In the intro we had: "But the Furies took vengeance on wicked men who hurt women and swore false oaths." Then in the article: "This was not a good week to be a dude in politics." Is the target "wicked men who swear false oaths" or just "dudes"? I have no problem with the former, but the latter is problematic.
44
All I can really add is: You Go Girls!
40
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water....ie take something a woman would get knocked unfairly for and make the solution to knock a man unfairly for it rather than point out there’s nothing wrong with it. She mentions Beto ORourke taking time for himself to think, to explore and makes fun of it and mentions that AOC couldn’t get away with it. Yet AOC DID take time (remember her weekend of self care) and yes she did get knocked for it by the get off my lawn crowd.,....but both come from a younger generation that realizes there’s worse things than people(men and women) taking time to think, plan or reflect. Indeed, the fact that Maureen ODowd forgot that AOC did take that while snarking at ORourke for doing that and “rambling” (discussing nuanced subject in nuance while he has time) is pretty much on par for her.
34
Until Melania Trump challenged me, my inner fury was sleeping. If, as she says, women must bring the "evidence" before broaching the subject of their sexual assaults publicly, then allow me.
Guess what, Mo...anyone raped by juveniles between 1967 and 1972 will discover all evidence has been expunged. This was the result of the 1967 Gault Decision. My parents' reporting, my shredded clothing, the detective's notes and photos of suspects. All gone.
But I have a memory, Mo. The sweatshirt worn by my abductor gave my detective the info needed to run down his partner in rape. I wish I could show you that photo.
A teen I had not seen wearing the same sweatshirt, but he'd cut off the sleeves. He'd been pulled out of PE class, and his expression, Mo...beset by Furies! Horrified, trapped, turning from the camera with his mouth agape unable to escape his own evil.
That's all I got, Mo. The authorities expected me to be happy with knowing nothing, essentially. Today's detectives had no idea they had no access to the juvenile histories of rapists, murderers and arsonists between 1967 and 1972, but now they do...thanks to Melania!!
Police took my report, again. Now I'm wondering if my assailants can prove they've already been adjudicated, or double jeopardy is coming like Wyatt Earp...
Anyone sexually assaulted by juveniles between 1967 and 1972 might have some redundant reporting to do!
18
@George Cooper - Agree 100% with your succinct analysis. Klobuchar appears competent, stable, armed with facts, and drama-free.
17
Trump thinks only and exclusively of winning and that is his weakness. It is a big weakness, you can tell how big by the days this shut down continues. Like Humpty he sits on the wall. Setting himself up for a very big fall.
26
It may not have been "a good week to be a dude in politics", according to the author, but you play the hand you are dealt. Ms. Dowd generalizes from the examples of AOC and the several potential Democratic 2020 challengers to (and for) POTUS that have grabbed headlines this past week.
Ho-hum. Human beings without regard to their gender, will rise and fall in response to their competencies, their looks, their attitudes, the competition and their desire to excel. Dowd enjoys tweaking the big boys and, just like the rest of us, she is marveling at the rise of the radical women on the left in politics.
Beyond that, there really isn't much more to say about the phenomenon. Another day, another dollar!
5
Thanks Ms. Dowd. I hope that the Furies found Mitch McConnell and gave him an earful. After reading another NYT article on 'anti-vaxxers', this gave me some hope!
9
AOC and Beto are political lightweights. Although it's fun to watch them ruffle establishment feathers, they clearly aren't people whith the capacity to fix our dysfunctional country.
33
Trump has done for women what they have spent decades trying to do for themselves, that is to gain recognition as equals. Before, Trump, there was no single objective on which to concentrate their efforts. Now there is.
His clear and conscious effort to disparage and dismiss women as mere sex objects unworthy of equal status with male counterparts has united them like never before. Even Republican women have deserted him in droves.
Keep up the pressure ladies, I am a man in your corner.
34
Bravo Maureen. Hopeful, exciting, column esp when optimism is in short supply.
16
So interesting to hear these male comments. Worried about some new representatives looking for Mitch? Mansplaining how to do things the way the old boys do it. Too strident? Not polite? Really?
25
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defines the word lightweight in every sense. she hasn't lived long enough to for me to take notice of snything she says.
20
Good for these women leaders, and I can support them sans the nicknames.
They are going after justice, fairness and respect, dignity and humanity and simple basic decency.
Trump – that strange and disgusting amalgamation of a cheating weasel symbiotically inside a slithering lying snake – should be worried, as these these women are but the front guard of an army of citizens who are gathering to take their country back.
32
Funny how all these "desperate" asylum seekers trek hundreds of miles through Mexico to come to the welfare country of America. If it were a matter of escaping persecution in their own country, wouldn't they would have sought asylum at the first country they entered, Mexico?
They're coming to the U.S. for the welfare pickens: Free education, free healthcare, SNAP program, subsidized housing, sanctuary protection by Democrat-run districts, etc.. In other words, their ACLU-moderated asylum claims are completely bogus.
So it's a good thing that Trump is turning away these migrant freeloaders (and their offspring). We're not the world's welfare sanctuary. Taxpayers are already overburdened by a corrupt and inefficient government and their greedy unions. We're $21 trillion in debt as a nation and cannot afford to take in peasant-class cultures by the boatload, let alone under fraudulent pretense.
Obviously, this is all about Democrats trying to secure more votes since they can't appeal to the intellectual crowd with their reckless socialistic theories promulgated by the ex-bartender Alexandria Occasional Cortex and her ilk.
20
Not all Democratic women I can tell you that for sure.
5
Women aren't the only crowd that can express fury, and the Left is doing a great job of inciting the rage of every non-urban-Lefty in the country. Is that the objective? Making everyone so mad that we'll kick off Civil War II?
9
I say go girl's go set this country straight! Trump people like that he tells it like it is ya Shure he dose! He needs his mouth washed out with soap these women are just the ones to do it and don't stop with just him take Pence and McConnell to the wood shed they need adjusted for bad behavior as well. I would not depend on women of the GOP however they seem to be more followers than leaders. There are men like my self that can not stand these type of men we see them for what they are poison! The women in my life my mom my wife my daughters are all strong women so I know it can be done.
17
what is most dismaying, no matter the party affiliation, is the just flat-out dumb stuff they say, in other words, the quality of the debate is past sad.
while each bloviator has his or her talking points and slogans at the ready, they present them with the all the screech and depth of
parrots.
ok, the "real world" moves at a fast pace, but so few of our electeds and media sages seem to have a secure grasp of the issues behind their slogans, to have given any time to reading or studying anything they say.
how do we get such uninformed characters in places intended to "serve and protect"...we elect them of course, or sign on to their social media poses, like products we buy under the influence of clever ads.
before it gets better (hoping for ignorance to get wise to itself is as dissonant as it sounds) it will get worse as our social media addiction grows, if not in 2020, for sure by 2024 we will elect even more gamers, and, finally, put a president in office who is him or herself a product of gaming, a candidate whose is mediagenic and whose public persona will be created by the special interests (say k street and hollywood for starters) and who will recite their lines, and only thier lines, when they are on display, rather like charley mccarthy than, say, FDR of JFK or BHO or even DJT...just you wait, the prototypes are already in the field.
3
These furies are no match for President Trump. Remember the primaries with the many Republican presidential candidates back in 2016? And the debates with Hillary Clinton. He took them on with a vengeance. He won. He gained the Republican nomination and won the presidency. It was remarkable for a man without any previous political experience.
President Trump is not a man to be reckoned with. These ladies would never have the courage to tackle him alone. He is fierce and they would lose. They are barking up the wrong tree. He is too smart for any of them. They will lose every time.
7
With Karen Pence otherwise engaged, the good news is that she won't be operating in a public school.
18
I use to worry that Nancy was too much of a liability for the Democrats but not anymore! She is schooling trump and his vile misogynistic GOP minions. She is doing a great job and proving that she is the right person for speaker at this point in time. I adore A.O.C.! She thrives where all too many have cowered. The right is afraid of her power and every time they attack her they confirm this and as a result she is becoming even more powerful. Yes, make no mistake we want trump out of power and soon. The Republican party deserves to be severely punished for what they are doing and we will accomplish that by voting them out of power.
35
I have never seen a group of freshmen members of Congress arrive with such a level of arrogance, lack of knowledge about how anything in Congress works, and an agenda that is totally focused on simply opposing anything Trump says or does. In addition to that of course, Cortez has some grand schemes about 'everything should be free, just like in Venezuela', but has made a complete fool of herself every time she tries to explain how it will be paid for.
18
Many of us are simply fed up with all of this. My child is one of the employees who must work. All vacation, sick leave and child care obligations are off the table. My child was reprimanded for leaving the office on Friday to get to his wife and two small children involved in a very serious MVA. Enough!
8
Americans need to wake up to the fact that you no longer have a functioning government. At least the women were trying to do something! Your country is tearing itself apart from the inside out as the political warfare escalates. Rather than criticizing these women, maybe America could help itself by listening to them and try to put your country back together before it’s too late!
29
This PR stunt and the requisite staged photo op that goes with it reminds me of Lombardi's advice to his players after they scored a touchdown: " Act like you have been there before".
11
This is a bunch of Beltway chatter. If both sides really cared about the 800K workers, the problem could end in 30min. Nancy is saying " my way or the highway" take the highway.
13
I think I would rather focus on the power of the electorate rather than the gender of the elected.
It's clear to me that many Americans have expressed their distaste for the hurtful, ridiculous, and unproductive "my way or the highway" style of trump and his cabinet of minions.
I voted for equality, change, accountability, and justice. When I look at the faces of the new House of Representatives I see all of this.
But more than that I see a greater and more representative picture of America. Bring it on.
16
If a male was raised as a child by a wonderful, caring, and loving mother, then he should have no problem in respecting all females. However, if a man judges females by the good high standards of his mother, he may have different opinions about different females.
The same goes for females who were raised by a good father and a good mother and their high standards of opinions.
Respecting others is important. However, it is important to know the difference between “I think” and “I know.”
2
What we see everyday is the operation of the outrage machine. Both Republicans and Democrats clearly believe that appealing to the base is what wins elections and that outrage motivates voters.
800,000 government employees are being treated as pawns in the great political outrage game. Shame on all of us for not demanding better.
4
It’s exhausting watching people fall over themselves with ‘AOC is looking self serving.’ Give me a break. She was elected to do something and the Dems have no power- so she’s making something out of nothing and trying to control the media. Good for her for trying, we know her name bc she’s making good on her promise to voters in the only way she knows how, wish the rest of the reps would try something. You’re buying into the media narrative, get smart. wouldn’t you prefer your rep do something besides wait it out?
18
These newly-elected Representatives as well as the Speaker are showing a much-needed energetic and focused approach on calling out Trump and the GOP.
Neither the President nor his party will be able to withstand consistent, thoughtful rebuttals and counters to their nonsense.
13
Call me when the Democrats actually win the Presidency. This declaration of victory seems a wee bit premature.
10
This is why I teach mythology to elementary students. They are ancient memes. The foibles and furies the stories represent occur and recur- and suddenly our newfound valiant heroines take their places in our archetypes.
10
The only path to a level negotiating field in the US lies in ruling out all legislation that purports to benefit or derive from God.
9
Like everyone else, I desperately want government reopened. I have friends who are federal employees and my heart breaks for them. I'm not a Democrat or Republican. I'm conservative on some issues and liberal on others. I despise Trump for many things but the top 3 are his constant lying, his horrific environmental policies, and his stance on women's rights. Pence is equally abysmal on all of those.
Here is my main point . . . If the Democrats give Trump the wall, he will pull this stunt each time. He would see it as a win and since he doesn't care one bit about the employees (you know . . . They'll adjust), he will shutdown the government each time he gets another crazy idea. If we are going to fight him on this, fight it to where he never tries it again.
34
Emotion is what nobody knows how to confer to any machine.
1
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. In 1963, 15 young black girls -- aged 12 to 15 -- were locked up for almost two months in horrific conditions in the Leesburg Stockade in southern Georgia without their parents knowing where they were, as NPR just reminded us. Their crime? Going to the front window of a theater to get movie tickets during segregation.
Trump has locked up even younger children by the thousands. Yes, women are outraged and so are men.
Nancy Pelosi is a woman who has been tested and prevailed. Her previous nine trips to war zones are a rebuke to Trump. "Low IQ" Maxine Waters is now the chairwoman of an important House committee. Younger women are entering into Democratic leadership positions in droves.
Republicans and Trump greatly underestimate the core anger of women these days. From his sexual assaults to the Kavanaugh hearing farce to the treatment of immigrant children and the ongoing assaults on women's health -- each of these appalling actions will have a reaction.
Madam Speaker of the House with the full support of other Democrats, many Independents and principled Republican women is about to show Trump that his White House needs a spring cleaning.
29
What an insult it is to intelligence to read the Trump stooges here point to a few extreme crimes to deny that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes per capita than people born here. Allocation of resources should depend on the relative severity of problems, not a few sensational cases.
7
Anger and negatives rarely win in the long run. Photo op stunts get forgotten in less than 24hrs in today's news cycles...
These ladies should be taken as seriously as their behavior...
6
It is about time that women strode the halls of Capitol Hill, and poetic justice that their mission is ferreting out their spineless male peers. The cliche, however tired, is impossible to avoid and in this case entirely appropriate: American women are tired of American men sneaking around behind their own constituents' backs and squandering the resources that everything right and decent requires should be spent on the necessities of life. Food. Shelter. Healthcare. Infrastructure. "Mitch, you can run, but you can't hide!"
21
My husband is slightly older than Nancy Pelosi, is also from Baltimore, and knew her family. Baltimore has its own culture, and you better know how to fight and how to sling those zingers at opponents.
Don’t mess with Nancy—she was one of 7 children and the only daughter who got her baptism of fire dealing with 6 brothers growing up in a powerful political Italian family.
We love watching Pelosi springing into action finally, now that the Democrats took 40 seats from the worthless Republicans in the mid-terms. She is Speaker once again, but wielding that gavel as never before.
Also finally, Pelosi getting a lot of help from the new wave of feisty Democrats elected to the House, who are actually reflecting their constituents (rather than padding their bank accounts). The new Democrats were elected because they and millions of Americans are truly fed up and not going take it anymore from the conniving, self-serving, spineless Trump Party (the old conservative Republican Party is defunct and gone).
The optics are great. A petite older Italian-Catholic woman, mother, and grandmother taking on the spoiled, self-serving, temper-tantrum-throwing toddler occupying the White House, who trashes and destroys but has no intention of cleaning up the messes he makes.
Plus, more optics: An army of young House Democrats hunting down the old, morally bankrupt Mitch McConnell hiding out in the dank, dark back halls of the Senate.
Game On!
51
Commenters seem to suggest that women fighting against this unethical, narcissistic president is somehow a bad strategy. Do they suggest appeasement of the Trump-led radical right? Do we give in just for the sake of civility...or is it all just encouragement to “ladylike” behavior? Women have always been the last bulwark against the damage men have done, whether it is raising children alone when husbands leave, nursing soldiers when others have tried to kill them, or whispering counsel into the ears of the powerful men nearby. At last we have found a voice...voices of resistance. Voices of integrity. Voices of leadership. As is often said and probably true: women come to power when men have pretty much ruined things. American principles today lay in waste. Bring on the women. Welcome the Furies. Let these young, smart, educated determined and energized women save America, all of us. Even the Trump supporters who seem so willing to vote against their own interests. They, too, deserve a chance at America’s promise.
16
Americans have more common sense than these petty gladiators realize. A majority believe illegal immigration is a problem. Say what you will. Trump's secret weapon is common sense.
10
I would suggest that this was in fact a very good week to be a dude - just not a reactionary, misogynistic dude. The dudes in my life are delighted and supportive of this progress.
15
More power to AOC, and the other Furies!
We need you all. The men ain't cutting it.
Go get them!
12
"Where'sMitch?"
The only person in the entire world who can stop Trump's "Shut Down" is Mitch McConnell.
The Senate republicans would vote to re-open the government in a nano-second, but Mitch will not even allow 100 Senators to even cast a vote.
This is America. The land of the Free.
Yet the 100 Senators who work for the American people, NOT Mitch McConnell, are not allowed to do the job we the people elected them to do, because Mitch McConnell says no..."No Voting Allowed".
So America elects 100 Senators to vote on their behalf, but one Republican "Leader" tapes their mouths, handcuffs heir voting hands and threatens them with being primaried if they utter a complaint.
That's the GOP's America....just making it great again.
20
Yea whatever Mo. I’ll believe in the Furies when we get young people to vote, especially young women.
4
Maureen,
Why do you and several other journalists insist on stating that Pelosi "threatened" when she merely suggested???
It's obvious to anyone who actually read the letter Nancy Pelosi released.
She clearly left the ball in Trump's court.
8
I just sincerely hope this new movement of female Americans, voters and politicians, has some long distance legs and isn't some sort of "issue of the month."
Remember how the ERA died aborning.
2
These women need to temper some of their radical furies or they’ll go the way of the dodo bird like their right wing counterpart Sarah Palin.
Change is needed and change is good but they need to go about it with tactical deliberation.
7
At least these new ladies are providing a new outlook and new energy to a Congress that is woefully listless in its defense of democracy.
Mitch McConnell will be the end of the Republican Party. He is showing himself to be a coward, cadgey but a coward none the less!
11
These young women look ridiculous! The first thing I said to my husband when siting this photo: "They look like the Furies hounding Congress!", and I did NOT intend it as a compliment! My only thoughts were: They have too much free time and I'm glad they don't represent me! How juvenile!
Photo ops are cheap. Legislating, running the country, and compromising to get the job done: THAT'S hard, and a much more lasting and effective way to make your mark!
8
"Furies" is cutely attention-getting but it depoliticizes the righteous anger and indignation animating the women [joined by plenty of men] who are openly challenging the bullies and blowhards in the Whine House and Congress--gents who think of themselves as Gods and not mere men. Come on, Maureen Dowd, surely you know better than try to, well, pussyfoot around the meaning of this open revolution.
4
Please remember Trump’s presidency is all about self gratification.
1
More like “beware the crazies”. 70% federal tax rate - wonder what the remaining brackets would look like? 3.4 Million people thrown out of work by eliminating fossil fuels? Universal healthcare and universal income - enslavement on the plantation of the Federal government? This is innovative? Same old radical environmentalist utopian diatribe recycled.
7
These ladies want what most Americans want. Trump either gone, or hobbled to the point where he must actually negotiate, and keep his word. For the first time in his long life.
We want a POTUS with a moral compass, and a tendency to plan things, not avoiding plans like an STD. Or blowing things up when a TV pundit scolds him.
8
It’s nice to see enthusiasm amongst the new interns in Washington, but let’s get real.
However, using Greek history that inspires vengeance is just more Tribal-esq Washington.....
Yes, YES we get it about the current POTUS. Yes, its clever reporting, writing or use of fancy mythological metaphors. It’s fun to read. But, it simply makes what’s really important disappear: good policy delivered in an intelligent, thoughtful and kind way.
Why is that so hard?
1
Thank you, Maureen Dowd! This is dead on. Or at least hope it is and support the program. I still hate you for trashing Hillary but good with this one.
I'll tell you what I want...what I really really want."
When the Spice Girls introduced girl power, I wonder if we realized how beneficial it would become.
Thank you Spice Girls and thank you Maureen's Furies.
Democrats have a tough time with math. If barring entry to 7000, 10,000, even 50,000 non-US citizens who may be (are) bringing in contagious diseases, deranged gang members, etc., will help keep 320 million + American citizens more safe, not dilute the salaries of low-end labor, etc., it's an absolute no brainer, unless your brain is defective.
5
Anyone who gives Credence to this Cortez character it's about as idiotic as she is. What rational person would listen to somebody who wants free college tuition for everybody, when she has a bachelor's degree in economics (which was probably taxpayer-paid to a large degree) and then knows nothing about actual economics as opposed to fairytale economics?
6
Women should be most furious of those who robbed them of the ultimate enjoyment of motherhood and homemaking.
4
Maureen
Why no discussion of Pelosi for President (age 78).
Much about Biden (76).
Worth a column, don't you think ??!!
Thanks
3
That pretty much shortly summarize our state of union...what is SoU. We're really good in finding acronyms for everything, I guess it's easily digested.
The president himself never reads, so why bother with words.
Keep our youth uneducated Ms.DeVos.
H.S. students in Washington DC in their MAGA hats throwing insults on Native American, mocking and humiliating Vietnam Veteran, instead humiliated and debased themselves on all of social media platforms...good luck with your dating or hooking up life.
How much poison are spilled on these undeveloped brains, where are your teachers or chaperons. were they encouraging you!!!
Future generation, I hope NOT in this country, but terrifying nevertheless.
3
These women are intelligent and savvy. They call AOC’s actions antic, but they are not giving her credit for her grasp of how best to utilize the tools at hand, namely social media. I was refreshing my memory of the Kennedy Nixon debates this morning. TV was a new tool. Kennedy looked right at the camera. Nixon looked at the reporters. Kennedy was rested; he looked tan and fit. Nixon was recovering from the flu and an infection in his knee that required hospitalization. Who made the most of that opportunity? And are these women angry and fed up? You betcha! What’s that saying? I’m you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention. These women are dedicated to public service. Trump and his minions are dedicated to stroking their own ego and grasping power. Trump has ignored, upended and bastardized dozens of presidential traditions. If these women are changing things up, it’s because the issues at hand are that dire. I say, use the power at your command to make headway against the grievous wrongs our people and country have endured for too long.
12
Donald J Trump is discovering one salient truth that male species often forgets: Hell hath no fury like women scorned. What comes around goes around. #wheresmitch.
