Riley Gaines, the ex-Kentucky swimmer on Feb. 15, 2023 at the Kansas Statehouse (Photo: Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Women’s sports rarely get the respect they deserve and very few female athletes ever break through to become household names.

Stellar performances by Brittney Griner, Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and many more have made the WNBA what it is today. But it’s not a coincidence that the arrival of Caitlin Clark, a white University of Iowa alum, has sparked a firestorm of media attention and endorsements.

So it’s unusual, to say the least, for Riley Gaines — a former college swimmer who tied for fifth place in the 200 freestyle final at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Championships — to become one of the best-known female athletes in the country.

Usually that sort of résumé would prompt another round of conservative griping about Millennials and Gen Zs being rewarded with participation trophies just for showing up — and never having to learn the tough, character-building lessons of pain, hard work and sacrifice.

Last year, North Carolina Republicans even introduced a bill that would eliminate such awards in youth sports. One of the sponsors, GOP state Sen. Bobby Hanig, told the media that “what we’re not teaching our children is to be prepared for life, be prepared for failure.

“… When kids are growing up they’re being taught it’s OK to just be OK. You don’t have to be the best,” he added.

But it’s A-OK with Republicans that Gaines isn’t the best in her sport — far from it. That’s because she’s turned her failure into a winning right-wing crusade against LGBTQ+ rights because the woman with whom she tied for fifth, University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, is transgender. (Again, even if Thomas were disqualified, Gaines would have only come in fourth, which doesn’t even get you on the podium).

Shortly after her loss, Gaines started popping up in statehouses across the country, advocating for bans on transgender athletes under the guise of feminism. It’s truly a bigoted solution in search of a problem. The Michigan High School Athletic Association, for instance, said in 2021 that only 10 trans athletes used the association’s transgender athlete policy in the last five years.

Having lost the battle for public opinion on LGBTQ+ rights — 71% of Americans support same-sex marriage — right-wingers have tried to peel off voters by whipping up moral panics about all-gender bathrooms and kids’ books featuring gay characters.

While Republicans have found success pushing anti-LGBTQ+ laws in red states, like Florida, Texas and Ohio, that hasn’t worked particularly well in battlegrounds. In 2022, Gaines campaigned in Michigan for GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, who ran on a transgender sports ban, Ron DeSantis-style “Don’t Say Gay” law and banning “pornographic” books (Dixon never provided examples, despite famously promising a reporter she’d send a list).

Dixon lost to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by almost 11 points.

But Gaines’ career, at least, is still on a roll, as she’s hit the GOP Lincoln Dinner circuit, headlined a GOP Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds fundraiser and was the guest of U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Bruce Twp.) at the 2023 State of the Union address. (Gaines also endorsed DeSantis for president, which worked out about as well as stumping for Dixon).

Reynolds went so far as to declare that Gaines is “fighting on the front lines of the most important women’s issue of our time” — which will come as a shock to the millions of people who voted for abortion rights measures and candidates in response to the far-right Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

But for those with a serious case of main character syndrome, Gaines must truly be an inspiration. No matter how much you might fail, no matter how insignificant the things you’re obsessed with are, as long as you have an unstoppable ego, there’s hope that you might achieve Influencer status someday.

You may have heard that Gaines popped up in Michigan again this month, this time as the commencement speaker at Adrian College, a small liberal arts school close to the Ohio border.

In announcing Gaines as the speaker, a school administrator billed the event as “offer[ing] our graduates the opportunity to broaden their understanding of world issues and inspire them as they embark on their future endeavors.”

You could make the argument that may have been achieved if Gaines did a debate or at least took questions after a speech (although I’m personally not of the belief that much is accomplished by engaging with those who don’t believe in the basic humanity of LGBTQ+ people). But the format of a commencement address is one-sided by design, so an accomplished leader can impart wisdom on the next generation. (Again, it’s hard to see how a fifth-place college swimmer fits the bill).

It seems clear that college officials didn’t think it was worth considering how LGBTQ+ students or family members would feel being forced to endure hateful propaganda on what should be a joyous day for all. As a bisexual woman with two kids who are proud members of the LGBTQ+ community, I can say I wouldn’t have wanted to subject my family to that.

And several alumni did speak out.

“She [Gaines] has no message to deliver other than she hates trans people. That’s her message,” Leann McKee, who is trans and a 1984 Adrian College graduate, told the Advance.

But in inviting Gaines, Adrian’s controversy-courting president seemed to get the reaction he was looking for, just like having former Gov. Rick Snyder speak at the 2017 graduation only a year after the Flint water crisis became an international news story.

