Takeback Tuesday: women’ place is in the House, and Senate, and Governor’s mansion, and…

Rebecca Felton, first US woman Senator, 1922 (appointed, she served 24 hours and was allowed to retire at the age of 87.)

As I’ve said before here, under the current regime we’re having to outsource many of those basic services that until recently we could trust our government to perform for us. Things like protecting the weak, and welcoming the assaulted, and healing the sick.

One of the friends of the “Resistance” is a group called Emily’s List.

Our vision is a government that reflects the people it serves, and decision makers who genuinely and enthusiastically fight for greater opportunity and better lives for the Americans they represent.

I don’t think the government taking shape in DC is one that reflects or serves us, the people. I think it’s made up of people out to strip the country’s resources for their own benefit. And I think that one way to resist them is to support their opponents.

That is, Democratic women.

Hattie Caraway, first elected US woman Senator, 1932

Yes, this is simplistic. Many Republicans are responsible people who work hard for the greater good. Many, many Republicans are appalled at what is happening today. There are some Republican goals I would agree with.

But in this era when every matter is reduced to stark black and white, if we have to choose, I suggest we choose Democratic women. I suggest we support them, we encourage them to run for office, and yes, send them some dollars—because Early Money Is Like Yeast.

REJECT APATHY AND THE STATUS QUO. REPEAT DAILY.

Emily’s List is committed to driving progressive change throughout our country by winning elections that put pro-choice Democratic women into office.

I look forward to a time when Democrats and Republicans can work together again. A time when the government I pay for actually does its job. But one of the ways I see to achieve that is to push more Democrats into public office.

If any of you are running for office, I’d like to know. Surely we can get the Russell (and Martinelli) community behind one of our own?

In the meantime, monthly donations to Emily’s List are one way to begin to take back Tuesdays: here.

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12 Comments

  1. Trina R. on February 28, 2017 at 4:26 pm

    Thank you for the Emily’s List suggestion. I just donated. I am enjoying having action items to try and feel as if there is hope for accomplishing something these days.
    I absolutely love your books, and am a returning blog reader but first time commenter. Thank you for all the joy you have brought to my life over the years!
    –Trina R.

  2. Barbara R Cloud on February 28, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    I knew I loved all your books and now I know why I LOVE you! You have so beautifully stated exactly how I feel. Thank you!

  3. Judith johnson on March 1, 2017 at 9:43 am

    I make monthly donations to the Democratic Committee (DSCC). How is Emily’s List different, and how can you tell what is legitimate?
    The most important thing is to involve oneself in government somehow- giving is nice, but it’s not substantial enough to create enough of a change. I suggest that somehow we start involving ourselves in the running of the town, city, state or nation. Being seen and heard is vital for progressive women.

    • Laurie King on March 1, 2017 at 11:23 am

      Agreed: money doesn’t do it all. And Emily’s list is different in that it supports women rather than simply Democrats. Personally, I have a lot of issues with the DSCC after last year’s failure, mostly because they’re seeing what they want to, and not listening to the very real complaints of others. But they’re certainly both legitimate.
      As for how can you tell, that’s a good question, and perhaps a topic for a Tuesday blog…

  4. Craig Trimble on March 1, 2017 at 10:00 am

    I’m probably one of your readers you’d consider on the “right fringe” element. Republican, Sherlockian, white male, native Texan, conservative, not pro-LBGT, evangelical non-denominational Christian. It’s the last label that overrides all others. I don’t like the boiling down everything to the “black and white approach” so I resist that and take each issue on its own merit for respectful debate. So, I enjoy your series on Mary Russell and Holmes. Never thought as a die-hard Doyle disciple that I could live with this relationship but you have done such a good job of easing him (or them) into marriage that I rather enjoy the imaginative trip (much like the Sherlock series on the BBC). Read them to my wife over many-a tea. Keep them coming!!

    • Laurie King on March 1, 2017 at 11:20 am

      It’s a big world, and I’m happy that we can all be flexible enough to reach across the various abysses that seem to divide so much of the country. Welcome!

