Republicans run ads on transgender children

[Girlsontour]

Gender Ideology is becoming an issue close to the Midterm elections that Republicans are willing to run on, as the dangers to children of experimental treatments filters into the American mainstream.

www.politico.com/news/2022/11/01/ads-targeting-transgender-kids-swing-states-00064505

Republican politicians have very divergent views on this, so until they are more unified, it’s really very unfounded fear imho

If voters are responding to Republican initiatives, the Democrats need to consider why, and be open to reappraising their own stance. Rather than write off republican supporters as self interested, racist, phobic, stupid or whatever.

But they are not going to.

Did you see the Biden and Dylan Mulveney interview (Dylan had been a woman for 222 days at the time of the interview and got an audience with the President for it)?

He (the President) is fully captured. Fully. He actively supports trans healthcare for kids.

The Democrats have shot themselves in the foot not only in the broad sense by signing up for this twaddle but also by promising to review title IX to include gender identity. The contradictions involved have made it a legal minefield and they are yet to produce a precise solution meaning they are going into these elections on the backdoor.

US women really do seem stuck between a rock (access to abortion) and hard place (acknowledgement that female is a completely separate category to male and sometimes the difference matters)

The abortion issue is just more complex than in the UK—you don’t really have strong anti-abortion groups and in America, the anti-abortion crowd is very much driven by women, particularly Catholic women. The ‘patriarchy’ argument isn’t really relevant, and they also tend to want more benefits for mothers and babies, etc so many of the snarky comments about post-birth they don’t care, etc. just don’t fit.

I would really be classed as pro-choice Republican (first trimester anyway) if I was still in the US, it’s a legitimate position to hold within the party. The moral majority thing is long dead and some of the younger Republicans seem to be quite supportive of abortion (for kind of unsavory reasons I won’t go into)

That this issue (ie the let's-not-give-kids-cross-sex-hormones issue) has emerged as an election issue is significant. Let's all talk about it. The more sunlight on the reality of what they euphemistically call 'gender affirming care', the better.

Let's hope that the Democrats get a real trouncing, and due to this single issue. Then perhaps even the liberal media will have to mention it. Perhaps even the BBC will have to report it?

And then perhaps even Starmer will realise that it is not the progressive movement he thought it was?

There was a trailer this morning for BBC Radio 4's new series of The Coming Storm, starting on Sunday at 1.30pm. It's is all about how the issue of sex education has become the talking point for republicans for these midterms. I'll be bracing myself for the typical BBC biased, leftist and patronising to ordinary people slant on it, after reading this blurb on the programme off the BBC website:

As America goes out to vote for the first time since the tumultuous aftermath of the 2020 election, Gabriel Gatehouse is back in the deep undergrowth of the US political scene, in a bid to understand where the dark energy underpinning the January 6 assault on the Capitol is going now.

One thing the QAnon conspiracy theory about a satanic cabal of paedophiles is morphing into is a grassroots political movement against ‘groomers’ – the idea that LGBTQI+ sex educators and trans healthcare advocates are indoctrinating young people into a sexualised culture.

The battleground is America’s school boards and the prize could be a galvanised Republican base with a new crusade. At a conference in Miami of thinkers shaping the future ideas of the right, Gabriel finds the issue top of the agenda, especially for Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis.

And across the country, a slate of candidates linked to QAnon is running for office – how will they fare?

That's exactly what I was going to say. The Democrats' position on transing children is both completely insane and morally reprehensible. Why wouldn't you take advantage of it? I would in their position.

I don’t know if this link will work. An interesting description of Republican tactics in capturing school boards. (Warning, it is very long and the NY’s habit of capitalising Black, but not white, is irritating.)

I really detest the left wingers on my Fb who were happy to post about how awful Trump was, but who made no effort to examine why people voted for him. Instead if was a facile: they are stupid, racist, deluded etc. I get the same now with ad hominem attacks on ‘evil Tory bigots’ with no attempt to examine policies. If Labour supporters cannot get beyond the facile ‘we are good they are bad’ and actually consider why their policies, or perhaps lack of policies, do not appeal to voters. And/or why people feel patronised when told what to think.

