Month: May 2014

Motivator in Chief Sends Corsage but Can’t Attend Prom

Vice President Joe Biden is no stranger to random acts of kindness. After the government shutdown last year, the Veep showed up at the Environmental Protection Agency with muffins on their first day back.  The press pool even reported that Vice President Biden worried aloud: “I didn’t bring enough muffins!”

Now the Motivator-in-Chief has done it again. After a polite invitation to Talia Maselli’s senior prom in Newington, Connecticut, she even sweetened the deal with a sly threat saying she would take House Speaker John Boehner if JB declined. Instead, the Hartford Courant reports Ms. Maselli received a reply complete with a corsage:

BidenCorsage

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Graduating Upon Completing the Indoctrination

When graduating from Coxsackie-Athens High School in 2010, the valedictorian Erica Goldson, made the speech that we all know is true about the state of education, schools, and the future of our generation. Well now, brilliant cartoonist Gavin Aung Than has re-created the speech in true artistry:

zp140519

 

(a version of this appeared on BNR)

 

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This One Chart Spells the Death of the Republican Party As We Know It

New polling data based on surveys of Millennial Generation voters is out and this slide on the attitudes of specific policies that young people care about spells disaster for our very old friends on the right.  Attitudes by those who are democrats is on the left in the blue bars and attitudes by Republicans is on the right under the “Reps” section.

As you can see pretty much every single policy the Republicans stand for is opposed by young people in both parties. Bummer, guys. Tough break!

Millennial Generation Policies

Polling note:

Harstad Strategic Research has polled for President Barack Obama since 2002 — including his primary wins in Illinois in 2004 and in the 2008 Iowa caucuses and 8 battleground states. The firm has won 14 of its last 16 U.S. Senate races — winning in both good and bad years for Democrats. Harstad has also been victorious in 15 of its last 16 statewide campaigns for ballot measures. Dr. Mike Kulisheck and Paul Harstad conducted this Millennials survey for Project New America and the Youth Engagement Fund.

(A version of this story appeared on BNR)

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Historic art is Beautiful but I Guess the Women Were Fatties?

Best idea ever brought to you by the good people at TakePart.com: historic pieces of art that show the shift in body image in our culture from beautiful voluptuous woman to too-skinny manish photoshopped models whose thighs don’t touch.

There are just a few of these – for more check out TakePart.com

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Grande Odalisque, 1814

 

Raphael, Three Graces, 1504–1505

 

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1486


(A version of this appeared on BNR)

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Rant: Your Messed Up Christian Tradition is Fetishizing Little Girls

David-MagnussonPurityI hate to break this news for all the folks writing this story, but Purity Balls aren’t new. This isn’t some fancy modern trend like hipsters or fondu. It’s something right-wing girls and their weird-ass families have concocted to glamorize controlling the sexuality of women and fetishizing the idea of women as little girls.

The first ever official Purity Ball was in the late 1990’s out of Colorado Springs.  Before that, there have been beautiful ceremonies from aristocratic traditions presenting debutant daughters to “society.” Freemasons have a charity and community service focused club and event/ball for it’s International Order of the Rainbow for girls. And I suppose there are always Bat Mitzvahs, celebrating the transition of girls into womanhood with bad DJ’s and enough teenage drama to make Romeo and Juliet want to kill themselves … again.

But unlike all of these coming of age traditions, a Purity Ball is the only one that attempts to repress girls by taking all of those padded bras, the red lipstick and lady-part desires and shoving them deep down where they belong.

All of this, an effort to remind girls that until Daddy gives you away, you’re owned by him. Daddy symbolizes this with a ring for his little girl wear to show her purity for him. His little girl pledges that she’ll never go on a date, kiss a boy, or hold his dirty, sweaty awkward hand. Oh and his little girl gets a pretty frilly white dress to dance in with Daddy. One such Daddy named Ron told his little girl as he placed the ring on her finger:

“This is just a reminder that keeping yourself pure is important. So you keep this on your finger and from this point you are married to the Lord, and your father is your boyfriend.”

Now if you’re a grown ass woman and this is your fetish of choice, then rock on with your bad self. If, however, you’re one of the girls portrayed in the new book by Swedish photographer David Magnusson (as seen in the top right), something ain’t right.

