Pre-Election Day Open Thread
So while we wait in anticipation for tomorrow to arrive, we wanted to get some of your thoughts on what you're expecting from the next presidency.
Considering all the damage the Bush administration has done to women's rights for nearly a decade, what issue(s) do you think should be the new administration's priority?
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We definitely need some liberal justices on the Supreme Court. My dream candidates include Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Senator Hillary Clinton and Professor Cass Sunstein. Hopefully we aren't too far from making these dreams a reality . . .
I'm freaking out and I'm not even from the US!
I think the Supreme Court is a *huge* issue. I too would love to see Hillary on there.
Beyond that... oh, God, where to start?
Freedom of Choice Act. Pronto. Also, lifting the NHHS ruling on BC=abortion, cause that's bullshit. End funding for faith-based initiatives and abstinence-only sex ed.
That would be a great start.
Repeal of the Global Gag Rule. ASAP.
No abstinence-only sex ed. Major revisions (or at least some damn funding) of NCLB. A Supreme Court that actually gives a flying fuck about the letter and the spirit of the Constitution - along with a Vice President who has actually read it.
Closure of Guantanamo Bay. Less in the way of torture, special rendition, etc.
-- non US person.
Hell yes!
This question is actually pretty similar to one that we (MADRE) posed for our MADRE 1 Minute Video Challenge. If you who might be interested in participating, you should check out our website here: http://www.madre.org/index.php?s=3&b=9&p=109. We'd love to hear your ideas about what the new administration must do to uphold women's human rights. And we'll make you famous by posting our favorite videos to our website!
No child left behind totally revamped, either gotten rid of or given some funding to make it work.
The war on terror actually taken to the terrorist strongholds.
Affordable health care so that our children can be taken care of and people don't have to continue filing bankruptcy because of outrageous medical bills.
More funding for studies to find alternative energy sources as well as stronger emissions regulations.
I know I'm asking a lot, but I feel that the next president is going to have to address all of these issues in the next four years. I also feel that we should expect a lot from our president and demand that he take care of all of them.
Overturning the Global Gag Rule on the first day! Start off the presidency in the exact opposite way.
Overturning the Global Gag rule is a must!
End Abstinence-only Education
Create a health plan that ensures EVERYONE is taken care of.
Sustainable energy and environmental plans.
Martinis for all who helped make progressive change possible---regardless of outcome. So, basically all the Feministing crew. We rock!
Unfortunately, I have extreme doubts that women's issues, particularly those affecting low income or minority women, will be a priority for the next president, whoever it turns out to be. With the US military occupation of Iraq, the "war on terror" and the global economic crises, there are, as usual, far too many convenient excuses to focus on other things and leave women out in the cold. Again.
It will be only with the barest glimmer of hope that I will place my vote for Barack Obama tomorrow.
Ending abstinence-only education is a BIG one for me. And more funding for women's health issues, family planning, coverage of birth control.
I understand Ayala's pessimism, but it was one of the first things that Bush did when he gained office, to cut over-seas financing of family planning clinics. It is not outside the realm of reality that Barack might do the same in the other direction. Here is hoping and having faith. Cheers!
No Child Left Behind revised or gotten rid of.
More funding for college loans and grants.
Ending funding for abstinence-only sex education. It doesn't work. Provide funding for comprehensive education since it is so much more beneficial to our children.
Health care reform.
To name a few...
I just think that there's no reason why we need to be spending so much time, money, and energy in Iraq when there are so many people struggling in our own country.
- Opening up ties with Asia
- Resolving energy issues
- Ceasing federal funding for faith-based education programmes
- Generally improving the education system in the US
Caveat: I'm not an American. But education and schooling should definitely be a priority; the US seems to lag behind other EMDCs in terms of the attention paid to quality education, and education is needed to change a country.
Decent healthcare for all. There are so many issues that need to be addressed, but this one is very high on my list. I have friends who can't live in this country because they have chronic illnesses that would bankrupt them. I have friends who live in this country on the brink of bankruptcy due to chronic conditions. This is wrong.
I second that.
Have y'all seen this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic7s8Qy9FhE If this doesn't seal the deal for me not wanting her in office, I don't know what does. The way I see it Palin would be more like the next George W. Bush than McCain, who would be, well with the meanstreak, maybe Cheney?
Health care, health care, health care.
It's the number one think I'll demand of President Obama, and the number one reason I'll freak out if we have a President McCain.
I'm considering not eating anything all day so that my nervous puking is reduced to simple dry heaves.
Also looking forward to my free vibrator and ice cream.
^ Just realized that the free ice cream would crap on my not eating idea...at least Ben and Jerry's will be smooth to nervously vomit at the first sign of red states.