Maybe the only upside of this sorry episode is that Gaines upstaged “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak, who delivered the commencement address up the road at conservative Hillsdale College, where he chairs the board. It seems that being a TV fixture since Ronald Reagan was president can’t really compete with Gaines’ brand of Instagrammable victimhood.

This column was originally published in Michigan Advance, which like Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

The post Lessons from Riley Gaines on participation trophies and main character syndrome appeared first on Nevada Current.

People attend the annual March for Life rally on the National Mall on January 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

For girls like me who came of age in the ‘80s while the backlash to the women’s liberation movement raged, it was a profoundly confusing time.

On one hand, we grew up listening to “Free to Be … You and Me” combat harmful sexist stereotypes, but the decade was also marked by stifling pressures to conform to traditional roles.

We were told that we could have high-powered jobs outside the home and raise children — cloyingly known as “having it all” — but we’d probably be miserable and the kids would suffer. (Men, on the other hand, continued to experience no such dilemma).

That was the backdrop to discussions of reproductive rights, where clichés of selfish young women who chose abortion were pitted against noble mothers who put their children’s needs over their own.

Of course, that idea falls apart once you start looking at actual data, which show the majority of women who have abortions are already mothers.

Still, given the media’s decades-long preoccupation with portraying abortion as a moral issue and ignoring the health and human rights implications, the frame of “bad” single women vs. “good” mothers has proved rather durable.

Then the far-right U.S. Supreme Court dumped Roe v. Wade in 2022, sparking mass outrage. Perennially ignored advocates and leaders like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer warned that Republicans were about to reap the whirlwind from women in the upcoming midterms.

The still-predominantly male pundit class sniggered that the election was about “the economy, stupid” (most political analysis is just repeating banalities from decades ago) and predicted ladies would soon shrug at their loss of bodily autonomy and flock to the latest sale at Macy’s.

The country was evenly split on abortion, commentators (wrongly) lectured, missing that the ground had shifted with SCOTUS’ Dobbs decision. However Americans personally feel about abortion, most want the right to make their own decisions. And that’s why they’ve been so angry about GOP-appointed judges suddenly snatching away a freedom people had enjoyed for a half-century (after many Republicans had smarmily assured us that would never happen).

You know what happened next.

The pundits were proven wrong, as abortion rights was a winning issue in both red states and blue in 2022. In Michigan, a solid majority voted to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution and pro-choice Democrats ran the table up and down the ballot.

After suffering such devastating losses, Republicans have curiously decided to double down on anti-abortion tactics.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this week on a case backed by more than 140 GOP lawmakers that could drastically limit access to mifepristone, a drug used for both medication abortion and miscarriage care. This could have huge implications nationwide, even in states like Michigan with abortion rights laws on the books.

And various politicians, including former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, have endorsed a 15-week national abortion ban that would supersede laws in blue states. So much for letting the states decide.

Now with the 2024 election upon us, we’ve once again been treated to stories that the Dobbs effect is over, brought to you by the same pundits who told us we were being hysterical to suggest that contraception and other reproductive freedoms could be on the chopping block.

As we know, Republicans have already taken aim at birth control at the state and federal levels, with a far-right Michigan GOP lawmaker last month floating a ban on hormonal birth control while retweeting billionaire X owner Elon Musk for clout.

But what’s really caught many off-guard is that supposedly pro-natal Republicans have become increasingly vocal about their full agenda of dictating how people become parents.

Michigan unexpectedly became a front in an emerging culture war over surrogacy, as we’re the only state that criminalizes such contracts. State Rep. Samantha Steckloff (D-Farmington Hills) has sponsored bills to change that.

As a cancer survivor, she notes being able to grow your family is deeply personal, and many people have “health-related issues that make becoming pregnant, impossible or dangerous.”

But the legislation was opposed by the Michigan Catholic Conference and Right to Life of Michigan, which have traditionally joined forces against abortion rights measures.

In a meandering speech topping 20 minutes, state Rep. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell) last week railed against the package as a “revolutionary departure from the natural order” and warned that “effectively, the order of a child-parent relationship, as it has existed since the dawn of mankind, is rewritten.”

Most Republicans ended up voting no on the bills, which narrowly passed and now head to Whitmer, who’s expected to sign them.

With right-wing media like The Federalist joining the anti-surrogacy chorus, it seems inevitable that red states will consider rolling back laws allowing the practice.

An even bigger firestorm was ignited in Alabama, where the right-wing state Supreme Court ruled last month that fertilized embryos had the same rights as children, causing in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics to shutter their operations.

