Just When I Think I Can Stay Away From Politics

I jump right back in.

A short one today. I’m working on a piece that keeps getting longer and longer and I love where it’s leading me, so I’m immersed in it now and I can’t get out. But I wanted to share this one because it’s been eating at me and I had to finally say something.

I simply do not understand Republican women. There can’t be that many throwbacks to a time long gone when women felt forced to accept the roles they were given by men. When they voted for Donald Trump the first time, I believed they would see what a mistake they’d made and never do it again. Some did turn away but many more of them didn’t. They defended him, no matter what, and went on to vote for him again in 2020. They’re still lamenting his loss, and many of them still won’t believe it’s over. To them and their male influencers, Joe Biden will never be a legitimate president.

What drives them? Many of them are smart, successful women who otherwise make wise decisions. They’re the ones I distrust most. Their motives are more about greed and status quo than about a misguided, cultish hero worship, and it’s their status and eloquence that makes them most dangerous.

I wrote about it last week, talking directly to Republican women, but it’s in a publication that frowns on reproduction, so I’ll share only a part of it, with the link below. If you feel like commenting, you can either do it here or there. (The link gets you past the firewall.) Thanks for reading.

I’ve been a follower of politics all of my adult life and and I’ve finally come to the sad realization that I’ll never understand Republican women. Forget about Republicans in general; they’re lost to me for good and ever. They’ve worked their way over the decades into the worst kind of antigovernmental ‘saviors’ and the only time I want to think about them is when I’m stewing over which of them is going to jail for their dirty deeds.

But the women are different. They’re one of us. I’m one of them. And I’ll be honest here: I could never debase myself the way they do. Is that judgmental? I’ve had a long time to think about it. Decades, in fact. So, yes, I’m judging them, but there’s nothing unfair about it. Their stubborn attachment to the men who work overtime to do women real harm is sickening.

When they ignored all of the warning signs about Donald Trump and threw their lot in with him, I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t. I’ve known Republican women who bought into the GOP line without ever recognizing the misogyny; the real harm those increasingly draconian ‘laws’ brought to us in the form of reproductive rights, workplace rights, and an all-around diminishment of women as we worked to crash through those long-denied glass ceilings. I knew all of that, but when Trump came along I thought they couldn’t miss seeing what the rest of us women were seeing. He treated women like scum. Full stop.

The link is here.

Until next time, stay well and keep your mask on. Please.