Make the USA more like Canada.
I watch the news and just shake my head wondering how you folks down there can survive with such a bullshit medical insurance system. If I was American, I'm sure I'd either be sick as a dog or have huge medical bills to pay off.
Yes, Canada's healthcare system is far from perfect, but at least people don't have to worry about not being able to afford seeing a doctor.
Scrap the new 40- something Nuclear power plant plans
Shut down Gitmo
Burn the Patriot act
Health centers w birth control funded @ High schools
Put a ban or moratorium on offshore drill baby drilling
Declare the Arctic Ntl Wildlife refuge off limits/protected wilderness.
Throw out Palins lawsuit & protect the Polar bears inder the endangered species act
Ditto for the Beluga Whales
Require Palin to pay back the $150,000 wardrobe tab
require Palin to pay Alaska $21,000 to fly her kids around.
Break for lunch, create another list for the afternoon.
Require Palin to pay back the $150,000 wardrobe tab
Why? Those Republican donors gave it, and they should have suspected a serious lack of spending discipline given what debt disasters Bush has wrought. I imagine many of them gave their money trusting the Republican party to stick to one of its few remaining economic tenets: responsible, reigned in spending.
All the shopping spree does is remind those well-off donors that they're throwing their hard-earned money to a party that will ask for it not in taxes but in donations to an extravagant but lost cause. It reminds them that the party cares not even about the futures of the wealthy's fortunes, much less the middle class's pensions. As though any more reminders are needed.
I think that whomever the next president is, despite everyone's high hopes, is going to disappoint a lot of people simply because of how screwy everything is now - the next person in the White House is going to be spending the next four years trying to fix the damage that has already been done. I think if an actual difference is going to be made, the election four years from now is the one that's going to be what really changes things instead of the damage control that's currently needed.
Inga Muscio has an interesting post on this topic on her blog:
http://www.ingalagringa.com/onmymind/
She basically says she doesn't think Obama will be able to achieve much because he will be so busy fighting off attacks on his character from conservatives.
I'm disappointed that none of the major candidates have really talked much publicly about prison reform...Other than that I'll just be thankful that there won't be a republican in the white house (knock on wood).
Please forgive me for the appearance of an old broken record, but the ERA has been re-instated in the 2008 Dem Platform. I truly believe that the very fabric of the US will change for women when they are explicitly included in the US Constitution.
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of sex.
What could be more pure and simple - equality under the law. Until women are explicitly written into the Constitution, something will always be missing.
I heard on the news yesterday, that if this election took place in Denmark (where I live), Obama would get 85% of the votes! It's Obama mania over here, and what matters to us, is that you get a president that realizes, that what he decides in terms of Iran, Iraq and so forth affects not only America, but the whole world.
Please don't vote for Mccain and Palin!
If the new administration invests heavily in alternative energy, healthcare and education we could be the voters who guaranteed our children's future...
No more abstinence-only eductation, creationism, or other fake "science" being taught in our schools. Save the religion for Sunday School - the first amendment guarantees the rest of us freedom from it.
No more global gag rule.
No more insurance companies refusing to fund the Pill or other contraceptives.
Supreme Court is perhaps the widest reaching issue, and in my mind it's the most important.
It's so sad to think about, but the liberal wing of the court is getting very old. Stevens is 88, and Ginsburg (my FAVORITE justice) is 75. John Roberts (a fantastic judge, my favorite of the conservatives on the Court) is 53. He's going to be on the court for most of my life.
I would probably die of happiness if we had a Justice Hillary Clinton, but she said in an interview that the chance of her doing it is "probably close to zero" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27178710/). We can always hope, though!
I really also think that increasing funding for contraception in Africa through the UN would be great.
Oh, and diplomacy. As someone who is considering it as a career path, it would be nice to not have a war-mongering president.
As I wait with bated breath for the outcome...I pray to whatever higher power is listening...we can NOT afford to have McCain and Palin in the White House - if so, we will be fighting to maintain the rights that women have currently (which isn't enough) and fighting to maintain the integrity of what precious natural resources and area we have left, sending more troops out to fight their battles they have already alluded to in their fear-mongering speeches.
However, in a perfect world I would like:
-closing of Gitmo
-bringing our troops home
-as a woman, not fearing that someday the rights of a fertilized egg inside my body will out weigh my rights (ie CO's prop 48 which scares me to no end).
-recognition of gay marriage
-increase integrity in our classrooms, get rid of NCLB (I say this as an ex-teacher)
-teach our children about sex openly, end abstinence only education (again, as an ex-SCIENCE teacher - I was not allowed to tell my students anything)
-SUPPORT THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's alot, I know...and I'm sure I will think of more as the day goes on...