      • Teresa Powells on March 1, 2017 at 9:51 pm

        I have been thinking a lot about people’s perceptions of everything from President Obama’s presidency until now. I appreciate that you are doing this, Laurie. I am a pro-voice Democrat, which is a term that I think was coined by Fr. Jim Martin, editor of AMERICA MAGAZINE. I just read an article about a Notre Dame professor who went to talk to colleagues in field completely different from her own. She found things hard to grasp because it was all new insights and vocabulary and everyone was so specialized. But because of these discussions, totally new insights and common language is being formed that would not otherwise have occurred.

        I would like to see that happen between pro-choice, pro- life, and pro-birth American women. I make a distinction between pro-life and pro-birth because my other pro-life stances do not fit with those who are one issue. I do this on a personal level but I think that it must happen on a national level as well.

        I was raised as a Democrat, and was in my late teens for Roe v. Wade. My degrees are primarily in theology, psychology, and art and I have worked mostly in ministry and education. That has included being a hospital chaplain. I find that Democrats often perceive me to be conservative and Republicans perceive me to be a bleeding heart liberal. I am neither. It appears that people like me are not wanted by either party and that neither party sees ME… or thousands like me.

        It reminds me of prohibition, which was another one issue period in American voting but which was also complex.

        If the Democratic party welcomes back women who are pro-voice… who will work side by side with other women who do not agree on reproductive issues, I believe that we can bring equilibrium on a grass roots level. I am simply a conscientious objector to that part of the party platform. Could there not be room for that? I know that man women religious (sisters and nuns) have the same view as my own and they are a powerful voice in a major group in this country.

        We deal, in a very real way, with the marginalized members of thi country on a daily basis and iI see that group growing larger and larger daily. Many of us marched or were represented in the women’s marches i with our pro-choice sisters, and people were simply unaware that we are pro-life, because our vision is deep and brought and not confined to one agenda. Thank you if you read this far.

        I will continue to read and support this cause, though it cannot, in conscience, donate to pro-abortion agendas. Think of me of being like the quakers were during the war… I will go on the battlefield to rescue the wounded. I will comfort and listen and feel compassion. I just will not take life in any situation and I think that has always been a part of the American experience, having people like me who would protect those that I disagree with with my own life.

        • Laurie King on March 1, 2017 at 10:43 pm

          Yes, it’s sad–even “pro-choice” people like me aren’t “pro-abortion.” No woman wants an abortion. Abortion is a tragedy a woman lives with the rest of her life. But if we can’t let the woman make that choice, who does have the right to make it?

          • Gram in Texas on March 2, 2017 at 2:49 pm

            Definitely NOT men in Washington!
            I agree that abortion is a terrible thing for a woman to live with, but if either of my daughters felt that she must have one, I want it to be safe, cheap, and legal – in that order!



  5. Mary Griffith on March 1, 2017 at 11:25 am

    Exactly why I joined my county’s Democratic women’s club–it has an explicit goal of getting more women running and into office (which starts with getting them appointed to local commissions and boards, too).

  6. Patricia Walters on March 1, 2017 at 5:11 pm

    Hi, I’m a confirmed Mary Russell fan, and as I live in Australia, I’m also an interested bystander of current American politics. It was good to so many Democratic women wearing white in yesterday’s Presidential address to the Congress, with white being the colour of the suffragette movement. International Women’s Day on March 8 is another reminder of how women can make significant changes to their corner of the world, irrespective of whether they’re in politics. Looking forward to the next Talkback Tuesday.

  7. Charlee Griffith on March 5, 2017 at 9:11 am

    I’m blaming my lack of coherence on the early hour and inadequate caffeine intake. BUT (ha!) I must comment. As an Arkansan, I am well aware of the legacy of Hattie Caraway. As a yellow dog Democrat, I’m horrified, mortified, and enraged over the current admin at local, state, & federal levels. #livingblueinaredstate

    I’ve become an even more mouthy woman, flinging my opinion to members of congress via daily phonecalls and emails and flinging what few dollars I can spare to worthy causes – one being Emily’s List. Thank you, Ms. King, for your willingness to speak out with such eloquence. You have my admiration, respect, and support.

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