Actress Madeleine Stowe joined The Ed Show Friday to advocate for women’s rights in Virginia—and to throw her support behind Wayne Powell, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Eric Cantor.
The actress, currently the star of ABC’s Hamptons-based drama Revenge, is a keynote speaker at a Women's Strike Force PAC event in Virginia this weekend.
Stowe, whose husband hails from Virginia, talked about the huge public outcry following Gov. Bob McDonnell’s intention to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds for informed consent for abortions. She pointed out that Virginia has only temporarily shelved a personhood bill. The bill, HB1, defines life as starting at conception, which could make it illegal for women to obtain contraception.
Powell, a relative unknown, has been garnering more support lately. Ed Schultz described Powell as "veteran, pro-choice, and for social and economic justice." On Thursday, Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, the fiery Democratic strategist, joined The Rachel Maddow Show and called Cantor a "bought and paid for crook."
Stowe sounded a similar theme. “Eric Cantor shorted US treasury bonds for his own financial gain,”she argued. “Cantor is in the hands of Wall Street. His interests are in Wall Street and major corporations. He is extremely vulnerable.”
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I'm putting my money on Powell. He is an honorable and trustworthy Virginian. Already donate to his campaign. I have very little to give, but I'd do anything to get Cantor out of there. He has cut the throats of Virginians for his own gain, and cares absolutely nothing, NOTHING about anyone but his own rich kind.
Neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party serves the American people. Both are wings of the same corporate bird of prey.
Once the elites realized the public had grown weary of the style of governance by Bush and Cheney, they promoted Obama because he was far more disarming to the Left, and they realized that Obama could continue the same policies with a muzzled progressive base. This re-branding of the elites' agenda has proved successful for the rulers since 2008, at the expense of the rest of us. (This is explained in Chris Hedges' "Brand Obama" piece: commondreams.org/view/2009/05/04 The Democratic Party is attempting to reproduce this in the 7th Congressional District.
Remember that in 2008, Obama created the perception that he was anti-Bush, that he shared the progressive base's concerns ( zcommunications.org/obamas-violin-by-paul-street ). Such a perception was reinforced by plutocrat-owned uncritical mass media.
The last three years should have made clear that contrary to the narrative by the Beltway media, President Obama is not a progressive at all, but a right-of-center, neoliberal true believer. (For more, see Lance Selfa's updated and recently released book, The Democrats: A Critical History, as well as Paul Street's excellent The Empire's New Clothes.) Despite Obama's rhetoric in the 2008 campaign criticizing Bush/Cheney, he has continued and expanded their policies. In fact, he has shielded Bush administration officials from investigations and prosecutions ( salon.com/2008/11/13/partisanship/). Obama and the Democrats are as beholden to special interests as the Republicans. Behind the exchange of insults and the grandstanding between the politicians and their strategists and celebrity commentators, there is only consensus and convergence on all the issues, whether economics, foreign policy, healthcare, imperialist wars, environment, human rights, contempt for the rule of law, elite immunity, etc.
This is true for the 7th Congressional District as well, where the Democratic Party is running a campaign of amnesia and vilification, in the hopes of replacing Cantor with a Cantor-Lite candidate who mouths insincere populist talking points. If the Democrats are successful, since there's virtually no difference between the policies of the two parties, between Obama and Cantor, or between Cantor and Powell, the same pro-corporate policies can continue. One can imagine that two years from now, as the elites continue to squeeze the middle and lower classes, without any substantial improvement in the living and working conditions of families, students, the elderly, and workers, the Democratic Party will explain their failure by blaming some other group. In 2009, it Blue Dogs were the scapegoats. In 2010 it was the TEA party.
Powell will not denounce the administration's or the bipartisan warmongering against Iran. (See HR 568 which passed the House this spring, with all Democratic Representatives voting YEA). Powell has stated, wrongly, that Israel is an ally of the US. (It is not. However, this past spring, Eric Cantor introduced and successfully passed HR 4133. Unsurprisingly, again, all the Democratic politicians from Virginia voted YEA.) Like Cantor, Powell will not call out the Obama administration or his party for its lawlessness. Like Cantor, Powell will not oppose the President's illegal imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Libya, or his aggrandizement of authoritarian powers domestically. He will not denounce the CIA's arming and financing the terrorists in Syria. Democratic politicians, especially those from Virginia, routinely deceive the public with disingenuous rhetoric. We've seen it before. (The veteran Jim Webb voted YEA for NDAA. He voted NAY on Repealing the AUMF in Iraq. Yet he enjoys the undeserved reputation of being anti-war. How can he profess any concern for the Constitution, given his voting record? ) Powell will be no different.
The second illusion, aside from the refusal to acknowledge that we have a one-party system, is that change comes from the ballot box. It does not. The change that is needed cannot come from casting ballots. The two party system and our quadrennial and biennial auctions, er, elections, are a great diversion that absorb precious time, energy, resources, and which, inevitably favor the status quo; candidates are selected by the elites, they are advertised on the channels owned by the elites, and the elites decide what the narrow parameters of debate or permitted discourse will be. Nothing changes for the better. Energy that could go into social movements challenging the legitimacy and authority and priorities of those in power, is instead absorbed in trivialities. Change can only come from pressure from below, through citizen's movements, with people of different groups agitating, demonstrating, disrupting those in power.
Vivek, I'm so glad you're running against Cantor as well. I can't think of a better candidate to stick up for The People over the interests of the wealthy elite. Both the Democrats and Republicans are beholden to the same benefactors. We need to break away from party loyalties and look at what the candidates really stand for instead of looking for what letter comes after the names on the ballot. However, a truly informed electorate is not what is in the interests of the two (different sides of the same coin) party system.
I've always admired the talented Ms. Stowe and I'm so glad she's standing up against the dreadful Cantor. We've got to put an end to the Republican War on Women.*
Cantor is thoroughly despicable. He has repeatedly proven that his priority is party first, and the country can come in a distant second. Pushing this war on women and ridiculous austerity measures shows whose pockets he's in.
Great... Another shill for the Democratic party without looking at any other candidates. While she does make great points about McDonnell and Cantor, that still doesn't excuse a knee jerk support of the Democratic candidate.