Rant over. I fear that politicising this issue is dangerous. If the right in the US seize the issue, the left here may double down. I can almost read Margarita Pie’s post claiming links between UK GC women and the American far right. The issue is about safeguarding…and should be based on common sense.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/the-right-wing-mothers-fuelling-the-school-board-wars?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker

I watch a lot of right leaning US commentators and, over the last 2 years or so since Biden got in (I did the opposite when Trump got in, watching mainly the left wing coverage). The TRA influence on sex ed has gone from a topic talked about maybe once or twice every couple of months, to a daily conversation.

Like him or not, the Matt Walsh documentary opened this issue up to many who were ignorant or ignoring it as a fringe issue. The Jon Stewart/ John Oliver et al TRA flavoured push backs have backfired massively, I think. The left seems to lack any understanding of the small C conservatism of the working/middle class, even after everything that has happened in US politics over the last 10 years, since Obama lost control of both houses and the switch of many of his voters to Trump. The left's insulting and patronising attitudes towards non-rainbow parents, whom they need to portray as rabid transphobes in order to dismiss their legitimate and instinctive safeguarding concerns, has really concentrated the right to believe this issue to be a grass roots winner. They are after the huge swathes of working and lower middle class floating voters who are not registered to either party - the same ones that swung from Obama to Trump.

Having said that, the Dems are shooting themselves in the feet left right and centre. De Santis sending migrants to sanctuary states, who then sent them straight back, was a lesson in the left's rank hypocrisy. The Pensylvania senate race has seen a huge swing towards TV Dr Oz for the Republicans, since the poor bloke running for the Democrats doesn't seem to have recovered from his recent stroke, and is making Biden look like a cognitive genius. Their recent TV debate was a car crash for the Dems, who continue to play on attacks on personality rather than providing a substantive reason to vote for them, a tactic which can only be effective if the candidate is able to style it out, and theirs simply cannot. Oz on the other hand was measured, civilised and patient.

And that's the full circle. Measured, civilised and patient, basic concerns about safeguarding, etc etc needs to be reframed by the left as the total opposite, as violent and bigoted, in order for them to win. This worked for a long while, but we all know the insults just no longer wash.

That is interesting OP.

Totally agree. Politicising safety issues is dumb. Like when wearing facemasks in a pandemic became a left vs right issue. Ridiculous.

<Longs for a world in which everyone accepts that drugging and operating on healthy children is wrong.>

If I were Sunak I'd pick this ball up and run with it very hard. Especially as the Tories have fuck all else to say.

I hope someone in Scotland manages to pick the ball up but it is in only the Tories opposing it.

If voters are responding to Republican initiatives, the Democrats need to consider why, and be open to reappraising their own stance. Rather than write off republican supporters as self interested, racist, phobic, stupid or whatever.

Sadly, I agree with pp that they won't. Instead I look forward to another vociferous round of "Ugh, white women are the worst! Fuck those Karens."

Republican white women are now “cockroaches”

Karen is “last election cycle”

The View has created the latest insult. Because who needs arguments when you can just keep creating new insults. < rolls eyes >

Which is amusing because the first and loudest group of American women that I saw push back against genderism en mass are the posters over on Lipstick Alley.

I saw that, Alienated! Jawdropping remark.

For anyone who didn't read about it, Sunny Hostin, a co-host of the popular women's TV talk show "The View" drew this comparison:

“I read a poll just yesterday” showing that “suburban women are now going to vote Republican,” Hostin said during Thursday’s episode. “It’s almost like roaches voting for Raid,” she added, in reference to the popular pest repellent.

thehill.com/homenews/media/3718196-sunny-hostin-suburban-women-backing-gop-like-roaches-voting-for-raid/

What Hostin actually said was, "I read a poll yesterday that white republican suburban women are now going to vote republican." So not only a stupid comment (why wouldn't republican women vote republican), but also a racist one. Which interestingly enough, in a thread about the reliability of media, The Hill glosses over. I am sure former federal prosecutor, Hostin is well aware of the connotations of the use of "cockroaches" in places like Rwanda to other certain ethnic groups and stoke division.

A couple of days later, Whoopie Goldberg had a very angry go at Conservative commentator Dana Loesch for calling women who have abortions "skanks". Both her remark and Hostin's were misogynist, but the View did nothing about the latter's, which arguably was worse in the current climate of racial and social tensions a few days prior to a crucial election (which may well result in violent protest whichever way it goes). The View really needs to get its own house in order before lecturing anyone else.

A couple of days later

That should have said, "A couple of days earlier...."

Oh wow, Moira! I didn’t see it live. Thanks for the extra context.

