2012 Was The Year Of The Woman
Women made up 53% of the electorate this year and Republicans failed spectacularly, again, at basic math. My guess is that they’ll keep on failing, choosing to focus on Hispanics while ignoring that Hispanic women are part of that whopping 53%. So are African American women and Asian women – which means that women are the biggest voter demographic Republicans need to win an election.
Republicans are frighteningly out of touch with women who handed the election to President Obama. They refused to accept, and even mocked – I’m looking at you, Joe Scarborough – that women’s reproductive rights were a serious economic concern. They dismissed rape in the way one dismisses a hangnail. And they lost. Big time.
Jessica Valenti has an excellent piece about women being the silent majority:
Part of Republican’s cultural dissonance around feminist issues is that they drink their own Kool-Aid. When they say it’s rare for women to get pregnant from rape, it’s because they really believe it. When they frame abortion as the sinful refuge of promiscuous women, it’s because they actually think “good” women don’t terminate pregnancies. They don’t even fully trust rape statistics, instead choosing to believe that rape doesn’t happen to women who follow the rules. To them, sexual assault is mostly the unfortunate inevitability when women dress a certain way, drink, have consensual sex, or do anything that transgresses traditional ideals of proper femininity.
Too many in the GOP simply cannot imagine that the women in their communities, in their families—or even in their political party—have been touched by these issues. And when women are silent about their personal experiences, it furthers that cultural ignorance. That’s why it was easy for Mitt Romney’s campaign to say—and perhaps believe—that female voters didn’t care about the “war on women.” Republicans certainly underestimated how important these issues are to women’s lives because of sexism and misogyny—but mainstream women’s silence made it a lot easier for them to believe their own hype.
Election results told a clear story, however. A Gallup poll released on Monday showed that women in crucial swing states favored Obama over Romney by 16 points and that nearly 40 percent named abortion as the most important issue for women in the election. Women’s issues that are seen as “fringe” were actually central. And it may be that women who don’t like talking about how personally these issues affect their lives were not afraid to be loud in the voting booth.
I couldn’t have said it better, and every time women tried to point out that buying birth control and unplanned pregnancy were huge economic issues for women, Republicans dismissed us by declaring that those issues weren’t part of the “real” economy. Funny how paying 40.00 -60.00 a month for internet access, or 20.00 – 30.00 a month on a newspaper subscription, is considered part of the real economy, but paying that money every month for birth control doesn’t count.
And I don’t see them changing their ways. Take a look at this comment over at Delaware Politics. (Yeah, I know, but if you really want to see the Conservative/Republican mindset you have to wade into swamp.) The context of this comment was mynym responding to commenter Nitpicker who was calling out – who else – Jon Moseley. The italicized part is a small part of Nitpicker’s comment. Go read the entire comment. It’s well worth it. But… back to mynym…
29mynym
And when it comes to their options as rape victims, they do not need or want to justify themselves to creepy old men like you.
Nice try at framing old men who want to try to save babies from being torn limb from limb and so on as sexual perverts or whatever else, but the simple fact is that they won’t really find the tender love and care they seek under Obama Inc. and all his perverted supporters. Jay-Z? He’s more likely to pimp women for profit while reducing young black men to animals beneath his pyramid schemes. ACORN? They’re more likely to be incorporated into trafficking women for profit. Madonna? She’ll sell them out like virgins until their midnight hour. Creepy old Leftist college professors? They’ll leave them used and abused for the next undergrad. LGBT? They’re probably too busy with their “My identity is the be all, end all!!!” type of domestic violence against each other or manufacturing their identities in theatrical productions about having different rights to be of much help in reality. Planned Parenthood? More false profits and the bloody end of vagina monologues.
Or the young college frat boys who vote for Obama Inc. along with the rest? Yeah, right… they value women and are sure to calm their fears about being raped. Or how about the Muslim vote? They seem to be full of love and care too.
And so on. Exactly where is it that women are supposedly going to get the tender love and care and the priceless treatment and protection that they desire under Obama Inc. or his associates like ACORN in reality? I suspect that those you’re framing as creepy old men or sexual perverts actually care more about women than you do. I enjoy the framework of propaganda where it turns out that people trying to protect babies are like sexual perverts so that single women should run into the arms of…. pimps, rapists and sexual perverts?
Try again?
Wow. Where to begin? I did respond over at Delaware Politics because I simply had to! Ignore all his examples of male Democrats who he claims hurt women – that’s silly, and merely an attempt to hide his true point… Which is this:
Exactly where is it that women are supposedly going to get the tender love and care and the priceless treatment and protection that they desire under Obama Inc…
Notice how he places women’s desire for love, how they are treated (pricelessly) and protection into everyone’s hands but the woman’s. It’s this mindset – that it’s someone’s job to make decisions and offer protection to women – that will lead to the extinction of the Republican Party. In Republican “Father Knows Best” Land women are confused, weak creatures who simply cannot comprehend who will take better care of them. And I don’t see this mindset changing.
