I am so excited that Christian put up my yard sign for Mothers Against Greg Abbott. After it arrived in the mail, I asked him if he would put up my MAGA sign, and he was horrified. “Juju, MAGA?” I laughed and told him, “No, not that one.” So he was glad to put this up, saying, “I’m no fan of Greg Abbott.” Now I’ve seen another yard sign I want, though I’m not sure how Christian would feel about putting this one up: “I am WOMAN. Hear me ROAR! Watch me VOTE!”
A friend who was here to talk
about writing this morning lived in Mexico for quite a few years and keeps up with what’s happening in
that country. When I mentioned that Mexico’s Supreme Court just decriminalized
abortion throughout the country, he said that things get done in Mexico because
the women know how to do things, The men strut, the women act. And, according
to him, it looks as though Mexico may soon get a woman as president.
And that led into talk about
women. He reminisced about women he’s known, reflecting that he can think of
several women, most of them elderly when he encountered them, who had a profound
influence on his life. Try as he might, he could not think of that many men.
First and foremost was his grandmother, Ethel Yeager, whose writings he
collected and published as A Soul Housed Up, available on Amazon. He
began to reminisce about women who had influenced him at various times in his
life and career both as a scholar and an Episcopalian priest.
And I got to thinking about
women today. We’re always hearing that women are in the ascendancy, the power
that Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis worked for is coming to fruition in our
day and age. Today there are twelve women governors, twenty-five women
senators, 135 women in the House of Representatives, and 424 who are mayors of
cities with a population of over 30,000. But more than that, women’s movements
are active on the progressive scene: Mothers Against Greg Abbott, Mothers
Against Drunk Drivers, Red, Wine, & Blue powered by women, just to name a
few. At the other extreme is Moms for Liberary, a far-right extremist group. Women
are influencers, though they often aren’t named as such.
And that thought, plus an
article I read, made me think about what today we call influencers. I”ve never
been sure about that term—how does one get to be an influencer? Is it a job you
apply for? Who hires you. I know TikTok has a lot to do with it, but I am not a
TikTok user. Today an article in Texas Monthly answered those questions.
Writer Russell Gold saw an ad
for tweets in support of Kenneth Paxton, our “Impressively corrupt” AG.
Curious, Gold filled out a Google form, and posted two “middle-of-the-road”
tweets—one a link to an article about key people in the impeachment proceedings
and the other a speculation of whether or not Paxton would be acquitted. This
week, he received a check for $100, even though the tweets did not directly
support Paxton.
It seems that stirring up
noise about the case is enough to make Texas big money happy. The check came
from Influenceable LLC and the payer was the wife of Brad Parscale, former head
of digital operations for trump. The money apparently came from a wealthy Texan
named Dunn whose monehy is behind the campaign to exonerate Paxton. The thing
that amazed me is that there is thia enormous dark network or organization working
to spew out buzz or spin or whatever on behalf of Paxton. Gold, unwittingly,
found himself a paid propagandist for Kenneth Paxton, a position he did not
want. To his credit, he donated the $100 to a charity and wrote the article to
alert others to what’s going on. Read it here: My
Brief Career as a Paid Pro-Paxton Propagandist (texasmonthly.com) Not a Texas
Monthly subscriber? You can log in as a guest.
So now I have a new goal: I
want to be an influencer for the election of Joe Biden. Unfortunately, I don’t
know anyone who is paying for such work. Then again maybe I’m already doing it
pro bono. Problem is I don’t know if I have any influence. How will I know when
I can call myself an influencer?
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