Enlisting the ladies
by digby
“I just don’t have time for anything,” a housewife told a newsmagazine. “I’m fighting Communism three nights a week.”
The link goes to a Perlstein discussion of the Tea Party back in 2010. It's such a perfect example of the way the GOP enlists women to work on their behalf: it's just another housewife chore. Here's their 2014 version:
Signaling that the Republican Party is getting serious about wooing women, the Washington Post reported Monday that the Republican National Committee is planning to recruit an army of volunteers who will court young female voters in Democratic-leaning suburban areas.
The co-chair of the RNC, Sharon Day, is slated to launch the "14 in '14" program Monday in West Virginia, according to the Post, aiming to "sign up women who will commit 30 minutes per week in the 14 weeks before the election, making calls, recruiting other women, identifying voters and getting people to the polls."
President Barack Obama carried female voters in 2012 -- unmarried women in particular -- and winning over that voting bloc could tip tough mid-term elections in the GOP's favor.
“Women are a very important part of the electorate and the RNC is very serious about engaging,” Day told the Post. “The Democrats have relied on desperate attacks and we are going to aggressively work to correct the record and build relationships with women voters.”
I want you to look at the picture here:
There are only a couple of women there who are younger than I am. If the idea is that these women are going to be able to persuade their single granddaughters to vote for throwback patriarchs who think they're sluts if they use birth control, I suppose this might work. Otherwise, I think they have a long row to hoe. But then political strategists who declare proudly that "women are an important part of the electorate" --- as if it needs to be pointed out --- might not be as tuned into the real world as one might hope.
The GOP is one of the two major American parties and wields considerable power in our government. And their women sounds little different than that housewife back in the 60s. It's actually rather depressing.
.