Tags: 2012 Election, Women Issues
When I used to read DP, I always thought ‘mynym’ was a self-hating woman. Regardless, that person’s worldview is diseased.
Also, (and more to your point) I am loving how the conventional wisdom that is forming around this election. That it is a big win for liberalism: abortion rights, equal pay, higher taxes for the wealthy, inclusion, diversity, and above all, rationality and optimism over fear and superstition.
Mynym made a few comments over here some years back, but quickly retreated to the relative safety of DP, where mental illness is more prominent than reasoned political thought.
Even among that can of mixed nuts, he stands out — the Brazil nut of the mix, if you will (Moseley is the peanuts — too many of them to avoid completely, but you do try to ignore them). Mynym says very little about himself, but it’s obvious he is a Catholic and very well educated within that realm, making me think he probably has a Jesuit education. He is strongly anti-abortion and pro-Christianity, but at the same time is an Ayn Rand free-market acolyte and general libertarian. He prides himself on seeing through left-wing framing and sometimes does the same with right-wing framing, but not on his pet issues.
He goes on too long, but at least he presents a unique point of view, a rarity among people who mostly spout nothing but conservative boilerplate.
True. When I scroll past his long screeds, sometimes I have a pang of regret. I never regret it when I do the same to Moseley.
I used to read the first and last sentence and assume that all the middle was devoted to showing off a new vocabulary word.
A fair assumption. I wouldn’t have read the whole comment above if Pandora didn’t take the trouble to cut and paste it for me.
I agree, they will not change as old hatreds die hard. Thier base won’t allow the saner heads in the party to do what they know is necessary, they’ll just keep foaming about abortion with the real fruits and nuts going on about contraception.
I normally skim/skip as well, but since they were answering Nitpicker’s excellent comment I decided to read their responses.
Mynym views women as passive. He sees them only in regards to men protecting them from other men. Needless to say, you have to wade through his overly long comments to get to his real point.
And Jon Mosely is just flippin’ nuts. Check out his latest comments…
Priceless.
What century do these guys live in? Dave enters the fray by telling Jon, “Jon, the hole you are in on this discussion is already deep enough. Stop digging already!”
They will keep digging.
Like all things that are good and right in the world, someone will eventually challenge the lunatics. They will call them out on their stupidity, hatred and sense of entitlement. They will fight hard against the fringe, and they will win (eventually).
And once someone shows that it can be done, the illusion will be shattered and the tea-party will slink back into their hole.
This is the belief that lets me sleep at night.
Ignore all his examples of male Democrats who he claims hurt women…
Is that what you do?
…it’s obvious he is a Catholic and very well educated within that realm, making me think he probably has a Jesuit education.
Too bad they got that butler before he could leak more, isn’t it?
True. When I scroll past his long screeds…
It’s true, I write too much and don’t edit enough. But in any case, you all should probably get your political B$ in order at a local level so that the Left is represented under Obama Inc. That way the “little people” caught in Bernanke’s paper ponzi might have a voice in reality. Right, good luck with that.
Mynym views women as passive.
There’s a difference between subtlety and true passivity.
He sees them only in regards to men protecting them from other men.
Not really, they often have to protect themselves from other women and a manipulation of perceptions about caring and so on and so forth.
Needless to say, you have to wade through his overly long comments to get to his real point.
Shrug… sometimes you can set up a Rorschach test, observe people making their own points and then point it out.
“Not really, they often have to protect themselves from other women and a manipulation of perceptions about caring and so on and so forth.”
so you are smarter than all the women who voted against an Akin/Romney style plan for them? you know what’s better?
Mynym says very little about himself, but it’s obvious he is a Catholic and very well educated within that realm, making me think he probably has a Jesuit education.
Mnym has alot of the plumage of someone with a pretty serious Catholic education, but it is about a dime deep. He’s capable of building the edifice he’s read about and lectures people from, but not in engaging people from it. Translation: he’s just as much in the bubble as the rest. As you can tell by the BS of women needing protection from messages that don’t jive with his own (i.e., manipulation of perceptions about caring. Because, you know, adult women can’t engage the world without a detailed road map).
These Paul Ryan types think that the only women who can be “legitimately raped” are virgins. They think that women are inherently evil (who gave Adam the apple?), and that’s why they want contraception and have abortions. They are taking us back to the “what was she wearing to provoke the rape” days.
I’m heartened by the fact that American women, once again, pushed that shit back.
