Authors
Jo Freeman: There’s Plenty To Do at the RNC – If You Have the Right Credentials
by Jo Freeman
Every national nominating convention has plenty of auxiliary events, some authorized, some not. Getting space can be a challenge; getting the word out even more so. But they do it nonetheless. Press were given a RNC 2024 Master Event Calendar, which was updated a few days later. Events began on Sunday and ended on Thursday. The actual convention sessions were just one item on the list. The calendar said if an event was Open or Closed to press, and also whom to contact to register. I’m going to describe some of the events, including a couple I went to, and a couple I was turned away from.
Since my focus is on women, I obviously wanted to go to those events – if I could.
The National Federation of Republican Women is the largest grassroots Republican women's organization in the country with hundreds of clubs. Founded in 1938, its members made the phone calls and knocked on the doors that elected Republican candidates for decades. It’s Tuesday luncheon featured Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders. The Master Calendar said it was SOLD OUT and they wouldn’t let me in. I was able to get into their lounge at the Fiserv Forum Wednesday evening, where I was repeatedly asked if I was a member, and if not, would I join. “I’m press,” I said. “I can’t join anything partisan.” I then said: “What brings you here?” On hearing that, finding anyone willing to chat with me was like pulling teeth.
Moms for Liberty met in a concert hall that afternoon. I had pre-registered, and I got in. From high in a balcony seat I listened to several people talk about the evils of transgenderism. It’s webpage says WE BELIEVE Power Belongs to the People. Sound Familiar? With a focus is on parental rights, it wants to “STOP WOKE indoctrination.”
Tuesday I went to “The New Mavericks” reception co-hosted by the Black Republican Mayors Association and the Georgia Republican Party. They honored Sen. Tim Scott, four Congressmen and two Georgia delegates – all male. There was only one mayor on stage, from Aurora, IL. The chair of the Georgia Republican Party was the one white man on the stage. At that event, women served; they didn’t speak. The RNC reported that 55 delegates to the 2024 convention are Black, up from 18 in 2016.
I missed the Independent Women’s Forum toast to “Women Who Make Our Country Great” because I went to Convention Fest: The Official Delegate Experience, which was held in the streets outside the Fiserve Forum and Baird Hall as well as some space inside Baird. To get to that one you not only needed a credential of some sort, but a USSS pass (which I have).
Concerned Women for America parked its pink bus across from the Baird Center the week before the RNC. No one was home. When Convention Fest opened on Tuesday afternoon, they set up a pink tent, from which its leaders preached to whomever passed by. It calls itself “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization” but its focus is evangelical Christian. The slogan on the side of its pink bus captures this emphasis: “She Prays, She Votes.” A prayer precedes each sermon.
A White House Health Reform Reality Check, Hiking health insurance premiums 95 percent? Surgery vs. Abortions? Counseling to Die?
The White House Reality Check for Health Insurance Reform. FactCheck.org: The latest ad from the group Conservatives for Patients’ Rights claims that 'new rules could hike your health insurance premiums 95 percent.' That’s misleading.Bills pending in Congress – at least those that have made it through the committee level – don’t mention abortion at all. Furthermore, none of the bills call explicitly for cuts in Medicare coverage, or rationing under a public plan. False Euthanasia Claims - The claim that the House health care bill pushes suicide is nonsense. more »
Following The Puppy Diaries
"Puppies tie you down, drag you out for a walk even when it's sleeting and sink their tiny teeth into your favorite shoes. They offer boundless love, granted unconditionally. They also provide their share of frustrations." more »
And That's the Way It Is
Instead of telling the other guy everything he’s doing wrong, we can do what we know is right and see if we can find a way to work with those whose viewpoints differ from ours.We can do it without editorializing, without pointing fingers. We can deal with facts instead of opinions. We can do it the way Walter Cronkite reported the news. more »
Book Review of We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi
Tracy Sugarman describes the roads different people in the summer project took after 1964, including his own, that of the white couple, local blacks, SNCC and summer workers. In 1978 Sugarman and his wife began a documentary on Fannie Lou Hamer, who had died the year before. Never Turn Back: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer took five years to complete. more »