It really pisses people off when I point out the straight line from the misogyny that led the Democratic Party to nominate a less qualified, less experienced man for President in 2008 to an incoming presidential administration full of incapable, unqua...

Heidi Li Feldman

The world was less online in 2008, but those of us who were and were supporting HRC, encountered high-toned and vulgar misogyny and every kind in between throughout the primary season. I had to help the Clinton delegates to the convention put HRC’s name in nomination, as was traditional and pursuant to DNC rules. 3/

Heidi Li Feldman

Whether rank and file or party level, no Democrat, including Obama himself, ever named, let alone criticized the misogynist attacks directed at Clinton or her women supporters. 4/

Heidi Li Feldman

That the Democratic Party and Democratic voters, consciously and unconsciously, let misogyny propel a novice political figure ahead of HRC paved the way for Trump in both 2016 and 2024. To a lesser extent it has contributed to every misogynist political and legal trend since, including some that plenty of people don’t notice as misogynist. 5/

Heidi Li Feldman

Both the Democratic and Republican parties repeatedly make it clear that women are not to be primarily powerful. Michelle Obama can be a popular Democratic figure, so long as she was a very traditional First Lady and lately celebrity-circuit figure. 6/

Heidi Li Feldman

The hysteria on the right about trans people and their rights sure isn’t driven by women who transition to male identities. The hysteria is firmly grounded in the idea that no boy or man or boy’s parents in their sane minds would pick, or allow their kid to pick, second class status. And being a woman is always second class. 7/

Heidi Li Feldman

Right up to the present moment, Joe Biden, sitting President and Democrat, could take a major step to affirming U.S. women’s legal and political equality. He could order the director of the National Archives to publish the Equal Rights Amendment, which has been ratified by the requisite number of states. Publication is how the federal government makes it clear that an Amendment to the constitution has been made. 8/

Heidi Li Feldman

Biden’s DoJ has already taken the position that the ERA has been properly ratified. So unless Biden is on the other side of that question, he has a statutory obligation to ensure that the National Archives, an executive agency, publishes the ERA. 9/

mytwobits01

@heidilifeldman
Do you have a pointer regarding the DoJ position? I found and read the 2022 OLC opinion, but it doesn't take that position.

Catherine Morris

For those researching, here is a link to the text of the 2022 DOJ opinion on the ERA: https://www.justice.gov/olc/file/1466036/dl. Cc. @heidilifeldman @mytwobits01. Also see an explainer by the Columbia ERA project: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=gender_sexuality_law

mytwobits01

@cmorris @heidilifeldman

Thanks, Catherine.

The OLC's bottom line seems to be "Whether the ERA is part of the Constitution will be resolved not by an
OLC opinion but by the courts and Congress.".

Catherine Morris

@mytwobits01. Yes. Yet there’s nothing to prevent the President from setting the balls in motion by certifying and publishing. American girls and women need this overdue acknowledgment of their constitutional equality, and there’s plenty of legal opinion to support it. Cc @heidilifeldman