What the hell happened? (feminists reflecting on the failure to stop Alito

[kskiska]

In 2004, a massive pro-choice rally shook Washington. Just two years later, feminists are reflecting on the failure to stop Alito and what a conservative Supreme Court will mean for women.

By Rebecca Traister

Jan. 31, 2006 | On Jan. 9, Feminist Majority leader Eleanor Smeal sat in on the first day of testimony in the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings and wrote in her Ms. magazine blog that "we are in better shape to stop Alito than we were at the time of the Roberts hearings."

Monday night at 6 p.m., after Democrats lost the cloture vote and progressives came one step closer to losing the battle to keep Alito off the court, Smeal released a statement that claimed: "Progressives were strengthened by today's battle." How's that? Smeal's statement continued, "Each battle over these reactionary Supreme Court nominees is making this massive progressive coalition stronger." This fight, she said, "lays the groundwork for a future filibuster of a right-wing Supreme Court nominee," and "shows that African-Americans, women's rights supporters, Latinos, people with disabilities, and workers are not going to quietly lose their rights."

How the hell did we get here?

What happened between the spring day almost two years ago when hundreds of thousands of men and women converged on Washington, bearing signs like "Keep Your Laws off My Body," and today, when the Senate confirmed a Supreme Court judge who 20 years ago wrote that in his legal opinion, the Constitution does not protect women's right to abortion? What happened between Jan. 9, when Smeal declared the left "in better shape to stop Alito," and yesterday, when visions of future filibusters and assertions that we're not going to lose our rights quietly were somehow supposed to qualify as good news? Why weren't we storming the Capitol? Why weren't there enormous marches? Why didn't someone buy some national television time or actually burn a bra or something -- anything -- to snap people out of their "Skating With the Stars" lassitude and make them face the fact that the wolf that has so long been cried about was finally on the Supreme Court steps?

(snip)

"The most important point is something we've said for a long time: Elections matter," said Planned Parenthood interim president Karen Pearl, speaking as the head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's election-focused Action Fund. "No amount of advocacy can change who is in the White House and who is in the Senate. So when the Congress has majority leadership that is antichoice ...," Pearl trailed off, almost as though she was tempted to say, "this is what you get." But she didn't. "We told our supporters the losses were going to be real," she continued steadily. "If we had a majority of senators who were pro-choice, Alito would not be confirmed right now."

more…
http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/01/31/alito_confirmation/

[Catfight]

1. Amen! Even stolen elections matter. Bush is out of control and

there's nothing to be done except watch the empire fall.

[Demeter]

2. We Were Screwed Over By Our Democratic Seven Plus 9

There was no reason for the filibuster to fail--except that our Democrats (16 of them, more than 1/3) decided that playing nice games with the GOP was more important than the Constitution, women's lives, or anything else on the planet. By playing unwitting dupes (and I doubt they were unwitting, either) they sacrificed everything for nothing.

Thanks a lot, guys. We'll remember this great generosity of yours with our own, now, today and in November of every year.

[ixion]

3. yep... we lost because there was no solid opposition

still too many dems content to be GOP lapdogs. :-(

[phantom power]

4. There's only one effective way to "punish" the Dems responsible.

Run better candidates against them in the primaries. And beat them. As long as they feel secure in getting endless re-elections, we can expect no change whatsoever.

[Demeter]

5. And Take Away the Money

Nothing speaks like the green stuff.

[phantom power]

6. Somebody recommended giving money to particular candidates...

no more money for the DLC. Seemed like good advice to me.

[bobbieinok]

7. GOP doesn't think the women in the rally are their constituents + GOP

has the power....there are more republican senators, so they win

[Coastie for Truth]

8. 2000 Election

The problem was the Dems who said "Tweedledum and Tweedledee - don't make no difference - I'll cast a protest vote for Nader"

[cap]

9. the problem is there are two many tweedledums and tweedledees

dont blame the voter.

On a key issue, the Democrats fell down.

[cap]

10. what is another problem is the loss of women's rights

Roe will probably not be overturned, but in the coming decades it will get chipped away until it is almost unrecognizable, until abortions are legal only for privileged women with notes from parents and spouses in the first four weeks of gestation. It's worth remembering as we go back and forth on the technicalities about trimesters and spousal and parental notifications, and about how big a plank in the platform of either party abortion should be, that this fight is far from trivial or technical. What we're on the verge of losing is the legal acknowledgment that women are human beings capable of making decisions about their own bodies. What we could be losing is our equality under the law.

[libodem]

11. I think he's Catholic

If i'm not mistaken several other are as well. When you think of Ireland where divorce is illegal and birth control frowned upon you can see how unfriendly they are toward womens rights.

[cap]

12. it's not Catholicism

it's this weird form of Catholicism that's become very visible... much like the Islamists and Islam