Thursday Open Thread

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Last week we brought you the story of National Review writer John Derbyshire, who has written a whole chapter in his new book about how women should not have the right to vote. He’s definitely not backing off in his contention and now he’s explaining his logic further – women don’t vote conservative and that’s bad for society.

Yesterday, radio host Thom Hartmann probed Derbyshire about the suffrage issue, and Derbyshire re-affirmed his view that “of course” he believes women should have the right to vote. But, he explained, they shouldn’t exercise that right because it is “bad for conservatism” and therefore “bad for society”:

HARTMANN: Do you believe that women should be allowed to vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, of course I do.

HARTMANN: Why then is the title called “The Case Against Female Suffrage”?

DERBYSHIRE: Because it is a case against female suffrage. […]

HARTMANN: Did you not say to, for example, my colleague Alan Colmes that women should not be allowed to vote, that it would be a better country anyway if women were not allowed to vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Well, you know, my mentor Paul Buckley used to say, he who say a must say b. And the logic of that chapter, that chapter five in my book, rests on the proposition that women voting is bad for conservatism, and as a conservative, of course, I think that’s bad for society.

HARTMANN: So therefore if women were not allowed to vote it would be a better country in your opinion?

DERBYSHIRE: I think as a hypothetical I think that’s arguable, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

It’s always party before country for these guys.