Issues
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.
Jo Freeman's Book Reviews: Looking back 40 years at the National Women's Conference in Houston
Jo Freeman reviews: Leader and Hyatt look at each of the planks in the National Plan, assessing what has changed and what hasn't. Spruill pays more attention to politics, following the ways in which feminists and anti-feminists polarized party politics and presidential elections. She finds that both the Democratic and Republican parties were substantially changed by the feminist and anti-feminist blocks within them. In the 2016 election, Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump long before he won the primaries, while organized feminism turned out the troops for Hillary Clinton. Abortion has become a litmus test in each party, and women, both feminists and anti-feminists, write the relevant planks within each party's platform.
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C-Span Video: Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Faith Leaders, Health Advocates Condemn Tax Reform Bill
ON BEHALF OF MY COLLEAGUES THAT I'M HONORED TO JOIN IN WELCOMING SOME VERY SPECIAL GUESTS TODAY, WHO WILL TELL THEIR STORIES AND WHY WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE IS AN IMMORALITY. IT'S A BETRAYAL OF THE ROLE WE HAVE TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, WILL INDEBT FUTURE GENERATIONS AND LET'S HEAR THEIR STORIES, ADDIE BARKIN, CAMPAIGN FOR DEMOCRACY DIAGNOSED WITH ALS. THANK YOU FOR BEING WITH US. I THINK AS RACHEL -- ARE RACHEL AND CARL HERE? THEY WERE HERE LAST NIGHT. THEY HAVE BEEN AROUND THE CAPITAL ADVOCATING FOR A BETTER AND HEALTHIER AMERICA. THANK YOU. LAUREN HATCHER, MOTHER OF SIMON. SIMON IS HERE WITH HIS PARTY ANIMAL T-SHIRT ON AND TIGGER. DIAGNOSED WITH CEREBRAL PALSY AND SOME OTHER ISSUES LAURA WILL DISCUSS AND UNIQUE DISORDER. SIMON BENEFITS FROM MEDICAID. AND YOU ALL KNOW SISTER SIMONE CAMPBELL, A LOBBY FOR CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE. YOU'LL BE HEARING FROM THEM AND FROM OUR DISTINGUISHED RANKING MEMBER OF THE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE RICHIE NEAL OUR CHAMPION ON THIS ISSUE. THANK YOU. more »
Congressional Actions, Bill Markups: Human Trafficking, End Banking for Human Traffickers Act, PROSPER Act
The House Judiciary Committee approved, by voice vote, H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017, as amended. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations have held hearings on the bill (see The Source, 12/1/17 and 10/6/17, respectively). Sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), the bill, among other provisions, would ensure the ability to enforce federal and state criminal law relating to sexual exploitation of children or sex trafficking. more »
Cost Estimate for the Conference Agreement on H.R. 1; Estimated Budgetary Effects
Title I would amend numerous provisions of U.S. tax law. Among other changes, the bill would reduce most income tax rates for individuals and modify the tax brackets for those taxpayers; increase the standard deduction and the child tax credit; repeal deductions for personal exemptions; repeal or limit certain itemized deductions; and increase the exemption amounts for the individual alternative minimum tax. Those changes would take effect on January 1, 2018, and would be scheduled to expire after December 31, 2025. The bill also would permanently repeal the penalties associated with the requirement that most people obtain health insurance coverage (also known as the individual mandate). more »
