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Taking issue with 'women's' issues
© by Barbara Anderson
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, September 28, 2014
“I am woman, hear me
roar
In numbers too big to ignore…”
— Helen Reddy, 1972
And now it seems those lyrics mean that women roar only about
imagined assaults on their reproductive rights, while rolling over
when government rolls all over their rights to efficient, effective,
affordable government. And when did so many of them begin to insist
that men not roar, but instead use their inside voices?
I’ve been attending campaign events for my favorite candidates,
including Charlie Baker, but one event you didn’t see me at was
“Women for Charlie” in Boston last week, partly because I don’t
enjoy going to Boston anymore, and mostly because I don’t do events
that begin “Women for” anyone.
I could attend a function called “Taxpayers for Charlie” or
“Citizens Desperate for Effective State Management for Baker” or
just “People who Support Charlie Baker Because Overall They Agree
with Him on More Issues Than They Agree With His Opponent” -- any
group defined by its common sense, not the fact that it’s made up of
girls.
What’s the point of dividing voters by gender? Both men and women
belong to groups called conservatives and liberals, statists and
libertarians. I do know that in many respects, not just physical
differences, men and women are different; I’ve read “Men Are from
Mars, Women Are from Venus” and watched the sitcom “Friends.” And
what is it about the Three Stooges that so many men seem to find
hilarious? But I can’t think of any reason why there’s a gender gap
on political issues and candidates, though I know from experience
there is.
With Proposition 2 1/2 , on the statewide ballot in 1980, we were
told by exit pollsters that it won with both Republican men and
women, but with a higher percentage of men; that it lost with both
Democratic men and women, but with a higher percentage of women. It
won with independent men, lost with independent women.
The majority of men and women voted for Ronald Reagan, but it was a
larger majority of men. So I recognize the gender gap, but I can’t
imagine why it exists.
I’m a woman. Martha Coakley is a woman. Other than the reproductive
system, we have nothing in common, agree on nothing, so why would
political consultants assume other women would support either one of
us as if we were interchangeable?
Why do male politicians believe they can’t win women’s support if
they vigorously debate? Do they assume that we are genetically
clueless about politics because early women were passive gatherers,
while early men were aggressive hunters? Maybe, but that was sooo
long ago…
And yet, some male politicians, allegedly descended from long-ago
fearless hunters, pander to the descendants of the berry-pickers.
I’m told that in Massachusetts, they have no choice but to tremble
before the 54 percent of voters who are women and, we’re told by
Democrats, have certain non-negotiable demands on subjects that
aren’t even on the table like birth control and abortion, and now
the NFL.
Hey, if you’re a man, stand up and act like one. Women: stand up and
act like men, too. Have strong opinions on Massachusetts issues,
none of which are the tenure of the head of the National Football
League! I saw that video too, of the woman some football player beat
senseless in an elevator. I was appalled until a few minutes later I
learned she’d later married the brute. Hey, if she doesn’t care, why
should we? I never looked at that issue again. But Coakley and NOW
demanded that Charlie Baker say the NFL commissioner should be fired
for not adequately addressing domestic violence, which he then
obediently said.
Meanwhile, the truly fearless Mike Beaudet of local Fox 25 News came
to interview me about the deputy director of field operations for
Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife, whom he caught on camera
spending his days drinking at a strip joint in Rhode Island, then
driving home in his state car. Can the management of this state
possibly get worse? Children missing, dead, from the care of the
Department of Children and Families. Deaths from meningitis due to
failed oversight from a state compounding center. State lab results
faked. A state employee using money from a town’s pension fund to
feed his drug addiction. Welfare fraud. Increased city costs from
Illegal immigration. State Health Connector and Department of
Revenue websites not working properly. Out-of-control bus
maintenance costs at the MBTA. Flawed state oversight while the
elderly are harmed in assisted-living residences.
Yet the number of state employees earning more than $100,000
increases, to almost 9,000 last year, many of them from a state
college system that graduates young people in serious debt.
Which of these issues are of interest only to men? Why wouldn’t
women want the commonwealth fixed as much as men would, and elect a
proven crisis manager like Charlie Baker? Why isn’t he allowed to
show anger about the Patrick administration scandals?
After watching my appearance on the Fox news item, above, I saw a
story about Charlie discussing a campaign event on camera. A woman
reporter started to ask about campaign ads and the candidate,
already leaving, smiled as he said, “This is gonna be the last one,
sweetheart”; then I heard “I’m kidding” as he left the scene. Later
he called to apologize. She accepted his apology. Stay tuned for the
weather…
I am woman, and I am outraged at the waste of my taxpayer dollars,
the jobs that aren’t getting done, the state and country that are
being mismanaged. Fortunately, I am allowed to roar, while
once-strong men whimper their apologies to any woman who may or may
not have been offended by almost anything at all.
The comments made
and opinions expressed in her columns are those of Barbara Anderson
and do not necessarily reflect those of Citizens for Limited Taxation.
Barbara Anderson is executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation. Her
column appears weekly in the Salem News and other Eagle-Tribune newspapers.
More of Barbara's
Columns
Citizens for Limited Taxation
▪ PO Box 1147
▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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