6
Any female that has worked in a "man's" world gets the misrepresentation by Dowd's boss. Women weren't supposed to aspire to working as journalists. Comparing Dowd to the Furies implied she felt scorned and felt the need to hound men, taking on those that hurt women or swore false oaths. Have at him, Maureen. Trump deserves no less.
2
President Trump should ignore Maureen and do as Odysseus did and put wax into his ears so as not to hear the shrieking of the Sirens, and tie himself to the "Resolute" Desk so not to be lured by the Harpies gathering at the White House Fence.
The President has made a generous offer, too generous in my opinion but made none the less. If the Speaker wants too stand by her ridiculous offer of, "not one dollar", then this 24% of the nonessential government can remain closed till 2020. President Trump should sign an Executive Order moving the Coast Guard from DHS and back to the control of the Sec of Defense.
I recall not a squeak out of the Progressive/Socialists when Hillary Clinton attempted to close down and destroy the entire coal industry.
4
You cannot compromise with a person who has no respect for anything or anyone but themselves.
I would say that is not only Trump. It is the ethos of 21st Century United States of Central North America.
Bully, exaggerate, destroy, repeat.
1
Well behaved women seldom make history (a quote on t-shirts, etc. with various attributions) is seems to be true. They might be scary to some because they are not afraid to stand up to bullies and cowards. They care about people, good government and want to make changes for the good. They are not afraid to stand up to cowards and really evil people in government who are in the game for themselves. When the time comes I am sure that they will team up with others to create positive changes sorely needed in this country. Nearly all of the attacks on AOC and are personal --clothes their wear, looks, background etc., not their policies. Weak men are scared of strong women. I say to them go after 'em; here's one old white guy that is right with you.
15
While one of his Twelve Disciples betrayed Jesus Christ into the hands of Roman Empire and it's local Jewish puppets the remaining Disciples including Peter cowered and hid in fear. But the Three Marys were present at the Crucifixion, the Empty Tomb and first saw the Risen Christ. An inconvenient fact for a misogynist patriarchal Christian clergy hierarchy.
The women that Donald Trump knows best and respects least are his multiple wives, mistresses, daughters and employees. Unlike Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton no one knows nor cares about which men these women members of Congress are married or related or employed or are engaging in relationships with.
2
I'm disappointed to see so many comments arguing for compromise, comity and retreat.
Trump, McConnell, Scalise and that ilk didn't get where they were by wimping out. I'm delighted to see Speaker Pelosi taking Trump to the mat. Now that he's down, time to rub his nose in it.
Until Democrats wipe the floor with these boys they won't won't come to the table and deal. Let's roll.
18
Trump is about race.
Let Mueller deal with Russia.
Why did he win? Racism.
Done over. Enough
All women are utterly exhausted by him and his posse.
Do no give him a win, but be respectful all the while.
Nancy is a true strategic professional and will prevail.
Resistors need to provide opportunities for the GOP to show off their racism and cruelty.
Certainly the separation at the border will be noted as
THE CRIME OF THE AGES!
we must stop this now!
Focus Dems, you must focus.
6
@ Bruce Rozenblit. THANK YOU AND AMEN!!
2
As the Brits might say: "Brilliant."
2
I’m thinking of a meme to capture this. Perhaps, “the real housewives/furies of Mt. Olympus hit the halls of Congress.”
1
Please explain why “these women” are “part of the governing elite.”
4
all the way with A.O.C.!
8
Why is this newspaper so leery of discussing how the powers of government are limited under the Constitution? The bar to faith-based legislation appears as the very first clause in the Bill of Rights because it is the most important explicit restriction on the powers of Congress of them all.
3
"Girl Squad"? How about "Gang of Four"? It is another example of belittling women along with the ubiquitous "Little Lady" and "Young "Lady". As a 71 year old active and self supporting retired professional, I try to point this out when spoken to like this and ask the man if he would like to be addressee as a "Tiny Gentleman". Hopefully he will hesitate the next time a denigrating phrase starts rolling out of his mouth. It is truly disappointing to read this even if written in supposed jest.
8
How long will it take the "Bully in Chief" to realize he's not getting his way?
Generally, bullies need a punch in the nose to realize it. Maybe Trump's "punch in the nose" will be impeachment. It may have to come sooner than anyone expected.
1
Ann Coulter is the GOP Furie obviously calling the plays in the Trump White House. So why is Nancy Pelosi dallying with the second stringer Donald Trump? Nancy should probably negotiate with Coulter and take it up a notch in reality and save us all a lot of air time.
6
Until a Secretary Clinton's endorsing of a white male over a female is labelled just AS sexist as every male conservative is a priori considered to be without evidence by her peers (You, Ms. Dowd et al), all this reporting is moot--and mute.
2
The Furies came up from the depths of the underworld to seek vengeance against those who shed blood especially against their own kin. Orestes committed matricide to avenge Agamemnon’s death at the hands of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
Ultimately, after seven years of madness, Orestes’ curse is lifted, his reason returns, and Athens transforms the power of the Furies from blood vengeance to justice seekers.
From Nancy Pelosi to AOC, from Warren to Klobuchar, women leaders will use their power to end tyranny and to bring justice to a tattered planet.
Earth will be renewed with women helping to end the violence against it.
10
A lot of male boohooing here. Too bad. It's long past time for the Furies to come to our rescue and I thank Maureen and others for presenting the case !
6
You go, girls!
Respectfully Yours,
--MickNamVet
11
I was on board, and then Gillibrand threw Franken under the bus. I didn’t go to the Women’s march yesterday like I did two years before. Furies....Harpies.... neither is a compliment. But that is what the movement is becoming.
6
Perhaps, finally, someone will stand up to the bullies occupying the WH and leading the Senate. So tired of progressives taking knives to a gunfight. Furies needed!
7
Men are perpetually aware of how women use their “furies” of irrational argument under the alias of “woman’s prerogative” or another of the numerous accommodations men have yielded over the millennia. Yet, women continue to gossip away, chicken peck at one another, prod their partners into stances built on surface appearance less than on intrinsic principle. We men are to cheer them on: “you got this girl,” or “no, those jeans don’t make you look fat!”
We now have an entire generation raised on Miley Cyrus type “reinforcement,” destined to find having it all comes with real angst, something men have had to field in addition to those “furies!” My guess is, having it all means lounging after an empty nest, enjoying book clubs and long morning walks, while males slave into their 70’s increasingly “doing what it takes,” to assuage the fury!
3
More status-quo safe symptom surfing — fundamentally gossip.
Ms. Dowd (& the media, left & right) won't (can't?) get fundamental.
Verily, to get fundamental, that is, to get one's pattern recognition from the 4.54 billion year sample space of evolution, is considered off topic.
Pattern recognition is necessary because the complexity of computation is far too great for humans to process.
Heuristics rule — e.g., the human sensory system sends about 11 million bits of information to the brain a second. We're conscious of about 16 to 50 of those bits — we're missing big data.
A compensatory measure: deploy this wisdom from Sir Arthur Eddington: “We need scarcely add that the contemplation in natural science of a wider domain than the actual leads to a far better understanding of the actual.”
Fundamentally, Ms. Dowd & the media are ad-copy ambulance chasers.
Please note: truth and monetary code seldom ride in the same car — but then, fundamental selected relationship code is: Fitness > Truth.
Ms. Dowd, the sky and ocean are being converted into omnipotent terrorists wielding weapons of mass extinction, bringing "premature and perverted death" to our descendants.
Your manner of relationship interface, like world culture's, is decidedly non-selectable.
We've generated unprecedented environs / relationships that we can't process with sufficient reach speed accuracy power & creativity.
Those information processing criteria are fundamental to passing multilevel selection tests.
1
Go Left young women {and loudly so} ! But don't be surprised when the Democratic Party gains of 2018 wilt over the next two election cycles. Always remember the 55 year old diner waitress voting for Trump.
2
As long as the Dems, young or old, new or experienced, are relying on facts then we should see some Dem victories. It is critical that Dems rely on facts, not what they hope to be true like the GOP does.
5
Girl squad? Really? How about Congresswomen?
& since California is a leader in most things, consider that Reps Lee, Eshoo, Speier, Lofgren, and Pelosi have been at this Congresswoman thing for decades now, and that’s just the Bay Area.
& have been remarkably effective with a minimum of Twitter stunts, too.
Honestly, NYT opinion writers need to get out more.
14
And in other news, sadly overseen, Laura Ingraham called the four female Muslim, black and Latino freshmen in the House:"The Four Horsemen of he Acopalypse.
Well hello, Ms. Ingraham, you and your oh-so-pious supporters should be giddy with joy that the long-awaited Second Coming is right around the corner.
14
Great picture of four extremely clueless, naive women.
Cortez’s proposals include “100% renewable energy in ten years.” Great....so tell us Miss Cortez what your plan is to get a jet 35,000 feet in the air doing 500 mph with 200 people on board using solar power?
Clueless, and not very bright at all.
9
@Bob...can you quote Ernst's record of late? Give us a rundown of her accomplishments? We will wait. Don't hate us because you aint us. If you despise government just come out and say it! What about your ideas? This is 2019 remember, not 1919. We would love to hear them.
8
Herstory will reveal women to be Trump's wall.
8
it's about time!
3
Wrath of the Furies, indeed! Thank you,Maureen Dowd, for the insight.
8
Donald's idea of a square deal is to be protected on five sides. He is one hundred percent certain to say something stupid about the women in the new House and they will go after him like the Erinyes -- "three goddesses of vengeance and retribution who punished men for crimes against the natural order. They were particularly concerned with homicide, unfilial conduct, offenses against the gods, and perjury."
https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes.html
4
Cortez makes all women look foolish. She epitomizes female stereotypes - they're no good with numbers, they care more about moral convictions than facts.
Furies? Cortez suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
7
It's time for the fearless women now in Congress to stand up to this mysoginist , narcissistic, compulsive liar, bully and fraud who cannot govern. This wall delusion of his is a really lame idea in so many ways. We need our workers to get back to work and a president who understands that the way our government works is by rational discourse and compromise. Go girls! I'm with you!
8
The only thing lacking in this terrific op-ed is a John Williams score. Right on, sister.
7
The Furies are fake news; the kind that causes a lot of trouble for the ignorant women that admire the mythical image. Uranus was castrated in the same way many men have abandoned their right to procreate by insisting on withholding consent to abortion. If you are not pro-family and pro-life you are anti-family. Race and immigration have nothing to do with it.
The discussion about Bernie Sanders listening to complaints of sexism, harassment and sexual violence during his campaign is a political attempt to put aside the undisputed progressive leader because he is a man. Progressive women have announced for 2020 and think they have what it takes to beat President Trump. They have accomplished little apart from cheering for the Spice Girls.
4
Nia-Malika Henderson’s primary focus in her editorial was Beta O’Rourke’s (not a typo) White male privilege. Ms. Dodd is conveniently eliding that point in her desire to pitch her preferred women’s empowerment viewpoint.
Alexandra Ocasio-Palin (again, not a typo) is not going to be a fury unless she learns to get her facts correct. Otherwise, she’s going to end up as a reality TV show star. Perhaps one in which she swoops in on families and shares their resources equitably. After all, kids should have a fair share of their parents’ incomes, right?
7
Furies come and go, all the time, with lots of flash-bang in the beginning and quite obscurity at the end.
Like in the stock market, it's the furies who actually have some gravitas and sensible rationale that make it over the long term, while the others fail and are dropped.
The recent crop of loud dim witted crypto-communist ideologues will be memorialized in the archives of the Center for Short LIved Phenomena.
Gender cannot compensate for stupid.
6
The Furies will persist and insist that Trump end his shutdown before negotiating renews. They will protect our democracy. They will get their man.
7
Thanks Maureen
great writing. A hit once again
enjoy your truth telling
Maere
6
hi Maureen, would love to hear what your brother's thoughts are on Trump and his team now.
3
Don't call them women of color unless you also call white women colorless.
They will proudly be called non-white as that will put a distance between them as victims and white folk's sordid history of mistreating non-whites and robbing their wealth all over the world for last several centuries.
3
Old beliefs die hard. Republican old white men don't like bossy women. As one stated recently, "All a woman needs to know is how to fornicate and fry fish."
6
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned - William Shakespeare said it better than Maureen Dowd.
Women have been scorned in the United States - first by our founding fathers who refused to include our rights in their Declaration of Independence of our Constitution.
Then by our religious institutions, many of which specifically state that only men are allowed to give the sacraments and that women have to get special permission from a Male God to get into Heaven, Nirvana, or Whatever.
I have long been an aethist since I was old enough to note that the Bible just talked about men (I was two years old at the time.)
Women stirring to power, especially political power, is the most critical factor in saving the world from global warming. We can also shed life on ancient religions that treat us as less than human.
12
That pretty much short summary of our state of union...what is SoU...we're really good in finding acronyms for everything, I guess it's easily digested.
The president himself never reads, so why bother with words.
Teenage students in Washington DC in their MAGA hats throwing insults on Native American, mocking and humiliating him, instead humiliated and debased themselves in front all of social media platforms...good luck with your dating or
hooking up life.
How much poison are spilled on these brains, where are your teachers or chaperons. were they encouraging you!!!
Future generation, I hope NOT in this country, but terrifying nevertheless.
4
POTUS has met his match, and goodness gracious, it is a woman!
6
God bless the female sex. On this issue they have it right. TRUMP MUST GO! The sooner the better.
His presidency is affecting this country from moving forward. Trump is using every issue he can to divert attention fron his inability or unwillingness to lead.
I say unwillingness because he chooses to get his marchig orders from Putin.
Thank you ladies. It appears much of my sex in Washington has been neutered.
5
It's all a Mitch hunt!
17
"Kill Bill”-style, the fiery Democratic women keep coming, driven by vengeance against the wicked man in the White House with the history of hurting women and swearing false oaths."
Vintage Dowd stuff. As usual clear and to the bloody point.
But kind of old school too that misses the actual energy that is driving the latest efforts of our sisters. It is not about vengeance or revenge... that is typical Maureen action.
It is about Justice, equality, and Liberty for All. The energy that looks like revenge is righteous anger. It is the same energy that always finally triumphs over the ignorance of Fascism and idiots who think they are superior to other humans.
15
What amazes me is who is funding all these caravans in terms of transportation, food, medicines, toilets etc? Also, why are they all taking the very long NNW route instad of going up via a 500 miles shorter POE in Texas? The answer appears to be 9th Circuit. They know that the 9th Circuit judges will give them whatever they want. What I would like to see is that Senators and Congressmen have their salaries stopped until a resolution on the shut down takes place. They should pay too as do millions of other federal workers.
7
Get after Ann Coulter.
11
Bring it on, Furies!!!
5
Is Maureen serious with this ill-begotten narrative about the "furies"?
Are we talking about AOC prancing about the Capital with her gal-pals looking much like a gaggle of sorority girls on their first scavenger hunt?
Are we talking about Kirsten Gillibrand showing up on the Stephen Colbert show making a very awkward announcement that she is running for president?
And please tell me we are talking about the most awkward of all, Liz Warren in her kitchen saying, "uhm... I'm going to go...get me a beer". Really? That is a fury to be reckoned with?
Is sweet Maureen mocking Karen Pence based on her religious choices? A very short time ago most major democrat candidates spouted Mrs. Pence's same views about marriage on the campaign trail. Where is your religious tolerance Maureen?
What these gals that Maureen is building up will find, is that not only will men grow weary of their in your face intolerance of all things that many Americans believe, so will a large number of women. It is not men that have kept a woman out of the White House, it is women.
As much as the Left hates this fact, most women prefer a strong man as their chosen leader.
Thanks for the insight Maureen.... yawn...
12
Furies? No. Harpies, maybe.
10
Maureen, the "A.O.C. And her girl squad" is not very respectful to these young ladies! They are ....ladies, Maureen. Be respectful, if not of them ...at least of their .....accomplishments!
LOVE the furies, love Alexandria Ocasio Cortez AND the wave of women who have come to DC!!!
Women's Wave!!!!
3
Don’t try and sex it up, it’s just the resistance and it’s lame
9
Furies? I think she meant to say Harpies.
6
Maybe next time these so called ladies could go to the right building. Duh..........
7
It's perfect. Once again Ms. Dowd hits the mark!
2
Suburban Republican women, who turned on Trump in the midterms, won’t be lured back by the news that thousands more migrant children had been separated from parents at the southern border ....
Maybe they'll be lured back after their own children are maimed by the invaders crossing the border, contract a 3rd-world disease brought by invaders crossing the border, or succumb to a drug habit fueled by cheap drugs brought by invaders crossing the border.
6
Yeah, women are depicted as furies, while men screaming in rage are heroic, "Network" kind of guys, not going to take it anymore, their anger justified because ... ? Well, because women and off white people and even genderless people are taking over.
These "furies" in D.C. now just show that women should never have been "given" the vote. They should never have been "given" the right to work for 30% less pay than men. They shouldn't have been "given" education that allows them to be so uppity. They shouldn't have been "given" the right to their own bodies.
Women should be not heard and not seen. They are nothing but a distraction from ... ? They are just silly, empty-headed, maybe pretty little things who should hold their legs together and their mouths shut. They should let the McConnells and Trumps and the old tea bag party guys, and all those white, middle-aged GOP cadavers way past their sell-by dates run the show, which they do so well.
In fact, barefoot, pregnant and burkas might be in order.
3
Go gals Go!
1
Stick it to him MD and don't let up. He's a disgusting excuse for a human being.
3
Yes, Maureen, the issue is that trump is a lightning rod, one around which his followers congregate, but the rest of us see his recalcitrance. Not good for a president of the U.S., so we must build a progressive legislature.
The recent victories by Democratic women are just another indicator of the progressive path that our society is taking, despite the setback of the trump election. All ideas are tested (not to get Hegelian on you), so the Electoral College provided leverage for the trump people to get their objections registered, but the rest of us move on to more egalitarian territory.
Your writing makes me realize that, finally, we just might be entering the twenty-first century as these new members of congress make their ideas real. I keep looking for candidates who will take us out of the last century, and so far I have found none.
Maybe these furies will whisk us into a twenty-first century of progress for all our people. Trump and his followers are so 1950's.
4
"If your enemies are in the gutter, you have to come up through the sewer." Gene Hackman.
2
Please don't call these ladies "girls". It's demeaning and beneath you.
2
Why, if the female empowerment is about liberation, do they invariably promote leftism -- alway more leftism? There's no liberation under leftism but the exact antithesis of it. Are women incapable of seeing this massively obvious fact about big, stupid, leftist government?
5
The policies promoted by many women are policies to support women and families including better access to healthcare, control of reproductive health, the ability to take time off to care for families and educational opportunities for all. Those policy priorities may seem “leftist” , but what they are is looking at improving women’s abilities to care for their children, which is a traditional woman’s role.
Some may label universal healthcare, reproductive freedom, education access for all, and universal childcare as socialist.
But many of us call it, socially responsible.
5
These Women will jump on Trump with the Fury of a thousand jungle beasts. Trump will become a dot.
1
But did any of that put a dent in the 53% of white woman who actually voted, that voted for the traitorous criminal who brags about sexual assault.
1
Sic'em, Ladies.
2
Maureen, we need an article from you going after the harpy Kirsten Nielsen and her crimes against humanity with all the missing children and those still in cages.
We need to turn the Furies loose on this very despicable and hateful and monumentally uncaring woman.
Good article today. Nice to see some vintage Dowd again.
4
This went viral overnight...
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/us/teens-mock-native-elder-trnd/index.html
Native american is Vietnam Veteran...
How far is it from the video of Hitler Youth beating and insulting jews.
Yesterday I watch "Brexit" HBO film, at the end name of Robert Mercer pop up, he was doing the same thing there with Cambridge Analytica.
Why do you think people like Rush, Coulter, Hannity, GOP machine, Fox propaganda Russian style want all of us to live in MAFIA RULED COUNTRY.
They all in love with PUTIN, human rights be damned.
4
Please forgive a Canadian chiming in on U.S. politics, but President Trump's treatment of us has given us cause for concern.
I'm encouraged by the new generation of congresspersons; however, columns like this make me uneasy.
Politics is vastly more serious than entertainment or sports, so I think it unwise to set up these young women, in particular, as pop-culture figures, and even to begin giving them pop-culture monikers like "A.O.C."
Pop-culture stardom is a precarious perch, and one slip can send you to the depths, or at the very least the resulting controversy can become a perpetual burden that hobbles your ability to act. When, not if, one or more of these inexperienced legislators makes a mistake, it will be so much harder for them to recover if they're on a shaky pedestal of unwonted idolatry, for a congressperson.
I think it's especially unwise to set them up as even figurative castrators of males. I doubt very much they see themselves in such a role; their job is simply to perform well as legislators. In this they show tremendous promise. If they do it effectively and seriously, most voters will be relieved and encouraged, and maybe even satisfied.
Their political opponents, and those resentful of women coming into power, will quickly seize on any idolizing or anti-male characterizing of these women and use it against them. Please don't inadvertently burden them and make them vulnerable, just for the momentary pleasure of revenge.
8
I wish them every good fortune, for all our sakes. I worry that they, as the American left so often has done, they may be overestimating their resources, both the extent of their support and the degree of their political skill. I hope this is not the case here - we cannot afford any more moral victories.
3
"So I took it as a compliment."
As I've taken being called a "Cassandra" for decades.
The new class is giving me hope.
1
So now we are step aside for hyper-emotional women.
I say lets first hear their arguments without the screeching. This will then promote the understanding and evaluation of their arguments which will give a reasonable basis for decision making.