And once someone shows that it can be done, the illusion will be shattered and the tea-party will slink back into their hole.
This won’t happen. There will always be “red states” and “blue states” and political theatrics to occupy the base for as long as both sides are kept illiterate and “polarized” between the city and the country and so on.
The real worker of illusions in the end is the Wizard of Oz, not the other characters in the fictional story. Apparently the hopelessly romantic view is that they all figure out how to get along, brainless as rural people may be. If they only had a brain? Or is there more to it than that?
I really should buy a dog, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. It’s nice, with the whole concept of a lower order of being revealing the financial Wizard behind the root of all evil. Pure genius, it’s probably a task for Toto.
Are you guys going to start wandering around aimlessly and occupying space again soon? That’s always fun in the meantime.
And here it is! Go read the ENTIRE thing! (I’m only posting snippets)
Romney Lost The Slut Vote!
But bskillet81, head of the Christian Men’s Defense Network says…
This is pretty much the Republican bases view.
wow. ladies, i think you should organize a sex-strike until us men-folk … deal with LOLmen like this. It’s clearly the only language most of us understand.
Percentage of voters who agree with the Mourdock/Akin/Ryan position (it should be illegal for a rape victim to get an abortion): 15-20%.
You guys need to learn the difference between conservative and extremist.
Moderate: Opposes third trimester abortion
Conservative: Opposes abortion except rape, incest, and life/health of mother threatened.
Extremist: Opposes all abortion, tries to make pregnancy by rape not seem so bad.
Fixing this for you, anon:
I’m heartened by the fact that American women, once again, always have ways of shutting that shit down.
Ha! Thank you, cass.
Translation: he’s just as much in the bubble as the rest.
We’re all in bubbles, in the sense that our Right/Left brains are constantly painting a picture of reality for us and so on. But if I’m in a bubble on the Right then why can’t you read what I write?
As you can tell by the BS of women needing protection from messages…
You’re framing it as “protection” from the Right when I didn’t write that. I wrote that women often seem to need protection from the Left or each other in terms of gossip and the manipulation of perceptions, if anything. Face facts, it’s not like a utopia of tolerance has been established among Democrats and the Left in general. And if they’re not tolerant of each other, then why should one assume that successfully doing away with the Right will lead to more tolerance in general?
Even John Cornyn rejected Akin, and he’s Texan.
you practically invited mynym here. BIG MISTAKE.
This is pretty much the Republican bases view.
I think that’s “the base” view of many men toward women, degradation. That way they get to think of themselves as higher.
So expect it, in one way or another if civilization declines… although apparently even Jay-Z stopped talking about b*tches* to profit off of B$ and so on when he got married and a little more acquainted with reality. So hope springs eternal in the hearts of hopeless romantics…
*It’s a lower order of being so it’s just a way of saying that he’s higher. It’s too bad people chose that as an insult, dogs are generally pretty nice.
It’s your own fault. You said his name three times.
…you practically invited mynym here. BIG MISTAKE.
Indeed. But don’t worry, I’m leaving. Let me know if you decide to begin wandering around aimlessly to occupy space again. I enjoy good political theatrics, meaningless as they are.
Mynym: I meant the Jesuit education presumption as a compliment. You argue well, which is something they teach well.
“It’s your own fault. You said his name three times.”
Her name.
“This won’t happen. There will always be “red states” and “blue states” and political theatrics to occupy the base for as long as both sides are kept illiterate and “polarized” between the city and the country and so on.”
This is partially true except the bases don’t keep themselves illiterate and polarized. It’s a choice. Whether it’s news you can choose, literal interpretation of the bible, skewed polls, etc. It’s function of beliefs. Belief driven reality versus empirical reality is something many choose as opposed to be foisted upon them. The selection of news channel is evident of the desire to surround oneself with that which provides both comfort and confirmation of one’s beliefs. So we get narratives of MSNBC for the left and the Fox News for the right because they provide confirmation and we ignore actual data because it might lead to information that negates our beliefs. Ultimately, preservation of their belief system is paramount because without those beliefs, their world collapses.
When belief outweighs reason, the result is selective illiteracy and polarization. But it’s a choice.
In 1912, the Republican Party was the party that wanted women to achieve universal sufferage, not the Democrats, one of the ironies of history. LOL
I hope the Democrats don’t plan to rest on their laurels, here. The reason D’s won was because women of COLOR voted to save our asses, the ‘gender gap’ among white women and men was much smaller. Their tepid support for some small level of birth control/abortion access helped, but if we (and i’m looking at the Delaware state Democratic Party, here) don’t start developing more female officers and candidates, (from a huge talent pool that has worked on the campaigns) we’ll still look pretty much like the other guys, when people go to the polls.