In this video I, as one of Barack Obama's earliest supporters, lecture him and Senate Democrats on just how pathetic their willingness to "compromise" with Republicans on extending the tax cut for the rich is -- and I offer a different way of characterizing their lack of strength, getting away from the traditional misogynistic terminology.
To win for themselves and the American people, all the President, Harry Reid and the Democrats have to do is force the Senate Republicans actually to filibuster the bill that extends tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans.
If the Democrats don't have the courage to fight for what's right or publicly supported (only 26% of Americans favor extending the cuts for the rich; in fact a majority of Republicans want the cuts for the rich to expire) when they are in a no-lose situation, they are spineless, gutless, and any number of other non-gendered adjectives. But let's stop using language indicating that this makes them like women:
Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College. His book Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History, upon which his analysis of the use of language of sexual imagery to degrade people is based, is presently out of print.
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