12 Comments
Jan 28, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

Dear Ms. Vanderpool, I just wanted to applaud your enthusiasm for the future and endorsement for Ms. Senator Elizabeth Warren for president of the United States. In a somewhat parallel fashion, I will be caucusing for Senator Amy Klobuchar on Feb. 3rd. I’ll be interested to know where my wife lands up on that cold weekday high school gymnasium night. I understand your reasonings behind your endorsement. We need a woman U.S. president, now.

Currently, there is this multi-pronged misogynistic message that the Trump administration caters to: Whether it is separating children from their mothers at the southern border, inviting the Turkish army to overrun the homes of hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurdish women and their families-many of whom lost their sons, daughters, and husbands in the ISIS war in which U.S. was a supposed ally, or facilitating gentrified fascist white men to rally on the UVA college town of Charlottesville, VA, killing a female anti-‘unite the right’ protestor, the misogynistic message is clear.

Finally, the Kavanaugh US Supreme Court hearings motivated purple and red states to enforce restrictive/repressive abortion bills. These forces are the evangelicals‘ tour de force in silencing women and restricting a woman’s right to control their own body and family planning choices. The Republican controlled Iowan Legislature and Governor’s office is moving ever closer to limiting abortion.

As you pointed out Amee, women do have to work many times harder and still do not achieve equality in pay. Yet women demonstrate their talents and eclipse men on several fronts despite the current administration’s attacks. Virginia being the 38th state to ratify the ERA is significant. My hope is that Warren or Klobuchar would be terrific presidents. I hope that somehow Kamala Harris will be given a key leadership role as well within this administration.

There is so much more that needs to be done. I am hopeful that one of the females who is still in the presidential race can help to pull this country out of its delirium and teach it to respect all women both within the confines of our communities but also worldwide. The European Union is far ahead of us in terms of focusing on equality, maternal paid leave, and placing women in positions that they rightfully earned long ago. We need a woman who can teach us these basic lessons of civility all over again and how we need to save the further embattled environment and multiple ecosystems.

Thanks, Amee! Sorry that I tend to be wordy.

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Jan 28, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

Great article. I'm of the opinion that *all* politicians should be women, because ... well, everything. They don't need to compare sizes. They don't relish war. They value fairness and equity - all in far greater proportions than the white, rich, old nasty guys (WRONG) we have now.

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Feb 3, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

Hear hear!

I'm with you on this. We need a woman president, and Warren is the one for the job. It's too bad America in general is still too sexist.

And I'm also afraid that trump and his cohorts will make it so that Ivanka is the first woman president. *barf*

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Jan 28, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

Amee we so greatly appreciate your professional insights and shero passion bringing thoughtful content and commentary to the forefront as stunning example of what's awesome about women

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I supported Kamala Harris and was very disappointed when her campaign never seemed to take off. Currently, I am not sure who I support, but I am very worried that none of these candidates will be able to defeat the Orange Asscactus in November. I keep asking myself, "Which states will any of them "flip", and the answer keeps coming up as "none". Bernie Sanders in particular would get clobbered.

What REALLY worries me, though, is the Senate. The Democrats MUST retake the Senate, so that at least, the packing of the Federal Court system with reactionary judges can be slowed.

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Jan 28, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

All true.

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Jan 28, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

I appreciate the logical reasoning instead of a "just because" response. I had kept my endorsement, to myself, for various reasons, including the fact that this election season is so emotionally driven it reminds me of 2016. But I do feel Elizabeth Warren would be a good president. My fear is the election, itself. Will it be hacked? Even if we vote in record numbers will "it" be re-elected? No candidate is perfect. I know Warren could handle "it" on a debate stage, no doubt. The bottom line, whoever the candidate, we must be united. Yes, I do hope that candidate is Elizabeth Warren.

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Feb 11, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

Outstanding Amee. I couldn't agree with you more. And just for the record, take a look in the mirror and please take note of the truly extraordinary woman you see reflected back.

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Jan 31, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

This is a great commentary. I volunteer for Warren by calling Iowa, working in Slack, and volunteering in the Panhandle of Florida, as well as donating. She really is the president we need at this moment.

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Thank you for your words. As a strong Warren supporter, I agree with everything in this piece with one jarring exception; it's only one sentence, but it represents a huge, and I assume unconsciously divisive idea which I hope you will reconsider or simply remove: "As racist as America still is, it is nothing compared to how sexist we remain as a nation, and the proof of this is the fact that we were able to elect a black man to office, while a particularly qualified woman was beaten by Donald Trump."

As a middle-aged white, cis gendered straight guy who left Christianity behind at an early age, I firmly believe that pitting racist and sexist oppression against each another (and against religious, and homophobic and transphobic oppression) only strengthens the power structure oppressing EVERYONE who isn't white, straight, Christian and male. Additionally, it ignores or discounts those whose identity is shaped by the intersection of more than one of these factors.

I'm not arguing that all kinds of oppression are equivalent in their pervasiveness, power or pain, or that their differences are unimportant; I'm simply arguing that these distinctions too often distract us from the work we can all, no matter how we identify ourselves, to fight oppression and exclusion of the dis-empowered wherever it exists.

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