Republicans Reject Women When They Shed Moderates
By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Following up on my post last week about what it's like to be a Republican woman in Washington, D.C.--the "state" with the highest percentage of Democrats in the nation--it seems the Republican women on Capitol Hill are feeling lonely too. Politico's got an article today about the "minority in a minority," documenting the gender gap in terms of elected women. Republican women hold less than ten percent of GOP seats in the House and Senate, while Democratic women hold more than double that percentage in their party. Why are Republican women reluctant to throw their hat in the ring?
A number of reasons. Some of it is geography--Democrats have a stronger hold on voters in the Northeast and West, where women are more easily elected, than in the South where a predominately male GOP has historically been stronger. Some of it is demographics, meaning that more women these days identify themselves as Democrats and are more likely to run for office as a Democrat.
There's also the fear of putting one's family through the meat-grinder of a negative campaign. Women saw what happened to Sarah Palin and can't be blamed for saying "No, thanks." The ugly tone of modern campaigns is a big turn-off for many potential female candidates, on both sides of the aisle. And no one wants to be asked to run for office as a token, either. But for the GOP, as Politico points out, there's this too:
[Maine Senator Olympia] Snowe says there's also a political dimension. As the Republican Party sheds moderates, it also sheds women.
"[We] as a party are saying we're not supporting Republican moderates. That's a terrible message to send," said Snowe, who with her Maine counterpart Susan Collins represents 50 percent of the Republican women in the Senate. "It tells everyone else in America who might have an interest in running as a Republican moderate, they're going to have to think twice. The messages coming out of the national party are critical. They've got to be embracive and inclusive of political diversity. They can't on one hand say we're going to build a majority and then say we only want people with certain characteristics, like white males from the South. That's a concern to me."
Amen to that.
The Republican National Committee says it's running a grass-roots recruiting drive to get women to run for office in all 50 states. That's fine. The problem is, that to encourage them to run, Politico reports the RNC is bringing groups of women to Capitol Hill for tours. That's the last thing they should do! As a former staffer for a Congressman, I can tell you that Capitol Hill is one of the least women-friendly, family-friendly places on earth. It's the original men's club. My advice to the RNC: encourage women to run for office in order to change what they'll find on that Capitol Hill tour.
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Reader Comments
Turning the GOP into the Dems is not the answer
I do notice that the responses are typical of the angry Atheist Left. Spew hatred to those who believe in any sort of moral standard, accuse them of racism and anything else that comes to mind, then call yourself fair-minded and "open" to try to make anyone listening forget the vitriol with which your previous comments were made. The reply from Jack Gollding is I believe spot on, we may need a third party, as the two we have are so far apart at this point that they appear the same to a distant eye, and asking the republicans to "moderate" and move farther and farther to the left leaves us with only one party in the end. If both parties are on the left of center who would represent the people in the middle? Or those on the right?
The republican party has problems, but turning them into your much beloved Democrats will not solve them, only disenfranchise tens of millions of americans and leave the far left of the Democrat party free to move even farther left with the excuse of "well we're not that far from the right wing extremist republican party". Or perhaps that is what you desire? A "choice" between communism and European Socialism? History has shown both systems to lead to failed economies and widespread decreases in the standard of living. To be fair capitalism is essentially unfair, there are winners and losers, but the losers still have a chance to better themselves, it may not be easy, and it may not be what they prefer, but the chance is always out there for them to take.
Which do you prefer? A balanced capitalism or two parties racing towards the extreme left end of the spectrum trying to prove how much they "care" for the people and how "open minded" they are by dumping massive amounts of Tax money at society's failures?
Republicans Reject Women
So, the Republican party wants to be white, male, and mostly Southern? And, not to mention non progressive, if not outright backward on most of the issues that matter. Does this remind anyone of anything? No clues, huh? Basically, the party and its views are the heart and soul of racism.
I'm not a scholar or an intellectual, and I haven't read as much history as I should have. But I do know when something doesn't look or feel right. My thesis is very basic and probably a bit over simplified: The south never got over losing the Civil War (and from the looks of things, never will) which means they never got over losing the right to treat black people like dirt and a whole lot of other "privileges" they viewed as inalienable rights.
These southern "denialists" are the heart and soul of the Republican party. Yes, present day Republicans couch their philosophies and mandates a little more eloquently than your everyday Grand Wizard, but their ideology is bascially the same. They hate enfranchisement -- no matter how small -- of people of color (Thomas, Palin and Steele are but sacrificial lambs), of people with vaginas, of people with scientific knowledge, of people with differing views as to what constitutes marriage, of people who think, and so on and so on.
Let's just say it plain. Republicans are at their heart racist, sexist, homophobic, dangerous and jurassic.
Party members put off by their current leaders should do the respectable thing and form a viable third political party. Although I'll probably be a Democrat for life, I would welcome dissent from a rationale, thoughtful political group with alternative ideas on how best to restructure America.
The Republican Party
John Mccain's defeat last Novenmber can be summed up in five words --Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh. This continuous apologistic attitude by prominent Republican leader for criticizing Rush Limbaugh is sickening to centrist independents like me, and is not only turning off women, but minorities and white men who are not reactionaries. As much as I dislike the two-party system, this courting of the extreme right wing (they shame conservatives)is turning this nation into a one-party system. Barring an epiphany by the GOP of a move toward the center, what is needed is atrong centrist third party that takes in libertarians, greens, and others not Nazis or Communists, that embraces the philosophy and principles mof both Roosevelts. I am willing to work behind the scenes to achieve such a goal. Anybody with me?
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