New Resurgence Against Obamacare and Why Feminism Needs to Go Global

Talk show host and feminism commentator Jake Pentland takes on the political implications of the recent midterm elections, and also discusses his views on feminism and Obamacare.

Pentland said that despite the significant Republican gains in the House and capturing a majority in the Senate, he actually was surprised that the GOP didn’t do even better than they did.

“I think the shock is sort of feigned, I think it’s just another story line,” he said. “I know how this business works – every facet of it, not just the news – there’s producers who sit in rooms who say, ‘what would be interesting? What would play to this demographic, and this is probably a story that some 27-year-old producer fresh out of college thought about this and said ‘let’s talk about the shock.’”

Pentland – who grew up in the shadow of her famous mother Roseanne Barr – said that generally he is over politics because of continued the gridlocked and rhetoric and lack of tangible results.

He talks about his mom’s last run for president as a third party candidate after losing the Green Party nomination. “We did a documentary following her run for presidency, and the entire documentary is about trying to run under a third party.”

He points out that his mother made her run with very little money and instead took advantage of Skype and social media to propel her campaign.

“Look what you can do from your own bedroom, you don’t need to leave your house anymore to run for president.”
“There’s no coverage of third parties at all. The only time if you really think about it, when anyone even thinks about the third party is Ralph Nader, when he supposedly cost Gore the election – and that’s because it fit within the two-party storyline.”

He then moves to the topic of the origins of conservative views in America. “Really, American values are a lot closer to the Republican ideology,” said Pentland, pointing out that the country was founded on the principle that early Americans didn’t want to be taxed by the British, so they took up arms and rose up against them.

“So I don’t think it’s necessarily new to say, ‘I don’t want to pay for your healthcare, I think that’s very American. I’m not saying it’s great…”

Pentland adds: “The leftist way of thinking of ‘hey, let’s all sort of chip in – these weren’t the people who fought in the revolution, they really weren’t. I don’t think anyone’s ever cared about the little guy here, I really don’t – I don’t think our country was founded on the little guy.”

The discussion then moves the current state of feminism in the United States, compared to other nations around the world.

“My gripe is not about actual feminism, the real feminism – I’m pro-feminism, I’m pro-equality,” Pentland said. My gripe is about the modern state of feminism, specifically here in America,” he said. “Here in America, it is completely insane. Modern feminism to this point is really turning off a lot of people, a lot of women as well.”

When asked what it is about feminism that so many people have issues with, he pointed to the trivialization of some feminist topics, compared to much more important abuses of women around the world.

“I’m not talking about the suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony, I’m not talking about equal pay – all those things that have happened were necessary and beautiful,” he said. “I’m talking about modern feminism – today, 2014.”

He said when discussing equal rights with women in 2014 in America, he brings up two things. He asks them what specific right do they currently do not have, and he brings up the plight of women around the world who have no rights at all and can in fact be punished just for being a women in public.

“What I see in modern feminists and in the women against the movement, were kind of all sick of hearing about how horrible it is for you to get cat-called on the street, like that’s some horrible thing, like that’s equivalent to rape. When there are people literally bricked in the head for reading a book.

“That to me is where we should be focusing – our feminist whatever you want to call it – should be around the world.”

Watch the full interview for Pentland’s views on gender roles and the dangers of medicating children.