But, I don't think that is going to fit into their particular agenda.
6
@George
Really. Their "screeching"?? -- this might lead one to think that no matter what they have to say, you won't be listening.
2
@George: What man is more hyper-emotional than Trump? The man thinks from his gut, not his brain.
3
I always enjoy watching good theater performances, but when do I see some results?
3
Be careful not to leave the good guys behind.
The Democratic Party is supposed to be the party of the people, but made a mistake in the last election by celebrating Hillary so much because she was a woman while ignoring working class men.
It is not either-or (men or women, whites or people of color, straight or gay) but that is exactly how the Trump Party is playing it.
Democrats, unlike the Trump Party, can walk and chew gum at the same time.
When it comes to behavior and taking action, the Trump Party only really represents the 1%, big corporations, and their big donors. But they sure know how to use and exploit with their words and campaigns the grievances of working class men, evangelicals and those who consider themselves deeply religious, and low-education voters.
So be genuinely inclusive, Democrats, and don't be like the old woman who lived in the shoe and had so many children she didn't know what to do.
4
We are finally seeing women who had an epiphany about playing by the old boys' network rules. As long as they keep thinking outside the male power structure box, the girls will be fine.
10
Democrats have needed to reclaim the message from republicans for a long time. These energetic representatives attract needed attention to the lack of justice and equity under the republican party. Nancy Pelosi is the best.
14
What the country needs are not the Furies but immensely wise, measured, waggish, incisive, calm, glossy, bright self-confident steady-hand-on-the-helm women and men who are so enthused about solutions that they will coalesce for collaboration rather than stalk the halls in pursuit of confrontation. Enough of the shouting... Donald has a lock on that approach. Don't emulate it.
15
Indeed, that's the test: might the human collective finally receive its sublime covenant of governance under rule of law, with justice meted out by fair weight of evidence; or might we revert to rule by the loud and angry beasts within us? Choose wisely.
4
@Emmette Davidson: There is zero evidence to support any claim whatsoever that the universe is directed by a humanoid personality.
@Steve Bolger: "Covenants" are purported immutable deals with God. Contracts are the product of negotiations between people, subject to amendment and expiration.
Many of the comments to Ms. Dowd's piece are suggesting that women should not be angry or that anger is unproductive. However, I am angry for many reasons--let me name just one...watching Justice Kavanaugh on television expressing his intemperate anger and still being confirmed for the highest court in the United States. Readers comments sound like more of the "anger is unbecoming in a woman" message that has been around for generations. The anger of these women may be very productive when channeled into action.
Also, many readers are asking the younger generations to conform to their sensibilities and ideas about decorum...the way things "should be done". Doing things the way they have been means very slow progress. Maybe youth are more impatient for change, and maybe they are right to be insisting on being heard. Under the rules of the old game, they won't be.
24
@Angie: The swarming on the Native American veteran with the tom tom in Washington by a mob of students from a Catholic all-boys academy yesterday was just another convincing demonstration of the psychopathy of such schooling.
Drunken Kavanaugh and his buddy probably did chase the young lady around that house trying to rip off her clothing.
7
As a Gen X male democrat I don’t know how closely aligned I’ll be with AOC’s platform, but I like her willingness to rattle the status quo and agitate. I feel that Democrats are inherently less dogmatic in their thinking and willingness to compromise, by which I mean a broader left / left center / center coalition can be more effective in legislating for the common good than the more ideologically rigid GOP has been since ‘16.
14
For free speech purposes, it is fair to reject the "furies" comparison and depict these women as the three old blind ladies who had to share one eye to be able to understand anything. Depicting them as furies is a liberal ploy to imply that they have power, insight, and moral strength. I disagree with that charactization completely. These new Congresswomen have potential but they are nowhere near being furies.
3
Ted Koppel has a recent column about Trump out does not equal Trump gone. After he vacates the White House then he and his followers will still affect American politics negatively for years. They will manipulate the Republican Party from the sidelines very effectively. The best solutions are centered on the principle of turning his followers away from him and Fox. He may self destruct but really the Democrats should take his people away by use of policies that help the American laobaixing. Think FDR. His New Deal policies helped people of all races and religions.
14
@Robert
Think ... his new deal policies lulled Americans into a false belief that the government would take care of them forever. What actually has occurred is the rampant corruption of the SS system by both parties to the degee that most Americans question whether they will receive anything from a system they were coerced by force to pay into.
"The Left must take his people away"... The Left does not want anything to do with a 2 party system so as Robert reveals to us, people who disagree with his Leftist dogma must be eliminated.
Why does this heinous thought process keep revealing itself over and over throughout the centuries? Have we not learned anything from the 100 million deaths in the 20th century as a result of this kind of Leftist thought?
Why is anti-semitism rearing it's head again in places like the Women's March, and throughout the dems in congress. Why is this okay?
1
Well done Ms Dowd. Most amusing and on point.
8
I agree that the Furies have escaped and have returned--and that there is no Athena in sight to save the city.
5
Maureen, dug through her dresser, found her vintage white cotton church gloves and flung them at the emasculated Oval Office. The gauntlet has been dropped. The Furries are coming. Be afraid Donald, be very afraid
17
Nancy Pelosi refused to meet with Angel moms (women who have lost children to violence caused by illegal immigrants) when they went to see her at her office. She did not care about these mothers who had lost loved ones to criminal illegal aliens who had no right being in our country. She cares about illegals who sneak across our borders on a daily basis with no end in sight. There is something wrong with this picture.
Mrs. Pelosi lives comfortably in a mansion surrounded by a fence and is protected from the illegals who live in our country. She has children and grandchildren. How would she feel if had lost one of her family members due to an illegal alien living in California? Would she want that border wall then.
13
How many people are killed by undocumented immigrants each year?! Because GUN VIOLENCE KILLS 33,000 Americans each year!!
THIRTY THREE THOUSAND. The "angel mom" meme was created by some nuts. I DOUBT Speaker Pelosi would have refused to meet with them! What is the TRUTH?!
4
I'm more afraid of legals in this country than illegals, check out the statistics they don't support your statement. American Citizens cause much more harm to each other, but the media sensationalize the other. Any life lost is a problem that should be acknowledged. Let's count all those students gunned down by residents of this country while trying to learn at school, they get thoughts and prayers but no action. Compelling, right?
4
@WPLMMT
Have you actually heard any of the Democrat's proposals to fund more technology, border agents and better fencing to insure more effective border security -- Or are you, like this president only fixated on having a wall which won't work anyway?
1
Amen, sister!
4
The term "furies" does have a faintly misogynistic flavor. At least Ms Dowd did not use the term "harpies".
6
@Charles Focht
Hey, I'm a bird legged woman, and I take offense at your stereotyping of agents of the gods' rendered judgement. Harpies are birds with woman's faces and legs who steal the food of guilty men until they starve. No naggers, these meal stealers.
It would take all Three Harpies to keep Trump's mouth empty.
Haven't you noticed most mythical stereotypes about women are awesome until you get the Disney version?
3
Trump should be afraid. After all, this woman proved she could not read a map when she was chasing down Mitch McConnell.... in the wrong building. AOC is your prototype dult of a millennial. She is a force! In the words of the Whupster..."Learn the job honey..." lol
7
Welcome back, Maureen.
2
Go girls!!
3
Beto may be looking for his mojo, but Maureen has doubled up on hers!!! Let the FURIES loose in every city and every state!! Here we go GIRLS!!
8
The main problem with Trump is that he is really, really stupid. Savvy, in the way that a badger is. He did not attend an Ivy League college, just a small business college associated with one.
I am sure that I do not have to tell you about his appalling associations with various public leaders.
And, oh yes, hamderders.
6
@Pat
Do you refer to the Honey Badger who when confronted with an indomitable opponent lets fly his stink bag? That's Trump, alright. If he doesn't get his way, he makes it so no one can stay in the room.
1
Wharton school is Penn, an Ivy school. Trump transferred in for his Junior year, a rare thing to do at that time and most likely was influenced by his Dad's money not by Trump's brains.
1
The Times seems to not like this woman and her group.
Most of the selected comments say that.
Can we have some other arguments?
2
After what I saw at the Lincoln Memorial--smirking red-hat white boys taunting a Native American Elder, I have to say: enough.
But I said that after Charlottesville. We have to destroy this cancer in our midst. First step is to unseat the vile man who is its hate-monger-in-chief.
21
"Let's ask Mikey, he hates everything!"
I consider myself as liberal. left-wing, open-minded, and progressive as it is possible to be in this century or any other -- but I have to say -- Maureen Dowd sounds so much like Mikey in the old Life Cereal commercials.
Is it possible to be serious without being a downer?
3
OH YEAH!!!
The Furies take on the Trumposaurus Wreckus! Where's the betting window? I'm laying it ALL on the ladies!!!
Pass the popcorn, please!
3
The drop-dead cardinal nightmare of a Party now so decayed it cannot begin to save itself, and begs with every sadistic leer to be extinguished. They should be thankful that it is so quick.
5
Go get'em ladies!
4
My take away is that women are really clever and cool; men just the opposite. This is all getting very trite in the pages of the NYT these days.
3
Yes!!!
Go for it, ladies!
5
Ah, Maureen Dowd strikes again. I hope Mulvaney is reading this column to Trump. It is worthy of at least two hateful tweets and another excuse to rant at the "failing New York Times".
Go, Maureen, go!
8
Maureen
When you get done with the Furies, move onto King Herod (aka Andrew Como) and the slaughter of innocents
President Trump will soon calm the anger of the Furies and they will become Eumenides or Semnai Theai. The photo truly represents a depiction of the mythological threesome.
5
Have you checked the last stall in the ladies' room?
Remember, Pentheus skulked around in disguise, spying on women.
4
The Spice Girls??? Not only is that reference lane and irrelevant it is offensive.
4
You've been hitting some good notes lately Ms. Dowd.
Seems those Colorado candy bars might be doing some good.
Keep it up.
Fun read.
5
AOC should have looked for Blobfish under the nearest rock.
2
If Beto O’Rourke (the Fred Trump of El Paso) can't even beat Ted Cruz, how's he supposed to win against the Donald?
4
@C. Yes, because Texas is exactly the same group of voters as the entire United States.
I say its about TIME
1
By calling “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her girl squad — fellow freshmen lawmakers Katie Hill of California, Lauren Underwood of Illinois and Jahana Hayes of Connecticut” legislative Spice Girls,
are you really helping the cause?
7
Detached from being of the same sex, the point is valid and well taken: a hollow media creation that will apogee quickly then fizzle as we move on to the next “big thing.”
1
Capital Hill hath no fury like women scorned.
5
"With Pelosi and the legislative Spice Girls providing the contrast, with the ranks of House women depleted in the G.O.P. and with Steve King getting his comeuppance for racist comments, the Republicans look more than ever like a 1950s mahogany-paneled, smoke-filled, bourbon-and-branch-water party."
Maureen Dows though seems to exemplify that 52% of white women whom in exit polls....voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
Sorry Mo, but I don't trust your faux feminism. You burned us once.
4
Donald-one-trick-Pony is about to receive the political and possibly criminal death of a thousand cuts.
Let's begin...
Poor one-trick, "ow!"
Poor one-trick, "ow!"
Poor one-trick, "Stop it!"
Poor one-trick, "ow!"
See what I mean?
2
Ms. Dowd, where was your Fury before the election?
7
Despite the nay-sayers and the but-but-butters trying to step on the brakes and saying Pelosi and The Furies should "calm down," I say full steam ahead! This is exactly what we need.
Pelosi, et al are standing up to bullies - from both the right and left - with reason, facts, strength, and now power. This is what we've been waiting for and criticizing the Democrats for NOT doing. Don't blink!
13
In as much as I am very pleased by the fact that women are beginning to have the representation that they and all of us deserve in congress I don't see that so far the ladies in question, especially Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez really understand the dynamics of politics and how to achieve real lasting change and representation for all concerned. At this point I have seen a lot of clammer and noise and self seeking aggrandizement which, in opinion serves absolutely no purpose other than more polarizing and division instead of unification that we need so badly at this point. The difference between some of what Trump and the Republican congress are doing and the "Furies" described in this article is that both are after vengeance and not real solutions. There is an immense segment of America that are good human beings that are suffering because of this impasse and vengeance and aggressiveness for their own sake does not solve their problems nor makes move forward and it continues to a blame game:Them Vs Us. It's time to stop and find real leaders. Defeating Trump and Mitch Mc Connell it's a very small part of it. The bigger challenge is to have leaders that can unite all Americans so that Trump and company never happen again. So far I am not convinced.
9
Combative, over-reacting?
Reading some of today's comments I wonder where we would be as a nation if General Washington was counseled to not go too hard on the British.
We are fighting for our country's soul!
14
The Dems blew a chance to gain the upper hand. After promising not to negotiate until gov't workers were back, they responded to Trump's offer. Responding is negotiating. That's how negotiations work. Better to have said: "Mr. President, we will not negotiate until you put our gov't employees back to work. When they're back at work, we'll give you our answer to your offer."
Now the debate is about Trump's offer, not the Dems "no negotiations until the workers are back" position which was widely supported.
5
Mr. Rozenblit. Good morning. Thank you for speaking my mind and saving me the effort, except to say hear, hear.
2
They do need to come across as reasoned and constructive, rather than merely wrathful. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, they will help set the tone for the Democrat's 2020 presidential bid. That upcoming election is critical for the US and the rest of mankind. Another Trump term would be catastrophic, so these new members of Congress have to realize that a great deal more than resume building is riding on their shoulders.
5
Some Dems are ready to compromise. These dems may not but, no matter. The GOP wants to terminate 1000's of federal workers at Education, EPA, HHS, State. The shutdown perfects the Reduction in Forces trigger. The RIF option is growing, today's compromise getting tougher.
1
These young women represent action, something the democrats aren't used to. Too many just like to say the words. I've been trying to get my congressman, Joe Courtney to support the Green New Deal but he just likes mouthing the platitudes and playing it safe.
If the democrats won't support these actions they will find all that enthusiasm that fired the elections can evaporate as quickly as it came.
11
@Bill: The incapacity of US politicians to honestly discuss the meanings of the words they use is yet another cognitive dissonance making the US a mental health basket case.
1
This reminds me a bit of the pride many of us feel in being Jewish. After all, just LOOK at all the amazing Jews in literature, music and especially, science!!
Of course, it's a nonsense argument. There are many many more Bernie Madoffs than Albert Einsteins. In the end, we have to win or lose on our own individual merits. Not as Jews, whites, men or women. And let's recall, the monster in the White House captured (albeit, incomprehensibly) a massive number of women voters.
Alexandra Ocasio Cortez is an inspiring PERSON and represents America at its best. Isn't that enough?
14
@VoiceofAmerica: Judaism is largely a conservation of rituals recalling the ancient roots of the religion. When one digs down into antisemitism, one finds that Jews are feared as atheists.
THE THREE GRACES MAY be a kinder gentler approach; however, I think we’re beyond such graciousness.
Charites, known in Greek mythology as The Three Graces, goddesses of such things as charm, beauty, and creativity. In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae.
3
Beware ACO, the "Girl from the Bronx"! What I wish every Puerto Rican would be like: “infernal" tropical storms. No more 'Marías' ridiculed with paper towels! No more ¡Ay bendito!*
* English, 'Oh Holy One', a common Puerto Rican supplication in times of calamity, despair and surrender.
NB:
I AM a Puerto Rican-born Canadian citizen.
"Exile is my power."
~ GOLSHIFTEH FARAHANI
( b. 1983)
Iranian actress, model, musician and singer currently living in Paris.
4
Bravo to the Furies! As for those snowflakes -- common right now -- who object to the columnist singling out the Democratic women, this Democratic old man feels it's time for people with penises to let the women lead the way.
16
@Richard Grayson
I agree we men have messed up long enough.
1
Furies, smuries.
Anyone who lusts to be president disqualifies herself, witness the roster of nameless opportunists littering the Left.
Including the acronymous one. She didn't earn hers like MLK or JFK, with blood, sweat & tears, but by expediency—her name was too long for her twitter feed.
The threat of AOC is not her radical chic or even her ignorance. It is, rather, her puerility.
Her simplistic surety has a certain resonance with the infantilized crowd—cultivated, catechized, & cosseted in its safe spaces by our leftist temples.
10
By changing a few words, everything you’ve said can apply directly to the current CIC. I guess that makes AOC the other side of the
Trump coin.
1
@Marian
Wow that reminds me of a reply to one of my comments that stated (not a quote) the tyranny of committee's.
I always thought committees were to understand all points of view and find a compromise that works for most of us.
"...the wicked man in the White House."
Yes!
6
Thank you.
4
Thats right Ladies. get'em. grab them by their furies.
5
@ME
That image made me laugh.
Thank You
The misogynistic racists in the GOP, McConnell being their Leader, should be aware of and beware of the Furies as their numbers will only increase. They have all my support and encouragement.
11
Mo, we didn't forget about how you helped Trump with all those hatchet pieces on Hilary.
28
Furies?
Or harpies?
2
Furies for sure. The harpy is Kirsten Nielsen.
1
@RonRonDoRon
That of course, depends entirely on whom you ask.
M.D. calling A.O.C. A.OC. seems a little weird.
3
If women can straighten out this loose cannon, more power to them. God knows men have failed miserably at it.
But they'll not be doing battle with the normal human or politician. He acts from a different incommensurable and illogic paradigm.
Donny Deutsch on Hardball last night was probably correct as to how this thing ends:
https://freebeacon.com/politics/donny-deutsch-we-are-heading-to-a-civil-war-under-trump/
2
By Jove Dowd is getting her mojo back with back to back columns each week, beware trump, Dowd is after you as well.
These newly elected ladies are actually doing what they were elected to do, work, same with their leader Nancy Pelosi who is their inspiration and always managed to outwit donald J. trump.
She remained calm and without raising her voice putting all the Republican boys to scramble for words.
The President of United States is the tardiest one , plays golf when in trouble. Denied the Congress to travel to middle east due to shutdown yet sending his wife Melania Trump to take Government Jet to Mar-a-Lago Amid Shutdown .
Because he could for now.
7
@B.Sharp
Both sides need to compromise I don't see either side even considering that.
1
@Alecfinn
Dems tried with one billion, but trump wants more than 5 at whatever crisis it might cause. So more than eight hundred thousands of federal workers are not able to make the ends meet.
4
@B.Sharp
Mr Trump made a speech yesterday that he stated would break the deadlock.
The tone of the speech was condescending and hostile offering nothing substantive but demanding his 5.6 billion for his wall/barrior. The other offers he made to up boarder security came to less than half the amount he demanded.
It was one sided with a demand for what he wants using the Federal Government and it's contractors suppliers e.g. all as hostages.
That's not negotiating....That's offering candy for gold no good faith. But the Democrats are guilty of the same thing.
Negotiating takes all parties making an effort to find compromises all can be satisfied with.
That's not happening.
2
Do you feel better now? You led the charge in 2016 against Hilary Clinton. This present screed still does not redeem you, Ms. Dowd, for enabling the election of the troglodyte in the White House via your derision of Hilary Clinton in 2016.
18
Capitol Hill hath no furies like women scorned.
2
What she said.......
3
while the new crop of women promises some fresh air in Washington let's withhold judgment about their fiery politics and see (1) what they accomplish and (2) if they become "socialized" in a milieu that values nothing higher than re-election.
5
I worked with woman for decades. Their contributions were invaluable. Yeah for the Furies!
7
President Trump says a steel barrier is the only solution to prevent illegal immigration along our U.S.-Mexico border. Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer say Trump is manufacturing a crisis where no crisis exists.
A complete steel barrier along our southern border will cost upwards of $100 billion of our hard earned tax dollars.
To make the case for the wall, a comprehensive, unbiased analysis is needed.
Questions to be answered include:
Is there any increased security provided by building a wall?
Are there technological solutions (cameras; sensing devices; other electronic systems) that are less expensive than a wall that would provide a similar degree of border security?
What are the overall costs to build, operate and maintain a steel wall over the entire border and/or over a significant portion of the border where illegal crossings have been shown to regularly occur?
How would tunneling and climbing over be prevented by building a wall?
Would border patrolling still be needed to maintain border security?
Would increased border patrolling provide sufficient border security at a lower cost than a wall?
These questions must be answered, backed up with rigorous data, before the American public agree resoundingly that so many billions of our tax dollars should be spent on this wall.
But Trump does not answer questions, nor believe in science, compromise, or making sound decisions. Trump is only interested in getting his name into the paper and making sound bites.
15
@Ed
Agree!
It is a little disconcerting to read articles and other media reports like this that choose to center on certain new female members of House Democrats, while promulgating a kind of "Fight Club" atmosphere.
Not because it is not necessary or unwarranted, but because it takes away from the real matters that will ultimately involve some kind of compromise in order to get past a fickle president and a subservient Republican Senate.
And there's no doubt the Republican Attack Machine is already gearing up against these new "Furies" after being frustrated in their attempts to demonize House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has proven her mettle time and time again.
But in the end, Donald Trump may have nothing to fear from them as much as has to fear from his chosen support-base who is bearing much of the brunt of his self-imposed government shutdown, especially when the food runs out and the well runs dry.
And with no end in sight to this impasse, it probably won't be before too long.
