Sexual Harassment In The Military

Kirsten Gillibrand Becomes A Rock Star: Mixed Feelings On The Part Of The Author About This

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New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has become a rock star on the issue of sexual harassment in the military, on university campuses, and in the entertainment, media, and business community, and now has been attacked in a tweet by President Donald Trump, who intimated that Gillibrand, when asking him years ago for campaign contributions, seemed willing to do “anything” for such support, a demeaning and sexist and misogynistic retort by Trump, which is, of course, nothing new.

Democratic women in Congress have reacted today with outrage, and are demanding a Congressional investigation of the charges against Donald Trump, brought to the forefront in the election year of 2016 by 16 women.

This was followed up by Democratic women Senators demanding Minnesota Senator Al Franken resign, which this author criticized as bullying and denying Franken an ethics hearing on charges of sexual harassment.

This situation with Franken alienated me from Gillibrand, as I stated on the blog four days ago.

While I appreciate Gillibrand’s engagement on the issue of sexual harassment, I still stand unwilling to consider her for President in 2020, due to the mistreatment, as I see it, of Senator Franken. However, many observers believe Gillibrand has benefited greatly on this issue, and that it might catapult her into a leading position in the Democratic Party battle for the Presidency three years from now.

Of course, I condemn Donald Trump’s crude Twitter reaction to Senator Gillibrand, and hope the issue of Donald Trump’s moral turpitude can, somehow, have an impact in his being forced out of the Presidency in the coming months of 2018.

The Growing Likelihood Of A Democratic Woman Presidential Nominee In 2020: Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar

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With the failure of Hillary Clinton to become President, and with the growing misogyny of Donald Trump and the Republican Party, the likelihood of a Democratic woman Presidential nominee in 2020 has multiplied.

One would think that the failure to elect the first woman President would make it less likely that another woman would come along and challenge in a serious manner, but a large percentage of women clearly want such an eventuality.

There are four potential women Presidential candidates as the situation now exists: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, California Senator Kamala Harris, and Wisconsin Senator Amy Klubuchar.

Their ideological bent is in that order, with Warren the most progressive and Klobuchar more to the moderate center.

Only Warren is well known at this time, but she tends to engender more fierce opposition, while also being, by far, the best debater.

Gillibrand has been a leader on sexual harassment in the military, while Harris has the least time in the Senate, but was formerly Attorney General of California, and reminds many of Barack Obama as she is mixed race with parents from India and the island of Jamaica. She has brought notice for her tough questioning and aggressiveness in just a few months in the Senate.

Klobuchar has been in the Senate longer than the other three, and much more effective at working across the aisle, and to try to accomplish legislation without dramatics. She comes from the Midwest, so might be better able to appeal to the Rust Belt. But she is not “exciting” in her personality, as compared to the other three women.

Trying to guess which would have the best chance, it would seem that Warren or Klobuchar, at the opposite ends of the Democratic Party from Left to Centrist, would have the best opportunities, but impossible to know.

Somehow, this blogger finds Amy Klobuchar interesting, and not to be ignored, but we shall see what develops.