I enjoy all my podcast interviews, but this might be one of my favorites. I love Kaeley for her willingness to push back against her own tribe and question things.
I JUST told someone that this was my favorite pod of your's yet! I follow Kaeley already and appreciate her steadfast support of women and girls so much.
Thank you for this introduction to Kaeley, her thinking and her work on behalf of women and girls. Very, very interesting perspective. While I am a progressive Democrat, my very large family is almost entirely well on the right. I think Kaeley would give some of my uncles a bit of a shock, and I would love to see it!
That was a fantastic interview, and it was great to hear two women talking issues and not litmus testing each other. Being in the middle, I loved it! Yes, we need feminism, and we need to not let the misogynistic men and women turn it into a dirty word, the queer theorists hijack the word, or let it be used to turn woman against woman. Be unapologetic and set the narrative. For too long the misogynists on all sides have been dictating the narrative.
What strikes me about this conversation is that it sounds SO MUCH like the conversations I had in the 1970s, 80s and 90s with my very conservative Republican grandparents.
I grew up the child of Democratic activists. I deeply believed--and still believe--in Democratic liberal values. But I loved my grandparents and spent a lot of time with them, and I didn't want political acrimony to poison our relationship, the way it permanently wrecked their relationship with my parents.
So I taught myself--even as a teenager--to set aside politics and talk to my grandparents about real-life situations and my values and why and how I wanted to do the right thing.
At first, there was some pushback. Republicans of that time were the dominant party, so they felt free to openly demonize liberals (just as Kaeley describes here).
But my grandparents loved me too, so they kept it under control. And as soon as they realized that *I wouldn't fight them* we all began to be able to talk about things that matter in ways that allowed us to brainstorm solutions. I never once fought with them over politics. Not once. And we talked about political issues a lot.
I became convinced--and am still convinced--that we all want the same things: safe families, decent communities, good friends, and enough money to survive comfortably without needing grotesque wealth.
But I've watched the Republican Party attack that common cause, from Nixon forward. In the 1960s and 70s, Democrats were becoming the dominant party, because we wanted everyone to have the same things. And the Republican Party wouldn't stand for that. They brought in Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove, Fox, "infotainment," all of it to drive conservatives away from the party standing up for everyone.
Today, my conservative grandparents would be sickened and horrified by Trump. But my aunt and her family became radicalized by the Republican Party and came to fervently support him.
Meanwhile, my liberal parents are quietly sickened and horrified by transgenderism. But after Citizens United vs Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party gave in to Republican pressure to polarize, BOTH parties became crippled by polarization, and my siblings became radicalized and now fervently support transgenderism.
It's all stupid as hell.
We could build a society in which we all get what we want. We could.
However, we need to set aside our radicalized politics and talk to each other about real-life situations and our values and why and how we want to do the right thing--and remember that we all care about other people, so we absolutely must not fight.
I enjoy all my podcast interviews, but this might be one of my favorites. I love Kaeley for her willingness to push back against her own tribe and question things.
I JUST told someone that this was my favorite pod of your's yet! I follow Kaeley already and appreciate her steadfast support of women and girls so much.
Me too. I admire anyone who will push back against their own tribe.
Thank you for this introduction to Kaeley, her thinking and her work on behalf of women and girls. Very, very interesting perspective. While I am a progressive Democrat, my very large family is almost entirely well on the right. I think Kaeley would give some of my uncles a bit of a shock, and I would love to see it!
I've been following Kaeley for awhile on X and have been pleasantly surprised by how much common ground I have with her.
I really enjoyed this one!
good conversation
That was a fantastic interview, and it was great to hear two women talking issues and not litmus testing each other. Being in the middle, I loved it! Yes, we need feminism, and we need to not let the misogynistic men and women turn it into a dirty word, the queer theorists hijack the word, or let it be used to turn woman against woman. Be unapologetic and set the narrative. For too long the misogynists on all sides have been dictating the narrative.
What strikes me about this conversation is that it sounds SO MUCH like the conversations I had in the 1970s, 80s and 90s with my very conservative Republican grandparents.
I grew up the child of Democratic activists. I deeply believed--and still believe--in Democratic liberal values. But I loved my grandparents and spent a lot of time with them, and I didn't want political acrimony to poison our relationship, the way it permanently wrecked their relationship with my parents.
So I taught myself--even as a teenager--to set aside politics and talk to my grandparents about real-life situations and my values and why and how I wanted to do the right thing.
At first, there was some pushback. Republicans of that time were the dominant party, so they felt free to openly demonize liberals (just as Kaeley describes here).
But my grandparents loved me too, so they kept it under control. And as soon as they realized that *I wouldn't fight them* we all began to be able to talk about things that matter in ways that allowed us to brainstorm solutions. I never once fought with them over politics. Not once. And we talked about political issues a lot.
I became convinced--and am still convinced--that we all want the same things: safe families, decent communities, good friends, and enough money to survive comfortably without needing grotesque wealth.
But I've watched the Republican Party attack that common cause, from Nixon forward. In the 1960s and 70s, Democrats were becoming the dominant party, because we wanted everyone to have the same things. And the Republican Party wouldn't stand for that. They brought in Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove, Fox, "infotainment," all of it to drive conservatives away from the party standing up for everyone.
Today, my conservative grandparents would be sickened and horrified by Trump. But my aunt and her family became radicalized by the Republican Party and came to fervently support him.
Meanwhile, my liberal parents are quietly sickened and horrified by transgenderism. But after Citizens United vs Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party gave in to Republican pressure to polarize, BOTH parties became crippled by polarization, and my siblings became radicalized and now fervently support transgenderism.
It's all stupid as hell.
We could build a society in which we all get what we want. We could.
However, we need to set aside our radicalized politics and talk to each other about real-life situations and our values and why and how we want to do the right thing--and remember that we all care about other people, so we absolutely must not fight.