6 January 2006 - 4:40am
Women's Rights Groups Announce Joint Campaign to Block Alito
by bayprairie
Sorry I am so late. I worked until 1 a.m. last night (5th) and then had to rise at 6 a.m. for an appointment with the endocrinologist at 8. That was 23 hours ago, and I am just now catching up on things.
At a press conference on January 4, the National Organization for Women announced "Enraged and Engaged: Women's Campaign Against Alito," part of a joint campaign with the Feminist Majority Foundation, the National Congress of Black Women, National Latina Institute and the National Council of Women's Organizations.
The video of the press conference is available at this page: C-SPAN: Supreme Court and then look for a link entitled: Press Conference by Women's Organizations Opposed to Judge Alito. I am sorry I cannot link to the video directly. It's a javascript that has to be called from the C-SPAN page. If you do nothing else, watch this video please.
:::more below the fold:::
"From sexual harassment on the job, to equal opportunities in education, to harassment in the schools, to violence against women, this is a justice who would shift the balance of the Court in the wrong direction," said NOW President Kim Gandy," backed by student activists from across the country. Gandy also cited Alito's dangerous views on reproductive rights, birth control, gender and racial discrimination, and access to the courts.
The campaign is a broad grassroots effort by hundreds of students and community leaders, so far representing 35 states, who are traveling to Washington, D. C. to speak out during the next three weeks, and thousands more who will be organizing back home, to ensure that senators know what is at stake for women if Judge Samuel Alito is confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Gandy was joined at the press conference by Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal and National Congress of Black Women President E. Faye Williams, NOW's partners in this effort. The three organizations are also part of a larger coalition determined to block Alito from replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
The organizations have enlisted volunteers to meet with senators, call supporters in home states and be a major presence on Capitol Hill during Alito's confirmation hearings, set to begin on Jan. 9.
"By the time senators are ready to vote on the Alito nomination later this month, hundreds of volunteers will have worked tirelessly on Capitol Hill and thousands more in their home states, encouraging every senator, regardless of party, to take a stand for women's rights," Gandy said.
This isn't about politics. This isn't about Republicans and Democrats. This isn't about what happens at the State House or in the Congress of the United States.
This is about Truth. This is about Justice. This is about doing whats right. This is about fighting for what's right, regardless of who wins and who loses. This is about never giving up. This is about a life long struggle that will never end.
I see that tonight, looking at the young women standing behind Kim Gandy, standing behind Eleanor Smeal. I see those who will continue the struggle after I grow old, and infirm, and pass from this world. This is about fighting for our freedoms.
As Lynn Paltrow says:
It took hundreds of years to end slavery. It took nearly eighty years to win the vote for women. We will not win the battle for sane drug policy or for women's equality and reproductive freedom in five or ten years. Change comes about over the course of lifetimes. I hope you will join me in committing yourselves to a lifetime of activism, so that we can make change happen.
As Kim Gandy says, We will NOT GO BACK.
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Comments
I don't think they will be able to stop Alito. The ABA has approved him and almost all of the criticisms of him are ideological, which will not be able to override the Republican dominance. I have been looking around the internet, but I haven't been able to find anybody who has formulated a plan for what to do if ( or when) he is nominated and the court starts reversing opinions. Do you know of anyone who is formulating such a plan or is everyone caught up in the current rear guard action?
For your pearls of wisdom.. and blessing these ignorant persons with your sage wonderous advice.
Your God complex must be expanding expotentially...
You mentioned in another thread that the current authoritarian movement has been patiently applying a 60 year plan that has led to their dominance. I think you're exactly right about that. How did that plan progress?
Part of it was picking fights over ideology. Loud, nasty, public fights. It's far past time for the left to do that. It's far past time for the left to demand those who ostensibly represent us to do so. We must remove those, or threaten to remove those, who won't. It's vitally important that this fight over Alito be every bit as ideological and nasty as the Bork fight was. Rhetorical blood must flow.
Why?
