figure out how to make as much noise as possible and find louder voices to support. I do expect there is a lot of company in the outrage I feel right now--women are just taking time to gather their thoughts and express it.
Though this article was written, before Biden shot off his goddamned mouth yesterday, complicating things further, it's a good one on the dilemma of supporting Reade while voting Democrat. Teen Vogue has some great feminist thinkers writing for them.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/many-only-believe-women-when-its-convenient
minoanmiss posted this interview a couple of weeks ago with Lucy Flores about the other women with allegations against Biden's molestations and their support for Reade which carries so much weight with me:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/biden-tara-reade-lucy-flores-accusations.html
And let me just say that I am sick and tired of people, well, especially men, pulling out the inductive claim that all rapists are serial rapists and if another women doesn't come forward accusing Biden of rape then she's lying. Firstly, because it costs nothing at all for women to come forward and accuse a man of rape and so of course another allegation would surface, right? Secondly, I do not believe all rapists are serial rapists and never do it once, especially if their first attempt went awry, or that they didn't consider third base to be rape because no penis was involved and her bits are meaningless, and it made him realize the risks of accusations being made against them. Or that there are no differences between types of rapes and rapists. Frankly, I think it's comforting for people to think all rapists are serial rapists because then everyone could think there is only a handful of men out there sexually assaulting 1 in 4 women--what a relief to men to think that! It's certainly not one of their buddies and they are not contributing to rape culture in never questioning how he's treating women. And also, the line between sexual assault and molestation is not clear in any which way and we need to take the molestation of women by men more seriously. Like the previous accusers of Biden who he in no way made a real apology to. And especially Anita Hill, who knew a late apology from him was worth crap.
Here is an article on the obstacles Reade was facing that made for the timing of her accusation getting out:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/tara-reade-joe-biden-democrats-media-allegation
And here is Democracy Now!'s interview with Reade from last month--it's a long vid and the most complete of her laying out her story and worth a watch:
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/31/tara_reade_joe_biden_sexual_assault
And here is Linda Hirshman's essay, which wins the prize for most anguished feminist essay about voting for Biden long before his latest spew that may produce some contenders for that prize:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opinion/tara-reade-joe-biden-vote.html
Lastly, let me include a link to the Politico article Brookes and Shields' referred to tonight on NPR in order to support Biden and dismiss Reade's account. The title here should tell you what unbiased and informative reporting is being done here and how to hate on single mother's escaping from domestic abuse and who can't pay bills due to poverty from the point of view of their landlords and appeals to authority due to being A Psychologist. Ummhmm:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/tara-reade-left-trail-of-aggrieved-acquaintances-260771
I'm just surprised no one interviewed in this article mentioned she's fat. What an omission!
And here's a good article on Biden's history of non apologies and upholding systemic racism and sexism starting with what Prof. Anita Hill had to say when he announced his candidacy last year:
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/27/anita-hill-joe-biden-non-apology/
And finally, this writer from Cedar Rapids. The misogyny Biden expresses toward her is no different than Trump's. I'm with her:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/04/biden-should-step-aside-we-cant-sacrifice-another-woman-political-gain/
So, what are you thinking about this? Who's with me on we really, really need another Democrat to nominate and find a way to make that need legion and heard?
I owe some fun posts here, but I need to vent politics right now and there are more feminists I can depend on here on DW than on FB where I've been posting my political thoughts and links the past year or so. So feel free to scroll on by if this is not your topic.
I was so livid last night it took hours to get to sleep. My fault for looking at the news before bed. Yes, I am responding to Joe Biden's 'If you believe her, you shouldn't vote for me." which is addressing me, personally, directly. And a whole lot of women, mostly, who have written eloquent, reasoned, principled articles and essays on believing Reade, and why they are voting for Biden anyway. Some with despair and anguish at making this choice. And fucking Biden just kicked sand in all our faces.
There are ways to thread this needle, to address her accusations, even if he believes himself innocent without making further offense, difficult as it is. But to attack all the people supporting her who have planned to vote for you anyway is beyond the pale. No, he does not get to express his feeling of offense that we dare take his accuser seriously anymore than Kavanaugh did and have it believed that he is any ally to women--and I'm tired of having his work on the Violence Against Women Act toted out as feminist credentials. You can be a complete patriarchal sexist and be opposed to violence against women, and work with feminists on it, without being in the least feminist. "We must protect the frailer sex" comes to mind, without a thought for how patriarchal oppression compounds size and physical differences.