9
There are many regular men, I can assure, who want deeply to address the wrong and disgrace of Trump and those like him who, more often than not, are irregular sheepish men ... of many ages, smooth-talking, and mostly white. Though not the target of the Furies. for some reason that may have to do with lack of imagination, energy and passion, etc., but almost certainly their basic gender, regular men don’t get very far in influence for the sake of shared national good. Well, it’s a new day for these men too, who, if they have any sense at all, will admit their ineffectiveness in political regard anyway, and do all they can to support this new group of women who are shaking things up for the sake of democratic (small “d”) freedom. The disaster of Trump that tends to disgrace men in general was coming long before him and surely signals, now with poignant urgency, that something with the system we’re so used to and have let happen, be changed! Appropriate (not entire) stepping aside for the sake of the good would be a sign of wisdom. The hope ... if not a question ... is that the temptation of personal ambition in the process will not supplant the apparent drive for public service in any of these women. The Furies, after all, are to serve justice.
6
I haven't read this column for many months, with the exception of the Thanksgiving posting. I'm grateful for having some valuable time returned to me and for Trump exposing androphobes in the media. Grateful to have seen the writing on the wall about feminism years ago.
6
“Androphobes?” Really?
THE issue that elects awful Republican after awful Republican, particularly in the benighted American South, where the party wins its majority national edge, is the abortion issue. Perhaps these women can originate a policy on this issue that removes it from the national agenda and allows voters to concentrate their concerns on matters that really affect us all : health care, environmental degradation, wealth distribution and so on. An unrestrained right to choose will forever keep Democrats from a working majority. Safe, legal and rare — accompanied by widely available contraception — might be the way to go.
7
@Frank
Yes. And that might be why the anti-abortion crowd and the GOP are so eager to close Planned Parenthood. Widely available contraception, education and freely available reproductive health care would help insure that abortion was safe and rare. And that would remove a profitable shibboleth from the party of fear.
15
@FrankYes, men have no say in this. Well, I hope technology gives men options in the future so these people can act however they want.
1
@Frank: The magic bullet that would end this psychopathological travesty would be enforcement of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". We may never live to see the day because the judiciary has been systematically loaded with idiots who cannot even acknowledge honestly what an "establishment of religion" is, notwithstanding their claims of expertise in late 18th Century English.
Faith-based beliefs are not to be enacted into laws in the US.
5
Today, Trump offered to permit Central American children to submit asylum requests in their home countries. He said,”This includes a new system to allow Central American minors to apply for asylum in their home countries and reform to promote family reunification for unaccompanied children, thousands of whom wind up on our border doorstep.”
This means migrant children would not have to make the long, expensive and dangerous trek to the United States border. There would be no more squalid caravan encampments in border cities, no long waits at the ports of entry, no tear gas canisters. It means no children separated from parents and no migrant children dying in the desert or in Border Patrol detention facilities.
But Pelosi says "no starter." The Furies pretend to care about the human tragedy at the border, but all they care about is scoring points against the administration.
142
He says a lot of stuff. Saying and doing are two different things.
You can’t negotiate with someone who doesn’t honor his agreements.
463
@William Case
Correct - this is about scoring points, with the goal, I might add, of destroying Trump's power.
Your Coulter calls Trump's offer "amnesty". Talk about a non-starter. Anyway, where is the good faith evidence in this offer? How about ending the shutdown and spending the next 30 days negotiating the immigration issues? Would you be OK with that?
284
@William Case That argument might be persuasive if it didn't ignore one salient point: people who apply for asylum do so because they feel they are in immediate, eminent danger and at risk of death where they currently are.
Trump proposes to have children in a burning building submit a written request before they can be allowed to flee for their lives. It is inhumane, against our own asylum laws, and sadly, clearly illustrative of Trump's humanity and empathy towards others.
599
Instead of offering her own compromises, Nancy Pelosi simply call Trump’s compromise a “non-starter.” In doing so, she assumes full responsibility for the shutdown.
In today's speech, the president offered to permit asylum seekers to submit asylum requests in their home countries. He said,”This includes a new system to allow Central American minors to apply for asylum in their home countries and reform to promote family reunification for unaccompanied children, thousands of whom wind up on our border doorstep.” This means migrants would not have to make the long, expensive and dangerous trek to the United States border. There would be no squalid caravan encampments in border cities, no long waits at the ports of entry, no tear gas canisters.
The president did not simply reiterate his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall. He said it would not be a continuous concrete barriers as he previously envisioned, but the type of barrier the Border Patrol wants. It would be a wall only in high traffic areas. This is a significant concession.
The president offered to let refugees with Temporary Protective Status stay for three more years.
The president offered to extend the temporary exemption from deportation that President Obama granted DACA recipients. The president cannot grant them citizenship; only an act of Congress could do that.
19
@William Case
He made no offer of substance. The Judicial branch already extended DACA. He is offering something that the Democrats already have, and expects a complete victory in exchange.
What about that is a serious offer? Democrats get nothing of value. Trump gets everything he asked for. That's not an actual compromise. It's a joke and does not deserve to be treated with respect. Pelosi doesn't did fine in categorically rejecting it.
352
@Chris D
The Supreme Court will rule in DHS can rescind the letter signed by DHS Secretary Jud Johson that created DACA. DACA is not even an executive order, much less a law.
But DACA is not the issue.Trump made a major concession on the border wall, It is now a wall only in heavily trafficked area. He offer major reforms on asylum and an offer to extend TPS for thousands of refugees.
9
@William Case
Trump created the DACA and TPS crises by rescinding both. The asylum "reforms" simply would restore prior practice. This shutdown is entirely courtesy of Trump and Fox News. In all cases he is using human beings as hostages to try to defeat political opponents. How is this governing? Why didn't he accept $25 billion for border security from Dems when his party controlled Congress?
213
The Constitution of the United States and the Articles of Confederation were formulated heavily under the influence of the Iroquois Confederacy of the five tribes, the Iroquois, the Seneca. the Oneida, the Onondaga, and the Cayuga.
The Women's Suffragette movement began in Upstate New York in Seneca territory.
Women were given a voice and a place of weight and respect in those cultures.
There is nothing more American than respect for women.
7
1. Is anger a winning strategy for Democrats?
2. If you win with anger, how will you govern?
Let's be sure we're preparing to govern, and not just wallowing in self-righteous anger and self-pity. When the American people see these women, they see them as highly educated, highly paid Congresswomen, part of a privileged elite. Working class women and men in Ohio and Florida will not see them as in any way entitled to anger, no matter how black, Hispanic or female they may be, no matter what Trump may say or do. That self-righteous anger isn't going to play well outside of rich city centers on the coasts an university campuses. Determined, sure, but "The Furies"? That's not going to work.
You may say that Trump feeds off of populist anger, but it's different. Trump campaigned against the governing elite in both parties. These women, even if new to DC, are part of the governing elite. They have the much harder job of convincing the American people to trust them to govern, which is going to take a calmer approach.
166
@Tom At least two of them represent working class or hardscrabble rural districts whose voters saw them as clearly representative of those voters' interests.
142
@Tom
Isn't the ladies' anger seasoned with a sense of humor and a sense of rightful desire for justice? As for "calmer approach" compare that with the burning Dumster's. But we have to see the bills they introduce and try to pass....
73
@Tom
For heaven's sake, TRUMP is part of the "governing elite." A man who has never really had to work a day in his life. Trump who funnels taxpayer money to his resorts while he's off golfing constantly. Trump who is puts forth a phony "compromise" today, while Mitch blocks effective govt. by not having the senate participate in the job they were elected to do!
"If you win with anger how will you govern" - that's ALL Trump has. He has demonstrated no interest in actually solving problems for our citizens. These women are really trying to do the jobs Americans want - they are attempting to govern. More power to them.
318
This essay seems to say that the Furies are hoping for a fight against Trump. And they are convinced they will prevail.
But I am not convinced that fighting is a good idea. I am worried that both sides might lose.
The government is shut down for what appear to be crazy reasons. Yes the wall is likely to be less effective than other measures. But if Democrats were to accede to Trump's demands, Trump might enjoy a hollow victory, because he faces almost certain impeachment in the House, and likely conviction in the Senate, but only if both sides, Democrat and Republican, are able to compromise on charges that will remove Trump from office.
And that's the rub. Trump realizes that his only chance for survival is keeping up a partisan war between the two parties. Trump is a singular point. No earlier president has chosen his own cabinet and then bullied his cabinet members like Trump. Tillerson, Sessions and Mattis all believed in Trump's goals, yet all were destroyed by Trump's insistence on subservience to his will.
He does not know economics and does not know that he doesn't know. Or history, or political science. With his experts all fired, Trump is making a series of disastrous decisions. He needs to be removed.
Can Republicans see Trump's defects? Perhaps if they are not blinded by blind allegiance to party. But that means giving up excessive partisanship.
This essay goes the opposite direction. Better to choose conciliation now, impeachment later.
117
@Jake Wagner
The war is on. Choose a side or go home. Trump has nothing I would accept in a compromise. He needs incarceration, as do many in his party. It's called treason, and his payoff is coming to call.
80
@Jake Wagner
"Can Republicans see Trump's defects? Perhaps if they are not blinded by blind allegiance to party." No, they are not blinded at all. They see very clearly who is the typical Republican primary voter. That typical voter is a raging (?) conservative who wants ever more "conservatism" and right wing policy positions. If a Republican office holder acts on what his view of Trump reveals, then he (or she) will get removed form his or her position in the Republican primary election. These people don't seem to consider what will happen in the general election.
30
@Jake Wagner No! The Democrats should not concede to Trump. The US does not negotiate with hostage takers or terrorists. If they were to concede to him on this, it sends the message that it's okay to shutdown the government and furlough 800,000 federal employees. So the next time Trump wants something and Congress tells him no, he'll think he can cause another government shutdown and eventually get his own way. And the debt ceiling raise is coming up soon. Do you think Trump should be allowed to hold federal employees or DACA dreamers hostage again?
80
U bet we r furious.
17
I was tempted to say “ You go, Girls!” But then I’d be lambasted. Saying, “You go, Women! “ just sounds dumb. Either way, to quote the Donnie Dumb junior, “I love it.”
McConnell should be hounded to the gates of hell for his vile, pernicious behavior. Which is where he’ll end up anyway.
I love that these women are unintimidated, and thus far, have creative, sensible and unabashed answers to the trolls and right-wing nut jobs that try to take them down.
25
@Avatar
I just emailed him on his fabulous leadership of Kentucky's Catholic youth.
My G-Gma carried the first spinning wheel to Kentucky, but not the first pipe. What goes up, must come down.
Now you're talking Maureen! Are you going on Bill Maher this season?
1
I'd like to see some exposure of the "Democrats" who want to compromise with repuglicans to accomplish some little things of the day.
Those "Democrats" don't realize that we are in a much bigger struggle, to recover our country for The People. Recover it from seizure by the repuglican agents of autocratic oligarchy, control by The Money.
repuglicans are not to be negotiated with. They are to be crushed, to restore America to The People.
7
Furies? LOL! Nope, just Losers. President Trump is laughing at them. So are the rest of America.
6
@Lester Bowen
Think Not!
@Lester Bowen - nah, Trump despises women too much to laugh at them
@lester you mean those losers that just swept the midterms? They sound like winners to me.
Sooooooo.... the gender card????????? Hmmmmmmm
4
@pelicans
Men have been playing it for millennia, most without knowing the short comings. If Trump and Putin are the old standard bearers, prepare for a new mattress.
1
A socialist, a communist and a Marxist all walk into the capital......
5
Talking about Furies , why has Maureen Dowd never written an unkind word about Mitch McConnell
If I am wrong, I will be happy to be corrected
10
It’s right there – invisible in plain sight...
Somebody thoroughly did their homework, this time around...
It isn’t...
> Personal narrative
> Political ideology
> Professional acumen
It is simply – it...The “it” factor that every reality show producer has learned to spot early and develop synergistically...
Preternatural talents – like Bieber and Madonna – self-produce...
If AOC had led with the dance video – she’d have three YouTube channels and fourteen shows by now...Including one about a young NYC producer who takes on Amazon – using original content – in her own back yard...With a dream to build a studio in Pelham that will someday employ tens of thousands of artistic NYCers...
In the season finale, Bezos would swoop in and bankroll “BronxWorks”... The dream is still alive – didn’t say which Bezos...
Every one of these new – Democrat – Congresswomen has “it”...
Perhaps “it” is short for “In the moment”...
It’s not a gender thing – Obama had “it”, but then he flaunted “it”...
PS
Somewhere, Reid Hoffman is smiling – and Roy Moore isn’t...
And Dick Wolf is working up a series – based entirely on your lead-in pic...
5
Go Jahana!
"...president beaming...against a woman’s right to choose... [with] vice president and his wife..
Karen Pence started a new job teaching art at a Virginia Christian school that is intolerant of L.G.B.T. students and... parents."
He and Mother Pence are lying in wait to pounce on Americans with faith based folly--forgetting that god/gods are supposed to have created everything--including sex for fun--L.G.B.T or not.
Would Lust and the six other deadly sins become capital offenses? (Greed would need updating--usury, money laundering, inflated receipts and tax fraud would all be exempted as "smart business".)
How do they know the gods are against Planned Parenthood? Maybe women were created so they could watch? Man alone in Eden would be excruciatingly boring for man and spectators.
Remember Augustine had so much faith he claimed to know that before the Fall of Adam/Eve/Snake humans could control their sex organs just like fingers--up/down etc. Those with ED are just punished more.
Pence's god-story faith is dogmatic--closed minded--belief regardless of logic or evidence. There is no end to what might be revealed to Mike and Mother--if they were couple #1. That might include a holocaust as in Genesis against Sodom and Gomorrah--killing the "innocent" as well--despite Abe's lectures on the limits of collateral damage.
Does Pence refuse to lunch with women sans wife because he thinks he's so irresistible they'd pounce on him? He'd have that in common with exhibit #1.
7
@Michael Kubara
Got another laugh from your comment.
I fear some will take it as gospel.
Whatever. Maureen sounds like Caitlin Flanigan over at The Atlantic: old-fashioned gossipy snarky snideness about other women.
1
How true. Trump being a bully (a cowaed in disguise), he shall meet his judges, all those women with the will, and the courage, to show this vicious weasel what's up; and that playing with fire (all his stupid remarks, insults galore, and the lying whenever he opens his big mouth, and his mafia-like behavior) has consequences where the burning of his soul may be the least of his problems. Good riddance Mr. Trump!
3
To my beloved sisters in arms:
I am a middle-aged Caucasian male and stand with you 100%. The Presidency was stolen from HRC because of the anachronistic Electoral College. The person that currently lives in the White House wholeheartedly supported chants of "Lock Her Up" while he and his band of thugs conspired with a hostile foreign nation, committed and continues to commit an endless list of crimes which warrant impeachment. Our so-called president has shut down the government over a wall we neither need no can afford and has caused a human catastrophe all in the name of pleasing his base. There are no seasoned professionals left in the White House to reign in this beast. Women have been subjected to intolerable levels of gender discrimination ranging from rape victims being called liars to unequal pay in the workplace.
Unleash hell on those who have caused this catastrophic situation. Enact gun control legislation to stop the senseless slaughter that takes place every day. Turn the tables on the 1% and redistribute wealth so that all Americans can live in reasonable financial security. Strengthen PPACA or provide a single payer option so that all Americans have access to quality medical care.
This is your moment and we stand tall and proud with you.
23
Looks like, after years of Queen Bee Trump enabling Hillary bashing, Dowd has found religion of late.
Hey did you endorse this evil man. No answer yet.
2
"Spice girls" sounds about right. Ocasio-Cortez would be "Look at ME Spice," bragging about her college minor in economics as if she is Paul Volcker. And Maureen has gone even further off the rails than usual with her girl crush on Alexandria and her pals amping up her "Trump derangement" of late. I miss the old "aren't I clever with my trashing the Clintons" MoDo.
3
As a 71-year-old white guy and liberal Dem, I love 'em. Let the Furies fly. No doubt Mitch was hiding in the boys room, locked in a stall and standing on the toilet bowl.
14
@GMO
I have a similar image of the Republicans in the Senate.
It's actually funny but seems to be true. What our POTUS doesn't seem to understand is what is really happening.
There hopefully be some accounting for the government shutdown and the damage to our country as well as living in an alternate universe.
1
I wonder what it would feel like to live in an area where the Republican House representative has to do a little more than just file for reelection to assure another 2 years of $15K monthly paychecks for just sitting on his backside in Washington and showing up for photo-ops in his congressional district back home. Where --Who?-- is the A.O.C. for northeast Texas?
1
Not so fast Ms. Dowd.
Who was the NY Times columnist who continuously trashed Hillary Clinton when she was running for President?
8
Way to turn four Congresswomen into caricatures, Newspaper Gal! The sexism and demeaning language in this article are doubly obnoxious coming from one of the oldest women in journalism.
If they're The Furies? You, sweetie, are Medusa.
4
@Nancy
What? You do realize that Medusa fled a man to Athenas alter in a temple. There she was raped by the man and when she asked Athena for help she was turned into Medusa and made immortal until she was killed.
So I don't agree with your comment.
Bless these ladies. Slam Trump with wit and ridicule (his Achilles heel - he hates it because it exposes him for what he is D -Lister Fake). I'm tired of dealing with Locker-room joke jerks like Trump and other men in leadership.
It's time for the Democrat leadership to stop the timidity and come out with Truman-like "Give'em Hell".
6
I think it's a mistake for the Democrats to turn the election into a referendum on gender. This may have worked in fifth grade, but it's a dubious strategy among adult voters. Most men don;t hate women, and most women don't hate men. It's fun to talk about but it's a dubious long-term strategy.
8
@Mike Livingston while you are right about the referendum on gender, it appears that’s a media creation, not the Dem’s. All these women have education, viable and needed stances, and brains. There are absolutely ridiculously unqualified men (need I point to our WH and all his administration?), just as there are women. (Take a look at some of the ladies who’ve thrown their hats into the ring for 2020. They won’t make it to the nom, nor should they.) I read about Lauren Underwood, found her to be a seriously decent human, and rooted for her, while her GOP rival, Randy Hultgren, who’d been in office way too long, was a trumpy-flunky who supported Pai’s rollback of net neutrality, etc. I was ecstatic when Underwood won. I’m going to admit it could have been almost any Dem, I just really wanted the GOP to fail here in Illinois. The fact that the most qualified person, who did win her district, was a woman? Sauce, rather than juice. Does it make me happy to see women in power? Totally. Because they’re women? Partially. Because they are the most qualified, and that’s why they were elected? Absolutely.
1
@Mike Livingston- but a lot of GOP policies seem to punish women so a referendum on that tendency isn’t so crazy after all, is it? At least for, you know, women...
Despite some of the commenters that missed the points, I liked reading about any procedural ice actually breaking in Congress, and about with younger people showing their mettle. Extrapolating out to all the voting women in America, however, is still unpredictable.
I know several ladies, middle aged and upwards, who voted for Trump last time, When politely asked about next time, they just get kind of quiet.
I think those many people who did vote in Trump (and most definitely voted to keep Hillary out) last time got a bye that will never happen again.
4
The successful marriages and partnerships I have seen share this: men turn to women when we have gotten ourselves into trouble by being obstinate and macho. Suddenly, the goals we were trying to achieve recede in importance, and the woman offers a patient and balanced alternative, which typically includes an opportunity to say “sorry, I was wrong.”
Often there is something that looks like a fight. But it’s really just a measured slap intended to alert the man to his real priorities.
I think that is why women won so many elected offices in 2018. Voters want that patient, balanced stubbornness that many women can exert over men. They are not “Furies” born of a castration act. That is petty. No, they have goals, and they are exerting those goals and telling the men that they need to recognize that they were wrong. Or lose more elections.
17
@Dave W
I agree. I had the honor to be a department head in a service department. When there were a large male presence in the department there were macho fights ranging from you insulated my mom/wife to jewelry snatching from necks.
The department where there was a majority of female workers the cat fights and insults flew causing a deadlocked staff.
When the female to male ratio was loosely even there was less friction, staff meetings were more productive and less infighting. I was not the only department head to note this.
Upon reviewing what happened I came to the conclusion that both genders balanced each other.
2
“Republicans look more than ever like a 1950s mahogany-paneled, smoke-filled, bourbon-and-branch-water party.“
Don’t throw out the bourbon with the bath water here . Mahogany and maybe even smoke get a bad rap in the above quote. Disparaging anything even slightly masculine doesn’t help progress the ball forward . The fault wasn’t with the wood , the bourbon, or the smoke.
1
Trump has a goal of winning. He takes nothing else into consideration. He cares about nothing and no one else, it is all about Him. He is way out of his depth as a (white only) president and the Republicans have not given up using him for their own ends. They are complicit in the mayhem produced by this president. They are truly Stuck in the Mud.
There is hope for new accountability to the public in these fiercely determined young senators who are free from the chains of big money, big fossil fuel energy and big greed, along with racism. We need a new clean slate, and they provide this. Hope arrives!
4
Yesterday, a beautiful Native American Veteran sang for the world in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Catholic prep boys, smug and entitled, displayed their colors in cheap red hats that help trump's profit margin. Like a pack of thugs, they attempted to intimidate the man of spirit. In the Native culture, women were their males' equal. As our government churns daily in manufactured chaos, the women of all colors now stride the halls of our Congress. Perhaps the land, karma, the spirits, the universe will right itself and stand anew with the glory and beauty of us, the women! Perhaps the very people who birth the babies, work, tend their homes and aspire will come out from beneath the idiocy that has created trump, the very symbol of a powerless soul in power. Rise up and shine, girlfriends! Lift the Indigenous Women to the place of respect they are entitled to and learn from them! A New Day is coming!
31
@lulu roche
I found those teenagers just ignorant stupid and disrespectful as well as over entitled punks.
They need a good spanking physically or figuratively perhaps both.
