Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash
By: Lisa Hayes – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
“Grab ’em by the pussy.” The words will live in infamy for a very long time.
I don’t need to tell you who’s words those were, because we all know.
More shocking than the words themselves was the fact that after that audio was broadcast on national television for all the world to hear, women went to the polls days later and voted for him. White middle-class suburban women didn’t seem to care that our now President bragged about sexual assault. They followed their husbands to the polls, coasting on their privilege and voted for a man many of us think is a monster.
That one inescapable fact set us up for a Presidency with unthinkable consequences. Donald J. Trump believed he could run the board without the checks and balances that most presidents have to work under. Those checks and balances aren’t about the legislature and the courts. I’m talking about the checks and balances politicians have to ride based on a representation of the people.
Most presidents somehow believe their electability depends on representing the majority of the population – at least the majority of the population in their party. Donald Trump learned for him, at least, then, it wasn’t true. He didn’t have to cater to or represent women – and women are the majority. In fact, he could inspire a certain kind of sick loyalty by degrading women. It’s a tactic that appeals to his base.
White suburban women were a kingmaker. They crowned him and handed him unmitigated power by sending the message that they would vote against their interests and their dignity to “preserve their way of life.”
We could talk endlessly about the Brett Kavanaugh nomination because it feels like a watershed moment. However, none of it is surprising. It’s not surprising that Trump would nominate a judicial candidate that has publicly stated he thinks a president is above prosecution. It’s also not surprising that this president wouldn’t care if that nominee had attempted to rape someone – why would he?
What is surprising to me is that it took Kavanaugh to break the damn of outrage for women on this issue. Trump is the grab ’em by the pussy president. There are at least twenty-two credible allegations of sexual assault on the table against our president.
However, Trump may have overplayed his hand and we’re about to find out if that’s true.
This week alone, Trump has doubled down on his bet that he can routinely shit on women without consequence.
In a press conference regarding a recent trade deal, Trump publicly demeaned ABC reporter, Cecilia Vega. At one point, the president called on her to ask a question.
“She’s shocked that I picked her,” said Trump. “She’s, like, in a state of shock.”
Vega replied: “I’m not. Thank you, Mr. President.”
“I know you’re not thinking. You never do,” Trump responded.
He gleefully grinned as he humiliated her to the awkward laughter of the men standing behind him on camera. And in one harsh moment, we all took a deep breath and remembered while Kavanaugh is a problem, he’s not THE problem. The internet lit up with condemnation of Trump’s continued unthinkable treatment of women. One might expect he’d put the brakes on it for a few days at least. He didn’t. He doubled down.
In a Mississippi campaign rally last night our president decided to escalate the rhetoric by mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony. In about ninety seconds Trump made a bad situation significantly worse. The crowd ate it up. They laughed. They chanted their favorite refrain, “Lock her up”.
And yes, there were women in that crowd. Yes, some of them rabidly chanted along, foaming at the mouth, seething with their all-white rage.
However, the numbers of those women are dwindling, rapidly.
In the summer, men were closely divided between the two parties; they remain so now. But women, who already leaned significantly toward the Democrats, have shifted further in their direction, widening a large gender gap. The poll found women now favor the Democrats by 28 percentage points, 62% to 34%, among likely voters.
Three overlapping groups of female voters who have long been important for Republicans have moved away from the party: suburban residents, married white women and white women without college degrees.
Democrats enjoy a 61%-35% edge among suburban women, the poll found — a margin that has grown by 9 points since the summer. Democrats have narrowed the gap with Republicans among married white women, long a mainstay of the GOP, who now favor Republicans by a narrow 51% to 46%.
Those numbers help explain why suburban congressional districts long held by Republicans — from Orange County and Santa Clarita to the suburbs of Dallas and Houston and east to suburban Philadelphia — have become key targets in Democrats’ effort to retake control of the House.
I don’t place bets on elections anymore. If you’d asked me if Trump could have ever been elected I would have firmly said, NO. My belief that Clinton would win, wasn’t wishful thinking. Every credible poll on the planet agreed. So, while I’d love to predict a massive blue wave in November, but I can’t. The unthinkable has already happened.
However, the question that lingers is, can we bet on women? Without a doubt, that’s what it all comes down to. Will women rise above the vitriol and discord to vote for their dignity instead of voting party lines.
The polls say they will. The fate of our democracy depends on women. It always has. However, the truth of that isn’t theoretical anymore. We’re living a political reality that women created – and now it’s time for them to recreate it.
Source: LA Times
More by Lisa:
Lisa M. Hayes, Senior Editor of Confluence Daily.
Confluence Daily is the one place where everything comes together. The one-stop for daily news for women.
