History Lesson
In 1972 both the House and the Senate approved the Equal Rights Amendment. In keeping with the rules for adding an amendment to the Constitution, the bill was sent to all 50 states for ratification. For a brief moment it seemed like the dream of an amendment guaranteeing equal rights to all citizens regardless of sex was about to become a reality. 38 states were needed to ratify the amendment and by 1977, 35 had done so.
Then Phyllis Schafly stepped in and waged a campaign against the ERA. 5 state legislatures bowed to conservative pressure and revoked their ratification. By 1982, the push for an Equal Rights Amendment was dead.
Gen-X and the ERA
Beto O’Rourke was born in 1972, so he was not old enough to follow the ten-year struggle to ratify the ERA. But he grew up in its wake in a world that seemed to be making slow but steady progress until Trump came. Now the Supreme Court has decided to take up two cases that could severely limit abortion rights and end workplace protections for gay and trans people.
I probably don’t need to say this at dKos, but everything’s riding on the next election.
Leveling the Playing Field
Beto’s latest proposal Leveling the Playing Field is a sweeping, intersectional policy statement that addresses everything from wages to healthcare to reproductive rights to child care to small business incentives to asylum laws to protections for transgender women and so on.
It does so because Women’s Rights=American Rights.
The central planks of the proposal are:
- Reviving the Effort to Ratify the ERA
- Guaranteeing Reproductive Freedom and Reproductive Healthcare for Women
- Ensuring Equal Pay for Working Women
- Ramping Up Laws to Fight Workplace Discrimination
- Universal Pre-K and Subsidized Childcare
- Guaranteed Paid Leave for Care Givers
- Support for Women-Owned Small Businesses
- Tackling the Infant Mortality Crisis
- Protecting Trans Women
- Curbing Violence Against Women
Many of these broad planks and the individual measures associated with them intersect with other proposals Beto has made, including his small business plan, labor plan, LGBTQ+ rights plan, immigration plan, and social security.
Specific Features
The specifics in the plan “Leveling the Playing Field” reflect Beto’s concern with the ways race, gender, and class overlap in the US.
(1) There is the defense of transgender women that goes above and beyond passing the EQUALITY Act and includes prison reform, shelters for transgender women and making the investigation of crimes against trans women and especially trans women of color a priority in the DOJ.
(2) There is the commitment to using the weight of the federal government to support female entrepreneurs by shifting federal contracts to small businesses operated by women and minorities. The government will also ensure that women-owned businesses and businesses in low-income communities will have access to capital through federally funded programs in community banks.
(3) Caregivers who leave the work force will receive a credit to be paid into their social security fund.
(4) Maternal mortality disproportionately affects women of color and Beto’s plan offers a host of solutions from ensuring access to maternal healthcare in every zip code to home visitation before and after birth.
(5) Equal Pay will be made law and through the EEOC employers will have to explain disparities in pay and hiring practices to federal officials.
FINALLY, Beto’s been unyielding in his defense of a woman’s right to choose and has long held that discriminatory practices like the Hyde Amendment banning the use of federal dollars for a legal procedure like abortion must be lifted.
A month ago Breitbart News planted a questioner at one of Beto’s rallies who tried to ask a trick question on abortion. He got his just desserts. Beto owned him in the response by sticking to the principle that women can and must have autonomy over their own bodies.
The full plan Leveling the Playing Field can be found here.
Beto O’Rourke’s campaign is entirely grass-roots funded. He does not accept donations from PACs, Super-PACs, lobbyists or bundlers. Please consider making a donation to his ActBlue Account here:
You can read more about his plans or volunteer at his website.