I don't get this thing where people disparage a party for taking up a position that the electorate wants represented. Isn't the alternate that the electorate might be very interested in some issue and no party would talk about it? That isn't how it's supposed to work.

I would say that although this stuff around education, CRT in general, and GI are huge in the US now, people there are also upset about the way law and order stuff is being handled by Democrats. I just said this over in AIBU, but people are leaving states like California in large numbers to go to places like Idaho, because the way the blue cities are being run is scary and unlivable.

I saw this and thought it was quite interesting in respect of mid-terms:

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/will-biden-and-the-dems-finally-get-7a7?utm_medium=email

Quite hard to pick out a quote to give a summary but in essence it conveys the despair felt by Dems and reasons why they may switch to Rep or conservative Indie.

"[Biden] returned instead to his previous 2020 electoral blackmail: you have no choice but to vote for Democrats because the far right is so hostile to democracy. To which my answer would be: Well, I did that already. And I was treated like an easy mark by the Dems — who pocketed my vote and ignored all of my concerns. Voting for an actual election denier would remain a dealbreaker for me. But otherwise, when Trump is not on the ballot, why would I be suckered by the woke left again?
Worse than this bait-and-switch is the condescension that came with it. Think of the absolute assertions by the Biden administration and their media flunkies: The border is secure. Covid vaccines prevent infection. There is no CRT in high schools. The lab-leak theory and Hunter Biden’s corruption were disinformation. There is no medical debate about fast-track, affirmation-only, sex changes for minors. Inflation is caused by corporate greed. Women in college always tell the truth; and men always lie. A president can forgive student loans by fiat. Debt doesn’t matter. A woman can have a penis. The people who attack Asian-Americans are all white supremacists. The idea of individual merit is racist. Can you think of any social issue where the Biden administration hasn’t taken the position of the illiberal “social justice” left?"

On the impact on democracy, the piece says:

"The Weimar dynamic is a simple one. The left and right polarize; the middle collapses; inflation takes off, unnerving everyone and discrediting government; and at some point, as liberal democracy breaks down, voters are asked to choose between the extreme left or the extreme right.
What Biden has done, by showing that even an alleged moderate like him is just a vehicle for the extreme left, is accelerate the moment when we are faced with that horrible choice. And if that is the choice, I have little doubt that Americans will pick the far right. We’ll have a premonition of this next Tuesday.
The key for the survival of democracy is not another speech about democracy telling citizens they have no choice but to vote for one party. It is preventing the Weimar nightmare scenario ever happening. It is rebuilding the political center. It is about taking action on inflation and immigration and crime. Biden has failed catastrophically so far — and with his current policies, he will continue to fail."

Thanks for that piece, Rex.

This part really resonates with me:

Well, I did that already. And I was treated like an easy mark by the Dems — who pocketed my vote and ignored all of my concerns.

My view of the 2020 presidential election is this: in the primary, Democratic voters chose Biden because they thought he would be a moderate, a steady hand to help return things to the status quo ante Trump.

In the general election, a broad but not huge coalition of Democrats, independents, and some Republicans voted for Biden for basically the same reason: no more Trump, please! Let's get back to normal.

Instead of a return to normal, Biden took his narrow victory as a sweeping endorsement of the "progressive" wishlist and went gung-ho implementing it. Starting with his anti-woman executive order on Day One, by the way.

Thanks for these pieces of commentary. l missed seeing Biden's V for Vendetta speech Part Deux! Did he have the red background again? I can't believe I was praying for this guy over Trump 2 years ago.

A couple of pieces here from Megyn Kelly on the Democratic scare tactics of impending Armageddon under the Republicans.

First, their final parting ad; second, mainstream media left wing commentators losing their shit, including the aforementioned clip of Sonny Hostin. They are still holding women's feet to the fire on abortion laws, even though they completely failed to do anything to protect these laws at a Federal level under the last 2 democratic administrations. It is very revealing that they have held this over women for so long, got completely and predictably screwed by the Republicans in the SC (who played the log game on RvW), and now they are a broken record, still offering women nothing else but scare tactics over something that has already happened. Interestingly, in the longer clip of The View piece, one of the other very liberal commentators, Sarah Haines, said that women's health is not her number 1 election issue either (hers is election denial, which only seems to be a problem if it's Republicans doing the denying).

This is interesting. I'm not a Republican supporter but hopefully these adverts will raise the profile of this issue. Moderate Democrats need to actively speak out against it