Women, regardless of their age, aren’t owned by men, even their fathers. This kind of thinking is a throwback to the days when having a daughter was devalued over a son.  Yes, there was once an era when girls were seen as property and “given away” by their fathers at their weddings for a price the family paid (dowry). Women were essentially sold to husbands.

As well-intentioned as these misguided fathers might be, claiming that these girls are “owned” by men teaches daughters they are only “things.” By focusing on sex being “sacred,” they’re teaching girls that when they turn out to be like the 95% of the rest of the world that has sex before marriage, that they are now impure and dirty… worthless… and that they have broken a vow with their father… like they cheated on him or something.

That doesn’t make a father loving, compassionate, cautious or over caring. It’s emotional manipulation. And it’s wrong. This breaking news might be hurtful to some, but a man’s penis isn’t that powerful or that important. A man’s penis can’t devalue anyone, in fact no one can devalue you. And if a man chooses to devalue a woman for being powerful enough to own herself, it makes the man nothing more than what he wishes he had – a giant prick.

Virginity-is-a-hoax

H/T: Guttmacher

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This is how Hillary Clinton can win the youth vote in 2016

Seven years ago this past January, then-Senator Barack Obama tripled the youth vote at the Iowa Caucuses. But it didn’t stop there, in South Carolina the youth vote tripled as well. It was just the beginning of what became an election that set records across the country for young people not only voting but volunteering and investing in a candidate and investing in policies that would impact their future.

But why did this powerful voting bloc choose Senator Obama over Senator Clinton? This insider campaign comment from then Team Hillary quoted in the Des Moines Register said it all:

“At least two of Hillary Clinton’s upper-echelon advisers, Mandy Grunwald and Mark Penn, were decidedly unimpressed.

“Our people look like caucus-goers,” Grunwald said, “and his people look like they are 18. Penn said they look like Facebook.” Penn then added, “Only a few of their people look like they could vote in any state.”

hillary millenialsThe business world is always keen to remind us that the same old strategies by the same old people get you the same old results. The President had the youth of America in his back pocket for years supporting progressive policies across the board. In fact, while the White House was working to pass Obamacare, it was young people, under 30, who approved of the bill with more than 50%. No other generation did that or came close.  But when the Tea Party revolted in the summer leading into the 2010 elections, the Millennial Generation was nowhere to be found, delivering the House of Representatives to Republicans and leaving Democrats scratching their collective heads.

So Congress passes an important piece of legislation yet young people couldn’t be bothered to vote?

hillary millennial“Well,” I recounted the story to a political consultant friend of mine,  “Did they ask them to?” My friend was confused.  “You know,” I said, “did you register them, talk to them about policies that matter to them, serve them ads, knock their doors, GOTV them on Election Day?  Did you ask them to go vote?”  My friend told me about robo calls, direct mail, and a broad campaign with 30 second ads on primetime network TV, and I just shook my head knowing that Democrats really have no clue.

This has long been an issue that those who have worked in the youth space run up against. The brick-wall of party politics, in a way.  Last week, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon did a skit where he talked about the DNC hiring “youthy” staffers to help them with their youth vote this election. I’m sure the funny “dude bro” way he conveyed it isn’t the reality, but there’s a part of me fearful it actually might be.

Here’s the truth, the secret sauce to youth organizing:  The way to win the youth vote….is to talk to young people and ask them for their vote.

Shocking, I know. Millennials are progressive, and any right-wing Republican who wants to try and frame it another way does so at his or her peril.  They support gay marriage (because they have gay friends), they support a woman’s right to choose (regardless of whether or not they personally would have an abortion), they support Social Security and Medicare (even if they don’t think it’ll be there for them when they’re older), and they believe that government can be used as a tool for good (even though right now they don’t like the government very much).

So step one for Hillary is not to discount the youth vote, or Facebook for that matter.  The trick is not to play the “we have to appear to be cool” game ending words in “z” or making politics some kind of app game to talk about politics.  The solution is to talk to young voters about issues that matter to them, hear their concerns, and ask for their vote. Finally, include them in your GOTV campaign.

After all if you build it, they will vote.

(a version of this post also appeared on BNR)

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