Liveblog: Planned Parenthood Presidential Townhall for Some Stupid Reason 2020 [concluded]
IT’S OVER AND I’M SORT OF ALIVE
On Saturday, June 22nd from 11AM to 5PM EST, Planned Parenthood is holding an absurdly long townhall about reproductive rights, birth control, sex education and abortion. Join me as I drink a shitload of rosé and swear a lot as a group of people I almost entirely hate tries to bumble its way through serious questions that actually matter a shitload.
Reproductive rights as general American political talking points are generally very delicate and meaningless, so I’ve collected a number of the things that they usually talk about and organized them onto a talking point bingo card. It’s a mix of good shit and bad shit so if anyone fills the whole card I will personally be fucking shocked and also persuaded that that person ought to be launched into the Sun. If you’re a Planned Parenthood Action Fund Member, please feel free to play along. If not, congratulations.
See you tomorrow morning!
9:04am: After like seven minutes of fiddling with their stupid website and signing up for the Action Fund 3 times I’m finally now watching the event itself. Currently there are several people on the screen talking to me like I’m an excitable baby, but also like they have never spoken to anyone in their entire lives.
A mayor just showed up and said something about how he got a lot of applause at the Clyburn Barbecue by saying “a woman’s body is a woman’s body is a woman’s body” and I need more coffee before I do any more of this.
9:14am: Not really gonna comment further but Dr. Leana Wen is a terrible public speaker or maybe I just saw Cecile Richards speak in this position too many times and she was like bred in a test tube to be a public figure.
9:25am: Kirsten Gillibrand is up. She’s pretty good on this so I doubt she’ll be super offensive about this. SHE SAID BODILY AUTONOMY HOORAY.
9:31am: There’s been a really long personal story that’s really sad and heartbreaking that lasted for about five minutes. Kirsten’s voice is actively breaking, like I think she might be crying. Make of that what you will.
“Mostly white men, mostly older men, cannot know a minute of your experience.” Ugh, drink. She’s committed to repealing Hyde and passing a law that will protect Roe.
“I will pass these for every woman, every trans woman and every gender nonconforming person who requires these rights.” It’s like everyone is so close to understanding that they don’t want to be transphobic, but they’re so clunky and awkward about this whole thing. It’s so unnecessary.
9:37am: Kamala Harris. Immediately brings up that she was Attorney General of California because she lost a case against Crisis Pregnancy Centers.
She’s rambling about how women need feedback and support? I don’t know.
Question about federal funding going to Crisis Pregnancy Centers receiving federal funding. “We have to make sure that we are a country that lives and works by its values.” This statement has like zero meaning. She’s super interested in explaining that values are important. “Women who are without financial means are treated like second class citizens and that is intolerable.”
Oh hell yes Charlene Carruthers is the questioner. She’s awesome I love her.
9:43am: Kamala Harris is talking about her interactions with the criminal justice system as a child. It’s weird that she can talk about institutional discrimination within the criminal justice system without putting a face to the cops who did that.
She’s gonna “work on the offense, as I said, I worked in a justice department.” Apparently any state that passes legislation restricting access is up to the scrutiny of her justice department? Like her department would do preclearance in the federal department of justice. Is this a thing? Does anyone know any lawyers who can help explain to me if this is like a thing that happens.
“This is not just about power, this is about the law.” Come the fuck on dude. “This is about equality, it’s about equal rights… It’s about fighting for what’s right under the Constitution, and that’s how I think about this issue.”
I don’t like this.
9:50am: JOHN HICKENLOOPER.
I’ve been waiting for this fucker. He was asked how he would help expand access to healthcare specifically for Black women. He’s talking about how his mom supported Planned Parenthood during the depression. What a fucking dork.
When he was governor of Colorado he expanded access, Planned Parenthood “put up billboards”, he’s just yammering until he can get to the stats about teen pregnancy and abortion reduction. OH AND HE SAVED TAXPAYERS $7 MILLION DOLLARS*. WOW. LMFAO.
He wants to inject Title X with 700 million dollars. Which whatever, that money is going to CPCs right now thanks to the gag rule so what’s your fucking point, John.
