By David Bozeman — Whatever the outcome at the polls today, women, who comprise over 50 percent of the electorate, will have decided the winner. Or so the “experts” like to tell us. Moving forward, let us dispel a few common misperceptions about politics and the fairer sex.
Primarily, where is it written that women don’t relish a good fight? Mitt Romney, according to the professional bloviators, held back in the second debate, the town hall forum, because women are supposedly turned off by negativity and confrontation.
Since when? Outside the media bubble, women are no less engaged and passionate than any man, and while they may not pick fights, they don’t run from them, either. And, on the conservative side, at least, one could well argue that, without the fire and bravado of women, the movement would hold about as much excitement as Bob Dole’s ’96 presidential campaign. Could one imagine Michele Bachmann, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly (of “Stop E.R.A.” fame) or Mama Grizzly herself, Sarah Palin, holding back in a debate in deference to civic decorum?
Liberals hide behind women the way they cower behind ethnic and minority groups. Giving Barack Obama and others a pass on their big-government policies has become the last recognized act of chivalry. Similarly, defending small businesses from the ravages of state-run health care has become akin to telling an off-color joke upon meeting your future mother-in-law for the first time. Women, lest you forget, are just like men in all aspects except that their political sensibilities remain extremely delicate, so keep the smelling salts handy.
The left also uses celebrity women to lend their policies an air of style and Hollywood sophistication. If such A-listers as Eva Longoria, Sarah Jessica Parker and music’s favorite faded diva, Madonna, say that Mitt Romney is a misogynistic throwback, then wouldn’t it be so uncool to suggest otherwise? In Hollywood, while diversity in lifestyle and sex partners is celebrated, diversity in opinion, not so much. Just ask the actress Stacey Dash, who ignited a minor controversy recently for having the temerity to endorse Mitt Romney for president.
Emmy-winner Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond and currently starring in The Middle) recently spoke at a Romney-Ryan rally. She stated that, “I live in California, it’s a beautiful state with a lot of beautiful resources and wonderful people, but it’s being run into the ground.” Yet, as noted by Breitbart.com, The Los Angeles Times headline read, “Patricia Heaton Slams California,” painting her as mean-spirited and far less soft and stylish than those trendsetters appearing in pink t-shirts, defending choice, in an Obama commercial. Granted, that is a fairly benign example of left-wing bias and may well have not been intentional.
Nonetheless, Patricia Heaton, though lovely and talented, will just never rival Scarlett Johansson or Ashley Judd on ‘Who’s Hot in Hollywood’ charts. Simply, Heaton bears far more resemblance to women in Fargo, ND, Laughlin, NV and Mobile, AL — in other words, real women, real adults, struggling to survive in a real world folding under debt, regulation and unemployment. But why care about numbers when you can sex up your statist agenda with pouty-lipped starlets, extended adolescence and lots of free stuff?
Clearly, women can speak for themselves without prima donnas and Georgetown Law School elitists hogging the microphone. Furthermore, the great divide in America is not gender, but urban/rural and traditional family vs. non-traditional and single. But getting back to Hollywood, Bo Derek, 80’s sex symbol, actress (10) and self-identified Republican once said that ordinary Americans should take the pronouncements of her celebrity ilk with caution, noting that (and I’m paraphrasing) ‘we live in a bubble, not the real world.’ Bravo, Bo. Indeed, it is only the real world that bears the brunt of liberal policy, and real women don’t defend the stultifying status quo, they fight it.
David Bozeman, former Libertarian Party Chairman, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer.
