Women Want to Run the World: So do issues really matter anymore?
09 September 2008 7:33 am by Taylor Marsh
Most women talk about right versus left on one main front: abortion rights or being pro
choice. To me it’s a matter of civil rights. To be mistress of my own life,
without any interference. As the old saying goes, if men could get pregnant the matter
of abortion would have long ago been decided. That’s really the issue. The issue
of “choice” is settled law that cannot be touched, so women’s focus,
especially in the year of Hillary, is turned beyond. But do people believe
women’s civil rights is no longer an issue? Do we now take for granted that
Roe v. Wade can never be overturned, turning the issue back to states? That
electing two people from the Republican ticket who are anti women’s civil rights
on “choice” and equal pay, to name just two critical issues, doesn’t matter?
Cue Michelle Cottle’s “Eighteen million cracks, and one crackpot“:
Hillary Clinton entered the primaries as the first female front-runner in our nation’s history. Better still, she wasn’t running as a Woman Candidate. Yes, Hillary had an established track record of championing so-called women’s issues, including children’s health care, affordable day care, family medical leave, and, of course, reproductive rights. But her focus on strength and experience pretty much precluded her playing the gender card. Forget your garden-variety female pol’s struggle to prove herself tough enough to hang with the Big Boys: Hillary’s entire strategy was to prove that she was tougher than the Big Boys. Fan or foe, few people questioned her basic qualifications to be commander-in-chief, and no one suggested that her political juice was a by-product of identity politics. Whether she won or lost–though the widespread assumption was that her victory was inevitable–Hillary’s candidacy was expected to showcase what it means to be a broad-shouldered, ass-kicking modern woman.
Women want something different this year. Most want to see a woman finally
take a seat at the ultimate power table. The details of what that means with
someone like Palin are not as important. They see McCain, who they know and trust, but with the addition of Palin they also see respect for their prowess to handle power acknowledged, with the ultimate goal within their grasp.
White women have moved from 50-42 percent in Obama’s favor before the conventions
to 53-41 percent for McCain now, a 20-point shift in the margin that’s one
of the single biggest post-convention changes in voter preferences. The other,
also to McCain’s advantage, is in the battleground Midwest, where he’s moved
from a 19-point deficit to a 7-point edge.
I’ve been thinking about this reality for a while, when Christy
Hardin Smith posed the question of choice in an email. Amanda
Marcotte has also responded to Christy’s query, which was basically asking
whether Sarah Palin will obliterate the importance of choice, which could hurt
efforts to get down ticket progressives elected. It’s not a minor point.
Again, to me this is all a matter of civil rights, which goes far beyond abortion
rights to include equal pay, the need for accessibility to affordable, top notch
health care, including preventative tests that can save our lives. The trouble
is that in this election cycle, women are not thinking in these terms as far
as I can see and have been told in hundreds of emails. Yes, many die hard progressive
women are alarmed that Palin is sucking all the air out of the issue debate.
But many more women are thinking about something else.
What has happened is simple. With Democrats softening their position on choice,
couching it in language that softens the civil rights issue it is for women
in order to appeal to moderates, independents and even “pro life” in order to get their votes, the urgency to defend choice has softened. Women today simply do not feel that “choice” is in any way threatened by a “pro
life” Republican ticket. Roe v. Wade will never be overturned
is what I hear day in and day out.
Women don’t see Sarah Palin as the anti women’s civil rights zealot she is.
What they see is a woman who made a different “choice” that is equally
deserving of respect, which is basically what Obama’s message is: We can disagree
without being disagreeable. It opens the way to casting a revolutionary vote
for the first female vice president in history on the merits of getting a woman
in the seat of power, regardless of her extremist views that endanger women’s civil rights.
Hillary supporters who have not decided are in two camps: beyond the “choice”
phase of their life, or young enough to take the reality of “choice”
for granted. It’s just not an issue and it’s not likely to become one. As for
the Republican side of things, they see a “pro life” heroine and are
feeling a revolution of change coming.
The thought of having a woman in the main seat of power has been stoked. Hillary
made it real this year. Now women see it within our grasp. The details don’t
seem to matter. The arguments go… The bigger issue is breaking the ultimate glass ceiling. It
will require compromise, which means ignoring that McCain-Palin are adamantly
against women’s civil rights, which begins with the freedom to control our own
body. Besides, that’s already set in stone.
The devil’s in the details, with women willing to make that deal for what they
see as a much bigger gain. A woman finally one seat away from running the world.
That’s all that matters to many. I don’t see that shifting unless Palin’s aura
of possibility is ripped to shreds. After what happened to Hillary in the primary
season, the deplorable coverage and the sexism revealed, I don’t see that happening, especially since the entire Republican Party is galvanized to fight it, something that didn’t happen on the Democratic side during the primaries.
Joe Biden is correct (see video above). There’s only one problem as things stand right now. Women’s
civil rights matter to people like me, Christy and Amanda, no doubt many other staunch progressives, but this year, nothing
seems to matter more than getting a woman closer to running the world.
Women may come to regret the civil rights compromise, but that’s the way things are moving right now.
After Hillary’s historic candidacy, McCain’s team recognized what she awakened in women all across this country, regardless of political affiliation. They identified the solution. Her name is Sarah Palin. The rest they’ll manufacture.
