Issues
Jo Freeman: There’s Plenty To Do at the RNC – If You Have the Right Credentials
by Jo Freeman
Every national nominating convention has plenty of auxiliary events, some authorized, some not. Getting space can be a challenge; getting the word out even more so. But they do it nonetheless. Press were given a RNC 2024 Master Event Calendar, which was updated a few days later. Events began on Sunday and ended on Thursday. The actual convention sessions were just one item on the list. The calendar said if an event was Open or Closed to press, and also whom to contact to register. I’m going to describe some of the events, including a couple I went to, and a couple I was turned away from.
Since my focus is on women, I obviously wanted to go to those events – if I could.
The National Federation of Republican Women is the largest grassroots Republican women's organization in the country with hundreds of clubs. Founded in 1938, its members made the phone calls and knocked on the doors that elected Republican candidates for decades. It’s Tuesday luncheon featured Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders. The Master Calendar said it was SOLD OUT and they wouldn’t let me in. I was able to get into their lounge at the Fiserv Forum Wednesday evening, where I was repeatedly asked if I was a member, and if not, would I join. “I’m press,” I said. “I can’t join anything partisan.” I then said: “What brings you here?” On hearing that, finding anyone willing to chat with me was like pulling teeth.
Moms for Liberty met in a concert hall that afternoon. I had pre-registered, and I got in. From high in a balcony seat I listened to several people talk about the evils of transgenderism. It’s webpage says WE BELIEVE Power Belongs to the People. Sound Familiar? With a focus is on parental rights, it wants to “STOP WOKE indoctrination.”
Tuesday I went to “The New Mavericks” reception co-hosted by the Black Republican Mayors Association and the Georgia Republican Party. They honored Sen. Tim Scott, four Congressmen and two Georgia delegates – all male. There was only one mayor on stage, from Aurora, IL. The chair of the Georgia Republican Party was the one white man on the stage. At that event, women served; they didn’t speak. The RNC reported that 55 delegates to the 2024 convention are Black, up from 18 in 2016.
I missed the Independent Women’s Forum toast to “Women Who Make Our Country Great” because I went to Convention Fest: The Official Delegate Experience, which was held in the streets outside the Fiserve Forum and Baird Hall as well as some space inside Baird. To get to that one you not only needed a credential of some sort, but a USSS pass (which I have).
Concerned Women for America parked its pink bus across from the Baird Center the week before the RNC. No one was home. When Convention Fest opened on Tuesday afternoon, they set up a pink tent, from which its leaders preached to whomever passed by. It calls itself “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization” but its focus is evangelical Christian. The slogan on the side of its pink bus captures this emphasis: “She Prays, She Votes.” A prayer precedes each sermon.
Jo Freeman's Adventures in Hillaryland
Jo Freeman writes: I vote in Brooklyn. When I heard that Hillary's election night watch party would be in the Javits Center on the Hudson River, I thought that someplace in that 1.8 million square feet of space there might be room for me. In all the Presidential elections I've worked in, I've never been in the right city for a candidate's own election night party, whether it be a wake or a celebration. more »
How Has the Prescription Opioid Epidemic Affected Pediatric Hospitalization Rates in the United States?
Using a nationally representative sample of pediatric hospital discharge records, we found that the incidence of hospitalizations for prescription opioid poisonings among children and adolescents 1 to 19 years of age increased nearly 2-fold from 1997 to 2012. Although rates increased across all age groups, the largest percentage increase occurred among the youngest children aged 1 to 4 years. The second largest increase occurred among adolescents 15 to 19 years of age, among whom hospitalizations for prescription opioid and heroin poisoning increased. Adolescents in this age group had the highest incidence overall for each of the 6 years examined. more »
Public Health on the Ballot: Marijuana Legalization, Minimum Wage Hikes and Gun Control Issues on the Ballot
Five states will vote on legalizing recreational marijuana use this year: Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. And, Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota, could be the latest states to legalize medical marijuana use — it's already legal in 25 states and the District of Columbia. As Silvia Martins, associate professor of Epidemiology, notes: "There are several potential pros and cons of legalized recreational marijuana. More years of data are needed for researchers to truly be able to estimate the public health impact of these policies." more »
For Many Americans, Election Day Is Already Here: Early voting, Absentee Voting, What’s the difference?
In 2012, more than 46 million voters — almost 36% of the total — cast ballots in some manner other than at a traditional polling place on Election Day, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of state and federal election data. That figure includes 23.3 million people who cast civilian or military absentee ballots, 16.9 million who voted early and 6.3 million who mailed in their ballots. The share of the total electorate that such nontraditional voting represents has grown rapidly over the past few election cycles. In 2004, according to our analysis, about 22% of the total vote was nontraditional; by 2008, nearly a third was. more »