Waging a war on three fronts

My partner and I love doing the usual things together – going to the movies, running, dinning out and whole host of things. Really too many to list out. We also share a deep and abiding faith in social justice.

Our discussions on politics and causes can last for hours if we let them. But we can also talk for hours about cupcakes, ice cream and more silly things. Over the last several months we make an effort to condense those discussions down into a podcast covering three topics or themes entitled A&E’s 1-2-3. Usually running between 5-7 minutes the topics range from women’s issues and current events to the premiere of a new television show or a favorite ice cream (we like mixing the serious and the not so much).

In our latest podcast we were completely serious because serious times call for serious discussions. The conservative movement is waging a political war on three separate fronts.

1. Women’s Rights – From trying to redefine rape to end funding for Title X’s family planning efforts, the anti-choice movement is rapidly trying to take basic rights away from half the country. Within our podcast we mostly talk about the effort to de-fund Planned Parenthood.

I have written extensively on other attacks such as the billboard in SoHo equating abortion in the African American community as genocide. Or the demonization of Planned Parenthood as a drive-thru abortion facility when in reality only 3% of all it’s services fall into the category of a perfectly legal medical procedure.

The underlying desire for conservatives in this front is to ultimately to take away any aspect of reproductive choice (contraceptives or even STD & cervical cancer screenings) from women.

2. Public Access – They want to take away my Cookie Monster. Seriously, who wants to take away a childhood memory like Sesame Street? House and Senate Republicans have railed against runaway spending and in an attempt to rein it in they’ve taken an ax to anything dealing with public access.

Funds for PBS? Gone! NPR? Gone! National Endowment for the Arts? Gone! Americorps? Annihilated!

This assault is an attempt to do away with anything having to do with pushing our own educational boundaries. We can even throw in the massive cuts to Head Start and Pell Grants in terms of funding standard education. Instead of making common sense cuts to the Defense budget or closing tax loopholes or ending corporate welfare – they say to slash our access to public tools of education.

3. Working and Middle Class – We’ve all been paying attention to the struggle in Wisconsin. We know the possible affect it could have around the country. I personally believe that what happens in Madison certainly won’t stay there.

We know these fights for workers’ rights are beginning to happen all around the country. What most people are not paying attention to is the fact Republicans in the House have not offered up one honest job proposal. Instead they have tried to focus on the two issues mentioned above. They are doing nothing to help move the economy forward and their budget proposals would only make things worse.

A confidential new report prepared by Goldman Sachs for its clients says spending cuts passed by the House of Representatives last week would be a drag on the economy, cutting economic growth by about two percent of GDP.

“Under the House passed spending bill [which cut spending by $61 billion],” says the report, which was obtained by ABC News, “the drag on GDP growth from federal fiscal policy would increase by 1.5pp to 2pp in Q2 and Q3 compared with current law.”

Elizabeth and I mentioned in the podcast the idea of Republicans wanting a double dip recession in order to win the Presidency in 2012. I don’t think many in this community would disagree with that.

Extreme conservatives are waging a war. We need to be fighting tooth and nail.

Thanks for reading and listening to the podcast. Please check out my partner’s site if you get the chance.