The intense blowback caused Alabama GOP Gov. Kay Ivey to quickly legislation extending civil and criminal immunity to IVF clinics, but questions still remain if there’s sufficient protection for providers.

Republicans across the country were thoroughly spooked, with many — particularly those facing competitive races this fall — insisting they support IVF. But anti-abortion lobbyists are split on the issue. The group Live Action — whose founder has close ties to Trump — dramatically decried the Alabama cleanup law as a “license to kill.”

Staunch evangelical U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) tried to have it both ways, saying IVF is OK if handled “ethically” (whatever that means) while issuing a familiar refrain: Leave it up to the states. Yeah, we heard that one after Roe fell, too, and it’s … not working out great.

There’s also the inconvenient fact that many GOP lawmakers have voted to ban the procedure as part of various anti-abortion bills over the years. And shortly after the Alabama court decision, U.S. Senate Republicans blocked legislation protecting IVF access sponsored by U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) a disabled veteran who used the procedure to have her children.

“My girls are my everything,” Duckworth said. “They likely would have never been born if I had not had access to the basic reproductive rights that Americans, up until recently, had been depending on for nearly a half-century.”

For years, conservatives have solemnly told us there’s no greater blessing for women facing an unplanned pregnancy than having the child. And now they’re now telling women who want nothing more than to be mothers that they shouldn’t have the right to grow their families if they use surrogacy or IVF.

In the end, the artificial lines between “good” and “bad” women are blurry, as abortion, birth control, surrogacy and IVF are clearly all the same fight.

For the right, it was never about protecting life. It was always about controlling women.

This column was originally published in Michigan Advance, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

The post First the GOP came for abortion. Birth control, surrogacy and IVF are next. appeared first on Nevada Current.

She's tired. (Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Moms are tired. Bone-tired. That’s the word that comes up again and again whenever I talk to other mothers these days. No matter how strong you think you are, the last few years have taken a crushing toll.

Everyone bears the scars of the pandemic in different ways. But there have been so many other societal upheavals — from a spike in mass shootings to hazardous air from rashes of forest fires to the horror of watching the democratic system on the brink of collapse with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

It’s easy to feel like the world is falling apart. And when you are responsible for keeping little humans alive, thriving, healthy and happy, that’s a profoundly disquieting idea.

I can’t even count the number of times in the last three years that I’ve struggled to fall asleep, wondering if I’d made the most selfish choice in the world to bring children up this world.

You could write books about how various groups and communities have been impacted by the pandemic and beyond (and indeed, many will).

My heart aches for seniors who had their lives cut short by the disease or been painfully isolated in their last years. Communities of color were often the hardest hit early on and endured so many barriers for life-saving care. People with chronic illnesses and disabilities — who still face severe risks from COVID, even as the world has moved on — are tragically not even part of the conversation or policy choices anymore.

We don’t even know all the ways children will be impacted from COVID. It’s fashionable to talk about learning loss and test scores, peppered with some platitudes about mental health, but we rarely go deeper. We certainly don’t talk about the thousands of children in the world who have lost their lives or lost parents or primary caregivers to COVID. Some things are too awful to contemplate.

When it comes to parents and the pandemic, we’ve mainly focused on childcare. That’s a welcome discussion; it’s a full-blown crisis that started long before COVID hit. The utter anxiety of finding and entrusting your kids to other caregivers while trying to balance everything else in life is hard to describe.

But that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.

I want to focus on what moms have been going through, specifically, because, as study after study shows, we’re still our kids’ primary caregiver in most families, do the majority of the housework, and, most invisibly, most of the emotional work that keeps everything together. Many of us also are caregivers for our aging parents on top of all this.

Parenthood isn’t for everyone, of course. I don’t begrudge anyone for not making that choice. I’m a firm believer that you should not have kids — suffocating societal pressure be damned — unless you feel like taking on endless worry, thousands of diaper changes, angst-filled teen years and so much more is definitely for you.

But it’s also true that unless you are completely responsible for little humans, it’s hard to understand how all-consuming the struggles of being a parent are.

Motherhood, we’re told basically since birth, is about noble sacrifice. In order to bring the next generation into the world and make sure they succeed, moms must always put their kids first, above their wants, needs, work and free time. Most of us do this happily most of the time.

But during the pandemic — when we were terrified our kids would get sick (or we would get them sick) after having to go to work to pay the bills, when we constantly worried how all this would alter their development, when so many of us were forced into makeshift home offices in closets or kitchens, praying our kids wouldn’t shriek during Zoom calls — everyday life and its COVID-wrought monotony often felt completely overwhelming.

