Yearly Kos: “If you really want to do something for marriage, raise the minimum wage…”

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Barbara Boxer was today’s lunchtime speaker at YKC 06. The junior senator from California was introduced as “the model of what the netroots wants,” owing to her liberal voting record and her position on the Iraq war. (She was one of 23 senators who voted against giving the president the go-ahead.)

The speech was rousing enough. The White House is “dangerously incompetent,” and congress is “too eager to write the president a blank check and turn a blind eye,” leaving an accountability void that bloggers and their readers have stepped in to fill. “You are the most powerful answer to [executive overreach].”

Boxer was good on the GOP’s sudden rediscovery of that preeminent threat to American values, the liberal-homosexual war on marriage–“if you really want to do something for marriage, raise the minimum wage, provide people with health-care”–and on the question of whether it’s worth Democrats’ time to push for George W. Bush’s impeachment: not. Republicans control congress, so the idea wouldn’t go anywhere; and anyway, the American people would view it as an unhelpful distraction from important issues. “There’s only one thing to do,” she said. “Change the Congress.” Fair enough.

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. The deadline’s almost here. Please help us reach our $150k membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. The deadline’s almost here. Please help us reach our $150k membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate