By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Oct 30, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
I’m the proud owner of a uterus, and I’d like to be in charge of it. Period. (And yes, really bad pun intended.)
No matter how many positions Romney takes on female reproductive rights (and he’s taken more positions than are in the Kama Sutra), we have to look at his party platform and his choice of running mate, not to mention his unwillingness to withdraw his endorsement from candidates like Richard Mourdock. You know it’s bad when Romney comes across as a moderate, because he actually would allow an abortion exception in cases of rape . . . excuse me?
And as for the pundits and online commentators who wonder why so many women are ‘quibbling about irrelevant subjects like women’s stuff instead of the economy’? Even the best economy doesn’t matter to a woman who can’t control her own body, on top of the fact that the GOP also doesn’t believe that women deserve pay equity, or insurance coverage of birth control – and those ARE economic issues, by the way. (Plus anyone who was alive before Roe v. Wade might recall that making abortions illegal doesn’t end them, it just makes them more dangerous. I’m with Bill Clinton in hoping abortions will be safe, legal, and rare.)
Add in all of Romney’s mis-statements and condescension to 47%ers, like my mom who’s on social security and depends on Medicare, on top of his refusal to release tax returns, his belief that millionaires should pay a lower tax rate than I do, and his plan to return to the same unregulated, ‘trickle-down economics’ that caused the recession in the first place, his reliance on Bush-Cheney-era neocon hawks, oh, and did I mention his latest lie about Jeep moving to China, even running an ad after Chrysler explicitly refuted that story?)
Fortunately, before I start ranting too much, I’ll take a break and launch into song!
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Oct 23, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
For those readers who are either over 30 or don’t have teenagers who can explain it to us, internet memes are concepts or images that spread quickly online. While memes can include random humor (LOL Cats) or celebrity references (the Ryan Gosling “Hey Girl” series), they’ve also started to pop up in politics. (Google ‘Big Bird’ or ‘You Didn’t Build That’ and you’ll get the general idea.)
The most recent meme to catch on like wildfire was “Binders Full Of Women”, from a comment made by Governor Romney in the 2nd Presidential Debate – even if you didn’t watch the debate, even if you had no interest in it, you’ve probably heard about this one, which inspired dozens of Facebook groups (with thousands of fans) before the debate was even over. Part of what gave this unfortunate turn of phrase such legs was that it had all the aspects of a great meme – vast public exposure, a simple, clear visual image, and a huge variety of humorous interpretations.
Next came the backlash, commentators complaining that people were making a mountain out of a molehill, or accusing Obama voters of focusing on picky word choices rather than the real issues. But I believe part of why the image caught on so quickly was that it wasn’t just a verbal gaffe, it was emblematic of why Romney has such trouble connecting with women:
– His positions are vague (the anecdote about ‘they brought us binders of women’ was what he told instead of answering a direct question about whether he’d support the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act)
– He’s patronizing (trying to impress us with how hard he worked to actually find some qualified women, as if he’d never met one in all his years in business?)
– He likes to bend the truth (turns out he didn’t actually go out and ask women’s groups, the groups came to him with resumes)
At any rate, it’s hard to resist an on-fire meme, so here’s this week’s song!
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Oct 16, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
Throughout this campaign, Mitt Romney has received a lot of criticism for his position switches, from both the right and the left. However, last week he outdid himself, changing position on abortion multiple times (beginning with his interview in Des Moines).
Say what you want about pandering, politicization, etc., and agree or disagree with him, but you’ve got to admit, there hasn’t been a public figure this good at rebranding since Madonna. She’s gone from punk-ish urban girl to Marilyn-esque blonde to Anglophile director (complete with faux British accent), and people applaud her ability to keep up with the times, anticipate public taste, and remain relevant for 3 decades and counting.
So give Romney some credit – at least he’s showing his awareness of pop culture, on some level, and maybe his flexibility can be inspiring to the rest of us! If Romney can use flip-flopping to pass himself off as “Moderate Mitt”, then this suburban Jewish mother can rebrand herself as a teen popstar to sing about said flipflops (and to thoroughly embarrass my teenage kids in the process) – “Oops, You Did It Again!”
In last week’s debate, Mitt Romney opened a can of worms, threatening to cut PBS funding even though “he loves Big Bird”. People started tweeting, chirping, and otherwise chiming in almost instantaneously – sure, there were plenty of comments about the basic math mistake (PBS funding is .012% of the national budget, so it hardly counts as responsible for our borrowing from China), misplaced priorities (how come adding a $5 trillion tax cut and boosting an already inflated defense budget don’t also concern Romney), and more, but the biggest outcry came on behalf of the big yellow bird himself. Now even without public funding, Sesame Street would go on, thanks to generous viewers, sponsorship, and highly successful merchandising (“Tickle Me Elmo”, anyone). But it was a fascinating illustration of the huge impact of public television for children, now that a couple of generations have grown up with Sesame Street and the other popular shows.
I’m going to date myself here by admitting that Sesame Street didn’t go on the air until I was already in elementary school, but I still remember it vividly (and loved to watch the other shows from my day, including the original Electric Company). My husband was 3 at that time, so he was the absolute perfect target audience and watched avidly. (Yes, I’m a cradle-robbing cougar, and I love it!) And I was re-introduced to PBS kids’ shows when I had my own kids – they particularly loved the music videos, like “Put Down The Ducky (If You Want To Play The Saxophone)”. I loved the puns that were clearly designed to keep us bleary parents entertained, like Ethel Mermaid singing “I Get a Kick Out Of U”. And PBS was great about generally making sure its kids programming appealed to parents – I can’t be the only mother who noticed that the adorable young men who hosted Blues Clues were pretty easy on the eyes.
Whether you agree or disagree with him, Romney clearly touched a nerve – so in tribute to PBS programming in general, Big Bird in particular, and the Sesame Street tradition of fun music, here’s a musical plea for our favorite large yellow non-flying bird . . .
All the election news lately has been about arguments traded back & forth between Obama & Romney, or Romney’s campaign woes, or Paul Ryan’s getting booed at an AARP convention. Sort of makes me feel sorry for Joe Biden. First of all, he’s running for an office once famously equated with “a warm bucket of spit”. And he can’t even stand out in those races – four years ago he was totally overshadowed by Tina Fey’s look-alike, and now he’s running against someone who makes a whole different set of headlines. (Apparently, the week Ryan was announced, that week’s most frequent google search was “Paul Ryan Shirtless”, and more than one comic hypothesized that the week’s least frequent google search was “Joe Biden Shirtless”.)
But do a little research about Biden, and you’ll find that his ‘everyman’ cred is genuine. He graduated near the bottom of his class in both college & law school, he is one of the least wealthy members of Congress, and he’s well-known for making verbal slips (or at least prematurely ‘outing’ Obama’s support for gay marriage). (He’s had quite a distinguished career, including being one of the longest serving senators in history.) So I decided poor Joe deserved a little musical love . . .
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Sep 25, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
There have been so many moments in this election cycle that I hope my kids will remember, and tell my (as-yet-unborn-but-my-kids-had-better-provide) grandkids someday – Herman Cain’s speech quoting the Pokemon movie, Joe Biden’s prematurely spilling the beans about gay marriage, Clint Eastwood claiming an empty chair was swearing at him – I could go on & on.
But no one has provided more of those moments than Mr. Romney – in fact, his missteps and ‘oops’ moments are the stuff of legend, the type of epic ballads that Johnny Cash might once have song. (So this week I’m morphing from the old southern blues singer of last week to a Jewish-mother-version of ‘the Man in Black’)
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Sep 18, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Romney’s remarks (and economic policies) are strangely reminiscent of 1929, right before the Great Depression. Fortunately, that was a really good time for songwriters, so I couldn’t resist . . . .
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Sep 11, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET
The possibility of someone showing up to vote under an assumed name had never occurred to me until this election season, when Republicans just happened to uncover the danger of fraudulent voting.
And how odd that it apparently only happens in swing states! And who cares that there isn’t any evidence of actual fraud so far? It surely COULD happen, so isn’t that worth the potential disenfranchisement of lots of already marginalized voters?
Oh, so a sizeable percentage of people don’t have photo IDs and they’re expensive and inconvenient to obtain – isn’t waiting in line at a DMV part of the joy of citizenship?
Thinking about fake identities inspired me to turn into a faux blues singer to address this issue . . . .
