I know a lot of people are pretty disillusioned with American politics right now. We recognize that both major political parties are more beholden to their donors and lobbyists than they are to the American people. We recognize that citizens rarely get to hear the real story; only having access to the soundbites that are fed to us by the media. In fact, we don’t even know which news sources to trust anymore. Traditional, major media outlets might not be covering the stories that are most important to us, while small, independent bloggers might be distorting the facts. So, sometimes I ask myself, “Why vote at all?” Why should I so adamantly support a political party (the Democrats) who are far from perfect, and with whom I sometimes disagree? I think that there are some very important reasons that I am still a strong Democrat, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. They are:

1.     Women’s reproductive rights – No matter how the rhetoric is being twisted by the media, it is clear that a Republican administration would severely and significantly restrict a woman’s access to abortion, to the point where it is likely to become illegal in 30 states. Despite their opposition to abortion, Republicans are also against increasing women’s access to contraception, and support abstinence-only sex education. The Republican VP candidate, Paul Ryan, has co-sponsored legislation to remove the ability of women who are raped to access an abortion. These are radical positions which could have far-reaching consequences for women’s rights at a time when four members of the Supreme Court are elderly and could be replaced at any moment.

2.     LGBT rights – For the first time, the Democratic party platform actually supports gay marriage. DADT was repealed, but Republicans have threatened to reinstate it despite solid evidence from the armed forces that the new policy is a positive change. President Obama has ceased to defend DOMA, the unconstitutional law preventing gay marriages made legally in one state from being recognized in other states, yet the Republican party platform still supports DOMA. Even though these issues don’t affect me personally, I consider them to be important civil rights just as worthy of protection as a woman’s access to abortion or children’s access to education.

3.     Healthcare – the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) directly resulted in allowing me to obtain healthcare coverage again after being kicked off my dad’s plan when I graduated from college. Of course, the ACA isn’t perfect. I wish it had gone further in establishing a national healthcare plan that any individual can access if they need it. However, it is a step in the right direction. Democrats fundamentally believe that access to affordable healthcare (including preventative medicine) is a fundamental human right which should be available to every U.S. citizen. I am confident that the ACA will only be improved upon in the future in a Democratic administration or Congress. Republicans, meanwhile, have voiced their support for important provisions of the ACA (such as maintaining coverage for people with pre-existing conditions) but failed to provide details on how they would accomplish that goal. Even these few concessions still fail to provide healthcare access to millions of Americans.

4.     Overall role of the government in domestic affairs – There are some important issues that I would prefer to see tackled by a Democratic administration rather than a Republican one. For example, immigration. President Obama supports the DREAM Act, which allows children who were brought into the country illegally to work toward citizenship if they attend college or join the military. He also supports a focus on deporting violent criminals and other law-breaking illegal immigrants rather than wasting valuable federal resources on attempting to deport any and every illegal immigrant (which is impossible). Sure, there are problems in enforcement of these policies (and complaints that too many illegal immigrants are being deported, including non-violent offenders, rather than complaints about lax deportation policies). But I want to give him 4 more years to try and work it out.

5.     Foreign policy – this is the area where I feel both parties are lacking. I am disturbed by the recent embassy attack in Libya and the information fumble that followed. I am also curious about how drone strikes are planned and approved, and why drones are still being used when they cause unnecessary civilian casualties. U.S. involvement in the Middle East needs to be completely reconfigured, in my opinion, and the hostility of many Middle Easterners to the U.S. presence in their region needs to be taken into account. But I do not trust the Republicans to do a better job. Even though President Obama has so far failed to reign in Israel’s militancy and prevent further settlements in the Palestinian territories, Republicans are even more attached to Israel and refuse to question its actions. Republicans have voiced support for even greater intervention in the Middle East, specifically in Iran. Republicans support policies endorsing torture “enhanced interrogation” and were responsible for the two greatest foreign policy failures of the century thus far; Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t believe that anyone should cast their vote purely for foreign policy reasons in this election, because neither party has a perfect solution to the quagmire of problems we face in that area. But, the Democrats still have my vote of competence for foreign policy over the Republicans for the above reasons.

To sum it up: if you are a woman who cares about reproductive safety and freedom or a man who cares about his mother’s/wife’s/sister’s/friend’s choices, an LGBT person or an ally, an illegal immigrant or someone who is friends with one, a person who is uninsured or potentially could be uninsured at some point in your life; there is really no reason that you should vote for a Republican in this election. I didn’t even cover economic reasons to support the Democratic party because they are too technical for my limited amount of time right now, but I think this list is enough to cover a majority of the electorate anyway. 

