Women and Blacks
26th March 2012 · 0 Comments
Republicans may not like women or Blacks, but they at least respect women, if their latest actions are any indicator.
Feeling a little cocky, Republicans had begun pushing legislation that would dilute or eliminate the abilities of women to make choices regarding their own health. Legislation, such as the Blunt amendment would allow employers to use their own moral code to decide a woman’s health insurance options. They have even put forth legislation that would reduce protections for women against domestic abuse.
Perhaps it was Limbaugh’s “slut” commentary that brought attention to the pattern of state and federal bills being put forth to put women “back in their place” and men back in control of their life options. Whatever the case, women’s networks and national organizations began beating war drums, identifying the Republican Party as the enemy.
Now all of a sudden, more and more anti-women legislation is being shelved or brought back into committee for a slow death. Republican Senators like John McCain are making public statements against such laws even after having voted on similar measures himself. Apparently white Republicans are beginning to retreat on their “war on women.”
Why the change of heart? For all their talk about “standing on principles” Republicans know that they cannot win the next or any other election without the woman’s vote. Someone, somewhere in a smoke-filled room realized that if Republicans run their true values up a flag pole between now and November, they will lose and lose badly on every level…and winning is their highest principle.
Preceding and paralleling the anti-women bills has been the aggressive Republican attack on voting rights. It is an interesting admission that in a supposedly democratic society, one party has decided that open participation in the political process is not to their advantage and therefore no longer tolerated. In fact, as unpatriotic as it sounds, eliminating voters has been a major Republican strategy for some time now. Again, winning is their highest principle.
And again, numerous national groups are crying out passionately about voter suppression laws, however there is no conservative retreat on this issue. Only a Democratic-run Department of Justice is striking the balance and countering this trend.
So why do Republican men fear women, but not Blacks and browns? What’s the difference?
It’s simple! Women vote, we don’t!
They know that women turn out in mass for every election and that they generally vote for people they believe are for them.
With Blacks it’s different. As conditions worsen in the Black community there is less and less interest in the electoral process. We don’t make the connection.
As our voting numbers decline, so does our clout and our community. Then after the fact, we protest the decisions of those who only took office because we predictably did not show up at the polls.
In non-presidential elections we are voting as low as 20 percent and 30 percent, a sure sign that the Black voter does not care. After this past weekend’s election turnout, the question is “when will we learn?” We can shout, and protest all we want, but until we take voting seriously, white men will not take us seriously.
In a democratic society, voting is the equalizer.
This article was originally published in the March 26, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
