Leah asks:
If you created a political party of your own, what would you name it?
#1: [My Name] Is In Charge Of Everything.
#2: I definitely wouldn’t have my name in it. But other than that, I’ve got nothing. Maybe The Middle Class? Because everybody wants to belong…
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
June 1, 2018 at 4:24 am
The Five Freedoms Party. It’d be based on FDR’s four freedoms but add in the Freedom of movement. Both in a literal sense (i.e. we embrace immigrants as members of our community), economic mobility, and, you know, anti-internment in case anyone gets that bright idea again.
June 1, 2018 at 7:28 am
We’re already doing internment at our borders. :(
June 1, 2018 at 7:56 am
This is true. :( I guess I mostly was thinking about FDR’s legacy in particular as the problematic Democratic fave.
June 1, 2018 at 4:27 am
Well I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative.
Frugalarians?
Freedomtarians?
The Idealist accountants?
Mindfulnarians
June 1, 2018 at 7:28 am
I think the current democratic party could be described as socially liberal and fiscally conservative. That’s why the socialist movement has broken out.
June 1, 2018 at 4:37 am
Accountabilitarians
Geterdonians
June 1, 2018 at 5:34 am
When my students asked me this, I told them I’d create the party of science. Decisions would be research based and open to change if new information came to light. A priority would be placed on investigation and experimentation.
June 1, 2018 at 7:27 am
I remember when Obama tried to do that at the start of his first term. So warming to this academic heart.
June 1, 2018 at 1:04 pm
I would join this party!
June 1, 2018 at 8:01 am
The Humanitarian Party? Motto from Vonnegut: “You’ve got to be kind.”
June 1, 2018 at 8:06 am
That’s a good one!
June 1, 2018 at 8:07 am
(except to nazis– totally shun them and hit them with cream pies when they use hateful rhetoric)
June 1, 2018 at 8:20 am
Along the lines of monsterzero – the Billandtedarians – “Be excellent to each other”.
June 1, 2018 at 8:22 am
EXCELLENT!
June 1, 2018 at 9:16 am
I would not create a new name, I’d simply run as the Bull Moose party :-)
Or possibly the #DFTBA party, that would work out well I think.
June 1, 2018 at 9:18 am
Nerdfighters!
June 1, 2018 at 2:50 pm
Sightly off topic, ~~ totally off actually: SO the current federal gov is proposing withholding federal funds from medical programs that provide (or talk about maybe) abortion in the US. Does this mean that HMO’s like Kaiser will receive NO federal funds? OR not federal funds for any obstetrical services, or what? Would it de-fund Johns Hopkins? Mayo Clinic? Major teaching hospitals across the nation? Any/all federal funds for any/all entities that include abortion services or mention abortion as part of options in reproductive health?
I understand it is aimed at de-funding Planned Parenthood which primarily provides family planning and women’s reproductive medical needs (and a small number of abortions not funded at all by the federal government).. but the words I read in newspapers sounds like ANY provider or group of providers that allows abortion will be not get federal funds. What if my ob/gyn includes pregnancy and termination options as part of her practice; will Medicare no long pay my ob/gyn for a pap test for me? (I am not getting pregnant again, obv as medicare, but other women..) CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME? (I can’t even figure out who at Kaiser I can ask this of and get a reliable answer…..)
Always these days I turn to you all with things I just do not understand. Thank you for your tolerance.
June 1, 2018 at 9:21 pm
So, the short version is no.
The longer version- The proposed gag rule applies only to title X funding, not all federal funding. Title X funds contraceptive coverage and some associated things (STI testing, pap smears and such) for low-income patients that otherwise wouldn’t be covered. The gag rule would only apply to clinics/institutions that receive title X funds. For the most part that is PP and other family planning/reproductive health clinics providing similar services and some community clinics that provide more general medical care but rely on Title X to support their gyn/contraceptive services. Large HMO providers like Kaiser would not be affected since of course they have to cover their own contraceptive services. I don’t know the extent that large academic meccas participate in Title X- I suspect not much as it’s aimed more toward freestanding clinics- but I also suspect that if they did most would just drop their Title X program, so patients could still get abortions but low-income patients would have less access to contraception. Private practice ob/gyns also are not super likely to be participating in title X.
It’s also a rule that disproportionately affects low income women in red states- for instance, in my state we have a state-run/funded program that provides the same services, so title X is not such a big deal. If you live in a state that is not so invested in family planning, the few clinics that exist are much more likely to rely on title X. And if you have good private insurance you’re unlikely to be getting care at a title X clinic unless you’re specifically referred for an IUD or implant or abortion- and even then you probably have other options. Unless you live in a crazy conservative state with hardly any providers period. :(
This is a reasonable summary
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/18/trump-planned-parenthood-abortion-curbs-552171
(i’m not any kind of expert in policy or healthcare funding or any of that- just an ob/gyn that works full time in a freestanding family planning clinic)
June 2, 2018 at 9:17 am
Thank you so much! That really helps me understand.
And it is time to repeat the old saw about’ they came for others first so I did not respond and when they came for me I was alone’. We ALL, every person who uses female reproductive care, are endangered by this action because they are coming for all women who uses reproductive care in this country… and it is expensive to go outside the country for such care.