But I do take his statement as a kick in the face when so many have written about the difficulty with which they have chosen to vote for him and of which he has to be well aware. What he is saying is "I am not your candidate and I don't need you to win", when he knows we are over a barrel because we can't vote for Trump and believe kicking Trump out is better for the world, including rape survivors and Reade herself, and chose voting for a man we believe to have sexually assaulted Reade. It is nastily manipulative, and remarkably echoing Reade's report of him telling her, "You are nothing to me!" when she proved non-pliable to his wishes. We are nothing and our votes don't matter. Fuck you, Biden.
And it's not just how absolutely incensed I am to be insulted by this politician for saying my vote doesn't matter to him. I think it's dangerously malevolent. Though plenty non-feminist reporters are finding his response wonderfully unexpected and honest, I think they are enjoying watching feminists get kicked by a man in power--it's a very traditional sport for misogynists. Is this how he's going to govern when crossed? How about all those progressive ideas the left is being told he will consider and how well he will respond when crossed? I don't trust him to not further punish feminists and other progressives when we cross him when he's in power. I don't trust him to not sell out the right to abortion. I could just as well see a move toward the Handmaid's Tale under him as well as Trump.
And I don't think you can represent the Democratic party when you can respond in so many ways to allegations against you, and instead tell other Democrats to not vote for you and cede their involvement in the Democratic party because they have hurt your big ego. If you're not trying to represent all Democrats, how are you going to be the President for all of the country like we need? And what a fucking risk he is taking with losing the vote and giving Trump another term by turning away committed Democratic voters like this? We had so many candidates and now we're stuck with this asshole who is putting his wounded ego before the country and the world's survival? No. Just no.
As others have said, I am also resenting how he has put women in a position to defend him and turn against Reade. I have lost respect I had for Abrams and Gillibrand for playing ball with him on this, but I know the manipulator behind this is Biden and the DNC. I am sick of the game of what lovely lady is Joe the Man going to pick to be his Vana. . . er . . .Vice President. I don't trust what he is doing to women in so many venues right now.
So for now, I rescind my commitment to vote for Biden, just as he suggests I should. But I still plan to vote Democrat and his nomination is not a done deal, and we need to find a way to get represented by a contestation in the Democratic convention. I need to vote for someone who wants to represent me. I have to figure out how to make as much noise as possible and find louder voices to support. I do expect there is a lot of company in the outrage I feel right now--women are just taking time to gather their thoughts and express it.
Though this article was written, before Biden shot off his goddamned mouth yesterday, complicating things further, it's a good one on the dilemma of supporting Reade while voting Democrat. Teen Vogue has some great feminist thinkers writing for them.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/many-only-believe-women-when-its-convenient
minoanmiss posted this interview a couple of weeks ago with Lucy Flores about the other women with allegations against Biden's molestations and their support for Reade which carries so much weight with me:https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/biden-tara-reade-lucy-flores-accusations.html
And let me just say that I am sick and tired of people, well, especially men, pulling out the inductive claim that all rapists are serial rapists and if another women doesn't come forward accusing Biden of rape then she's lying. Firstly, because it costs nothing at all for women to come forward and accuse a man of rape and so of course another allegation would surface, right? Secondly, I do not believe all rapists are serial rapists and never do it once, especially if their first attempt went awry, or that they didn't consider third base to be rape because no penis was involved and her bits are meaningless, and it made him realize the risks of accusations being made against them. Or that there are no differences between types of rapes and rapists. Frankly, I think it's comforting for people to think all rapists are serial rapists because then everyone could think there is only a handful of men out there sexually assaulting 1 in 4 women--what a relief to men to think that! It's certainly not one of their buddies and they are not contributing to rape culture in never questioning how he's treating women. And also, the line between sexual assault and molestation is not clear in any which way and we need to take the molestation of women by men more seriously. Like the previous accusers of Biden who he in no way made a real apology to. And especially Anita Hill, who knew a late apology from him was worth crap.
Here is an article on the obstacles Reade was facing that made for the timing of her accusation getting out:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/tara-reade-joe-biden-democrats-media-allegation
And here is Democracy Now!'s interview with Reade from last month--it's a long vid and the most complete of her laying out her story and worth a watch:
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/31/tara_reade_joe_biden_sexual_assault
And here is Linda Hirshman's essay, which wins the prize for most anguished feminist essay about voting for Biden long before his latest spew that may produce some contenders for that prize:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opinion/tara-reade-joe-biden-vote.html
Lastly, let me include a link to the Politico article Brookes and Shields' referred to tonight on NPR in order to support Biden and dismiss Reade's account. The title here should tell you what unbiased and informative reporting is being done here and how to hate on single mother's escaping from domestic abuse and who can't pay bills due to poverty from the point of view of their landlords and appeals to authority due to being A Psychologist. Ummhmm:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/tara-reade-left-trail-of-aggrieved-acquaintances-260771
I'm just surprised no one interviewed in this article mentioned she's fat. What an omission!