Also, he should never say the words “certain urban neighborhoods” again. He just sounds racist. Actually he always sounds racist. IDK.
- He received no applause for this.
9:59am: A young woman just stood up and described her personal experience with the difficulty of getting an abortion. He literally said “it’s horrifying that these barriers are being set in place with your tax dollars.” He’s making abortion into a tax issue. This is fucking insane.
“How about we try science for a little bit of a change?” Big epic bingo, John. “When asked what to do about women’s reproductive rights, it’s called facts.” What about logic, John?
Now he’s talking about being laid off as a manager for fracking geologists and when he started a restaurant. “In the restaurant business, you learn that everyone is equal… it’s about service.” This has nothing to do with abortion. He’s completely incoherent. I can’t follow what he’s saying at all. I feel like I’m listening to a different language but not a human language and not a recent one. It’s like listening to Ancient Greek Dog language.
10:04: Elizabeth Warren. She’s been immediately asked about reproductive health for the incarcerated. This question whips.
“We have to think about healthcare for everyone, men, women, trans…” Dude just be normal about trans people, you sound so weird. This was an easy question for her because she just got to tell the story about the time that she persuaded federal prisons to give inmates pads.
Next question, she was asked about how she would enact protection laws for abortion with a split congress. She’s extremely good on this issue I’m not going to lie here.
“I say, it is time to go on offense for Roe v. Wade. It’s not enough to rely on the courts.” She’s still not answering the question about dealing with a conflicted Congress.
10:13am: Question about fetal personhood laws and chipping away at rights to access for birth control, gyno clinics and abortion.
“Let’s make sure that Planned Parenthood stays fully funded, and Medicare for All for All People”. LIZ DO YOU MEAN IT THIS TIME OR WHAT.
“It’s an attack on women who have fewer resources. It’s a class attack on women. It’s a race attack on women.” She’s in all the way. Good for her, she sounds like a reasonable human being on this, which is great because no one else has yet.
10:18am: Mayor Pete didn’t get enough cheers so they had to coerce the audience to give a shit. I’m absolutely thrilled by this development. Absolutely no one likes him and it’s great.
In Indiana, apparently women sometimes feel isolated! What a surprise Mayor, women are people.
“There’s short term and long term and both of them have to do with freedom.” He’s said freedom like 900 times and it’s been literally two minutes. “There’s not that much commitment to freedom. I will appoint justices who have a commitment to freedom.” I love freedom. It ain’t free, but it’s freedom.
He’s showing his hand on court packing by saying that Republicans changed the number of the Supreme Court “to eight, just a couple years ago.” *jacking off motion*
Now he’s explaining what TRAP laws are and how they work to a giant room full of reproductive justice advocates. You can still mansplain if you’re gay, few know this.
10:25am: Really powerful story and question from an undocumented immigrant woman speaking to the difficulty with obtaining healthcare as an undocumented person.
Pete: “It is harder to lie to someone about their own life and it is harder to hate up close.” Dude no it isn’t have you ever met a bigot? “No one should ever fear seeking medical treatment.” No shit. “Access to care should be universal and universal means everyone.” He’s just speaking in tautologies.
Oh cool now he’s on one about elective opt-in Medicare for Whoever Wants It and that it “needs to be available to everyone”. This is a dogshit answer to an undocumented immigrant. Sorry, but fuck you dude. “It needs to be accessible to undocumented people as well.” Oh yeah lets help these people terrified of going to the doctor in the first place opt-into a government registry about their healthcare that sounds super safe.
10:30am: Mayor Bill DeBlasio. Did I spell that right? I don’t care, I’m going outside for a minute I do not give a single shit about this man running for president.
10:31am: OH GOD HE JUST DID AN IMPRESSION OF THE PRESIDENT.
10:40am: Sorry, the audience person asking the question just said “if men could have abortions, this wouldn’t even be a discussion.” Literally fuck off you transphobe, this is so fucking annoying.
“Choice, freedom to choose on so many matters, is an American value.” Thanks Mayor. This whole discussion just got so transphobic. Ugh.
Anyway I’m barely listening to the Mayor speak because this is just so trite and boring. He’s leaning into universal health care really hard which is good. He’s talking about how women need universal healthcare to thrive and be healthy. He’s just yelling about women.
