Sanders is the real feminist in this race

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"But we must recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected. Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now, in the late20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees. And when women are excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse.

I believe that now, on the eve of a new millennium, it’s time to break the silence. It’s time for us to say here, for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights. These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words. But the voices of this gathering must be heard loudly and clearly.

It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution for human greed. And the kinds of reasons that are used to justify this practice should no longer be tolerated. It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline and set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes by their own relatives. Finally, it is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions, or being sterilized against their will.

If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely and the right to be heard. Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions."

Has Sanders given similar speeches?

Speeches are not the same thing as enacting pro-women and children policy. I cannot forgive her on welfare for one.

[Anonymous]

And Planned Parenthood endorsed her exactly because believing something is not the same as getting something done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And Planned Parenthood endorsed her exactly because believing something is not the same as getting something done.

I cannot fault her on PP but Sanders is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't Sanders have an all-male senior staff?

I believe so and I will not claim he is perfect but I do think he is the more "pro-women's interests" of the two candidates.

How about this thought? BOTH Democratic candidates are feminists. Sanders is strong on economics (which impacts women) but Clinton has long made a big public point of supporting paid sick leave, which also disproportionately affects women.

Agree with this. Please, let's not pit them against each other on everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you wrote "this article sums it up well" I knew it would be from HuffPo-- that place has gone way downhill since Joan Walsh left and it seems like every article is written by Bernie bro now.

So are women from India now "Bernie bros" too? I thought that term was just for white guys.

I did not say or mean that literally every article was written by a young White male Bernie supporter, but rather that the articles display the unmitigated boosterism for Bernie that is the hallmark of a Bernie bro.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, all the HRC bashing which seems to be critical primarily of the fact that she remained married to Bill along with her being a politician who was willing to compromise has moved me from undecided to being a Clinton supporter...very much so because I think whether coming from men or women, a lot of the criticism is very much about her being a woman. I know it's not worth trying to make that point convincingly, but if you've ever been discriminated against for your gender then the tone of the criticism is extremely recognizable.

Look, if you can't stand HRC for staying with Bill and, so, de-facto condoning many of the anti-woman policies and attitudes he espoused, that is understandable and respectable. Not everyone feels that way. If you can never forgive her for her Iraq vote, then ditto...understandable, but not everyone feels that way. But stop arguing with everyone who doesn't feel that way and saying that they are anti-feminists or war-mongers...I am not a right wing conservative, and I don't think HRC is either. I think she's made compromises in her political career to get things done. I don't agree with all of them (e.g. Iraq War), but I think that's the reality of being an effective politician.

If we're going to demand ideological purity from every Presidential candidate, then we are doomed to extremists or people who almost by definition can't be effective...since like it or not the American people are, on average, fairly centrist. I would much rather hold my local representatives and members of Congress to that standard than the POTUS. I respect your right to disagree with me...but for me, this is based on having worked in the Executive Office under the current Administration and seen first-hand the impact that being a green-ish politician/executive can have on their ability to implement policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crap article. It attempts to redefine feminism as economics. Feminism is about rights and equality. Sometimes that can be economic but often it is not. The minimum wage is not feminism.come on!

That would mean women wage inequality is not a feminist concern.

Feminism seeks to correct wage inequality or why there are more women in minimum wage jobs. Raising the minimum wage is good for everyone, but it does not address feminist concerns, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't Sanders have an all-male senior staff?

I believe so and I will not claim he is perfect but I do think he is the more "pro-women's interests" of the two candidates.

How about this thought? BOTH Democratic candidates are feminists. Sanders is strong on economics (which impacts women) but Clinton has long made a big public point of supporting paid sick leave, which also disproportionately affects women.

Agree with this. Please, let's not pit them against each other on everything.

I am not trying to pit them against each other. I am expressing why, as a feminist, I prefer Sanders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you wrote "this article sums it up well" I knew it would be from HuffPo-- that place has gone way downhill since Joan Walsh left and it seems like every article is written by Bernie bro now.

So are women from India now "Bernie bros" too? I thought that term was just for white guys.

I did not say or mean that literally every article was written by a young White male Bernie supporter, but rather that the articles display the unmitigated boosterism for Bernie that is the hallmark of a Bernie bro.

There is no "hallmark" and there are no "berniebros."

Knock it off with that stale old bs already. It's nothing but a fabricated deflection from genuine discussion of the issues and you know it.

[Anonymous]

Ooooo mainsplain this election to me from a feminist perspective. I can't seem to wrap my pretty little head around it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't we all make up our minds about who is a feminists, vs. letting random bloggers dictate it?

Well, my hope was to discuss and not dictate.

Then you should have started with a question "Is Sanders the real feminist in this race?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't we all make up our minds about who is a feminists, vs. letting random bloggers dictate it?

Well, my hope was to discuss and not dictate.

Then you should have started with a question "Is Sanders the real feminist in this race?"

I didn't say that I don't have an opinion on this but thanks for the advice. I do appreciate the intelligent posts from Clinton supporters.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, sorry, his lumping Planned Parenthood into the "Establishment" was the final straw against him for me. They are and have been the stalwart against anti-choice attacks. Economic issues are obviously enormously important, but if I don't have the right to dictate what happens with my body, what do I have? And he just sort of waved away its importance.

[Anonymous]

Yes. We need Berniebros to mansplain feminism to us. Hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. We need Berniebros to mansplain feminism to us. Hilarious.

Well, we're just not smart enough to understand why we need a strong white man to protect us. It's not our fault. We were born this way.