And here's a good article on Biden's history of non apologies and upholding systemic racism and sexism starting with what Prof. Anita Hill had to say when he announced his candidacy last year:
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/27/anita-hill-joe-biden-non-apology/
And finally, this writer from Cedar Rapids. The misogyny Biden expresses toward her is no different than Trump's. I'm with her:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/04/biden-should-step-aside-we-cant-sacrifice-another-woman-political-gain/
So, what are you thinking about this? Who's with me on we really, really need another Democrat to nominate and find a way to make that need legion and heard?
I believe her too and the other women (and all the "handsy" stuff is sexual harassment)
Texas had its primary on Super Tuesday, early on, and I voted for Warren, but Biden won.
Then came the coronavirus and all the effects on elections. Our primary tie-breaker election is in July, moved from May, and the state of Texas won't allow anybody under 65 who doesn't have a disability or etc. (or is in the military) to get a ballot by mail. The indicted Attorney General is fighting a suit to open up voting by mail to everybody (no surprise there). Paxton is threatening to charge anyone who applies for a mail-in ballot because of disability relating to the Covid-19 pandemic with a felony.
I agree with so much of what you say but cannot see any way to affect the convention (the DNC spent years ignoring Texas in terms of funding or any support because of their focus on the presidency and controlling the process). But I did want to recommend you might want to read/follow/friend one of my favorite radical FB friends: Elisa von Joeden-Forgey who is a genocide scholar and has been arguing for progressive to contest the convention, including brainstorming various strategies for action.
Her FB is: https://www.facebook.com/elisaforgey
I have loathed Biden since he ran the Anita Hill hearings--and lost a lot of faith in Obama when he chosen JB for his VP. (I supported HRC over Obama because I saw their politics as fairly close and didn't think he had the experience to navigate the cesspool that is DC politics which she did).
I am in Texas and am torn: yes, when I moved here I became a yellow dog Democrat (when I was in Washington I supported the progressive/radical parties and politicians) because it was hard enough even getting Democrats on the ticket (see lack of attention paid by DNC above). In previous years, I would have not voted for Biden as a protest and on the grounds that no matter what a Democrat presidential candidate couldn't win in Texas so it didn't really matter. Clinton and Obama both got in the low 40% of the vote, primarily because of Houston, Dallas, and Austin. My county is always red, red, red, red (and of course full of Trump deplorables, and oh yeah, a number of white supremacist groups).
But it seemed barely possible starting with O'Rourke's 3% loss to Cruz last election that that this year might be the year Texas managed to tilt purple enough to maybe give the Democrat a chance. I wanted Warren. I could have voted for Sanders. But Biden: I guess Bloomberg was worse, but that's about it. I just don't know what to do and have to spend so much energy navigating the pandemic and trying to live long enough to get the fuck out of Texas that I haven't been able to let myself engage with the issue of how we might stop Biden. But this recent bullshit has tipped me even further toward NOT voting for him (but voting for the Democrats on the other races).
One of the biggest ways the Democratic Apparatus has screwed up, imnsho, is ignoring the local and state level races to focus on the Big Bucks High Office sexy ones. That's what got us gerrymandering, voter suppression, and all the coordinated attacks on civil rights for marginalized groups, and reproductive choice.
Thank you as well for all the links to the articles--I have probably read some (I've been looking as much as I can) but I'm pretty sure I've missed some as well. I don't have the energy to look right now, but will copy/paste to keep for reading now.
<<<>>>
Re: I believe her too and the other women (and all the "handsy" stuff is sexual harassment)
Yes, on DNC ignoring the local elections. I don't think the centrists at the heart of the DNC really care about the grassroots--they lean neoconservative and can't be bothered with small fries--and being wealthy, they don't really care that much when they lose. And I think they're doing all they can to lose the presidential in dropping all their money and effort on Biden. I would think Biden is doing a good job of uniting HRC sans Warren die-hard feminists voters with leftist social democrats right now, and it's not going to go well for him. The DNC would do well to pay attention, but they won't. I will friend your radical friend who would be nice to have on FB--thank you.
And on the local, I know my state's Republican gov Hogan made a big splash with the plane load of tests form Korea, but it's looking mostly like a political stunt now with missing regents and . Though he earned some respect from me in his fairly early shut down of MD, it's all fallen apart and we're in bad shape on a lot of fronts. We are way behind most states comparable to ours in infection and deaths in testing and our unemployment site keeps falling apart--all part of gutting the state budgets and downsizing the state and county workforce. Outside of the populous counties closest to DC, Maryland is all red and there's a huge Reopen push, and a lawsuit by rightwing Repugs against Hogan's admin for opening up, so we're opening up way to soon. So much for my little blue state--it's all scary here, too. Dystopian hi-jinx ensue.