10:45am: Lunch break. Buuuuhhhhhhh
Lunch thoughts: I’m still stuck on Kamala Harris’s line of thinking here. Specifically, when Charlene Carruthers was speaking specifically about the institutional racism that her mother experienced and that she observed growing up, she was specifically speaking to the axis of reproductive healthcare and institutional racism. What’s interesting to me is that Harris sort of glazed over that, and told a story just about also observing discrimination against her own mother growing up, but without that crucial element of reproductive rights.
Additionally, Carruthers specifically stated that abortion should be free, on demand and without apology, at which point Harris interrupted her and said “free of judgement”. I really wanted this to be made more clear from Harris, does she support free, on demand abortion? She was very limited on her statements about access so like maybe she doesn’t.
This factory-like mechanism of pumping candidates through and barraging them with questions and with no investigation into their responses makes me wonder what this whole thing is really supposed to do. There are fundamental questions worth asking, demanding an answer to, in this larger discussion that I feel aren’t really being given their due time. I knew this was going to be a farcical nice time smiley face yay us event, but I was hoping I could glean at least a little more insight into how these candidates are thinking about Reproductive Justice overall.
More Lunch Thoughts: Asked a lawyer about Harris’s preclearance idea and like that used to be a thing under the Civil Rights Act but then the Supreme Court decided that Black people are equal now and don’t need preclearance protections for state laws that infringe on the Voting Rights Act. So effectively she would have to convince the Supreme Court that people with uteri are specifically targeted for having their rights and freedoms infringed upon, in specific states that have passed egregious TRAP laws and then the states would be able to respond saying no they don’t. With the Supreme Court as conservative as it is now this seems like a weird convoluted fantasy so it’s interesting that Harris wants to make this the distinguishing aspect of her platform on reproductive rights.
11:36am: We’re back and they’re reminding us of important rules like “one diva, one mic” and “glitter not shade” which is a new one to me but certainly a giant improvement from “don’t yuck anyone’s yum”.
11:37am: JOE BIDEN. He’s a giant weirdo immediately. He can’t stop interrupting the panelist.
Softball question about “how you would put forward a budget that eliminates Hyde”. Immediately, he launches into rambling about how he wants to expand the ACA to provide “Medicaid and Medicare type” care. He says that in looking to expand this he decided that Hyde is bad. What the fuck this is the first I’ve heard for this.
“I’ve had a 100% voting record — “ MIC CUT BECAUSE HE’S LYIIIING. “I would immediately extend healthcare for everyone, I don’t have time to explain it, look at my website.” Hillary Clinton tactics! Very cool and effective.
He wants to codify Roe v. Wade as modified by Casey? He wants to make a law making PP v. Casey a fucking law. This is horrific and absurd what is happening.
Oh wow, he brought up the Global Gag Rule. Oh no, “we are the saviors around the world”, you can always count on Joe to talk about Imperialism.
He’s all over the place and like 90% wrong or bad with everything he’s said. Incredible. He’s so magical.
11:43am: The speaker stands up and Joe says “I wanna see you, I wanna look at you.” He can’t not be a creep for two seconds.
Oh god I think that this question is going to be about reproductive health care coverage for the military. Which is just a completely terrible question to ask Joe goddamned Biden. I guess it’s about access to care overall, whatever that’s fine. This audience member is really passionate and a great storyteller.
Joe: “What we’re going to have to see to is that all of that changes.” Joe’s solutions to almost any question is always prison. Tricare should cover “your circumstance”. Joe you’re in a comfortable room, you can say the abobo-word.
“We have to expand access to transgender women, we don’t think about this very often. 10 trans women have been killed this year!” Sort of a non sequitur but also like good on Joe for bringing up trans women, I guess. Conversely can we also care about trans men? What about enbies? Like one time? Please?
Lmao now he’s asking if he can go out and meet the audience member that asked him the question. “I’d like to see her.” Lmao.
11:54am: Jay Inslee. I had no idea he was still a governor of somewhere. I think this is the first time that I have looked at his face and understood that that is Jay Inslee’s face. Fascinating. There are so many of these people. This is so hard. He believes that reproductive health care is health care.