And yes we need more female perspective in government.
1
@lulu roche I always check the "All" comments because the later ones get buried. This morning I'm especially thankful so doing because you wrote this. The Constitution, indeed, the Articles of Confederation, were modeled on the Iroquois Confederation of the 5 tribes and that is also why the Women's Suffragette Movement began in Upstate New York in the territory of the Seneca.
I'm a 72 year old native New Yorker and I say AHO to your post.
1
Well, Ms. Dowd--Furies or no Furies--
--please don't count the proverbial eggs until they hatch.
That suburban women all over the land--and urban women--and rural women--
--might rise up in righteous wrath and sweep Mr. Donald J. Trump and all his works from the national scene--
--what a blissful prospect! Go! (I would tell them)--go!
But I recall Ms. Elizabeth Warren (for whom I would vote in a heartbeat) speaking during the 2016 campaign.
You remember, of course, how The Donald had characterized his adversary during one debate. "What a nasty woman!" he opined--and my goodness! If ever a man deserved to be SUNK and OBLITERATED by his off-the-cuff remarks!--
"Well!" declared Ms. Warren in a speech that set my heart racing with hopeful anticipation. "A lot of nasty women are going to go walking on their nasty feet--
--and vote you OUT OF THIS ELECTION!" (Not a verbatim quote--I'm doing the best I can.)
Thunderous applause. "Yes!" I murmured to myself. "Yes!"
But he won.
Please don't forget, Ms. Dowd--and others--
--this guy has got MILLIONS of fans and followers. Many--a great many of these--are women. Sad, yes. But true. Oh so true!
I remember an attractive blonde sometime in the last two years--
--smiling at our frisky President--
--wearing a T shirt that read:
"Donald! You can talk dirty to me ANY TIME!"
Well Ms. Dowd--it take all types to make a world.
So go figure.
I did.
It didn't help.
7
@Susan Fitzwater
And that's depressing.
The big problem: these (Republican) guys refuse to negotiate (even debate) the real issues -- so, yes, ladies (and gents) corner'em.
7
Furious, yes. Furies, no. Vengeance is not what these young new freshwomen are about. Let the men continue to beat one another up. They are here to heal, not to wound. They are here to open doors to all, not to build walls for a few. They are here to pass health-care legislation; not to take it away. They are here to re-open the government and free the hostages, not to pay a ransom for one man's vanity monument. They are here to bring the compassionate feminine to "check and balance" the callous masculine. They are here to #MakeDemnocracyWorkAgain
23
@Paul Wortman
Truly I hope so.
1
Language is so loaded. The same behavior that would be seen as passionate conviction and tenacity in men is called emotional and, well, furious in women. Where a male would be looked up to as a fighter, a woman would be dismissed as a you-know-what. It will take the tremendous efforts of women like 'the Furies' to challenge gender-based notions about political power.
7
@NM
It seems to be changing now I hope so.
Just admit you fell for the lovable rogue and voted for him, Ms. Dowd. Can you do that, please?
2
@Lorem Ipsum: Jealousies between women can be uglier than those between men.
Maureen, could you please add an explanation of the text to your column so I can understand fully what it is you are trying to tell us. In principle I love your writing and I have nothing against being educated about the language you are living with but it needs some explanation. Thanks.
Par
I am so very glad to see that Maureen Dowd has found a new politician to swoon over. Not since Barack Obama burst on to the scene a dozen years ago have I seen the media fall in love with freshman politician so fast. A year ago Alexandria Ocasio Cortez worked as a bar tender mixing cocktails for bored businessmen. Today she's the hottest Member of Congress to hit Washington DC in decades. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is this year's Flavor of the Month and she can do no wrong.
However it's time for a reality check. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is only 29 years old. The earliest she can even run for president is 2028. So Maureen, take a deep breath and calm down. You've got a long wait ahead of you.
5
@sharon5101 Never fear Sharon, Dowd is just quietly sharpening her knives. I predict that, in a very short time, she will take out those knives and start to slice up these women she is extolling today., just as she did to Bill and Hillary Clinton and Obama. Watch out especially for how she will goes after AOC.
1
Count me in.
1
This column is an instant finalist for the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest.
2
Perhaps "The Furies" will help Trumpty Dumpty have a great fall off of his wall.
9
Bullies are the worst. Bullies are cowards who surround themselves with sycophants. They keep bullying until someone has the courage to slap them in the face. McConnell and Ryan, the sycophant twins. Finally, with Nancy as Speaker, our country has a leader who doesn’t tolerate bullies and doesn’t hesitate to slap them in the face.
9
Insightful column—addressing the issue of what’s needed in Congress, namely, people who (in a phrase associated with Nathan Glazer, see his obituary), have been “mugged by reality.” Sadly, historically—yet optimistically—women have have been mugged more often than men—and by men. What the muggers don’t seem to understand is that a purse can also be a weapon—as can a smartphone.
Just don’t forget that some men, too, have been mugged. Few of them, it seems, call themselves Republicans.
2
The Furies certainly worked their magic on Al Franken. Good work!
3
You go, girls!
1
Oh Maureen you forgot to mention the anti Semitic permit applicants this weekend where the furies were all front and center. Kamala Harris ‘watch this’ religious test strategy. Or OAC’s “democratic” socialism that the military will pay for it by cutting back on those trillion dollar bullets. This class of hall roving attention grabbing furies headlined by OAC has a muse in DJT.
1
We have the furies, now we need the harpies to come down and torment the fraud.
4
@Armo
That image is funny.
Funny column since Mo furied HRC while promoting trump.
Think we've forgotten? No way.
8
Keep this flurry of Furies coming!!!
2
The Furies are certainly righteous and using the proper techniques to twist the sickened innards of the white supremacists in the Pub Party. Yeah! You go, Maureen! You are stating it! About time some young whippersnappers showed up to shame the d-heads in congress including the Democratic moderates. This is no time for moderation. Our nation is at risk.
4
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her[ girl squad]..."
Really Maureen? Even when you try- you get it wrong.
These are adults elected to Congress-
sent to do a job their constituents want them to do: Period.
11
AOC is a force to be reckoned with....on the dance floor. To quote Woopie Goldberg...Learn the job.
5
Dowd expresses her pleasure with a group of recently confirmed democrats in the House who have been going after Trump and McConnell with a vengeance. She dubs them 'The Furies' after three mythical sisters seeking revenge from evil men. Okay, that's an amusing image, but she fails to mention these congresswomen's goals, including health care for all, a equitable tax code, addressing poverty and climate change... Dowd calls her 'Furies', Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Katie Hill (CA), Lauren Underwood(IL) and Jahana Hayes (CN) a 'girl squad'. A 'girl' squad! These women's ages are respectively, 29, 31,32 and 45. Sound familiar? How often have grown men been called 'boys', and what do the bigots call grown women?
7
From your mouth to the Roman and Greek gods' ears...LET THE FURIES ROCK!
2
If Donald Trump is kicked out, these righteous Furies had better make sure Mike Pence goes with him.
My heart freezes whenever I see his face. The man's the Antichrist. (Shhh, he thinks he's Christ's messenger on earth.)
5
Since Dowd doesn't have a Clinton to snark at, any other woman who speaks out becomes a target.
Instead of insight, we get snark.
Instead of respect, the successful women get compared to furious crones out for mindless revenge.
The one male in the article, Beto, gets the scornful eye roll.
Ms. Dowd would do better in Hollywood writing about the characters whose egos and shallowness match her own.
3
Lock the clown UP, ladies!
It's past time, and unlike Ms. Clinton he has committed numerous crimes, many related to the Presidency...which he has demeaned and disgraced, over and over.
1
“But the Furies took vengeance on men who hurt women and took false oaths”
The true Angels of America from Nancy Pelosi to AOC and RBG have finally arrived to save this country. May their justice be swift and just.
3
Ms Dowd,
So glad to see you are back among the living. We need you.
Yours Truly,
A Fan Again
2
Furies? Yes...but I like to think of them as the True daughters of the American Revolution...with Mitch and the GOP leadership playing the role of the Loyalists. Benjamin Franklin might raise an eyebrow with surprise but he would be heartily pleased with them!
16
Trump is just fine dealing with sycophantic women who serve and flatter him. But he does not know how to handle a woman who stands up, speaks firmly and refuses to agree to his terms--whether that's the appalling Ann Coulter, who's apparently driving Trump's border disaster, or of course Nancy Pelosi. Good for young Democratic women in Congress for speaking out.
17
Yes it is time for women to come into power
they run organizations better ,without testosterone drive to dominate they cooperate. That is how civilizations survive where the leaders forget about themselves and work to better the group, Big daddy does not know best our school yard president is proof as he spends most of his time telling us how wonderful he is as our government is shut down, Our FBI thinks he might be an asset for Putin since the Russians did spend 100 million on his condos he might feel obligated as their intel operatives worked to elect him. Withdrawing from NATO will buy Putin's silence and the Trump family billions in Panama. Pelosi and the House coupled with the Mueller report will expose the shady corrupt lying buffoon occupying the high office he is unfit and unable to govern past his overblown long winded ego.
7
I hope the Furies, and those who are almost, don't over-walk their new shoes lest they create painful blisters on their heels, as it were.
1
Ms. Dowd is the best and most insightful columnist of our age. Prose of truth and beauty.
3
@ddbbuu: Here! Here! Thank you, Maureen!
Pence makes my skin crawl. He's the mute disease exacerbating the rot from the inside out. His intolerant, ignorant toxicity is silently seeping out of the administration and into the hearts, minds and judiciary around the country. He is true poison.
27
These newly elected ladies are actually doing what they were elected to do, work, same with their leader Nancy Pelosi who is their inspiration and always managed to outwit donald J. trump.
She remained calm and without raising her voice putting all the Republican boys to scramble for words.
The President of United States is the tardiest one , plays golf when in trouble. Denied the Congress to travel to middle east due to shutdown yet sending his wife Melania Trump to take Government Jet to Mar-a-Lago Amid Shutdown .
Because he could for now.
13
Dear Ms. Dowd: Are you sure you want to invoke the Furies to describe the new crop of Congresswomen? The Furies, after all, were chthonic (underworld), hideous, vengeful—the embodiment of a curse. The more recognizable feminist icon from Greek mythology is Medusa, the beautiful maiden whose supernatural tresses have come to symbolize feminine rage.
Perhaps Lysistrata, the sage woman who suggested withholding sex as a strategy to stop the Peloponnesian War, would be even more apropos.
On this mythological register, Ms Ocasio-Cortez can play the role of Reconciliation and Ms. Pelosi—the demure Catholic, mother of five, grandmother of who knows how many—can assume the role of Lysistrata or, even better, Athena herself.
11
@Silver Surfer I'm guessing Down meant that trump, mitch and the cowardly republicans might view the power ladies of the new Congress as Furies...in that case, it is befitting that to them, these strong, independent, intelligent and powerful women resemble something terrifying from the underworld...such pathetic men don't know how to deal with women in power, that's why they vilify them, but you're right, to the rest of us who see what's going on, they are anything but scary.
1
Oh yes, Ms. Dowd! So well said! Thank you! Onward Furies!
2
The Republicans look like the Mad Men to me.
3
Pelosi is no Fury, she's an Amazon ready for battle. More than a a match for President* Wimp.
13
Thrilling, exciting, inspiring column. Worth mentioning: the Spice Girls photo at the top of the page, which Ms. Dowd cites, is, according to your caption, not actually a Getty image. It's worth the correction to make clear that it's the picture of which she speaks. Thanks for a wonderful stepping stone of history!
In a word, good!
4
So Furies for Women but Heroes if Men
4
The rude dude in chief is so flipped out that he's now doing press conferences on Saturday afternoon instead of playing golf....clearly he's still also preoccupied by the pink hats protests that have plagued him from day 1 of his presidency...competition for attention is the only game he really know.
As Mika B. pointed out this week on Morning Joe, 'Pelosi is driving Trump to crazy....it's a short drive.'
9
The hard right conservatives rallied around the grifter from Queens with his unorthodox method of "governing". He is different they bleated loudly. A welcome change the bobble heads on Fox "News" babbled.
Now, we have the power of the women. Women who are not supplicant to the men. Women who are not to be hidden in the kitchen while cooking and tending to the kids.
Women who will act somewhat unorthodox and bring change to the halls of government.
Women who will not merely state "be best".
And the men of the party of white supremacy and all things nativist, the remnants of the "Know Nothings" cry in despair that how could uppity women be elected by those who elected an uppity black man, and further cry their method of governing is upending tradition. Just like the man in the White House that they revere.
5
Until the last election, It felt like we were talking to deaf mutes in all three branches of government. We screamed and cursed and no Republican listened or cared. They got a tax cut and two more Neanderthals on the Supreme Court. They set their sights on destroying Social Security and Medicare next and didn't care what the crook in the White House was doing.
Then a group of women, angry ones, tough and smart women, have the cowards in retreat and fearing for their political lives. I feel hopeful for the first time in two years.
11
President Pelosi & the Furies...
7
"Do your jobs." - Bill Belichick
Maureen, you were doing so well. Two consecutive columns that were worthy of all your efforts. The December hiatus was doing you good. What happened?
You mailed/phoned it in. With as much that goes on in Washington in one week (let alone everywhere else) you hit the post. Clink.
Thanks for the mythology lesson. I might nail it next time on 'Jeopardy.'
Do you still have the T-shirt?
2
Et tu? Is the Times really offering extra pay for every writer barb directed at Sanders? Four articles in a week, each written by multiple reporters dedicated to finding and inflating every complaint about sexism in the campaign. Gender inequality is everywhere in American politics. I'm quite confident those articles could have been written about Hillary Clinton's last campaign or that of the other contenders.
What's this about? Propagate his ideas but wreck him? NOt very progressive, not very feminist thing to do.
4
Maybe the women of the intransigent republicans, including Melania should perform like the women in the play Lysistrata to end the government shut down.
7
I think the NYT should send round a memo to its opinion writers like Ms. Dowd that it's time to start being nicer to Mr. Trump. After all, if their pervasively corrosive mean-spiritedness actually helps to bring him down in 2020 the Times could go out of business. If, for instance, Ms. Warren wins who will need to read the Times every day to find out yet again how wonderful it is to have a woman president whose policies are so correct and above criticism, etc. Just how much of that sort of cheerleading do they think their readers will pay for? The Times needs Mr. Trump, he's their savior, they should start working for his re-election now. Don't forget, NYT, once you go out of business the door slams behind you and you can't get back in again. And, Ms. Dowd, when that happens you might find out too late that Mr. Trump was all that stood between you and the unemployment line.
Is Ann Coulter also a "Furie"? If so, then trump has nowhere to go.
1
"With his cancellation of her trip to Afghanistan, Trump simply underscored that Pelosi has been to our war zones many times while Trump has only been to Iraq once after being shamed into it."
I'm afraid you're wrong here, Maureen. Trump can't be shamed into anything because he has no sense of shame. More likely, he heard he could get combat pay if he went to Iraq for a few hours.
2
I can’t wait to see how this plays out. Will these women be able to bust up the ol’ boys network?
1
So Maureen hates Hillary in part because of Hillary’s conduct with Bill’s sexual shenanigans many years ago
She boosted Bernie - but now it comes out that his team engaged in sexual harassment.
Somehow Maureen missed the not so veiled misogyny coming out of Sander’s campaign.
And Maureen flirted with supporting Trump through his misogyny and racism.
Somehow Maureen missed Page Six and Access Hollywood.
Wonder what Maureen would write about herself?
But I digress.
Nice that we have some young blood in the party to mix with seasoned pros like Pelosi.
While Mitch is in hiding, and the GOP stumbles about with the albatross of Trump dangling round their necks.
4
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the perfect Trump foil. I could not believe Trump got elected. With leftwing loonies like this woman defining the Democratic Party, it's become clear that he could indeed win a second term.
2
Excellent essay, Ms Dowd!
Hail to the Furies!
1
Say it Loud and say it Proud - Thank God for the Furries and Maureen Down!
2
where can i get my t-shirt? anybody?
Will someone PLEASE tell Beto to go away. He can come back if and when he grows up.
9
@stevevelo - And, while you’re telling Beto to go away until he grows up, mention to Bernie that the 60s are over, and he can come out of the Vermont woods now.
So women are going to fight men, eh?
As far as I know, men specialize in fighting, and are very good at it. Like our president, they even find fighting enjoyable and exhilarating.
It should be an entertaining election....
Adopt a couple of leftist policy positions that aren’t entirely original, outtweet the tweeter-in-chief and his gross allies, track down antagonist Mitch who slimes the Capitol with his lack of principle, and get a Times columnist trying to reestablish her street creed after enabling the election of a presidential monstrosity to portray you as the political equivalent of the ghostbusters, and there you have it: the Furies as an antidote to the vulgar, post-truth Trump presidency. Long gone are the intellectual, if staid, pragmatists who gave us the United Nations, NATO, the New Deal and Great Society (and the Red Scare, Vietnam and Watergate). Democrats may retake control of government in two years, but Trump has accomplished something that might last generations: he’s diminished the presidency and devalued discourse. Rather than adopt his cheap tactics, let’s hope this new breed of pink Democrat restores our nation with the grace, the fire and the faith of Bobby, Martin and John.
4
I note that the furies look somewhat formidable but when one of there number is picked as a candidate she is going to appear to be rather deficient to a lot of Americans and rather undeserving and they will probably go with what they know rather than some nasty woman that has it proven she is capable of running anything and has declared herself the enemy of all white men who happen to be the husbands of most white women.
1
It's time for Nancy to start spending much more time with her grandchildren, if you know what I mean.
1
You might want to re-read your Aeschylus: The Oresteia - the Furies end up out a job and largely ceremonial figureheads.
1
Really Maureen?
Is this an article by any means? It sounds to me as gossip, and of the worst kind, daily gossip, that is the gossip nobody will remember the day after.
Granted, the over-exposition of the nytimes as an anti-trump stalwart has its toll: nobody can produce a big pile of articles on day basis, but this is a little far off even the peripheral view on Trump.
In case you've missed them, there was recently the issue on the partecipation to the women's march by political brass, like Wassermann- Schutz, the spat between Trump and Pelosi, the Brexit vote. You have had plenty of subject to dig in, if you want, instead of pandering the Socrates' affiliates who are interested in the minutia of day-by-day political process.
Do i really care what Ocasio-Cortez is doing right now? Only if i'm writing an article from N.Y.C. !
3
thumbs up!
These so-called Furies have one obvious problem.......They are being manipulated by Nancy Pelosi, who has no interest in anything beyond her own self-promotion. Wait till the Furies turn their uncontrolled anger on her.
1
Perchance you have a rambunctious, tow headed, orange tinted and somewhat spoiled five year old nephew. As a birthday present, he demands that you give him a semi-automatic A R Fifteen.
Because he is driving you crazy repeating his demand yet you know the crazed consequences of agreeing, would you instead negotiate with the child and offer him a single shot twenty-two?
8
Light arrives in the darkness. The light of day is a good thing, it lights up dark corners and hidden agendas.
5
Women are not part of the Old Boys Network. That alone makes them valuable assets.
10
Trump has used and abused women his whole life. He had the audacity to suggest that he could not enjoy sex with a woman who had given birth to three children. Even when they were his own children. How can any woman support such a person? It seems like poetic justice that a group of culturally and racially diverse women are leading the charge against Trump. And they will not stop until Trump is just a bad memory.
16
I am really smart, two Master's degrees, well read, well traveled, informed. What I do not comprehend is the aversion to brown skinned people. Compared to the "Freedom Caucus", and other dimwits in Congress, I would much prefer a neighbor or dinner companion from Guatemala or Honduras than one of these white guys.
16
I hate to be the kill-joy here but 2020 would be the centennial of white women suffrage. Women didn't get the right to vote until the mid-60s, i.e. all women.
5
Dowd is being tone deaf to call these women Furies. What they should be called is intelligent, well-educated, women who want to see change and have taken the lead to make that change happen and in the process are exposing various Republicans for the pathetic, lily-livered, dolts that they are and that includes the endlessly slimy Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham along with Trump and the bland face of evil known as Mike Pence.
BTW -- my candidate for 2020 is Nancy Pelosi -- a woman who is smart and the best kind of politician -- one who can get things done and knows how to work all of the gears and levers to do it.
12
Reservoir Dogs...
Congratulations to these women. Carry on.
9
I think that it is time to remind the Congress and the country again what an incorrigible, absolute lout is occupying the People's House. My suggestion would be to distribute a copy of the infamous, degrading, "Access Hollywood" tape to every member of the legislative branch as a first step, accompanied by media fanfare. Let this serve as an additional rallying element in opposition to an Administration led by an amoral, anti-family, misogynist narcissist.
13
Good one. Thanks.
2
Once again you're part of the problem, Maureen. Fanning the flames of identity politics and casting Bernie as a misogynist, all in one fell swoop. The "thought leaders" (you and Krugman) will once again help snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2020.
1
Democrats are more concerned about children whose parents have brought them here illegally than the millions of babies who have been lost to abortion. This is mind boggling. Democrats want more abortions and are more concerned with the woman's rights than the fetus/baby in the womb.
The Washington March for Life wants this devastation to stop and the people involved in this worthy cause are working diligently to make it happen. The pro life movement has made tremendous inroads to get out the message that abortion is murder. This March is always well attended and the crowds are filled with enthusiasm and zeal. They know they are making a difference and their efforts are not in vain. One day hopefully this March will be a thing of the past.
1
@WPLMMT
Its hard for any of us to really take you seriously when conservatives consistently defund the programs which would provide these fetuses, which you believe are "so precious", a decent quality of life after they're born.