Those who were pregnant and became new moms during the pandemic had to navigate the most profound change in their lives during a terrifying health crisis. Any new mom will tell you how you catch your breath anytime your baby sniffles, your mind automatically zooming to worst-case scenarios.

But to have to grapple with that during COVID? That’s an unreal level of pressure, especially if you’re dealing with postpartum depression, as so many moms like I did. Too often, we suffer in silence because it’s supposed to be one of the happiest times of your life and you feel ungrateful, scared and like a horrible failure.

In 2002, I was a 25-year-old novice reporter rushing around to cover 9/11 anniversary events, praying that I wouldn’t go into early labor. When my daughter was born (thankfully, right on time), summer quickly gave way to an early, chilly fall and we spent days upon days holed up in the house together. It was hard to remember what day it was, squeeze in a shower and get more than an hour of sleep at any point in the day with a wonderful, beautiful colicky baby who nursed 12 times a day.

But at least I knew I could bundle her up and go to the grocery store if I needed to and see some other adult faces without risking contracting a disease that was killing thousands a week.

Moms of little kids endured the seclusion of the pandemic, while having to chase them around the house as they get into everything, all the time. If your kids were school-aged, suddenly you were a part-time teacher and sometimes cop, making sure they were paying attention to the lesson online instead of playing “Among Us” or constantly texting their friends.

Having teenagers, as I did, came with its own special challenges. There’s a myth about parenting that by the time high school rolls around, kids are mostly grown and you get a break, but I’ve never found that to be true, before or during the pandemic. Kids are going through crucial changes, discovering their passions, figuring out who they are and maybe falling in love for the first time. They really need you more than ever, and most of all just to listen.

Seeing kids go through such a fraught time during COVID was wrenching. Imagine trying to navigate your identity in a time of mass death. Older kids were fully aware of the daily death toll on top of not being able to go to prom or graduation, like my oldest — who fully understood and didn’t want to risk getting her grandparents sick, but still understandably felt the loss of those milestones.

The pandemic has brought my family closer together — something about facing such calamity outside the house has made fights between my husband and I almost nonexistent. And I’ve been lucky enough to develop friendships with my now-adult children who are doing amazingly well in college.

But I’m not naïve to think that the pandemic has left them unscathed, perhaps in ways they’ll discover in years or decades to come. Now that’s what makes it hard to fall asleep at night.

Even in the best-case scenarios, when no one in your family got severely sick or died, when your income didn’t dry up or your kids managed to learn in virtual school, the turbulence of the last years wears you down.

For so many moms, we’ve also had to balance our families with work — and the emotional work at both. You find yourself becoming the work mom, taking on everyone’s problems, trying to check in with co-workers during or after work who may be struggling as much as your kids at home.

One of the gratifying things about work, especially if you feel it’s your calling, is the feeling of accomplishment in finishing a task, knowing you did it well. As a journalist going on 25 years, I believe what we do is vital for society. We try to shine a light on what people in power are doing and tell the stories of people whose voices need to be heard. That keeps me going each and every day.

But when it comes to helping others during a global pandemic, your work is never done, you make mistakes and it’s never easy. And usually you end up putting your own needs last.

Most of all, you just feel like you’re failing all the time. And when you’re a perfectionist, that’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Being a mother is the most important job I have and always will be. It’s cost me some career opportunities, but that’s a trivial price to pay for the privilege of raising two of the best people I know.

But the cliché that motherhood is the hardest job you’ll ever have is true. Especially now, we all deserve a little more kindness. And we need to learn to be kinder to ourselves.

The post For the mothers the pandemic has left behind appeared first on Nevada Current.

Republicans, banking on the fact that they’ll win the midterms (since the party out of power usually does), have launched savage attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights and race equity. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Earlier this month, Michigan state Sen. Lana Theis used her invocation on the Senate dais to launch a political tirade that children are “under attack” from “forces that desire things for them other than what their parents would have them see and hear and know.”

That prompted walkouts from some Democratic senators, so Theis saw an opportunity to make some quick campaign cash, as she’s facing a rough GOP primary with a former President Trump-endorsed challenger.

“Progressive social media trolls like Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Snowflake) who are outraged they can’t … groom and sexualize kindergarteners or that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery,” reads Theis’ email titled, “groomers outraged by my invocation.”

Republicans, banking on the fact that they’ll win the midterms (since the party out of power usually does), have launched savage attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights and race equity, from Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to Idaho’s law allowing families of rapists to sue abortion providers.