The women vs. men debate rages on. Sometimes I think it's similar to the class debate (corporate vs. "the little guy," rich vs. poor) or the age debate (seniors sucking Medicare dollars vs. young people who can't find a job). These debates are all distractions to some extent, since they take our attention away from what really perpetuates the divides in our society (a combination of cultural practices, an opaque political system dominated by elites and special interests, and unregulated capitalism, among other culprits). Anyway, the NYT as usual has an interesting article written by one of my favorite voices on this subject, Stephanie Coontz. She tries to cut through the hype about the "End of Men" and provide some real facts on the situation. Some of her important points:

"Today women make up almost 40 percent of full-time workers in management. But the median wages of female managers are just 73 percent of what male managers earn. And although women have significantly increased their representation among high earners in America over the past half-century, only 4 percent of the C.E.O.’s in Fortune’s top 1,000 companies are female.

What we are seeing is a convergence in economic fortunes, not female ascendance. Between 2010 and 2011, men and women working full time year-round both experienced a 2.5 percent decline in income. Men suffered roughly 80 percent of the job losses at the beginning of the 2007 recession. But the ripple effect of the recession then led to cutbacks in government jobs that hit women disproportionately. As of June 2012, men had regained 46.2 percent of the jobs they lost in the recession, while women had regained 38.7 percent of their lost jobs."

She also discusses the prejudice against working mothers and men who want to stay at home with their kids or pursue more traditionally "female" professions ("men account for 2 percent of kindergarten and preschool teachers, 3 percent of dental assistants and 9 percent of registered nurses"). 

Men should also appreciate the author pointing out that "Most men are in fact behaving better than ever. Domestic violence rates have been halved since 1993, while rapes and sexual assaults against women have fallen by 70 percent in that time. In recent decades, husbands have doubled their share of housework and tripled their share of child care. And this change is not confined to highly educated men."

What do you think? Is women vs. men just another over-hyped debate? Are there some serious strides in women's equality which need to be made? And my most important question; when will there be a time 

I would just add: 

1) I support drone strikes because they reduce the likelihood of our own troops facing casualties and can be used to gather intelligence or carry out targeted attacks. But, I do think that there should be more checks on the ability of the executive branch to order a strike against American citizens. 

2) The article is absolutely right on this; U.S. support of Israel is perhaps the most detrimental foreign policy for our reputation in the M.E. It's worse than the war in Afghanistan, in my opinion. We are seen as both puppets of the Israeli government and the sustaining power behind Israel's ability to oppress the Palestinian people.

3) Although the author only mentions American troops in Afghanistan, I would broaden this statement to include anger over American presence throughout the Middle East; from the obvious two wars to bases in the Gulf and giant, fortress-like embassies which are viewed as nests of spies. I am not exaggerating when I say that every Jordanian I spoke to in 2009 had a negative view of the American embassy, which extended to any American seen in the general embassy district. If I got into a taxi in that area, the driver inevitably asked me if I was coming from the embassy. Then, the driver would regale me with stories of drunken Americans coming home from embassy parties or that time his cousin was rudely rejected for a visa. This is just a personal observation, and obviously I think that embassies should prioritize safety over aesthetics. But, I think people should keep in mind that our troops engaged in actual combat are not the only sign of American presence which bothers Middle Easterners.  

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. My masters program was a lot more work than I expected, so naturally the first thing to be neglected was my blog (along with my friends, my cat, all things fun, etc.). Now I thankfully have a break until classes start again in late September (or October; I don't know!).

This summer I am working at the law firm 4 days per week and spending the 5th doing a couple of interesting research projects. Pretty much the entire month of July is devoted to showing my family and friends around Istanbul, planning the wedding ceremony on the island, and then enjoying my honeymoon in Italy. We are flying into Rome and then renting a car to drive along the coast, eventually landing in Venice.

The best part of my Masters experience is the other students. My class is tiny with only 11 of us, but we are from 6 different countries. Everyone brings something different to the class dynamic and I’ve enjoyed learning with them immensely. My classes are also generally interesting; among the best so far were my Religion and Conflict class, Introduction to Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Gendered Memories of War and Political Violence, and Ethnic Conflict classes. I have pushed myself to conduct some large research projects this semester which will continue throughout the summer.

An ongoing project that I am working on with a research partner is on LGBT people in Istanbul. We interviewed some young lesbian and gay people to understand their experiences living in this highly Muslim society (meant in a  religious and cultural sense) and how they feel about it. Their answers sometimes surprised me and I hope that by continuing our research this summer, our final paper can contribute in a meaningful way to a dialogue between LGBT organizations (of which there are several active ones in Turkey) and wider society about the harassment, legal restrictions, and cultural stigma against them. My thesis which is only just beginning will be about international mediation efforts in the ongoing Syrian conflict. I am honored and excited to be working with a very well-known and respected Turkish scholar as my advisor.  

Throughout the summer I hope to remember the lessons I learned all year in my program by writing blog posts about them! I won’t write anything specific on my research, but if you are interested in learning more about the LGBT project you can always contact me.