The fact is, 2018 was a milestone. It was the first year that the majority of Americans identified as pro-choice (50%-44%). It's a protected constitutional right. Also, you want ever ban abortions, you'll be banning safe abortions. Do you want to return to the days of women dying on the kitchen table? Americans have the right to determine their own future & terminate a pregnancy. End of story.
2
Love this totally :)
3
Uh, OK. But they aren't witches, or some creepy supernatural beings. They are just women at their best. No enough with mythology. They are not mythological, just strong people.
4
When any Democrat is asked anything about trump, they should just reply, “who?”.
5
No not a good week for Donald and for Mitch and some other men like them.
Trading people’s lives for the satisfaction of male ego.
Waking up the wrath of the Furies.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
3
Karen Pence is not actually taking a new job at the anti-gay-child (and anti-gay-adult school). She is returning to the same job she held there for 12 years while Mike Pence was in Congress. Her husband must be so proud.
I know that Trump has his faults, among them many high crimes and misdemeanors for which he could conceivably be impeached. But as someone who watched Pence as governor here in Indiana, I urge caution at making the Pences the first couple.
11
As a 72 year old man, I have only one thing to say about this column, and about the new crop of Representatives:
YOU GO GIRLS!!
Oh yeah, two other things: 1) I've voted for Nancy Pelosi ever since moving to San Francisco, and for Kamala Harris every time she has run. Okay, Dianne Feinstein too. 2) Where can I buy those T-shirts with the Furies graphics?
5
Nice article, but...
Jahana Hayes needs to look for a constituency office, and someone to answer her phone in D.C....
Unti then, well, she's as ineffective as any Redumblican.
1
More worthless crying into the wilderness we do not need.
How about both women and men losing the furies and each pulls an oar in our ship of state? That way we can stop the going in circles.
3
Furious, yes. Furies, no. Vengeance is not what these young new freshwomen are about. They are here to heal, not to wound. They are here to open doors to all, not to build walls for a few. They are here to pass legislation; not to veto it with tweets. They are here to re-open the government and free the hostages, not pay a ransom to one man's vanity monument.
They are here to #MakeDemnocracyWorkAgain
1
As the Valley Girls used to say, "that's so yesterday," which describes the Republican party today.
5
I'll take a Pelosi over a Fury any day. A work horse, not a show horse.
4
Go Furies!!!
Please investigate and prosecute the Human Rights Abusers of children at the border?
Please make sure the families see reunification soon?
I will write to every single lawmaker in this land to make sure these criminals see their day in The Hague.
2
Can we retire the word "girl" for anyone over age 18? Okay, maybe 21, and of course Lena Dunham gets a lifetime pass. I guess I'm just a cranky pantsuit era feminist, but these fantastic recently elected lawmakers deserve to be called women.
6
My thought: I want one of those t-shirts! With the money going to domestic abuse victims.
3
The old adage, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” probably had a lot to do with the return of Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker after the 2018 midterm election. But the Republicans do not seem to have learned their lesson. The longer they and the president continue with this disastrous government shutdown, the more the fury builds in women across the nation – because they are primarily the ones who manage the household budget, they are the ones whose primary caregiving has been adversely impacted, they are the ones who are forced into making hard choices between rent and car payments, they are the ones sacrificing their credit history for a president seeking credit for a wall that will make little to no difference to most of their daily lives…
So, Ms. Dowd rightly concludes, “But his greatest shock will be that his election woke up the wrath of the Furies, who are unceasing until they get their man.” Yes, these women who are being scorned yet again will remember this shutdown when they go back to the polls in 2020. Trump might just become the first one-term president of the 21st century, if not the first fractional term president ever (not counting William Harrison and Zachary Taylor who died in office due to illness) depending on what special counsel Mueller finds? Trump is always claiming to break records (many of them fake, i.e., just made up by him) as president – women might just grant him another one in 2020.
4
For those who shrink ín discomfort from the actions of "the feminine furies" of the US Congress, remember that they may be the only ones who can stir the nation out of its four (or less) years of earthly purgatory.
6
I am an out gay progressive. This column is disturbing. HRC was denied the presidency for four reasons: 1. Trump/Russia collusion 2. Comey 3. Ferocious NYT anti- Clinton coverage including Maureen Dowd 4. Bernie Sanders& Jill Stein. Now Ms. Dowd wants to create HER narrative of 2020 and I ain’t buying it. I believe AOC is exuberant, telegenic, smart, ambitious and knows how to use social media. So? Trump is a ( gulp) genius at social media. AOC may be slowly becoming a caricature of herself- I hope not. —AOC has NOT been tested. She’s experiencing a long and fabulous honeymoon as a politician. I await her first crisis- this will be the real test of her character; not posing on Instagram. I give Alexandria three words of advice: get to work. -BTW: I adore HRC and Nancy Pelosi.
2
Dann straight, girl! Get on the bus or get out of the way!
3
Interesting column. You correctly pointed out what is happening without finally joining the Lynch mob of feminists that are saying all of today's. men are evil, wicked and must atone for their existence and five millions yrs. of men's existence.
I am sure you did but I suggest you reread your colleague Bret Stephens take on this general topic.
I am sure the Lynch mob you describe here didn't.
1
The more powerful feminist icon from Greek mythology is Medusa, the beautiful maiden whose supernatural tresses have come to symbolize feminine rage.
The Furies, after all, were chthonic (underworld), hideous, vengeful—the incarnation of a curse.
Ms. Pelosi, the demure Catholic, is the star, who possesses the personal and institutional virility to take on Zeus in this Greek spectacle that is the current US Congress.
Perhaps Ms. Pelosi can assume the role of Lysistrata, the sage woman who devised the strategy of withholding sex to stop the Peloponnesian War or, even better, Athena herself—the goddess of wisdom, law and order, civilization.
On this mythological register, perhaps Ms. Ocasio-Cortez can play the role of Reconciliation, the beautiful young woman Lysistrata recruits to negotiate a peace between the Athenians and the Spartans.
2
The original Furies were from Greek myth, and haunt Orestes in Sophocles' "Orestaia" for killing his unfaithful mother (who murdered his father, King Agamemnon, with her lover, Aegisthus.)
But in the final play, Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and patron of Athens, conducts the first trial in Greek myth. Which is worse: killing your mother (who murdered your father for power) or letting him get away with it?
Athena rules in Orestes' favor, and the Furies become the Eumenides ("the kindly ones").
1
Not so amazing that it'll take a fleet of valkaries to take down the Dread Tyrant Trump, ironic that it'll be women, those folk he so enjoys belittling, disparaging, and using.
3
I have a good sense that Mr. Trump won't be grabbing these women by any of their body parts.
3
House Democrats must dump Pelosi and embrace the new , young , energetic leadership of AOC who supports Medicare for all, higher taxes , abolishment of ICE and elimination of racist immigration restrictions. Pelosi is just another rich old White politician who stayed too long and contributed too little. It’s time for her to move on.
1
@Common Ground Ageism is not a good replacement for sexism.
Perhaps the special counsel leakers to Buss Feed lwere women?
In any case, a nice shot over the bow by Mueller.
Trump had been, eerily, indirectly threatening Cohen, that if he squealed, Trump would sick his sick dogs on Cohen’s father-in-law-law, mafia style, as in Godfather horse head in the bed style. As in, maybe some Philadelphia-style sicko would do Trump’s bidding, without even being asked.
Mueller, possibly, or his Furiosas, leaked just enough to show Trump that it is way beyond whether Cohen sang or not. What the leak emphasized, even as it took back things about the “characterizations” of the corroborating evidence, was that there IS corroborating evidence, and not just Cohen’s word about his lying.
It is way beyond merely what Cohen said.
So Trump, lay off the mafiosa father-in-law-law threats already.
And maybe start acting a little decent if you think you are going to get a sliver of forgiveness from truth-seeking Americans, as in stop your stupid shutdown.
I hope it was a Furiosa that helped with the leaks.
2
Thanks a lot, Maureen Dowd!!! Great column today! The furies are in the White House!!!
1
Dear Ms. Dowd: Are you sure you want to invoke the Furies to describe the new crop of Congresswomen? The Furies, after all, were chthonic (underworld), hideous, vengeful—the embodiment of a curse. The more recognizable feminist icon from Greek mythology is Medusa, the beautiful maiden whose supernatural tresses have come to symbolize feminine rage.
Perhaps Lysistrata, the sage woman who suggested withholding sex as a strategy to stop the Peloponnesian War, would be even more apropos.
On this mythological register, Ms Ocasio-Cortez can play the role of Reconciliation and Ms. Pelosi—the virginal Catholic, mother of five, grandmother of who knows how many—can assume the role of Lysistrata or, even better, Athena herself.
Trump’s record on hiring, promoting and fairly paying women should be an inspiration and something Democrats should aspire to.
Once the government is shutdown for more than 30 days, all of those protections that make it virtually impossible to fire Federal workers go away.
Maybe once the government is reopened, after the house cleaning, some nice positions will be newly available for Trump to hire more strong women.
Tick. Tick.
1
@Ken Whatever Trump's record is with respect to hiring and promoting women in the private sector, not many people, male or female, seem attracted to working for him in the White House right now; I assume this might also be the case for civil service positions. Given the low unemployment rate as well, perhaps Trump and his cronies might want to think twice before firing federal workers.
The Furies don’t care about asylum seekers, DACA recipients or TPS refugees; they only care about scoring political points against the president.
Yesterday, President Trump offered to extend DACA and TPS. House leaders complain these extension are only temporary, but Trump cannot make temporary programs permanent. DACA was designed as a temporary program. The TPS law says refugees have to go home with the crisis the made them refugees end. Only Congress can make DCA recipients and TPS refugees citizens.
Trump also offered to permit Central American children to submit asylum requests in their home countries. He said,”This includes a new system to allow Central American minors to apply for asylum in their home countries and reform to promote family reunification for unaccompanied children, thousands of whom wind up on our border doorstep.”
This means migrant children would not have to make the long, expensive and dangerous trek to the United States border. There would be no squalid caravan encampments teeming with children in border cities, no long waits at the ports of entry, no children fleeing tear gas canisters. It would mean no more migrant children dying in the desert or in Border Patrol processing stations.
The president also offered major concessions on the border wall.
Until it crafts a compromise spending bill and presents it to the Senate, the House owns the shutdown.
3
Nonsense. The president can absolutely make temporary protections permanent by signing legislation approved in both houses of Congress. If he agreed to do that, he’d shift the burden to McConnell to call for a vote in the Senate, as he has said he would do.
1
Trump’s move was simply a disingenuous and cynical attempt to place the blame back on the democrats. Looks like you actually bought it.
2
@jaust
Yes. But Congress hasn't sent the president a bill making DACA recipients and TPS refugees citizens or permanent legal residents.
When the people who will be passing legislation redistributing my assets through taxation are not financially prudent enough to have money for the deposit on an apartment, I am concerned.
29 year olds espousing slogans with no facts or basis in reality should scare everyone, of both parties, as there appears to be little substance behind the designer clothes wearing but no money for rent Congresswoman
6
@Scott Duesterdick You do know women get underpaid, frequently have our diminished assets distributed to the 1% by the GOP, and are massively concerned about a roof over our heads? I bet we know more about a tight budget than you ever thought. Oh, and furious.
@Scott Duesterdick
"29 year olds espousing slogans with no facts or basis in reality should scare everyone, of both parties"
Just change the number to "71 year old's" and now you know how the rest of us feel.
@Scott Duesterdick
So, there are an age test, a financial acuity test and an assets test (presumably demonstrating passage of the acuity test) that the prudent voter should apply in choosing among Congressional candidates, as a practical matter and stop-gap pending their formal enactment.
And need citizens need to qualify additionally as voters by proof of having sufficient assets which would otherwise be redistributed?
Any other laws or changes to existing ones necessary desirable to set things straight?
There are I think 89 female Democrats in the new house and 13 Republican ones. Any questions?
13
I hope the “furies” come through during this terrible time.
This so called “President” is actively harming over 800,000 innocent people over a wall that he and Ann Coulter want. Why is he so afraid of her fury?
The integrity and very existence of our country is at stake. Why was there not more outcry last year when Putin said the US was basically finished and that “Donald” listens to him?
22
When Obama was president, I slept well. I haven’t gotten much sleep the past two years, until last November. Now I can honestly say I’m sleeping a little better.
13
I so hope that the "Furies" take on the old, white, paternalistic brotherhood that has brought this country's democracy closer to extinction. This is what women like me and many, many before me have fought for in this country--equality and no glass ceiling.
21
The Democrats campaign slogan for 2020 shouldn't be, "A woman couldn't do worse". It should be "The right person for the job".
10
For all the attention focused on toxic men, it would be well to remember that toxicity is in no way restricted to the male gender. Ann Coulter, Sarah Sanders, Jeanine Pirro, and Laura Ingraham are just the start. Their revolting, abusive behavior must be given the attention it deserves in the effort to vanquish the poison in our politics.
42
Maybe she wouldn't be at the top of the list, but I think I'd add Dowd to your list.
2
I had my doubts about AOC, but I sure like what I’m seeing. When I look at the photo, the Avengers comes to mind. The mostly old male Congress for most of my life has camouflaged itself in an artifice of grave respectability, wisdom and paternalism. I’ve worked for politicians and what I can tell you is: Yeah, right. Rip that away. Let’s get the show on the road.
And where’s Mitch? He’s hiding. Check the men’s room.
20
Sometimes I worry about Ms. Dowd's lack of self-awareness. Her odd and obsessive attacks on Sec. Clinton were worthy of a little Furies vengeance.
"This was not a good week to be a dude in politics." That needs qualification.
It was a fine time to be a dude in politics who is decent, fair, sane, just, intelligent, knowledgeable, empathetic, practical, principled.
Specifically, it was not a fine time to be a sexist pig dude in politics, or an immoral opportunist dude of bottomless bad faith in politics.
Representative Ocasio-Cortez and the others: "Where's Mitch?"
Contrary to Dowd's claim, that is an important and very real question, and nothing like a stunt.
McConnell believes he will be voted out if he doesn't protect Trump, no matter what Trump does. McConnell couldn't care less about our democracy or his Constitutional duties.
It wasn't a good week to be the dude in politics Senator Sanders who must do better than sneaking in via the employees' entrance in order to meet with the women who were abused during his campaign. Much better.
11
After men make their messes, you know it’s the women who go in and clean up. And Donald Trump most definitely deserves to have his clock cleaned!
Go ladies!!
13
Commentators here and elsewhere would do well to read and know the Three Furies of mythology - Tisiphone, Alecto, and Magaera - and their incessant pursuit of wrong-doers and criminals. Indeed, the Very Small president should fear them, though his ignorance and small-mindedness will prevent that until well beyond the witching hour.....
7
Thank you, Maureen Dowd. I gave up reading you after years of your Hillary-bashing became too much to take.
This piece is a very good start to winning your way back into the hearts of a bruised nation.
6
AOC needs to make sure she doesn't get too far over her skis. Trump has but one political tool in the tool box....degrade your opponent. AOC was a bartender. She, I am sure, has heard it all. In order to survive in the world of alcohol, you need to be thick skinned and quick on your feet. So, she needs to pick her spots wisely and not make stupid mistakes. Let Trump be the one who says the wrong thing to her at the wrong time. Let the Bouncers, the American voters, be the ones who walk up behind Trump, tap him on the shoulder, and say "That's enough, buddy, you have had a little too much to say. Didn't you hear the lady ask you nicely to stop? Why don't you pay your tab and head on home.You don't want to make a scene in here, do you?"
As to Bernie....his attempt at the White House ended almost 3 years ago. It took this long to figure out there were problems inside the campaign? No post loss autopsy revealed the problems? And you have to come in the back door to hear what happened? Not good. Not good at all.
12
According to legend, the three classic Furies are:
Alecto – Punisher of moral crimes (anger, etc.)
Megaera – Punisher of infidelity, oath breakers, and theft
Tisiphone – Punisher of murderers
Good column, Maureen.
6
At last! Democrats who can turn the table on the GOP, make them look ridiculous, and change the conversation to real issues. I totally support the efforts of these breath-of-fresh-air women. We men are furious too. More please!
14
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her girl squad"?
Enough of the dismissive comments about AOC and Congressional women.
9
The article doesn't mention the Furies from the right pulling Don's strings. Forever clueless, Trump turned running the government over to Hannity, Limbaugh, and Coulter, a humongous mistake.
Coulter, a bigger attention addict than Trump and high on getting credit for wedging our fake POTUS between a rock and hard place, doubled down by mocking yesterday's feeble DACA offer.
Like an opportunistic parasite, Ann is more than willing to take anyone down if it means seeing her name featured in articles and face on TV. Unfortunately for Donald, he's created a monster who's figured out the easiest way to score the attention she craves is to make Donald dance to her changing tunes. When it's over she might even get to write a book about how she owned the shut down and took down a phony and a fraud.
DopamineProject.org
11
I'm almost 71, and I'm just waiting for some old GOP codger to slip up, in talking to these young women, say "Now honey..."
6
I don’t think Dowd means harm here - but contextualizing AOC and her colleagues by gender is kind of the heart of the problem.
4
@Prufrock Not at this point it isn't. When power is equalized we can stop "contextualizing by gender." Until then, the contrast between the old, white, male establishment that seeks to keep everyone not like them under their thumb and the fresh, multi-cultural, female insurgency can't be highlighted enough.
1
My 92 year-old, South Carolina lowcountry-tough mother, raised on a dairy farm and educated at Duke, is a long-time admirer of Nancy Pelosi.
Relative to Ms. Pelosi's refusal to cede even an inch in the messaging battle with Donald Trump over the government shutdown, immigration policy and the #TrumpWall, she eloquently---if not elegantly---expressed that admiration in a phone call with me earlier this week: "You know that woman from Iowa who was elected to the Senate because she could castrate hogs? She could learn a few things from Nancy Pelosi."
Classic.
16
This is a time calling for the most searing denunciations possible of an immoral, incompetent and really ghastly president. But a new unhealthy factor has intruded into the methods of the opposition : storming and confronting legislators physically, in restaurants, elevators, office reception rooms and in the hallways of Congress constitutes a gross violation of privacy and democratic decorum. A recent segment of a popular morning tv show carried the opinion of a close friend of Michael Cohen; the upshot of his view was that Trump is quite capable of calling his supporters into the streets to oppose the consequences of very adverse legal rulings. Imagine phalanxes of rusty pickup trucks from the boondocks barreling towards DC to find and confront Furies who were about to unseat the Buffoon! They might not just be carrying Confederate Flags.
A seasoned journalist from the Times ought to know enough US and world history to value the absolute necessity of maintaining an even higher standard of democratic decorum in times fraught with potential violence.
2
Anger may contain real women power instead of being ladylike and waiting our turn like good little girls. Men sometimes just don't know what to do with an angry wife. Also, women don't come after you directly but by sneaky means if necessary.
"...full of sound and fury and signifying nothing."
3
I'm waiting for Melania's book.
Melania writing a book??? Just like her RNC speech - She’ll need to read Michelle Obama’s book first!
But, where is Mitch?????
4
Maureen, below please find Friedrich Schiller on the Furies (from The Cranes of Ibykus). Enjoy.
''And, standing in a fearful ring,
The dread and solemn chant they sing,
That through the bosom thrilling goes,
And round the sinner fetters throws.
Sense-robbing, of heart-maddening power,
The furies' strains resound through air
The listener's marrow they devour, -
The lyre can yield such numbers ne'er.
Happy the man who, blemish-free,
Preserves a soul of purity!
Near him we ne'er avenging come,
He freely o'er life's path may roam.
But woe to him who, hid from view,
Hath done the deed of murder base!
Upon his heels we close pursue, -
We, who belong to night's dark race!
And if he thinks to 'scape by flight,
Winged we appear, our snare of might
Around his flying feet to cast,
So that he needs must fall at last.
Thus we pursue him, tiring ne'er, -
Our wrath repentance cannot quell, -
On to the shadows' and e'en there
We leave him not in peace to dwell!"
2
The Furies indeed. Although they are camera-seekers, AOC and her crew are shaking up, and I for one approve their message. If Hiding McConnell, Bloviating Trump, and Racist Steve King have spinning heads because these “little girls” don’t know their place, then I suggest the career Democrats in Congress get their dancing shoes on if they want to be re-elected. Power to the Furies!
6
Appreciate all the support that this movement can get but..
Trump is about race and not gender
White women will not be harmed
Black and brown will be tangibly harmed
This is a ruse by the media
The Republican Party is sexist but they are primarily about money and racism
By spinning the gender angle I see the benefit of pulling some white women who voted for trump away from him. But it’s just a spin. The gop agenda is a whiter nation and setting non whites back in a variety of ways. Most “women” are still white and hence their lives do matter
84
I am sorry for you. You dismiss more than half the human race. Trump racism includes a white female component from which white women are physically and mentally abused, and paid much less than their counterparts for equal or better work.
39
@Dc "White women will not be harmed"? The forced birth movement will harm all women, no matter their color.
The forced birth movement will harm all doctors and health care workers who believe any patient should have choice, no matter what his or her color.
And ... pronouncements that women who choose abortion should be jailed ... yeah, that is about gender.
Those wicked white men really do have a "gender angle" -- a desire to subject women to subservience to their control.
How does a comment with such a obvious flaw become a NY Times "pick"?
38
@Dc
A narrow view. White women, as well as women of color, are harmed daily. The GOP has a broad misogynistic agenda that should not be shunted aside in favor of a personal desire to focus on their equally broad racist agenda. "Keep them barefoot [underpaid] and pregnant [choiceless]" knows no color.