“This is a freedom interest.” I have no idea what this means but we have our first “between a woman and her doctor” of the day. Honestly I’m surprised it took this long. Incredible. Inslee likes universal health care, I guess Washington has a public option. Cool.
I should have put “constitutional right” on the bingo card but I wasn’t thinking totally clearly when I did it.
11:59am: The audience member is telling this really long, drawn out, heartbreaking abortion story but Jay Inslee keeps “hmm”-ing through this whole story and it’s extremely distracting.
Jay is really going hard after Republicans, pointing out that the daughters of powerful Republicans get abobos all the time. “This is Freedom Funding, this funding is about freedom.” Freedom Funding. Freedom Funding. There’s something really insane about this phrase but I can’t put my finger on it. Anyway he also said that abortion should be a civil right.
OH WOW FINALLY SOMEONE FUCKING MENTIONS SEX EDUCATION. HELL YEAH JAY INSLEE. He wants to fully fund and build sex education into the curriculum in public schools. Downside: He said that LARC stands for “Long Acting Reproductive Care” because his state reimburses it. That’s not what it stands for, it means “Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives”.
12:07pm: Let’s get weird, it’s Marianne Williamson.
“There’s nothing more spiritual than that there is something alive inside of us.” Holy fuck I did NOT expect this to be this strange already. Why is her voice like this! Wow! She wants to overthrow the patriarchy! She doesn’t like laws that are made by men!
“There’s still a little bit of pretty please in this, like they’re doing us a favor.” What, this country and world can’t be what it needs to be? We need to self actualize? We need to do yoga? I don’t understand, she talks so fast and is so fascinating to watch.
12:11am: Marianne couldn’t hear the audence question because she has hearing aides and didn’t say anything about it?! Anyway now she’s answering the question about expanding rights and access by saying that “we need to water the leaves”. This woman is shockingly incredible. I love her so much.
“The deeper existential question of our time, we need to not be divided by our sex, sexuality or cultural differences.” She also keeps saying “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and “by the people for the people”. Oh good, lady woo, we “get things deeper” than men do. “We need to go further than fighting, we need to claim our freedom. You go after her?!! We need to reclaim our POWER.”
Lmao they tried to get her to soften about how she just responded to a Black woman by saying that “we need to not be divided by cultural issues” but instead of expressing any racial sensitivities she just said “we used to have to point out that Black is Beautiful, luckily those days are behind us. Now it’s ‘any size is beautiful’.” Marianne you have a beautiful mind.
12:20pm: I don’t know who John Delaney is but he has a frog in his throat and I can’t listen to him at all. He just said something about “under a Delaney Administration”. I’m going to start talking about hypotheticals “under a Macker Administration”.
They just asked a question about prioritizing women cabinet members and I just screamed “MORE WOMEN GUARDS”. He cares about this topic because he has four daughters and his wife is on the board of a population control nonprofit. Delaney: He loves imperialism because he knows a woman or two. The US needs to lead on imperialism, genius.
12:30pm: My god this man is the most bland human being on the face of the planet. His plan for universal healthcare is basically just the ACA plus a basic plan for free plus a jesus christ i can’t even bring myself to care about what he’s saying this is impossibly boring.
12:32pm: Julian Castro, who I completely forgot was a person running for president, is asked about TRAP laws and preventing the politicization of health centers that provide abortion care. He thinks Planned Parenthood and Wendy Davis (name drop) has just been tremendous.
12:34pm: He said reproductive justice! There we go. Sidewalks are healthcare, he says, because he’s an urban planner deep down. Good for him. Mentioned the unhomed population, government housing and how those things are interconnected into reproductive health care. Sounds good, this is fresh for this otherwise wildly stale event.
He wants to extend reproductive rights to the trans community, and mentions that we need to be inclusive. Good for him on being normal about trans people, doing great doing great.
12:40pm: Black queer immigrant organizer from Minnesota telling a story about wanting to become a parent and their struggles with being nonbinary and wanting to be a parent while the pervasive narrative is against the idea of trans people having children. This is a fantastic question and I love it. How is he going to expand care to trans and queer people who require access to care?
