In love, women hate to believe they were manipulated.
In politics, women have awakened to find a Big Media machine in cahoots with politicians who “love them” only for their vote.” In the midterms, American women fired back in response to that manipulation and sent a clear message.
Women have felt for years that their political plight is unique – that they have certain gifts to contribute, and certain needs to be met to have a productive relationship with the body politic. But never did women want to be sold into that relationship. Never did women want to be misrepresented. Never did women want to be manipulated.
Ann-Marie Murrell, Morgan Brittany and I were maligned in the media for saying that women wanted more in the 2014 election than $10 in free birth control and unfettered access to abortion. In the media flurry that followed the publishing of our book, “What Women Really Want,” we were criticized for “only listening to conservative women” and for “setting the accomplishments of feminism back 50 years.”
Perhaps that was the take of some pundits, but women across America fulfilled our vision of the psychology of women in the electorate like a prophecy in the midterm elections.
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Concerned Women for America, America’s largest public policy women’s organization, points out that candidates who ran on the “war on women” mantra all lost in the 2014 midterm elections.
“Let it settle in that the youngest woman elected to Congress is pro-life. The first African-American woman elected to Congress is pro-life. The first female veteran elected to the Senate is pro-life,” remarked Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America.
Those who used the “war on women” as a platform were unilaterally defeated. Udall lost in Colorado. Wendy Davis lost in Texas. Both ran on the coattails of a firestorm Sandra Fluke created when her demands for free birth control were given story by Rush Limbaugh. But in the end, even Sandra Fluke herself, who ran for the state Senate in California, learned that her 15 minutes of free-sex fame didn’t translate into something that voters wanted in their capitol, even in California.
But CWA points to other victories proving our point, too. Mia Love in Utah became the first black woman elected to Congress. Elise Stefanik became the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress, taking a Democrat seat in upstate New York. Joni Ernst will serve as Iowa’s first ever female senator, and the first ever female veteran in the U.S. Senate. These are landmark instances that cut through the propaganda of identity politics.
For years, voters have been told that women can’t make it in the GOP. For years, voters have been told that black people won’t find a home in the GOP. For years, voters have been told that women are not pro-life. This election holds solid evidence that the fabled identity politics of yesteryear are passé. If politicians and consultants don’t wake up to this fact, they stand to self-destruct in the next race, too.
When I toured with my co-authors for our book, “What Women Really Want,” we said that women were much more concerned about security matters – national and economic – than free birth control and abortion. We also said the third in a trifecta of things that we believed would win women, is real men – real leaders.
Concerned Women for America point to victories right in line with our prediction there, as well:
“As a conservative women’s organization, we also watched and applauded the courageous men who fought back against the ‘war on women’ messaging. Many won their races and won over women voters. Mitch McConnell bested Kentucky’s Democratic Secretary of State, Alison Lundergan Grimes, 50 percent to 47 percent among women, according to exit polls. U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) also had a 53 percent to 43 percent advantage among women against incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor. Women made up the majority of the midterm electorate in Arkansas with 52 percent of the vote. And conservative pro-lifer Thom Tillis ousted decidedly pro-abortion Kay Hagan in North Carolina.”
But American taxpayers fund abortion to the tune of $1.5 million every single day. Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood gave all they had to their pocket-lining candidates, because abortion is a huge moneymaker for them. They made millions of calls and knocked on millions of doors thanks to all that taxpayer money, but their “Republicans hate women” narrative didn’t have the effect it had in past election cycles.
CWA warns, “Republicans must address the false narrative, particularly if Hillary Clinton is to run in 2016. Exit polls showed that voters were most worried about the economy. It is now up to ‘We the people,’ and our elected officials, who now make up a largely pro-life Senate, to demand ‘war no more.’”
I interviewed Nance to get her final thoughts on the midterm elections and the pending politics of 2016.
“The bottom line is that in 2014 women finally got tired of the paternalistic prattle of the ‘war on women’ mantra,” Nance said. “In 2012 Mitt Romney’s consultants failed him when they told him to only discuss economics. Clearly jobs and the economy are central to women just like everyone else but when you ignore the lie long enough people start to believe it.”
She continued, “This year candidates like Cory Gardner in Colorado and Joni Ernst in Iowa took the false notion that women want everyone else to pay for our birth control and that we all support abortion head on. They pushed back hard on the insulting narrative that it is anti-woman to be pro-life and people agreed.”
In conclusion, Nance said, “The election of candidates like Mia Love, Joni Ernst and Tim Scott make clear that identity politics is eventually a losing proposition.”
Women may think of politics like a romance, and women may even be looking for government to do for them what men in their lives cannot.
But ultimately, the old adage, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” is true. As more and more women wake up to the fact that they were used, the backlash will be anything but loving.
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