When a Republican gets beaten in Alabama by a pro-choice Democrat, when Garry McCarthy may launch a mayoral run, when the #MeToo movement is proclaimed an “era” by the New York Times, and when thousands of women are lining up with their petitions to run for public office, well, that’s the time to call in our pundit friends  Sylvia Ewing and Kitty Kurth. There are lots of opinions to share.

“In the end,” says Ewing, “I would love to see this kind of discussion that we’re having about gender and this MeToo gender moment, I would really like to see that extend to race. That is the other big gorilla in the room. And we have countless stories that are like little paper cuts where, oh, this story shows there is discrimination in housing. This study shows in employment. This study shows in education, and it never reaches this Metoo moment.” “And, she adds, “We keep working at it.”

Kurth notes a trending sentiment among progressive Democrats – that it’s time to acknowledge where the party is today, and to stop looking back. “Are we going to stop trying to convince the disillusioned white guys to come back to the party,” she asks, “Or are we going to invest time and money getting more black people to the polls who actually come to the polls and vote, and where are we going to put our priorities?”

As an example, Kurth cites an event she did last week with Emily’s List, whose website says,”We ignite change by getting pro-choice Democratic women elected to office.”

“Last year,” she proclaims, ” they had 900 women call them about running for office and getting help running for office, this year 23,000. And just amongst my own friends, like my friends on Facebook, friends that I knew from high school, all of a sudden women, now they realize like okay, I’ve got some time and I’m going to make it worthwhile.”

It’s an uplifting, positive message on Chicago Newsroom this week, and we hope you’ll find a few minutes to watch or listen.

You can listen to the show here on Soundcloud.

You can read a CN transcript dec 14 2017 Kurth Ewing