Because this right-wing ideology is intellectually bankrupt. For all of the talk about how "brilliant" Alito, Scalia, Bork and Roberts are, all of their arguments rest on simple-minded tautological references to old ideas about "natural law", ideas that the Enlightenment eroded over the past several centuries. When their beliefs are made manifest, modern people, living in the modern world, reject them. Not all ... a sizable minority wishes we could move back toward more Manichean times, but it's extremely dangerous and wrongheaded to do so. So a bright light needs to be directed at what Scalito stands for. What he argues for. If he refuses to be man enough to stand up for what he believes that must also be highlighted. (I find Bork to be a reprehensible figure, but I respect him, because he has the courage of his convictions and he's willing to state them forthrightly).
It is indicative of the emptyness of the right's beliefs that they refuse to be honest about just what it is they hope to resurrect. The left MUST start to actually practice politics again. It was complacent for too long, willing to rest on its accomplishments for too long, and it allowed the center of the debate to be utterly highjacked by the reactionary right. Formulating long-term plans is important, but in order to do so it must be made clear what ground is in dispute, what we'll fight for, what we will go to war for, and this nomination should be the ground for a very robust battle. Perhaps the left will lose. Perhaps Scalito will join the cabal of patriarchical troglodites who already sit on the Court. But a battle against him will show those who hope for better to see what the terms are, who some champions might be. What we're fighting for. That there are still suffragists and freedom activists and believers in the Enlightenment. The Culture War was being fought from only one side, with modernity just tooling along without a care. That needs to stop.
Many polls show that Americans hold fundamentally progressive values. Not those fuzzy polls using words like "values" but specific polls regarding actual policies. More important than that, Americans vote w/ their wallets and their eyeballs and their bodies. They watch risque television, rent hardcore videos (a HUGE industry in dollars). They consume large amounts of drugs and alcohol. They are generally "live and let live" with their neighbors. They want to be free to follow their own sense of happiness to enrich their own lives, and don't want government or busybodies telling them what to think, what to watch, who to love. They may not be comfortable with OTHER people being free to do those things, and that's where politics comes in. There hasn't been a movement that gave VOICE to those values for many years. Grownups understand that in order for them to be free, OTHERS must be free too. Scary, but that's a simple truth. It's past time for the debate to change, and political leaders like Bernie Sanders, Howard Dean and Russ Feingold (and probably many more whose names we don't know yet) may well be the vanguard of that new voice.
I for one am thrilled to see that coalition highlighted in this post. I hope more will join, and my Senators, both on the Judiciary committee, are hearing from me about how ill-suited Scalito is to sit on the highest court in the land.
I am not saying that there shouldn't be a fight. There should be one. I'm just wondering what is the plan if Alito is confirmed. Barring a surprise screw up on Alito's part, I personally don't think that his nomination can be stopped. The Democrats don't have the votes. Even if they did get enough votes to make it close, I'm pretty sure the Republicans would change the parliamentary rules to limit the filibuster. Virtually any fallout would be worth it to them. Getting a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court is the culmination of a 30 year plan. I could be wrong, but I don't think the Dems can stop the Republicans. Make it painful, yes. Stop them, no.
I do think that you have hit on a good point. The Democrats need to refocus and establish a long term plan of action for regaining supremacy and prioritizing their objectives. Right now they are very unfocused and almost entirely reactive.
I think it would be very dangerous for the Republicans to change the rules now. I'd like to see them try. It plays fully into the theme of corruption and a willingness to change the rules on a whim for personal gain. Let them. Go to the mattresses. Enough is enough, and the Dems should go to war.
True they would take a hit, but considering their past actions I see nothing to convince me that they won't do whatever they feel is necessary.
Madman-in-the-marketplace, very cogent. I excerpted some of your comment on my blog, with a link to this thread. I hope you don't mind.
I'm flattered, and nice blog. I'm quite serious in that belief, and sadly I understand that it will be a project of decades.
stripes. Old Glory indeed.... ;)