Go Vote Against Mediocre White Men

These bros are the worst

Full confession: I didn’t go vote in the Republican primary on June 11^th. The day was booked solid with online meetings for my Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies summer class and advising incoming first-year students, topped off with picking the kids up from camp and getting their hair cut. After making dinner, I was hot and exhausted and we still had bedtime to get through.

Life logistics aside, I chalk up my nonvoting to the almost physical disgust I felt about my choices, because I’d be voting in the Republican primary to try to stave off the most far-right fascists by voting for the “normal” conservative Republicans who are out there with no moral backbone voting against women and trans kids, even if under the skin they secretly believe women should have access to healthcare and that the wheels of politics should not crush children to motivate voters.

But I will go out and vote next week in the primary runoff elections (June 25th), because Jason Elliot (who is running for state senate and is the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in South Carolina, when he ran for the SC House in 2016) absolutely cannot lose to this guy:

A deep dive into Ben Carper’s website reveals he has no experience in elected office but he does want to protect “Greenville County citizens from the massive intrusion and over-regulated actions of big government and its globalist partners not just on a county level but the state level as well. He plans to give taxpayers more power over their own money and to support the parental rights of the constituents of Greenville County. He plans to run as a true conservative Republican who takes no authority from anyone other than his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the citizens of Greenville County. He fully supports the local Greenville County GOP platform and plans to work with the SC Freedom Caucus in the SC State House of Representatives.”

Sound the white Christian nationalist alarm! And early voting is happening today, if you just can’t wait to vote for Elliot and stave off this guy from serving in our state Senate.

One of the sister senators, Katrina Shealy, is in a runoff in Lexington County against another bro who is so confident he can parrot the national Republican talking points that he too doesn’t need any experience or expertise to challenge Shealy, he just needs to say all the key words like God and Jesus and conservative, all with the subtext that he for sure can’t wait to vote for that total abortion ban.

Watch to the end for just absolutely milk toast stump speechin’ from Kennedy. Omg this guy.

lyz

has a great series of questions you might want to ask yourself if you think Carper or Kennedy might be smart, lol:

Dingus of the Week: William English

This all makes me want to read this—it’s been on my list for awhile:

Speaking of reading, we had a delightful gathering last night for our Hot Feminism Book Club discussion of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. We considered how culture intersects with being a killjoy—how to navigate being the one that speaks up and speaks out in the South, where there are very strict expectations around social behavior, especially for girls and women. A friend and colleague shared that in one of her social groups she makes an airhorn sound when people make misogynist or racist comments, and I love that. We also discussed Ahmed’s ideas around how to navigate being a killjoy with social bonds, especially when the fabric of caregiving is so threadbare, and that navigating being a killjoy as a parent in the South can be especially challenging.

It was a fabulous, and we’ll do it again next month. Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions on what to read. I’m thinking

Roxane Gay

and

Megan Pillow

’s just-released Do The Work: a guide to understanding power and creating change.

If you’re in the northern hemisphere, hope you enjoyed the summer solstice yesterday and yay, it’s officially summer! If you’re in the southern hemisphere, glad you’ve got the shortest day of the year behind you now, and hope winter is good to you. Wherever you are in the world, thanks as always for reading. And tell everyone you know to go vote.