Castro then makes a fun point to ask pronouns which is charming. He wants to pass the Equality Act to detract from discrimination on health care, housing and employment. “Often, the trans community are pitted against the rest of the LGBT community, and we need to ensure that the will be included.” This is extremely what I wanted out of a town hall like this???? I’m very pleased???? Very cool????????????
“I don’t want to make this country anything it’s ever been, I want to make it better.” Alright dude, cool.
12:47pm: Beto Time. He went for a run this morning. He’s from the desert southwest. He’s a human piece of beef jerky.
He likes the border and his binational town of El Paso. He was specifically asked about border security and the detention camps which is a softball question but is still super important to cover here. He’s stating that we shouldn’t actually detain people but do case management so that they can actually access health care. That’s chill.
Oh no, “this is reminiscent of a scene from A Handmaid’s Tale”. Please just shoot me.
12:52pm: Beto mispronounced the audience questioner’s name. I’m glad she corrected him.
Anyway she’s a domestic worker and has a difficult time obtaining reproductive health care. She wants to know how he will expand access to care specifically IN HOME CARE which is an important and very overlooked aspect of this conversation!
Beto answers by saying that unions are important for this. Which is not untrue, and also good to mention in this conversation I suppose but also like that was not this question. The right to organize is tied to the right to reproductive and economic justice. Again not untrue. I do like this union championing business but it’s weird to center unions in his abortion platform. I don’t know maybe I’m just not being creative enough.
He’s asked to speak directly to the fucking travesty of what has happened in Texas. More than a quarter of Texas repro clinics have closed and he mentions the disparity between infant mortality between the Black community and white people. He boosts the idea of home visits by doctors as part of the overall necessity for health care.
I’m starting to drag, I’m tired and bored. It’s been four hours.
1:12pm: Thank god there was a break. Now it’s time for Bernie.
Wait, first apparently they need to lead a dance for a moment. Ugh.
1:14pm: Everyone fucking loves Bernie Sanders. How is he going to work around the people that don’t agree with him to protect reproductive care?
First of all, Medicare for All. Naturally, reproductive rights and abortion rights came up. Obviously, if we’re talking about healthcare for all and the right of women to control their own lives. It repeals the Hyde Amendment and guarantees reproductive care including abortion.
WHY THE FUCK ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HEATH FUCKING MELLO. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS. IT WAS ONE GUY AND HE WASN’T THAT FUCKING BAD. JESUS H CHRIST ARE YOU JOKING. Anyway he says that it’s not negotiable anymore which great that’s cool or whatever.
His lifetime record is 100% pro-choice and in opposition to Hyde, and his initiative to expand access to clinics in the form of community health centers. The right to control one’s own body is a constitutional right, to him, and he’ll defend that right vigorously.
1:20pm: For the first time the audience questioner is a cis guy and a community organizer from Miami. He wants to know about Bernie talking around or at women instead of with them or elevating their voices. He’s also had difficulties as a teacher because of something like a #NoPromoHomo law in Florida that says that teachers can’t talk about reproductive options with students?
“If there ever was a time for men to stand up and join women in that fight now is the moment.” Good on Bernie, that was a weird question I thought. He’s now praising Planned Parenthood probably to fix the whole “establishment” debacle. Which, fine, they are. Against CPCs, he thinks that actual clinics need to be funded.
Bernie makes a shout out to me, personally (lol jk), about Planned Parenthood’s extremely good work on sex education. That’s good, he’s one of two people that mentioned it basically so far.
Now he’s on his yelling speech stump thing about M4A. I can tune out now. You know what he’s saying.
1:28pm: Here’s Andrew Yang. Sure. Fine. Whatever.
He wants to repeal Hyde. Now he wants to remind everyone that he wants to give everyone $1000/mo. This has something to do with funding for reproductive clinics. “For me, we have to do the trickle up economy”. Are you shitting me? Is this the shit that he actually says.
Anyway, he thinks that women do work that is the must undervalued although it has great worth (his wife stays at home and he does not like this).
“I’ve told a joke about this, which is if men got pregnant this wouldn’t be a problem, hahahha” Oh? DID YOU COME UP WITH THAT ALL BY YOURSELF, ANDREW?????? He thinks over the counter birth control is good.
