Let me start by commending Jonah Goldberg for his comments about how Democrats address the so-called “war on women”. (I have to, because he is paralleling whatI have said for years). But why does he stop there?
Here is Mr. Goldberg\’s commentary:
This is one of my greatfrustrations with the way a lot of people talk about the “War on Women.” Firstof all, this idea that women, who are the majority of the country and amajority of the electorate, are somehow this homogeneous group who only vote onthese very narrow birth control issues is sort of demeaning and sexist if youthink about it. But Republicans let the mainstream media get away with this,they let Democrats get away with it.
Mitt Romney carried married women by a wide margin.Mitt Romney carried white women by a wide margin. The idea that all women voteas a bloc is ridiculous. Minorities are disproportionately Democrats for allsorts of reasons we can discuss, and therefore it follows that minority womenwould be too, and it skews the data a little bit. But we talk about thesethings as if there is only one way to appeal to women which is essentiallyridiculous, and I wish the Republicans were better at pushing back against that.
Specifically regarding the way Democrats talk to women, Jonah flat-out nails it. Based on their campaign strategies, Democrats apparently see women as little more than vaginas and uteri…and believe women think of themselves the same way. The economy? War? Ebola? IRS? VA issues? Nah, just give \’em free contraception and abortion on demand, that ends the issue right there.
But Mr. Goldberg is only half-right.
Why? Because he does not at all address the fact that the Republican national platform, which is a take-no-prisoners attack on both issues, virtually destroys any chance to encourage a large number of women to reject the Democrat Party and vote Republican.
Where is the opening for women whose views do not coincide with Republican orthodoxy on post-conception birth control (e.g. the day-after pill), and/or the premise that a child\’s life begins at conception, to vote Republican? Nowhere, that\’s where.
Republicans offer no olive branch to these women – the millions and millions of them. Instead, they drive them away. And that is just plain nuts.
Why not, for example, adopt language that says “while, as a party, we disagree with your positions, we understand that sincere people have differing views on these difficult issues”? This is no compromise in the positions themselves, but at least might make women within this segment feel like they won\’t be absolute pariahs.
By not doing so, Republicans lose these women in droves – even women who agree with them on other major issues and women who are well past child-bearing age.
Jonah Goldberg\’s point about Democrats talking to women as if they were nothing but reproductive organs and some other stuff could not be more spot-on. I only wish he would address the issue of Republican intractability as well.