37
The “You Can’t Always Get what You Want” adage applies to the House as well as the Senate and president. The Constitution’s system of checks and balances require compromise. The House has shut down government by refusing to craft a compromise spending bill with which the Senate will concur. Yesterday, the president offered significant concessions on the border wall, DACA and Temporary Protective Status. Yet House leaders continue their obstinacy. They don’t care about asylum seekers, DACA “Dreamers” or TPS refugees; they only care about scoring political points against the president.
3
@William Case
Don't be ridiculous. His concessions amounted a blackmail note to (maybe) provide temporary protections for roughly half the dreamers from whom HE WITHDREW PROTECTIONS.
The bills the house has passed to reopen the government are exactly the same ones the Republican CONTROLLED house and senate passed in mid December before the shutdown happened. If they were okay with Republicans a month ago why aren't they now?
6
@William Case
Did you watch the POTUS and his speech? I did and it was hostile arrogant and only a temporary solution to many things we as a country say we believe.
It's was like you give me $100.00 for my tv and it's yours but you have to give it back in three weeks. I'll keep your money. When you research the tv you find out it's worth $40.00. That's not a good deal.
But even though I believe that the U.S. Government shutdown is Mr Trumps fault the Democrats could also make compromises and as I remember the Senate can override a veto by the POTUS.
So no one is making any compromises and our Government remains in the shutdown that's a shame.
1
@William Case The House, firstly, did not shut down the govt. Trump openly did. Secondly, he did not offer "significant concessions". It's a feint. And, thirdly, the democrats want amnesty and citizenship. Coulter and the GOP are racists and xenophobes. It is bizarre how the Right sees things backwards and upside-down almost always.
1
Well done, Mo. I applaud this piece and your other recent essays. Guess I’ll keep reading your Opinions!
What I like best about the wave of women legislators is that they are no nonsense, to the point, and well defined in their individual goals. Like Rosie The Riveter, they’ll get the job done. And they won’t just hold their places until the men come back, they’re here to stay!
5
Only hope Republicans have of resurrecting themselves with women would be to replace Mitch McConnell with Lisa Murkowski. Of course she would not be taking orders from Trump and would give the GOP some credibility with women.
8
@LVG
This would be a smart, futuristic idea, replacing tired, weak-spines McConnell with Murkowski.
Therefore it won’t happen — because, Republicans.
(Is it too late to name a dinosaur after them?)
@LVG
Do you seriously think that could happen? A bunch of old white men who are used (at least for the past 2years) to having some power.
Too bad they don't care about Federal Employees or the majority of folk in this country.
I am also having doubts about the Democrats.
Neither side seems to care about the actual folk in this country only dinging the other side.
I am ashamed and in terror for my country.
Having raised four children Pelosi is no stranger to infantile behavior, temper tantrums, idle threats, faulty spelling,
adolescent egocentrism, weird hair, falsifying, and blaming the other guy. As Speaker of The House she’ll continue to
send Trump upstairs to his room for timeouts. The big timeout may be behind walls, of which he’s so obsessed.
20
All of us should want Trump gone, and if we could erased from our collective consciousness.
6
Confronting Trump with sharp-elbowed mockery plays better than the high-minded outrage his opponents used during his first two years in office. Wit, not hand-wringing, will trump Trump any day. Keep going, Nancy!
7
I don't know why more elected Congresspeople, from the House and from the Senate, aren't going after McConnell. Put him on the hot seat constantly for his refusal to allow a vote to reopen to come up! Let's get Senators on the record! Who knows, maybe it would be a veto-proof majority. Instead, we get democracy dormant.
Republicans pilloried Pelosi and have no trouble continuing to do so. Why aren't more Democrats putting the wood to Mitch?
I have been a Democrat from the moment I was first allowed inside a voting booth, and I have been so fed up with the timidity of Democratic leadership in thought and process for years. What the heck do they think they're accomplishing by being so dormant/doormat?!
10
AOC and another melodramatic media stunt. She would be better served by staying in her office and reading so that she stops making such horribly inaccurate public comments. Even her own party gets this.
4
Write, think, and say what you will, but Trump will win the electoral college against any of the female dems running for president in 2020. Will he lose the popular vote? Sure. But where it counts; Florida, Ohio, Pennslyvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, he's going to make mince meat of them....you want him out? Joe Biden or Andrew Cuomo. All others will be eaten alive.
7
@Jason- we should be more outraged with election tampering by outside sources. That this isn’t being addressed by this administration should be a stronger message than any other investigation. He was right that this election was going to be rigged. More like stolen. We are trying to put out the wrong fire. Need to snuff it at the source.
Andrew Cuomo?!? Surely you jest.
Someone has to rock the boat, and kudos to A.O.C. for trying to drain the swamp filled with bottom feeders and nearly extinct turtles-Republicans. The fossilized fools of Congress are stuck in the fifties with regards to racism and gender. They are out of sync with today's modes of communication. They are still in the typewriter era. A.O.C. and her female counterparts are not trying to take down the establishment. They are modernizing it. Trump and his herd are in for a rude awakening.
1
@g.i.but to do the job well is to learn the job well. I have yet to see a new swimmer dive into the deep end without coming up gurgling. I applaud their enthusiasm but am wary of their lack of strategy. One can’t modernize without knowing where the weight bearing walls are located nor locating the master switch.
3
Good column Maureen. The furries comparison is very good. And Trump does need to be aware. But both you and AOC are making a mistake by identifying them as girls (ie: Spice Girls and girl squad). We need women with power in Congress...not cute girls. They need resolve to stand equally with the men in Congress. They are not going to get it with the mindset of being girls. Maybe it is entertaining media copy....but they need to change the way they are perceived. Nobody refers to Nancy Pelosi as a girl.
9
@Dave. Correct! Loud doesn’t make one right. Just loud. I give you 45 as exhibit A. Pelosi is measured and strategic. Like watching a pathologist at an autopsy. Same with Mueller. The new group is intoxicated with their new found power and need to get sober. Reminds me of some new drivers who get the keys and drive aimlessly for hours. Nancy needs to give them a GPS because they don’t believe in resding road maps. That’s for old timers.
1
I'd take Posh Spice over McConnell any day.
Or any of the others.
1
Awesome! Where's Mitch, indeed!
3
When I first read this piece part of me wanted to scream at Mo to ditch the T-shirts, the labels men use to demean us, to scream that these were just people were who doing their jobs--and doing them exceedingly well.
But the other part of me was screaming even louder, Yes, yes, YES! These people are women--women! And what could be more fitting than that it is a collection of very competent women who may be the comeuppance of
our unredeemed misogynist-and-kitty-grabber-in-chief and of the Party of Old White White Men that has done everything in its power to keep women barefoot and pregnant and "in their place"?
So keep it up, Nancy. We live for lines like, "He wouldn't be that petty, would he?"--uttered so cooly butter wouldn't melt in your mouth and throwing His Pettiness so off track he couldn't even wing back a good insult. And AOC et al., keep up the rumbling under the wingtoed feet of the old but hardly grand party. And more than anything else keep the spotlight on the empty chair that is Mitch McConnell, because it is his continued hiding under his desk, more than anything else in politics today, that empowers the most meanspirited and incompetent president in American history.
7
I am male and am all for the Furies!
2
We know who two of the Furies are that will be rightfully tormenting Trump: Nancy Pelosi and AOC. The third, if not RBG, may not be clear to us yet. Might be Eliz. Warren, Kamala Harris or...Rachel Maddow.
1
I can picture a SNL skit with Nancy P. played by the amazing Kate KcKinnon sitting behind the President, of course played by Alec Baldwin, during the State of the Union. After every few stupid sentences Nancy will be making crazy faces, sticking out her tongue and holding her nose as the speech progresses.
As the speech continues republicans stand and cheer him wildly after he speaks about all of the pollution and foul water his EPA is causing because they hate regulations.
In the end once again democrats don't applaud and Alec Baldwin calls them traitors.
That sounds about right.
This Trump shutdown and McConnell's refusal to bring any House border bills to a floor is infuriating! The misogynist Mitch McConnell has no problem bringing ant-women bills that put the fetus above the life of a woman to the floor. Imagine that. Vote these two terrors out. In the meantime shout out exactly what damage they are doing. All women and the men who respect their equal humanity need to know exactly what the Republican party represents these days. It is not good.
3
"The vice president and his wife were on stage at the mall, and Karen Pence started a new job teaching art at a Virginia Christian school that is intolerant of L.G.B.T. students and L.G.B.T. parents."
Intolerant is a mild word for the conservative Christian fixation on targeting gay citizens.
5
Bless those that have fury...
1
An old chestnut heard in academia in the 80’s:
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
Wonderful strong, articulate and committed women out
to accomplish their mission.
It’s thrilling to see this. Watch out liars, slackers, misogynists, misanthropes
you can’t hide any longer in your clubs, private rooms, and double talk.
You will be found, ousted, and thrashed to deliver some justice where there
is currently corruption, mendacity, weakness and nepotism.
America is a strong forward looking country with possibilities of greatness and
yes empathy, humanity and strength of mind.
Our women and man of good faith need
to cut out the tumor of the current presidency and restore the vision and focus
we are so capable of delivering. Mend the burnt bridges and restore our good name.
Impeach the horror story in the Oval Office.
Fine, Ms. Dowd, but where were the Furies when Donald Trump bragged about "grabbing 'em by the [pudenda]" in 2016? Where were all the white, suburban (educated) women with their upper income fury then?
4
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18,they voted their wallets just like their well heeled, high powered social curcle. Trump was elected by those who felt they were entitled not to pay higher taxes as well as those who believed they were voting for their last hope. They all saw who he was. They just didn’t care enough not to vote for him. And to that I say, thanks a heap!
Wow!! Democratic women vs Republican men! How competitive, like a football game. Pelosi, how much more clever than Trump. All so much fun, so entertaining. How Monty Pythonish. How TV game showish. And all the wonderful egos, Trump and AOC. Who can curse the other side the most. Whose party has more road kill? Let’s keep score.
1
The Furies put the blame for the sit down where it belongs- on McConnell for not allowing a vote.
Keep it up ladies - you are off to a great start!
2
I initially misread this title as "Beware the Furries, President Trump." I admit I'm somewhat disappointed.
1
Ms Dowd, who spent eight years disparaging (Barry) Obama (whose first bill signing was the Lily Ledbetter Act), who never passed up an opportunity to put the worst possible interpretation on Hillary's conduct, who gave Trump a fawning hall pass with indulgent teasing and the occasional slap on the wrist, now celebrates the arrival of newly elected women to Congress driven by an unstoppable passion for reform. Her readers will see how long Ms Dowd's celebratory mood lasts, but if history is any judge, it won't be long.
@Leigh opinions in the op Ed is like dealing with the weather. If one is patient it will change.
1
End the shutdown. Impeach and convict .
End the dictatorship . Mitch threw out the Constitution... can't even vote for a veto proof bill because the spineless Senate politburo leader will not put a bill up until The Con Man in Chief ok's it (permission from Putin's puppet), not trying to be funny … these are the facts.
Airline pilots and the CEO's of Delta, United and Southwest airlines can open the government immediately by declaring a national air safety emergency. This country is not a dictatorship and we should not stand idly by an watch this disgraceful shutdown make people work for no pay, ruin families and destroy our way of life. TSA and aircraft controllers have no money for basic daily needs and the suffering is causing a national flying safety hazard. Airline pilots servicing Louisville and Atlanta should declare sick out (Monday Jan 21) in support of all TSA employees , air traffic controllers and FAA employees supporting flying safety The Con Man in Chief Putin's puppet and the Senate Republican Politburo Majority leader Mitch McConnell are causing great danger to airline passengers and the safety of the general public. The FBI ,border agents and many other agencies that provide safety FDA etc.. safety and security are beginning to show signs of strain.
4
@libel Agreed. But the airlines run on the same “software” as those who elected those cretins. It’s all about their profits to the shareholders. Our safety be damned. Their insurance carriers should call it because they’ll have to pay should a travesty occur. It’s clear that conscience and empathy play a bit parts in the corporate world. They play no roles in this administration.
@libel
Mitch threw out the Constitution... can't even vote for a veto proof bill because the spineless Senate politburo leader will not put a bill up until The Con Man in Chief ok's it (permission from Putin's puppet), not trying to be funny … these are the facts.
Mitch will allow votes if Louisville airport is forced to shutdown. no TSA, no air traffic controllers, and hopefully no pilots, CEO's will be on the phone to The Con Man in Chief and Putin's other puppet Mitch
1
@Shelley Karlen
Pilots are responsible for flight safety and can abort the flight because the FAA is not paying the aircraft controllers thereby the controllers can not concentrate on their mission and the FAA is also failing to inspect aircraft and the radar systems for air traffic control . No one should be flying at this time.
1
According to the NYT, there are 42 women in the freshman class yet most of the press coverage is about two women: Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib. Now Ms. Dowd informs us there is a "girl squad" with three additional women. I haven't noticed equal media coverage of those three.
I wish them all well but I wonder what the other 37 women are doing and thinking.
2
The good news about this column I'm better prepared for a Furries Jeopardy question!
1
Wouldn’t it be great if a woman, Nancy Pelosi, was ready to spend all of her good name to ruin his ?
He was all ready to start this « shutdown battle », figuring the others would be reasonable, and do what is best for the nation, and do what is best for their political careers. But what if Nancy shows him she is ready to sacrifice everything to ruin his administration ?
She is getting ready to retire.
It was he that started this fight. He is even on tape, videotape, saying that he would be happy to take the blame for the shutdown.
Wouldn’t it be great to see Pelosi accept nothing less than total capitulation on his part to end the shutdown ?
Show Mister The-Art-of-the-Deal what it is like when you are dealing with someone of equal power that will accept nothing less than you getting a really lousy deal.
With him on videotape saying he would be happy to take the blame for the shutdown, it will be hard for him to not always end up getting at least half of it.
He wanted a fight, so give him his fight.
I can remember when the three furies were Republicans and they were fighting for civil rights, women's rights and for the efficiency of the private sector. At that time, in the 1950s, the Southern Democrats were parochial, racist and chauvinistic towards non-whites. That has all changed and a couple of women are left and the civil rights marchers sons (Romney) are about all there are. Today the Democrats have cast off the racism and their roots in Andrew Jackson's land theft and genocide and the current office holders have taken up his mantle. There's no fury like the Furie of the passionate cultures. But we should all remember that we are the hands and feet on the body of the nation and that opposing thumbs requires intelligence if we are to play the piano or anything else that requires coordinated action. Today we resemble the severed corpus collosum and the hands at war with each other. Free dumb with a feral mind.
An incorrect ending... The article should be ended like this:
"..., who are unceasing until they get their WOMAN."
The biggest failure of women is that they don't support other women and prefer their abusive MAN (like Trump) over other smart WOMAN (like Hillary). As long as this is the case, men will rule the world. So leave this slave mentality behind and start supporting other women. I am a man and I despise slavery in any form.
The world is laughing at the US, stalemate on shutdown. Same, as the world is laughing at the UK Brexit, to go or not to go.
AOC, fury or not, is in the danger of becoming a Sarah Palin, just a mouthpiece of a movement that is going nowhere. The white masters of the universe who rule America behind the scenes will allow her spotlight but then as quickly as say ‘when’, they will dissolve her into oblivion. We truly fool ourselves thinking America is a functioning democracy. Yet we have allowed our country to wage and prolong unnecessary wars, we have allowed our weapons to be used in mass massacres like Syria Yemen Iraq perhaps the wrong people have got hold of our weapons in Africa! We have allowed innocent young children to be pulled from the arms of wailing parents. We have allowed our highly educated highly accomplished honest tax paying documented children now adults to be deprived a path to citizenship. Have you ever wondered why or how we allowed these things! It’s because the masters of universe in America include powerful women as well who have given permission to their men to go forth and commit these aforementioned atrocities on fellow humans.
4
Trump petty? Who would have guessed?
Having Ms.Pelosi on the other side of this immature, inchoate version of a man who is our President, is absolutely very enjoyable to witness. She will have him in knots before she is done.
1
Not to worry.
Trump is experienced.
He can satisfy the needs of one of them or all of them.
I stand with the Furies.
1
Something tells me that the spectre of Mitch McConnell "plowing through" the confirmation of the Bretster Kavanaugh will be the last time he gets to use that verb.
Even after November's record election tally he and his mewling cohorts seemed to have no clue what just happened. Even now that reality stares them in the face they continue the rusty posture of posing like mutes in the midst of a prairie gaze. And that isn't going to cut it with voters anymore.
The greatest thing Trump has done in the last two years was to knock the dust off of the electorate. There's another reckoning to come in 2020 and Mitch may need a new pair of glasses to see it.
2
You might need to do some deep diving of the Marsha Blackburns of the world. The divide is not women v men, but urban v rural
I remind myself how Ms. Dowd treated Ms. Clinton 2015 - 2016. I still don't understand her Hillary-hatred and the disservice dished upon Ms. Clinton.
Someone should win a prize if they find Mitch.
What I really wanna know is did they locate Mitch? or is he still hiding?
"Kill Bill”-style, the fiery Democratic women keep coming, driven by vengeance against the wicked man in the White House with the history of hurting women and swearing false oaths." Really, Ms. Dowd? Is this the best you can do? This op-ed and the hundreds like it that have appeared in the NYT the past two years are doing wonders for politicians' careers; not the least Donald Trump's. AOC is the latest Washington rock star. It all makes for good entertainment but sooner or later these politicians are going to have to get down to the serious business of governing on behalf of their constituents. All-Trump all-the-time is a diversion tactic. Get to work Washington! We're out here waiting for you to actually do something for us.
3
Come on ladies, you get the honor of doing it, take this "thing" down. You've earned it.
The Spice Girls? How wonderfully 1990s.
Of course, it's Nancy Pelosi who gives real meaning to the phrase the Spice Girls made popular: 'Girl Power.' (Although 'girl' when used to refer to a grown woman is another of those words best left in the 1990s.).
Interesting piece but I can't believe it was written by a woman who worked so hard to keep a woman from becoming President. It is hard not to think of this while reading her columns.
3
I saw a sign at the Women's March today that read:
"Women are the Wall, and Trump will pay!"
1
More of the same echo chamber wish fulfillment (article and most comments). Fact - lots of women voted for Trump despite his publicized misogyny. Fact - lots of women also voted in the midterms for GOP candidates supported by Trump. There is a feminine wave among the Democratic ranks, many Furies, but until the Democrats as a party substantially increase their appeal to GOP supporters, they are likely to fail to take power.
3
@Almond
They just did take power in the House. Expect the hapless republican Seanate to become Democratic in 2020.
Yes, gerrymandering has made it harder.
As a life long independent, I see the media’s adoration/vilification with Cortez akin to what it was with Palin - a firebrand of the political extreme of her party who many view as picture friendly, i.e. sexist.
The question I have is whether the media in all of it’s biases would elevate to such a level a picture friendly moderate, be she Democrat, Republican or Independent.
1
@Brucski. You are so right. Cortez should actually accomplish something to earn DEM/media darling status. I wish her success, but America doesn't need another media pet. I'm tired of the show in Washington. I want concrete results on our long list of problems, including those promised on our crumbling infrastructure.
@Brucski I think the media would treat a picture friendly moderate the same way once a concrete definition of her positions / beliefs became available. List what your definition of moderate is and I'll reply how I think the media may portray you.
I am 76-years old and have never been more encouraged about the future of our country than I am now. I am madly in love with AOC and the other spice girls.
39
@kengschwarz Good for you. We need more positive vibes regardless if we have differing views. Civility will prevail! Peace and love from Brooklyn!
@kengschwarz uh oh..... “girls?”... is that term still allowed?
After talking to some usually moderate women I too believe that the anger of women is very real and different in degree from earlier moments. In particular there is a new sense of power to affect things that I think was not there in their minds before. That is very promising
21
The old witches, those women who like me are “of a certain age” are angrier than the Furies--because we thought we had things going in the right direction, but we were wrong.
We won’t be fooled again. We won’t be quiet--or nice--to the so-called President and his corrupt party.
42
@Susan
We older women have never been fooled--just outnumbered.
1
Maureen, you overlooked the House committees now headed by women: Appropriations, Nita Lowey; Financial Services, Maxine Waters; and Small Business, Nydia Velázquez.
This is going to be an interesting two years.
22
What kind of democracy is this- no really, think about it. The president was elected by a minority of voters. The Senate was elected by a minority of voters, in contrast to the current House of Representatives. A minority of the public is succeeding in restricting a woman's control over her own body and life (while men bear no burden for conception whatsoever). A minority is succeeding in undermining health care support, and in most families, women are the primary care givers who will absorb the awful burden and painful results for themselves and their families. A supremely competent and qualified woman, elected by the majority of voters, was denied the presidency by a minority of voters - and she was fatally vilified about her stupid, absurdly small email sins, but we now have a president who aids Putin, collects emoluments, dismisses our stalwart allies who have shed blood on our behalf, lies every day about things both important and unimportant, and wants his women compliant, silent or whispering, crippled by spike heels, and using $10,000 worth of makeup in a weekend. Here's to the angry women!
61
@person46.....
And here's to older women whose bodies men can no longer control!!
1
@lin Norma Of course they can. They are stronger, as a group, wealthier and therefore possessing more power and resources, and their policies cause stress and other physical effects. There are, you may have noted, plenty of women in this minority, including evangelicals and other groups with belief systems that they want to impose on all. Then there are our daughters and granddaughters to think of - and our sense of well-being is affected by theirs. So the ability to conceive or not is just not the only factor to consider.