1:33pm: Direct question about the stigma against Black women in terms of reproductive justice, and this questioner is awesome and very direct. Also she organizes for students in Palestine and is wearing a keffiyeh. Big fan, personally.
Andrew tells women and specifically Black women that they should not feel shame. Thank you, Andrew. He then just goes back to his $1000 plan and says that MLK also liked the idea of UBI base pay. What the fuck come on dude get a platform.
“Thank you for everything you do, there are people that benefit of your work.” Sorry, this guy is a giant patronizing worm. “I should just leave the room and then come back and women should just tell us what you want to do.” Buddy, fuck off.
1:39pm: Wait we’re doing audience statements now about what they have learned. Is this over now? Is that all of them? Are you sure we’re not missing someone? Is Cory Booker a person? My head hurts.
1:46pm: Oh god I completely blanked out while Eric Swalwell was speaking. Are you going to be okay? Is it okay for you, reader, that I missed whoever this man is saying words that are probably in many ways exactly the same as things that you have already heard today?? WILL YOU SURVIVE?
The audience member is the child of immigrants, had two abortions and is now a lawyer and a reproductive choice organizer. There’s something incredibly macabre about how for every candidate there’s a person with a difficult and deeply personal story willing to lay bare their most interior and personal decisions for the purpose of asking a question in a nearly meaningless townhall. This is so bleak. It’s so bleak and sad.
Eric thinks we should have free contraception, sex education and also do reproductive imperialism.
“We will be raising a male feminist.” Dude really is it 2015.
He likes independent redistricting and doesn’t like dark money. Thanks bro.
1:54pm: Cory Booker is up and actually a person and boy do the ladies LOVE him. He’s so happy to be here you guys.
Lets talk to the big pharm man about bringing down the cost of health care. He has lived “for decades now” in a “low income inner city community where we don’t confuse wealth with worth”. He thinks we can take pharm patents from companies that drive up costs. He’s very into driving down costs.
He wants to “fund and expand funding, and elevate salaries of low income families”. This sucks. He doesn’t like the Trump tax plan and wants to give “families” tax cuts. He wants to extend health care to old people (?) and incarcerated people, especially incarcerated women (good ok). “You do not surrender your human rights if you’re in prison, you never surrender your human rights”.
Kelley (one of the panel moderators) cannot disguise her love for Senator Booker. “Wow! You are nothing if not a man of the people!”
2:01pm: A Sioux tribe member is bringing up Indigenous issues surrounding rape and domestic abuse, and the Hyde Amendment’s restrictions on accessibility. She brings up that South Dakota is a vitrual desert for abortion care. If you’re reading this please donate to the abortion fund for South Dakota.
Cory doesn’t like Hyde, the gag rules or any of this business that restrict access, no sir. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere.” Thank god someone is paying attention to rural women. Not Cory, who wouldn’t have talked about this if he didn’t get this question, but for this audience member. Cory is mostly boring and his plan sucks. That’s all you really need to know.
He quoted James Baldwin writing to Angela Davis and now he’s fucking SCREAMING. OKAY DUDE CALM DOWN.
2:08pm: Amy Klobuchar. Can she get a new stylist? Her hair is a literal helmet.
What would Amy do to restore legitimacy to the Courts? Personally, I believe that anything short of “abolish the Court” is bullshit. Anyway Amy is saying something about her daughter maybe and how she had a hard time not being in the hospital after giving birth. I guess that’s how she got involved in politics. Who cares.
“We need to make sure that we have judges that follow the law of the land.” No shit? God what’s the fucking point of this. Why is she running.
Apparently, Amy’s staff forgot to add the repeal of the Global Gag Rule to her 100 things that she will do on her first day in office. Please pray for her staff, someone will likely die this night.
2:13pm: This question is going to be about the Hyde Amendment. Amy doesn’t like the Hyde Amendment. Minnesota has Medicaid funding for abortion.
She heard the applause for Booker talking about incarceration issues and so now she’s trying to talk about health care in the carceral system and no one gives a shit. No one cares, they’re all as tired and dead inside as I am. The audience applause for Cory was the last gust of energy, motivated primarily by Horny. None of us can barely bring ourselves to even give a shit any longer.