Many Democratic officials have avoided direct confrontation, even though none of these measures are popular, oddly ceding ground on basic civil and human rights issues. It’s like they’re already preparing to lose in 2022.

“I didn’t expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the senator from the 22nd District had overnight accused, by name, of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself,” she said. “So I sat on it for a while wondering, why me? And then I realized, because I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme.”

McMorrow’s “epic takedown” went viral, followed by predictable takes dinging her for her newfound fame and raising serious money from it (interestingly echoing bitter complaints from Theis, who has remained unapologetic).

It’s adorable when the politically savvy pretend they don’t understand how politics works (yes, running for office takes money). But this also conveniently ignores that Theis was the one who fired the first shot by blatantly trying to capitalize off of her anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, while making McMorrow an explicit target of hate.

Meanwhile, McMorrow’s speech captivated Democratic leaders from President Joe Biden on down, as well as frustrated progressives and folks just concerned with basic common decency.

Even Democratic consultant James Carville, who claims the party is veering too far left with “wokeness” (whatever that means), told the Washington Post McMorrow’s speech was an “enormously effective piece of communication. There’s really no comeback to it.”

It was clearly the right speech at the right time. Nobody knows exactly what will catch fire and what won’t — politics isn’t an exact science — but McMorrow’s self-proclaimed status as a “straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom” likely didn’t hurt.

Would a similarly impassioned speech from a gay or trans lawmaker have resonated as deeply? I honestly don’t know and it’s worth considering what that means.

But I do know there’s one aspect of this story that needs to be talked about more. The QAnon-infused “groomer” smear from Republicans that LGBTQ+ people and Democrats are trying to harm and abuse children isn’t just disgusting — it’s dangerous.

It’s a call to violence to the far-right base in the name of saving children at a time when political threats are already on the rise. There’s a reason why McMorrow was holding back tears when she recalled talking about Theis’ email to her mother, who cried, was “horrified,” and “asked why I still do this, and to think of my daughter.”

It’s not just LGBTQ+ people and allies who are targets — there even have been stomach-churning reports of their young children being accosted by bigots.

But far-right leaders with enormous platforms, like Fox News host Tucker Carlson and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, don’t show any sign of letting up on gross smears that LGBTQ+ people and Dems are “sexualizing” kids.

Why would they? This is just following the playbook of the radical anti-abortion movement. Remember when right-wing talk show host Bill O’Reilly whipped up fury against Dr. George Tiller, who he repeatedly denounced as a “baby killer”? Tiller was murdered by an anti-abortion activist while attending church in 2009.

Why pretend this can’t happen again?

Republicans embracing politicians eager for violence like Trump, who has called for shooting anti-police brutality activists and migrants at the border, is part of the party’s march to white nationalism and authoritarianism.

Far-right activists have descended on Michigan’s Capitol multiple times since 2020, with heavily armed protests against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s early COVID-19 health orders and Trump’s 2020 election loss. Since then, there have been a carousel of outrages, from masks to critical race theory to LGBTQ+ people daring to exist.

After the first protest in April 2020, Trump was in a frenzy, tweeting, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” It’s also worth remembering what he wrote after rioters with AR-15s and signs like “Tyrants Get the Rope” breached the Capitol later that month in what was a dress rehearsal for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,” Trump wrote. “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”

This is what fascists do and have always done. They threaten officials and threaten to take over institutions by force, claiming to speak for the majority when they do not.

Trump’s advice to the sane majority was just to give in and no one would get hurt. The far-right has only become more emboldened in the two years that have followed, putting public health and school board officials in their crosshairs.

That’s why we must stand up every time they target marginalized groups and public servants. It’s easy to dismiss fascists as deranged, but they are relentless.

They’re counting on those of us fighting to preserve decency and democracy to give in to terror and exhaustion. But that’s not an option.

This column was originally published in the Michigan Advance.

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"Since the ‘80s, Democrats have played defense against the unfounded conservative talking point that government can’t be a force for good. But we now have empirical proof that the government can help people, especially during their darkest times of need." (Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

If there’s one enduring myth in America, it’s that there’s nothing we can really do to end poverty.

Most policy prescriptions during the last few decades — from setting up Byzantine barriers to programs like food stamps and Medicaid to doing nothing at all — are rooted in condescending lore that poor people deserve to suffer because they clearly made poor personal choices, while conveniently ignoring structural problems of inequality and racism. 

But the COVID-19 pandemic showed us, once and for all, that we can eradicate poverty — if we want to. 