IMO, the most important AOC is doing is letting us in on the process...pulling back the curtain to reveal the wizard. She has been instrumental in helping get progressives more representation on key committees. And she lobbied for and got the renewal of a climate change subcommittee, albeit one that our fossilized leader neutered before it got started.
Finally, for the many readers who have condemned Gillibrand for Franken's departure: what power did she hold over Franken...NONE He was the one who committed the acts and CHOSE to leave...why isn't he the one responsible for his departure? 20-30 other Dems called for his departure the same day as Gillibrand including Harris and Warren. Gillibrand has done much for women facing sexual assault/harassment...wouldn't she be a hypocrite if she was silent about her friend Franken?
Here's a link to an article that describes the many things Gillibrand has actually done to support women and children...support that Hillary claimed she gave but did not:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/19/kirsten-gillibrand-2020-run-feminist-candidate-attacked-no-surprise
6
Gillenbrand is notable in Franken’s departure due to her volume in addressing Franken and her prior support and defense of Bill Clinton through his MeToo moments.
Maybe she turned a leaf and discovered her hypocrisy and her current stances reflect that. But I suspect Franken was a worthy primary opponent and the opportunity presented itself to make him politically irrelevant.
1
@ELK She made it so Al was not allowed a hearing. Due process is necessary to ensure credibility.
1
Furies indeed. Women seem to have finally noticed that they outnumber men, and have both the right to vote and the right to be respected as equals.
But we need to get past sorting by sex. Hopefully forward-thinking young men will step forward also, and together with these women will replace the rapacious old curmudgeons who don't care what happens to our world after they're gone.
Speaking of noticing, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has long, elegant hands. It's no wonder Stumpy Trumpy, who in reality cares nothing about politics aside from what he can gain personally, hates her.
15
@KJ I agree with getting men to buy in but that won’t happen while all White guys are painted as the problem. White men have done many bad things but this country would not exist if it was not for white men.
I hope a woman defeats Donald Trump 2020, it would be poetic justice. There are many women that would outperform him as president - actually every woman in Congress.
20
Loved the article!
There's an old Jamaican tune - the lyrics go:
"That's right, the women are smarter
Smarter than the men in every way"
It should be the theme song of the trump's opposition in 2020.
PS: I'm a 68 year old guy!
24
"“Kill Bill”-style, the fiery Democratic women keep coming, driven by vengeance against the wicked man in the White House "
Huh. And here I thought they were just taking their oath of office and committment to their constituents seriously.
From a better movie: It's not personal. It's strictly business.
OK. Maybe it is a little personal -- Trump is immensely unlikable as a human as well as a politician.
But vengeance? Seems more like competence to me.
22
Yes where is Mitch? The newly elected congress woman have the right to go from the house chambers to the senate chambers when ever they want!
I think they will take full advantage of this right. McConnell has two offices and hides behind an unmarked leader of the house office because he's afraid of being held responsible for callous disregard of non elites.
Mitch put bills passed in the house to a vote! That's your job. Cortez calls out all the violations of our democratic norms on the house floor this last week. Search Ocasio-Cortez where is Mitch? Refreshing and wonderful!
17
@Richard
Hey, Mitch McTurdle is hiding in his shell. Flip him over and leave him bottom up.
I think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a lovely name. What’s with AOC? Is this another ignorance notch in the America psyche? We’re always looking for shortcuts which destroy our language, and demean someone else’s heritage. AOC is twitter speak.
I find it grating on my nerves. “I AOC do solemnly swear to uphold the Constitution of the USA.”
11
@David J, thanks for saying this. I actually had to google AOC to find out what it stands for. Head slap
1
@David J Tell NYTimes to increase character limits from 1500 to 15,000 and I'll be more than happy to refer to my latina queen as "La Señorita Hermosa Y Maravillosa Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez instead of A.O.C. Yes, I said it and I'm latino. (I'm ok with JF)
@José Franco, 1500 characters is enough latitude to comment with intelligence. I see it in these comments all the time.
They could search forever for Mitch and never find him. Even when he's present, he's absent.
27
And when the girls take over, what then? More gender equality at the starting line of the capitalist RAT RACE? What is the difference between Zuckerberg and Sandberg, other than gender?
4
One got luckier.
I am sure Dowd would agree with the notion that had Dems been just as determined to expose Clinton for the abuser he is, Trump would have had a much harder time surviving the Billy Bush recording. But since their consciences and consciousness are recently woke, so recent that in 2016 the candidate they ran against Trump was the very person who made sure the Bill Clinton survived abusing women, suborning perjury, and committing perjury, and then went to further cultivate relationships with men like Weinstein, I do not trust them. I wish these new Furies well. The Patty Murrays, Finesteins, Boxers, and Hillarys of the world who just now cannot stomach the abusers they have shielded have no moral ground on which to stand.
3
@TD---How about Melania making excuses?
@lin Norma
I think the more compelling question is why is a man like Trump on his second trophy wife? If women were so united in their values, Trump would be a unable to get anywhere with any woman. What could have been going through Lewinski's mind? Clinton had a history of being a cad, and was clearly married. I cannot explain why women reward toxic masculinity. Can you?
@lin Norma
Sure. What office is she running for?
Let me take the liberty of 'paraphrasing' our deplorable president: 'There are plenty of good men, but Washington DC sends us their worst: sexual predators and rapists, fast food junkies, etc.' Also: 'There are some fine men on both sides, even among the (Roger) Ailse's and the (Bill) O'Reilly's for example'.
Surely, a trait we overlooked in Trump for which we've given him no credit. He can be counted on to see some good where little exists. Would that normal people could be that generous and big-hearted.
2
Finally, four members of Congress who know who the real culprit is in this mess of a Government Shutdown. And like the true coward he is, Mitch McConnell is hiding. At least Trump has the guts to show his face, and I cannot stand him, but let's give the devil his due.
These four women and Nancy Pelosi are going to show the GOP how to govern. Hopefully the GOP does not get to stay in power long enough to learn.
9
How many times must we endure swipes at Bernie? This is group think. He does not take bribes and is not like the corporate Democrats, not one of the gang and cannot be trusted you say. What nerve he has to have been an honest man his whole life and have an excellent voting record the shows he works for the working and middle and poor classes of people. That he does his best to get Medicare for all and clean up the environment and get a good education for all. Oh and silly things like a fair minimum wage. Gee what an odd ball!
And you think he is not going to do his best for these women who were treated so terribly by men in his campaign? I know a man like this, with such purity of purpose and integrity is oh too shining and clean for the Democratic party to embrace. "Gee join the gang and take corporate money will ya Bernie, you are making us look so bad, now our presidential runners have to pretend your virtues
Well do ahead and cling to your smarmy corrupt politicians because it is so familiar. But look out for the youth of this nation to have the gall to see clearly. And it ain't because she is the twitter queen that the youth of this country are embracing A.O.C., it is because she does not speak with forked tongue and she fights for the same people Bernie does and has the same policies. And oh right, she was part of his campaign too. Gee what a coincidence and ever notice Trump seems scared to take her on. He should be!
3
This would have been a good column - but the less-talked about side of sexism is the joking about shrill harpies and wrath of women scorned. It's so Mad Men-ish, it's almost as retrograde as Trump's 13th century Wall.
9
As we have always known , a woman’s place is in the House.
4
Women will not blindly vote for AOC after reading her ridiculous platform and consider her experience.
This is what you get from social media: first Trump and then these types of candidates.
1
Why, if equality is to matter, does it matter what their gender is?
Are they acting as "women" or people?
Such genderist comments only serve to divide (and demean).
Let people be judged (and heard) on the conduct of their character, not their particular chromosome makeup.
3
@Marty O'Toole Women tried,acting as " people". It got them nowhere. Only by acting as women are they taken seriously.
Mo repeatedly dished on Obama for his introspective bent, and now she's focused that same intolerance on Beto, as he takes what might be his last opportunity to see the country and talk to common folk without a security detail and a continuous flood of paparazzi.
Her empathy is only partisan, as was Kirsten Gillibrand's during Al Franken's travails.
1
Typically the Furies were depicted as hideous looking revengeful creatures.We need to change that depiction.We are delightful, competent creatures who are only demanding that after a hundred years of having the vote, we also have the power and respect.No man should be cowering under the desk in the Oval Office fearful that a woman will expose him as a fraud and inexperienced fake.
5
The GO P is the party of dinosaurs, becoming more unacceptable by the day to young people and women. And they don't even see it!
5
It's shocking to think that, if you see three white guys walking down the street, two of them voted for Trump. It may only be the common sense of women that rescues us from this nightmare. Normally I don't find it embarrassing to be a man but, confronted with the demented comedy of Trump, it really makes me wonder what my brethren were thinking.
6
The "Old Boy" network of middle aged to aged white men, playing Golf, smoking cigars and meeting in private to decide the fates of 320M people has been shown to be corrupt, hasn't it Mr. Giuliani? I don't harbor beliefs that women are not willing to be corrupt, but they have been kept out of the leadership since the inception of our government. I voted for Hillary Clinton because she was a Democrat, buy I also believed that a woman who had the talent should break the ceiling and break up the "Old Boy" system to allow full access to the talent that women can bring to our nation. It didn't work this time and we have a very corrupt, very white old man, wallowing in the "Old Boy" network (that includes the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, by the way). So women, save the union!
6
The stale, pale, GOP males refuse to lead, are too 'dignified' to follow, and are about to get pushed out of the way or trampled.
9
The litany on Trump's disgraceful conduct has assumed cant. More so (unfortunately) because the chorus is increasingly self-righteous. And that female commentaries on the blusterer are reaching beyond 2 octaves. Worse, his offensive attributes are being characterized as 'male' hoodoo. Ignored is that males are the sons females raised! There is praise for the 'sons' that 'succeed'. There is disparagement for the 'males' that exhibit lust. A generation down the line we will see what becomes of the sons born into the new era of female freedom. What excuse will be contrived for their questionable behavior? The following appeared on Mail-online March 2018. Its expression is beyond "MeToo" cadence.
"Because, if I'm honest, when hearing the words 'strong man' I subconsciously think of negative connotations — things like misogyny or bullying. But when I hear the words 'strong woman', I think of victory over oppression.
"So ingrained has this divide become that any display of male strength seems almost discouraged. And when I imagine Fin (son) growing up, that doesn't sit well with me."
Well if the distaff population desires to march to the Capitol with Semper Fidelis that is just fine. But scale-down the hype that it is an anointed crusade and society is somehow in store for a better generation of sons and more sane representation on Capitol Hill.
1
"It was another jangly A.O.C. media stunt...". Is this what we want to encourage? A Congress of media stunt people? Elizabeth Warren spells out her vision of capitalism, and the media responds not by debating the substance of her vision, but wondering if she's likable enough, while at the same time giving primetime tv interviews to freshmen Congresswomen who haven't yet passed a single piece of legislation. What a joke.
6
@Ken, there is truth in your comment about Warren but I would not start pitting the newbies against the established representatives. The newbies fury is welcomed by me because we all know that Washington is corrupt to the core. Someone's got to address this and the young are on fire and will do it, thank heavens! They are not a joke, they are necessary.
Let us not be lured into the trap being set to associate the woman's movement with some angry words of a man who's been mostly out of the news for many years.
Toil and trouble.
This will be their spell, I'm pleased to hope.
2
In Greek mythology the Furies were known as the Eumenides (the kindly ones), and were so called because they could unleash such terrifying punishment they had to be propitiated in every way, including how they were named. It's been noticed that Trump, with his penchant for name-calling in the opposite direction (vile epithets for all), has yet to give Nancy Pelosi a nasty nickname. Did one of his minions google the subject for him lest he get himself into even worse trouble?
1
I hope female democratic politicians understand they need the male vote to win back the White House in 2020.
Yes, Bernie deserves a takedown for his too little too late response to sexual harassment in his campaign. But if democratic women want to do to Beto what Gillibrand did to Franken, Trump will win in a landslide.
You know what's really fun and empowering? Winning elections.
@Sparky
The Republicans need the female vote more than Democrats need the male vote. Think mid-term elections.
The GOP has had two years demonstrate their true feelings towards women and children. Presidential bullying, pre-existing conditions, children in cages, and virtually all male cabinets, do not endear women, or considerate, human beings, to this party. These women are here, now. The Republicans will never catch up. It's way too late.
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And just wait until the 2020 campaign, when we will get to enjoy who-knows-how-many women competing with Trump directly for the White House. 'The Furies' are just getting started!
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The Slow and the Furies.
The Furies are coming.
Another in a long line of very swallow pieces penned by Maureen Dowd. While the article was indeed entertaining, what is of real interest here is the reason WHY these women wanted to confront McConnell in the first place.
Why not get into some detail about the Senate's responsibility to remain independant of the White House and the executive branch, as is enshrined in the constitution. Instead of just skimming the surface, why not plunge into some detail and give us some context through historical example: how often does the Senate oppose their own president? What are the ramifications if they do? Does McConnell's behavior represent a departure from historical norms, or is this just the same old same old.
We tune in to the NYT to get information on such issues. Now I'm forced to go digging elsewhere for answers to such basic questions. Come on!
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MD is on a winning streak. And no mention of the Clintons. Progress. Now let’s save the country.
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The only way to get rid of the scourge of Trump and the sychophantic republicans is to organize all your friends and relatives to vote and to give money to democratic candidates and organizations.
Please give money to: The Democratic National Committee,
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
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Too much fixation on Trump these days, too little recognition that the the Republican leadership below him is at least equally responsible, deserves at least as much blame, and should be removed from power. While this article fairly represents this view, the comments do not.
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Donald Trump has sapped whatever testosterone that used to reside in the Congress, as evident by the impotent House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate milquetoast Mitch McConnell. And so a new kind of leadership has emerged to combat and replace the bullying selfishness of the man-child who is our president. It must be driving him crazy—er, crazier—to see women who all are not necessarily “10s” get all uppity and in his face, openly challenging his fraudulence and incompetence. They got there playing by the rules enough to win their elections, but are willing to break the rules when it comes to calling him out and loudly goading the halls of Congress for his imminent demise. I’m smiling a little more now when I watch the news and can’t wait to see what comes next.
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Why don't we just acknowledge that their youth - yes youth - and determined optimism (even if we think it is naive - which it is not) are just what we need? Who else could have searched for that parasitic bedbug McConnell and raised such visibility?
Bravo, Bravo and may the force be with you.
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@Michelle Teas, our country was founded by young people, not the old folks portrayed on money. When they were young, they were revolutionaries. Thought clearly and acted upon those thoughts.
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The thing with Trump is he can give a speech from the oval office, he can try to negotiate (I hesitate to use that word) with the Democrats, and no one takes anything he does or says seriously. He is such a flawed human being and a proven liar, why would anyone other than a craven Republican listen to him?
I can imagine Trump in the White House thinking "I'm the president. I can do anything I want." But since he has lost the trust of the majority in this country, as affirmed by the recent election, Trump can't do anything he wants. Not anymore.
His whole life he's been a private sector grifter who got away things no fair-minded person would even consider doing. But he's in the public sector now. He thinks he can still get away with cheating and lying and twisting the law, but I have news for you Don, that's over. Your invoice for your lifetime of sleazy behavior has come due. And you can't declare bankruptcy this time. We're waiting for payment.
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No more Pyrrhic victories for these outstanding and valiant Democratic congressional representatives. President Obama's legislative wins were bathed in his blood while McConnell laughed with contempt. These three will never yield on the battlefield. Their strategies are fierce, daunting, and unexpected. All are intolerant of sadistic power and never apologize. The ancient Furies are back and we will benefit from their resounding thunder in ways unimagined.
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Donald has built his wall: a wall of women that are going jump out of his TV, and squeeze him so tight that he will be unable to draw breathe, or reach for Twitter.
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Many of A.O.C. & Co's and Donald Trump’s supporters have two linked fears, A.O.C.’s base’s fear of being taken advantage of & Trumper's fear of under producing for lack of opportunities. Both sides are pandering to their base. Why can't creating a way, a path, for us to work with citizens & govt in a format that eliminates these ingrained fears by understanding both supply & demand be the singular goal of A.O.C. & the new congress since A.O.C. has a background in economics? A.O.C. must be aware of the tragedy of the commons predicts only 3 possible outcomes. 1 is the sea of mud many think we have today. Another is for actors with coercive power to enforce an allocation policy on behalf of the people (A.O.C.’s socialist solution). The 3rd is for the commons to break up as village members, fence-off bits they can defend & manage sustainably. (physical & metaphysical wall) The Trump administration has been an aberration, an outrage, but most of all, a great big fraud & disadvantages of socialism include slow economic growth, less entrepreneurial opportunity & competition, & a potential lack of motivation by people due to lesser rewards. A.O.C.'s 70% tax for high income earners, comes to mind. When threatened with extinction bureaucrats (like human beings everywhere) often offer change & revision that make both good sense & good economics. Ladies, avoid only imagining yourself pleasing to your respective base when in reality you'll become a universal nuisance like Mr Trump.
These young gals could easily overplay their hand and make things even worse.
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@the shadow
'young gals'
I was really hoping AOC and her fellow freshmen Representatives had found Mitch McConnell that day. If they had, they wouldn't have acted furious at all (though no one can doubt their passion), and have presented the truant Senate Majority Leader with a perfectly acceptable plan for a vote on opening the government. But most of us know that McConnell would not have gone for it just as much as Trump won't give up his border wall. Not only is this wall an ego thing with Trump, but he might have convinced himself that hordes of dangerous brown people are over-running the southern border. The President is so deeply racist in his attitudes and ideology that he is poisoned with this sickness. He cares nothing for the nearly million people working without a paycheck. Not only has he taken them hostage for this idea of a wall, but he doesn't want to provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, thus he would take them hostage for his wall, too. I am deeply saddened by Trump's shutdown and other destructive policies. I hope Congress will start examining impeachment for this President.
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Well written, both true and entertaining. A comedic version of The Furies would make a great SNL skit.
The interesting thing about The Furies is that they are all fearless. So new to government they simply aren’t scared of losing the next election (although over the years that might change). It’s like watching really young kids ski. They bomb down the slopes fearless in part because they are young and have less distance to fall than say their parental units
Compare that to McConnell and other GOP Senators who fear more a Tea Party primary challenge than the terrible optics of their cowardice that is sure to haunt them in the general election. They are motivated by fear of Trump, Hannity, Limbaugh, and Coulter. There flawed thinking might get them through a primary gauntlet only to be slaughtered later. Who thought the House would change hands as dramatically as it did.
And that is the difference between the fearless and the fearing.
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Excellent skiing analogy!
The three ‘Dribbles’ care more about free stuff than effective change. They are as poor examples of real leaders as Trump. Does the term empty suits ring a bell?
God help us!
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@ Dowd
I like your spirit.
I love the word 'doggo'. Excellent.
You should write about Nixon's doggo vs Tump's.
Take a couple days/weeks to pile on as we head into Mueller, but can I ask you to work on next steps, practical and realizable policy that would (a) infuriate T base and (b) be achievable with the new configuration of the branches of constitutional power?
Thank you. I've moved past your past T-ransgressions of supporting the big baby.
Tisiphone, or Tilphousia, was one of the three Erinyes or Furies. Her sisters were Alecto and Megaera. She was the one who punished crimes of murder: parricide, fratricide and homicide. Trump has killed our country. The avengers are circling the voting booths, the candidates are throwing their hats into the ring.
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Make no mistake - these women have to deal with a group of people who are very versatile in stopping careers, finding dirt and spreading falsehood and I am pretty sure they are already working hard in the background to find damaging details in A.O.C’s life. The dancing thing backfired but how quickly it “appeared” should tell you how capable the “bad” characters in Congress are. The hunt for “Mitch” was funny - but that’s about it. The young congresswomen have to be careful not to waste their energy and reputation in something like a “progressive echo chamber”. Public opinion can flip quickly and another attention addict like Mr.Trump is simply as annoying as the “original” - regardless what party that person is representing.
I, as a male registered Democrat, could not be more happy than to see AOC and her pals give to President Trump a civilized version of his own gall! Love it!
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they should be storming the
Internal Revenue Service
for trumps taxes
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Steve King "getting his comeuppance for racist comments" would actually be Steve King expelled from the House of Representatives. The problem wasn't a set of ill-phrased "comments" that ran afoul of political correctness but rather a lifelong racist mentality that's reflected in his work as a GOP congressional firebrand.
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Every time I see these new Congrssional women, led by Nancy Pelosi, take control, I feel like cheering. We always knew we were smarter, bolder, fiercer and public-spirited. Now we have the power to #findMitch and #tossthemout
The angels are not in the kitchen; they are in the House. This may be the beginnIng of the end for the Old Boys. Hurrah!
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Hold the phone. I know the Spice Girls are all the rage in 21st century feminism at the moment. However, we're pretty far out over our skis on this one. I welcome the Spice Girls as a good alternative to the "mid-riffs" of the late 20th century pop-culture. Think Britney Spears. We're not exactly talking about pro-female icons here though.
The Spice Girls are fictional characters created and owned by men. There is no more substance to "Sporty Spice" than any of the Back Street members. We're not talking about Rage Against the Machine here. Male producers we're looking to exploit a certain young female demographic and they did so in spades.
If the music channeled your energies in a productive way, good for you. I just wouldn't go around perp-walking Bernie Sanders in a pair of Spice Girls pumps acting like you're the 3rd wave of feminism. The gesture is 1) hypocritical and 2) self-defeating. I for one would never buy my daughter a spice girls doll. I'd give her "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuinn instead.
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The Furies will take the Democrats further left and just make it easier for Trump in 2020.
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