Perceptive failure at Progressive Bloggers (Updated)

You could say some feathers got ruffled over two members at Progressive Bloggers and their position on this.

You could say that, but you'd be wrong.

The moderators at Progressive Bloggers weren't ruffling feathers. They were spitting in the face of staunch defenders of the inalienable right of women to control their own bodies without interference from the state.

The issue stems from two members of Progressive Bloggers deciding that a "debate" on abortion is somehow a reasonable approach to a "problem". That, quite rightly, got the women at DAMMIT JANET! very, very riled. They again, quite rightly, do not expect, in a forum where contributors are expected to share a sense of progressive views on political and human issues, to be blind-sided in that forum with anti-progressive posts that clearly belong outside that medium.

Two things: 1) The quotation marks above are my way of saying there is neither room for debate nor is there a problem to be debated; 2) The fact that the bloggers at DAMMIT JANET! are women seems to have minimized the weight of the complaint they leveled in relation to the offending posts.

There is no abortion debate in this country. The matter has long been settled. Morgentaler et al v. R and Trembley v. Daigle sealed the hatch on the need for any further discussion.

Those attempting to generate a renewed "debate" on abortion should be viewed exactly for what they really are: religiously-driven nativists bent on exercising dominion over women. No matter how they frame their position, no matter how they word a motion in parliament, no matter that it is presented as an open-minded discussion, it all has one very ugly purpose: the authoritarian domination of women.

It does not matter where things could lead if they get their "debate". They don't get their "debate". Period. 

To allow it or to buy into it is to suggest that there is somehow room for it. There isn't. Not now. Not in the future. The late nineteenth century was not the "good old days".

Women have the same unassailable human rights as every other adult in this country. That includes the same rights as men to make medical decisions in the privacy of a medical office. And neither the state, nor the purveyors of superstition, nor nativist authoritarians get beyond that medical office door.

One might suppose that the moderators at Progressive Bloggers were attempting to appear fair by "allowing" an anti-progressive opinion or two to go unchallenged; something along the lines of everyone having the right to express their opinions. Perhaps the "women" are over-reacting. It's just healthy debate, after all.

No ... it's subjugation. There's nothing healthy about it. The bloggers at DAMMIT JANET! are not over-reacting. What they see, because I see it too, is a dismissal of the desperate situation faced by the women of this country. The rights of women are under assault from within our own parliament and the moderators at Progressive Bloggers are not willing to take their place at the battlements.

They're prepared to allow a "debate".

Over the rights of our fellow citizens.

How "progressive" is that?

The moderators at Progressive Bloggers should hang their collective heads in abject shame. You have let us all down.

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I'm sure there are more, but the position taken above is clearly shared by others:

Orwell's Bastard.

Dr. Dawg

A Creative Revolution

Voice From The Pack

The Woodshed

CathiefromCanada 

All of them are known for being able to stare down the kid on the mound and knock one over the centre field fence. 

Feel free to add to the list in comments and I'll add them later today. 
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And then someone tries to piss me off with an email:
 
I read the Beav because you guys focus on the tough stuff. Why are you in this pissing match?

This is not a pissing match. This is the tough stuff. This is about never letting down your guard because if you do, this is what happens. Think that can't happen here? Take a look at the lying, cheating, racist, homophobic, anti-woman, science-denying, pack of worthless canaille that have occupied the federal government. 

It's not me; it's you.   

Stick a foot in the door -- now! Then round up some extra feet

Digby at Hullabaloo had a good insight this morning. We would do well to jump on this idea too, we Progressives have a lot of catching up to do. To quote:

I realized that I need to remind people of something that's very important for successful governance:

FDR was, of course, a consummate political leader. In one situation, a group came to him urging specific actions in support of a cause in which they deeply believed. He replied: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

He understood that a President does not rule by fiat and unilateral commands to a nation. He must build the political support that makes his decisions acceptable to our countrymen. He read the public opinion polls not to define who he was but to determine where the country was – and then to strategize how he could move the country to the objectives he thought had to be carried out.

If Obama wants to govern as liberally as the political circumstances allow, then we need to work to make sure that the political circumstances include a strong liberal base. Mindlessly cheerleading out of a misplaced sense of loyalty will not help him. As Roosevelt understood, politics are interlocking interests and constituencies that have to be brought to bear to achieve certain goals.

In the current political world, I believe that Obama and the Democrats need a strong left wing that is out there agitating in order that we can continue to build popular support and also give them a political excuse to do things that the political establishment finds too liberal. Being cheerleaders all the time, however enjoyable that is, is not going to help them. Leaving them out there with no left wing cripples them.

One of the problems for Democrats has been that there has not been an effective progressive voice pushing the edge of the envelope. Therefore, when they inevitably "go to the middle" as politicians often feel they must do, the middle become further and further right. It is my belief that one of the roles of the progressive movement is to keep pulling the politicians back to the left, which often means that we are not being publicly "supportive," in order that we really do end up in the middle instead of farther to the right than the country actually is.

I'm not an idiot and I know very well that Obama needs room to govern. A big historic victory, a village predisposed to at least give him a chance and a set of very serious crises to confront will give him that. My role is to make sure that the progressive agenda is pushed as well

The whole post is well worth reading, as Digby always is.

May I add a point to remember? I used to say "Someone has to go too far, so we can go far enough." There's a term for it (can't remember at the moment), but basically if you are bargaining, you never make your best offer first, or you are guaranteed to win less than that as the bargaining goes on.

There's a reason why the right wing is pre-preemptively screaming about the extreme left-wingedness of Obama -- it's to move the window of his possible choices as far to the right as they can, before any bargaining begins. Every time one of those rat-barstuds screams "commie!" they are like the barstud I met in Minnesota forty years ago who accused me, out of a clear blue sky, of being a "nigger lover".

There were no black people around, I didn't know my accuser, we hadn't been discussing race issues, but he slammed that label on me for two reasons -- to remind me he was mindlessly dangerous, and turn me against (or prevent me from cooperating with) a group he took pleasure in hating. Yes he was a jerk, but jerks do much of the killing in this world.

With people like this, reason and niceness will make no impact whatsoever. Aggressive and constant left-wing action won't affect them either, but it will affect the great mass of the population who can still reason -- and further marginalize the jerks.

So, go lefties go! ~flap flap flappity flap~

Noni