Amy said “Obama” and there was one tiny, pathetic “woo” from the audience. That’s not me, but I understand that tiny, pathetic “woo”.
God she just brought up the March for Science because it’s her favorite march. How fucking stupid is it that these people can have a “favorite” march? Fuck this shit. Now we’re applauding for Doug Jones winning in the Senate. Amy has never left DC not physically but in her mind. I hate her.
2:21pm: Tim Ryan. Who the fuck cares are you kidding who cares why who even is this person why is he doing this to us how fucking dare he.
2:22pm: “A woman should be able to determine the size of her family” AUGH WHO ARE YOU WHY DO I CARE ABOUT YOU YOU’RE SO BORING SHUT UP
“When I first got to congress I was a pro-life democrat” NO WHAT THE FUCK NO. FUCK THIS GUY. I DON’T CARE ABOUT HIS PERSONAL EVOLUTION. I DON’T CARE THAT HE LISTENED TO WOMEN. NO.
2:25pm: Literally this is just a “listen to women” guy who is suddenly pro-choice because he got married and it was politically convenient. Sorry but I’m largely a one or two issue voter about reproductive justice and I’m never going to trust someone like that. It’s really annoying that he felt the need to waste my time and the time of other people when he could have just not made his case on this today.
2:31pm: I know that personal stories are really important or whatever (are they, honestly?) but this parade of people explaining their rapes and health issues and economic issues but mostly their rapes are starting to really just drag on me. I understand why they are using these particular stories for these questions but it would be really awesome to be able to watch something like this without having to suppress my PTSD.
2:33pm: Tim Ryan thinks the best way to fix this is through being inclusive and not divisive and also winning elections. Fuck this man. Launch him directly into the Sun.
2:39pm: I don’t know who Seth Moulton is but he just launched into a diatribe about how much Iraqis love us and loved the occupation of Iraq. He said that “Baghdad Bob preceded Fox News” which it totally didn’t. I don’t know what this has to do with anything but he wants to repeal the Global Gag Rule.
Now he’s talking about equal pay and like dude who cares. He’s proud to be from the state that did RomneyCare and did gay marriage before Obergefell.
2:43pm: Okay, so, the current audience question asker is incredibly depressed, suicidal and on the verge of tears. I’m becoming very aggravated by the idea that they need to trot out a person who is very unstable with a tragic story for the purpose of asking a simple fucking question to some asshole who barely gives a shit. What this forum is doing to these people isn’t elevating voices, it’s commodifying pain and suffering for the purpose of augmenting a brand and a political tagline. I can’t stand this.
2:46pm: Moulton wants to repeal Hyde. Elections matter. We need to flip house districts. He focuses on veterans. Also the person asking the question has “a lot of courage”. Great. Thanks.
He’s talking about his own struggle with PTSD which is fine. His PTSD stems from an event where an Iraqi child was killed in front of him and it took a long time but he went and saw a therapist and it “changed his life”. There’s too much to unpack here and I don’t care.
2:52pm: Michael Bennet. He’s a Senator. He freaked out on the floor of the Senate at Ted Cruz one time. I’m not sure what the point of him is.
He wont appoint a judge that wont uphold Roe. He keeps saying that the Republicans have been “relentlessly strategic” and he is correct. That’s good at least.
He likes universal healthcare, but Medicare X and it’s just a fucking pathetic public option. That’s bad, I’ll explain later if necessary. “I don’t think Bernie’s proposal is the way to go… There is an existing healthcare system.” Fuck this guy. “Let’s give people the choice for families and young people to choose for themselves.” Fuck you.
Why are these people applauding? Can these people fuck off forever? This is such dogshit.
2:58pm: The audience questioner is an old ass white lady. She has a story about the pre-Roe environment and receiving access through an illegal operation.
Bennet: “I have not been here all day.” Good for you, bitch.
“My daughter is fighting for rights her mother never had to fight for because her grandmother won them for her.” FUCK OFF.
3:04pm: I’m glad this is over. This was horrible, unfunny and bad. like 70% of these people should drop out because this is just inflicting pain and bullshit onto the American public.
I’ll write a whole roundup later. Don’t but me about it, I need to severely decompress.
