I just got my Medicare Card so that tells you how long I’ve felt the discrimination of being a woman and how long I’ve waited to vote for a woman for President. As a Registered Nurse I watched men get promoted ahead of far more experienced women as women continued to work at the low end of an organization dominated by male administrators and department managers. Equal pay and equal opportunity are still just a dream for most women after a lifetime (and more) of fighting for full equality.
Ditto all women working in a female dominated profession or workplace. Look above you and I’ll guarantee you see a man as your supervisor and men around you being better paid by slight tilts in job titles and job descriptions now that the outright wage inequality has been outlawed. Yes, just about every workplace finds a way to treat and pay white male employees better. I’ve even been told (with a straight face, no less) that it’s “necessary because men have families to support” as if there weren’t a plethora of single mothers and self-supporting women in the workplace.
It’s been nice to see a few women CEOs, but most of them, too, are paid far less than men . We’re told this is because men negotiate “better deals” or some such nonsense. Well, if history and current events are true, Carly Fiorina was likely overpaid for her “services” driving HP into the ground, but that’s one single example. And far too many of these women execs also pull the ladder up when they’ve gotten themselves to the top of the heap so that helps no other woman.
But that’s not what I came to talk about. I came to talk about making life better for women. That takes me to Bernie.
Bernie Sanders is the only one talking about expanding Social Security. He comprehends that with a lifetime of wage discrimination, women also collect far less Social Security benefits than men. That means that women are living on even less money than they need to pay for the basic necessities of life like housing, food, transportation, and utilities. And then there’s all the money paid for health care — a big ticket item for seniors who pay for Medicare Part B, a Medicare supplement, and Part D prescription coverage out of a Social Security Check that hasn’t increased a penny this year. And that’s before they pay ever increasing co-payments and deductibles.
I’m doing fine because I have a pension, too, but that’s not the case for most seniors. I see them working the early shifts at McDonald's so they can pay their bills (not because they love to work when they’re in their 70s and 80s) or working other minimum wage jobs. It hurts to see it.
Not only seniors, but women, as a whole are only making 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. And women of color make even less. Back in the 70s when we were working to make the Equal Rights Amendment pass, it was 59 cents for every dollar. Can we agree that it’s long past time for women to make that full dollar???? Bernie thinks so.
In nearly every area I look, Bernie supports the kind of legislative agenda that I do. Not with promises, but with a lifetime of action. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk.
I can’t hold my nose and vote for yet another corporate Democrat who takes money from Big Pharma, Big Corporations, Big Fossil Fuels, Big Money, Big Donors, campaigns on a progressive agenda and after the election tells us to lower our expectations and embrace the suck because nothing can change.
We’ve all seen the game that Big Money is playing — they buy both sides so whomever wins, Big Money always wins and we always lose. Republicans are crazy, but the Democrats aren’t really on our side either when they depend so much on all that sweet, big campaign money (and then more money for their post-office Presidential Libraries that comes from plenty of service to the donor class). I’m not falling for another progressive sounding campaign followed by Republican-lite governance. Fuck that shit. I’ve had enough.
I don’t care about electing a woman as President when Bernie is out there not just promising, but doing. Yes, he's in the pocket of his donors - millions of us donating an average of 26 bucks. I don’t care if we’ve been waiting 227 years for a woman President. I want action, not just lip service.
Feel The Bern with me and join the political revolution.