That’s the key — and it’s why President Biden and progressive Democrats have such a tough fight on their hands to pass the “Build Back Better” plan that would boost school meals for kids, provide universal preschool and free community college, expand Medicare coverage for seniors and more.

Much of Washington is trapped in old myths and old ways of thinking. That’s why you’ve seen scary headlines about $3.5 trillion in spending (if only Republicans’ massive tax cuts for the rich in 2017 warranted that coverage) and Democratic infighting instead of breakdowns of plans designed to alleviate human suffering. Writing about policy is hard; chronicling drama is easy.

Of course, a challenge for reporters is that Republicans just aren’t a policy-driven party anymore. Lawmakers now focus almost exclusively on culture war issues like “critical race theory” to rile up their base; voting restrictions and election machinations so they never have to deal with fair elections again like 2020; and scatological tweets slamming Democrats.

Meanwhile, centrists in Congress and think tanks funded by corporate interests have told us for years that poverty is a thorny problem that can only be solved with complicated, innovative programs outside government (conveniently dovetailing with their commitment to never raise taxes on the rich, which is a key part of Biden’s plan).

But thanks to the robust federal government response to the pandemic, we now know definitively that poverty is a policy choice.

Several university studies have basically shown that the government throwing money at the problem works. As it turns out, it’s not really complicated.

There were 20 million people unemployed at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020 — the highest rate since the Great Depression. Many couldn’t pay rent or for basic household expenses and anxiety and depression rates soared.  

But a University of Michigan Poverty Solutions report using U.S. Census household survey data found that federal support, like the CARES Act of March 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act of March 2021, made a huge difference. Direct stimulus payments and expanded unemployment benefits in particular helped people pay their bills, pay down debt, get medical care — and they also improved their mental health. 

“There’s a question of what we do during severe recessions: What we did [during the pandemic] worked, and it worked better than anything we’ve ever done before,” said Director of Poverty Solutions Luke Shaefer. 

“… If we ever wondered if the well-being of families is sensitive to money in their pockets, I don’t think we ever have to wonder that again because the results are so clear and simple,” he added.

So what would have happened if Congress didn’t act? We actually know the answer to that, too. Reports of financial and mental health challenges increased sharply in November 2020, when COVID-19 infections spiked and then-President Trump and Republicans in Congress refused to act on more relief after Biden won the 2020 election.

But even with that delay, the overall poverty rate fell in 2020, thanks to temporary stimulus payments. The Census Bureau reports that almost 8.5 million people were lifted out of poverty last year, which is an unprecedented change (the poverty line for a family of four is about $26,250 a year).

The American Rescue Plan included even more robust poverty-fighting solutions, like temporarily increasing the child tax credit. If it were made permanent — which progressives are currently fighting to do — an Urban Institute study found that alone could cut child poverty almost in half.

Right now, there’s a mad dash from Republicans, centrist Democrats like U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), and business lobbyists to scuttle Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, even though it’s popular (even 47% of Republicans like it). But it would be the biggest government investment in the public good since LBJ’s “Great Society” in the ‘60s, and that just can’t stand. 

Since the ‘80s, Democrats have played defense against the unfounded conservative talking point that government can’t be a force for good. 

But we now have empirical proof that the government can help people, especially during their darkest times of need. 

“During an unprecedented recession, Americans were not reporting they were worse off financially,” Schaefer noted. “I don’t think people appreciate how effective what we’ve done has been. When we hit the next recession, we have a model for what we can do that can buffer families from extreme hardship.” 

And more importantly, we should want to help people escape poverty. That is a good in and of itself. We have the chance to learn from the unspeakable tragedy of this pandemic and make life better for millions of people. We can’t allow petty politics to squander this moment.

This column was originally published in the Michigan Advance, like the Nevada Current part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network of news outlets.

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"It was always about raw political power for the right. It was never about the preservation of human life." (Official White House Photo of Donald Trump and Amy Coney Barrett by Andrea Hanks via Flickr, Public Domain)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Last week, my almost 19-year-old daughter stepped foot on her college campus to take classes for the first time (a year late thanks to the loud, selfish minority’s continual refusal to take COVID seriously).

As I hugged her goodbye, it occurred to me that she now has fewer rights as a woman than I did when I left the nest for college 27* years ago.

Thanks to five far-right Supreme Court justices cowardly dropping an opinion in the dead of night Thursday essentially gutting Roe v. Wade, millions of people in Texas just lost their right to safe, legal abortion. (Of course, abortion has been around thousands of years and will always continue — it’s just more people will desperately seek out risky methods). Other red states will giddily follow.

