March being Women’s History Month, today I’m grateful for the
women in both houses of Congress, who are making history. Women comprise 25% of
the Senate (17 Democratic, eight Republican) and 23% of the House (89
Democratic, 13 Republican). It’s not a full representation of women in America,
but it’s not only a start, it’s a major step forward.
(US News & World Report has given us photos
of the women of the 116th Congress, which I find fascinating—a vast
range of ages, backgrounds, colors…)
In particular, I’m in awe of the freshman class in the House. Here’s
a photo of that class:
You’ll notice that Republicans basically sent more of the same of
what they’ve been electing since the Hoover administration. But the Democrats—whee
doggies. They look like…America.
And those freshmen women are stepping up to do the job their
constituents elected them to do. They are not standing around waiting to be
asked, they’re digging in and getting it done. Just the public questioning of
klepto-fixer Michael Cohen was inspiring. In her five minutes at bat (and in
stark contrast to the screeching pearl-clutching and middle-school taunting of
every R on the committee), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s focused queries elicited
names and details that will keep phalanxes of state and federal investigators
on the hop for months.
They’re brash and outspoken, these women, which royally pisses off
the political old guard, who are, let’s face it, old, white, male Rs. You can’t
go a single day without one of them shaking his old, white, male conservative
finger at AOC or Ilhan Omar or Ayanna Pressley, who are irrefutably guilty of
being not old, not male, not white, not Republican and even not “Christian”.
Yes, their youth and brashness lead to sometimes cringeworthy
moments. But I’ll take them over those fossilized parasites any day. They give
me hope, which is always something worthy of gratitude.
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