MetryJen's Blog

Poltical Correctness

2008-05-11T13:16:20Z

After the Civil Rights and Women's movements of the latter half of the 20th Century there entered a new trend in American conversation, that of Political Correctness. It was no longer acceptable to make racist or sexist comments, especially for our elected officials. While the sentiments might be there, they were hidden under symbolic acts, like Reagan kicking off his campaign in Philadelphia. Anything too overt, like Clinton's comments on Jackson's win in South Carolina, and the masses go wild. On the one side there are those that are sick of seeing "the race card," and on the other there are those that say they're sick of still seeing racism. Either way, we all know that if you call someone a macaca, you can forget about a career in politics.
One can argue that the whole PC thing has gone too far, to the point that it strangles legitimate discourse because everyone's afraid to say how they feel. I would argue, though, that while some people are indeed too easily offended, overall being PC is working. As younger people grow up in a world where it is not okay to call black people n*ggers, or degrade the abilities of women, not only are more people of color and females moving up in the world, but attitudes are literally changing. This is most obvious when polls on racial attitudes are broken down by age group, such as the results from the recent Democratic primary in Indiana. Obama has consistently been in the lead among younger voters, both black and white, while Clinton hangs on to her base with older white Americans, particularly those without a college degree. Now, I've been saying for years that the only way this country will move past race is when all the old bigots die off, but I was always (mostly) joking. Now, as I watch the news and read polls like this one from People Press, I realize that maybe there's more to the correlation of age and racial attitudes than I realized. Consistently, younger people are less discriminatory, more willing to take a chance on a non-traditional (read: non-white/male) candidate. Older voters are more likely to say that "equal rights have gone too far," that mixed race dating is not okay, and that women should return to more traditional roles. While to a progressive the fact that anyone holds those attitudes is disappointing, it's still pretty logical. If you grow up with bigotry, that's normal. It takes a pretty strong mind to think outside the box of what is normal. That's where the benefits of PC-ness come into play. To my generation (X-Yish), for many of us, it is NOT normal to bash someone on the basis of race, gender, or even sexual orientation. We didn't grow up with those kinds of attitudes, we grew up with the Huxtables and She-Ra and hip-hop. Now, I'm not trying to say that there aren't racist youth, there totally are. But it's not the norm, thanks to political correctness. Thanks to political correctness, millions of young people look at Obama and see a candidate that is mixed race, not an uppity negro. Thanks to political correctness Hillary Clinton wasn't laughed out of politics for being an over-ambitious housewife. Thanks to political correctness, we're finally moving forward. Here's hoping the older generations catch up.

Well..

2008-05-04T12:20:52Z

I guess we could've predicted it ourselves, but Dr. Gilda Reed has officially lost 75-22. I'm extremely disappointed in LA-01, they've now managed to elect exactly the type of Bush-clone Republican that got us into the mess we're in as a country. I hope they realize that they just elected someone from the minority in Congress, severely limiting their chances to get any help at a federal level. I don't know why I'm surprised, the blatant gerrymandering of this district to keep it majority white/conservative is pretty powerful. When you add in the scare tactics the Republicans use (yes, Scalise only a week ago said on the radio "we have to fight em over there so they don't come here") it was probably un-winnable for a Dem, even a moderate Dem like Gilda. I'm pretty sure if you overlaid a map of working class or democratic families by location you would find all of them left out of 01. I am, by six blocks, myself.

On the bright side, Dems took the sixth, and we'll have another shot at the 1st in the general.

Thanks to all who followed this story.

LA-01 Early Results

2008-05-04T01:36:33Z

Results from Sec. of State here

It's not looking good for dear Gilda. With 18 of 505 precincts reporting, Scalise is winning 71-26. Analyst Greg Rigamer on WWL is declaring that Steve Scalise is the winner of the 1st Congressional District race. But hey, they've been declaring that since the race began. Self-fulfilling prophecy, much?

GO VOTE!!

2008-05-03T13:34:21Z

LA-01 Special election for Congress is today, and I know it's tornado-y here, but go vote Reed anyway!

Pundits say election is within Gilda’s grasp

2008-04-26T12:21:29Z

April 5, 2008 - Clancy DuBos ( a well respected political commentator) commented on April 5, 2008. WWL-TV Channel 4 10PM News ...

And I think this will be the first race since 1977—I’m dating myself—I covered that race—uh—that was Bob Livingston against Ron Faucheaux. This will be probably the closest or at least most hotly contested philosophically since that race. And I think for the reasons that Gilda Reed pointed out. She talked about how you have a chance to send somebody up to be the majority party and that will be her big card that she can play. "I can make a difference because I’ll be in the party that controls things". Whereas Scalise will say, "Yes, but I am more philosophically attuned to you guys." And that will be an interesting contest—one candidate running on philosophy, the other one running on effectiveness.

Reed More

LA-01 Congressional Forum Wednesday

2008-04-15T14:11:54Z

The League of Women Voters is holding a forum Wednesday at the St. Tammany Parish Council chambers, 21490 Koop Drive, north of Mandeville. Attendees include the Democratic candidate, Dr. Gilda Reed, PhD, unaffiliated candidate R.A. "Skip" Galan and Independent American Party candidate Anthony "Tony G" Gentile. Interestingly, Republican Steve Scalise has declined to participate.

Interested readers may submit questions in advance to sandraslifer@gmail.com or call Sandra Slifer at (985) 875-9388 for more information.

Original Story:
Congressional Forum to be Held Wednesday - Times-Picayune

Gilda Reed Wins in Endorsements

2008-04-15T02:19:44Z

AmeriCan Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees

NRA Gives Candidate an A Rating

AFL-CIO Endorses Reed

Carpenters Regional Council - Local 1846

Teacher's Federation Endorses Reed

Ponchatoula Times Endorses Reed

Read More Endorsements HERE

LA-01 Congressional Race

2008-04-09T21:06:12Z

This will be the first in several installments on the special election taking place in Louisiana Congressional District 1, in which Steve Scalise (R) will be taking on Gilda Reed (D) to replace the seat vacated by Bobby Jindal when he successfully took the Louisiana Gubernatorial race. Specifically, this blog will focus on Gilda Reed, as that is whom I support in the race. Dr. Reed has a tough row to hoe, as the first district is predominately parishes that were populated by white-flighters, whom typically are Republican.

Ms. Reed's Bio:

"Gilda Werner Reed is a lifelong resident of Metairie, born in 1947. Gilda has been married to Sam for 40 years and together they have 7 children, plus 11 surviving young grandchildren.

Dr. Gilda Werner Reed attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Tulane-Newcomb and the University of New Orleans earning her degrees from the University of New Orleans. Her Ph.D. is in Applied Biological Psychology in 1996. Dr. Reed has been teaching at the University of New Orleans since 1994 and presently teaches several different campus and online courses each semester.

Gilda has hosted events to educate voters on environmental issues, poverty issues and Iraq War issues. Dr. Reed is politically conscious and active and remained so even while raising her 7 children and earning her doctorate. Her life-long polio disability only spurred her to excel and she teaches more classes than any of her colleagues.

Fired-up and feisty, Gilda entered the political sphere in 2007 to make a powerful difference in the lives of senior citizens, children, working men and women and small business owners. "

To learn more about Dr. Reed visit www.weneedreed.com