When it comes to women’s rights in America, we have undisputedly gone backward.

Think your birth control is safe? Same-sex marriage? Please. The extremist Supreme Court will have the final say over what you do with your body and in your bedroom. Basic health care and civil rights will be overturned — perhaps without even giving citizens the courtesy of arguing their case in court.

This is the end point of a far-right Republican Party that considers the American experiment of democracy to be a failure because it’s no longer conducive for them to fairly win elections on its unpopular platform of tax cuts for billionaires and basic rights for straight white men only.

Progress is never inevitable and permanency for hard-fought rights isn’t guaranteed — that’s a lesson we need to heed as we’re being attacked on every front, from racial justice to the safety net. But after years of listening to Republicans shamelessly lie about abortion methods and statistics — even in legislation — and male pundits and editors smugly dismiss women who warned Roe would be overturned as “hysterical,” I think we’re all allowed to be angry right now.

As a journalist, I’ve been trained to question everything (the old adage is, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out”). So it’s been wild to see how the so-called pro-life movement has long been treated gingerly by the media.

Their talking points are repeatedly and egregiously false, from claiming that abortion leads to breast cancer to claiming that late-term abortions are casually prescribed to former President Donald Trump’s favorite bizarre lie that doctors and women are teaming up for post-birth abortions (which would be straight-up infanticide and of course it isn’t happening).

Since Trump came on the scene, many reporters have struggled with how to cover Republicans, whose press releases, tweets and public comments are a Gordian knot of falsehoods that take paragraphs to debunk (they’re of course counting on us not to bother and just reprint their propaganda).

But the anti-abortion movement wrote the playbook they’re following.

Working the refs and loudly complaining about coverage you don’t like — complete with threatening reporters’ jobs, which some might call “cancel culture” — is a staple of right-wing political training. But there’s more at work than that. Many journalists give anti-abortion activists enormous deference, rarely questioning if their moral or religious objection to basic health care is sincere — or if it’s just rooted in deep misogyny. After all, pro-lifers are often vocally against the Equal Rights Amendment or even equal pay. It’s not like they’re hiding their sexist agenda.

But we do our readers and viewers dirty to unquestioningly include anti-abortion lies for the sake of balance — and it’s irreconcilable with our core mission of informing the public.

We’ve also set the stage for how much of the COVID-19 pandemic has been covered, with lies and conspiracy theories spewed by anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers often juxtaposed with doctors detailing scientific research and giving sound medical advice. Gotta tell both sides.

We’ve now been living through a horrific pandemic for almost two years that’s killed over 640,000 Americans — equivalent to wiping out the entire state of Vermont — and sickened 39 million, roughly the population of California, our biggest state.

It’s been fascinating to see the radio silence from the so-called pro-life movement to stop a mass death event. This should have been their moment — if this was really about sincerely held beliefs.

It was always about raw political power for the right. It was never about the preservation of human life.

That’s why your friendly neighborhood conservative who told you Trump wasn’t that bad has been cheering over the Supreme Court’s “pro-life” decision in Texas, but he’s fine with your babies going to school and getting murdered by an active shooter or getting life-threatening COVID because “freedom.”

But after watching anti-abortion activists’ flagrant and stomach-churning hypocrisy during the pandemic — which is typically considered the greatest political sin imaginable — it’s amazing that most reporters didn’t cover groups with any more skepticism.

Last fall, Republicans installed anti-abortion warrior Amy Coney Barrett to replace women’s rights champion Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the high court just days before badly losing the 2020 election. Barrett was mawkishly lauded by some women as “a new feminist icon” while others defended her against attacks on her large family (which Democrats never made).

Well, here’s the truth about living in Amy Barrett’s America, ladies. She got to have the family she wanted and on her own terms. You don’t.

This column was originally published in the Michigan Advance.

The post Why didn’t COVID make us question what the ‘pro-life’ movement is about? appeared first on Nevada Current.

Activists attend a voting rights rally in 2014 in Washington, DC. The rally marked the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder which held a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is unconstitutional. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, along with 21 other attorneys general, on Monday sent a letter to bipartisan congressional leaders urging them to pass legislation protecting against both voter suppression and election subversion and possibly reform the filibuster.

“Following the 2020 presidential election, we witnessed something many of us considered unthinkable: an attempt by the then-sitting President of the United States [Donald Trump], assisted by certain state elected officials, to steal a presidential election,” the AGs write. “We, the undersigned 22 attorneys general, write to emphasize that the peril to our democracy did not end on Inauguration Day, with the transfer of power from one administration to another. To safeguard our democracy, it is vital that Congress act promptly —including, if necessary, to reform the filibuster — to pass legislation protecting against both voter suppression and election subversion.”

This story originally appeared in the Michigan Advance, a sibling publication to the Nevada Current.

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(Nevada Current file photo).

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The 2020 Democratic presidential race, which, at one point, was brimming with promise with a high water mark of six women contenders, has dwindled to one.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) exited the race Thursday, leaving just U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). (I’ll leave myself a pundit-y out here, but it doesn’t look good). And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m crying as I write this.

It’s a time of mourning for women of all generations. Baby Boomer and Silent Generation feminists, who fought in the trenches for our most basic rights, are coming to grips with the fact that they may never see a female president in their lifetimes.

Generation X women like me are doing our best not to become hardened as eminently qualified women keep getting told to move aside for mediocre men — and not just in politics. Our mothers, who grew up before abortion was legal and it was normal for women to go to college, told us we could do anything. And we believed them. The reality, however, has often been depressing.

Younger women — Millennials and Gen Zers like my daughter — still have hope (I hope). I mean, the odds are that we’ll have a female president in the next 70 years — let’s just hope it’s not because we’ve basically reverted back to a monarchy and we get the reign of Queen Ivanka I.

I’ve never run for office — as my Democratic consultant husband has told me, my big mouth makes me completely unelectable — so I don’t know the wrenching process Warren went through. But I am quite certain that it sucks. She is a fighter. She has the best plans. She had the promise of uniting the Democratic base with progressive insurgents.

And in the end, none of it mattered.

Meanwhile, the two male frontrunners, former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are desperately trying to woo her behind the scenes after months of condescension on the debate stage, even as she routinely cleaned everyone’s clock.

Sanders — whose most ardent and unhelpful supporters have buried Warren’s posts with snake emoji responses for supposedly being dishonest and “betraying” Bernie by continuing to run against him (a cute sexist biblical reference it’s not clear they get) — condemned that behavior in the strongest terms he has to date on Wednesday.

Of course. Men always have your back when they need something from you.

The guiding assumption for progressives is that Warren’s support will automatically go to Sanders, thus lifting him to the nomination. However, most polls show her support will be divided. If I put my musty pundit hat on briefly again, I’d say that her younger supporters will break for Bernie and her older ones (Gen X and up) are more likely to go for Biden, but that’s just a broad-strokes calculation.

I know that’s absolutely incomprehensible to a lot of Bernie fans, but many women, like me, are still scarred from the Bernie bro pile-ons from 2016 when we dared to say we wanted a woman to be president. We’ve been told, time and time again, that if we agree with Sanders’ agenda, as I do, that we are morally obligated to back him, even if we think women candidates are more qualified or could do the job better.

Warren supporters who plunk for Biden probably won’t do so because they’re convinced he’s a feminist hero, either — it just comes down to trusting that he’s better suited for the job. And don’t underestimate the President Obama effect. One of the worst cards new progressives have played is to take aim at the first Black president as a neoliberal corporate shill. Obama is still beloved by Democrats — and the fact that he picked Biden as his veep carries weight.

I have to wonder how different this race would be if three members of the Squad — U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — had endorsed a woman for president, instead of saving Sanders’ campaign after his heart attack. They’re known as the future the progressive movement — and the party — who frequently call out misogyny on the right and left.

And yet, no one seemed to bat an eye that there was no female solidarity in their presidential pick.

They, of course, could have endorsed Warren, as the fourth member, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), did. Or they could have endorsed another woman of color in U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who was unfairly savaged by Sanders supporters, even though she backed the Green New Deal and had the most feasible Medicare for All plan. Ask yourself right now: Would you rather be faced with Biden as the Dem standard-bearer or Harris? (This is why primaries in the social media age are a cesspool).

There’s no way around it. If you want a female president, you’re going to have to back a woman running for that job. You can find flaws in any candidate; there is no perfect politician. Go ahead and wait around for AOC to get on the ballot. There will inevitably be a male opponent some progressive will tell you is purer.

If you read through the history of the anti-slavery, civil rights and LGBTQ rights movements, a depressing picture emerges of women being told, time and time again, to sacrifice their own ambitions for the good of the cause. There are reams of beautifully written justifications for women to be in service to men and the nobility of it all.

It’s never your time. No matter how good you are; no matter how smart you are. That’s the message. That’s why so many women like me are sobbing today.

And the only way that will change is if women decide that we are the ones we’re waiting for. I hope to God that’s what my daughter’s generation does.

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