#ShePersisted, yeah you'd better believe it. (Image Credit: Flickr/Tim Pierce)
OMFG, you guys. Just… OMFG.
Last night, the Senate started debating the confirmation of Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R-AL) to be the Attorney General of the United States. This is not the first time the gentleman from Alabama has been nominated for a federal appointment. In 1986, President Reagan nominated him for a federal judgeship but he wasn’t confirmed because, basically, he was too racist.
Too. Racist.
It was not easy to be too racist for the 1986 Senate but Sessions managed it. The clarion call that is credited with pointing out all the racism was a letter from Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader and widow of Martin Luther King Jr. That letter was so powerful that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wanted to read it last night as part of the current deliberations on Senator Sessions.
Guess who didn’t like that? If you said a bunch of Republican men, you're right! Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) invoked a procedural rule to shut down Senator Warren and ban her from further debate on this matter. When asked about it, McConnell replied “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
O. M. F. G.
Mitch McConnell just summed up 240 years of the history of American women. How many times were women warned, then given an explanation, and - nevertheless - they persisted?
Rosa Parks was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Angela Davis was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Harriet Tubman was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Margaret Sanger was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Jeanette Rankin was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Where the hell would we be if women hadn't persisted, despite the warnings and explanations of the status quo? Persistent women have made America greater, stronger, and just more than the Founding Fathers could have envisioned. Persistent women are holding up half the American sky and NO ONE should question our right to do so.
You can bet that this won’t be the last we hear of the women of the U.S. Senate persisting despite the wishes of the old guard like McConnell.
