Is the Tea Party, according to Wall Street Journal "Forget "angry white men." In the male-dominated world of conservative politics, the tea party stands out as a movement of energized and organized women. In particular, moms... In fact, a recent Quinnipiac poll of voters found a majority of tea party supporters—55%—are women. To put that in perspective, only 48% of women voted for George W. Bush in 2004. And just two years ago, President Obama won 56% of the female vote."
Why? Michael Graham, author of "That's No Angry Mob—That's My MOM!" (Regnery, 2010), says, "Many women gave the most obvious answer: "If we waited around for you men to do it, it would never get done.", and provides some quotes to illustrate: "When I asked Christen Varley, the Boston tea party leader, she said it's because moms tend to be "the CEO's of our households. We do the shopping, bill paying, budgeting, etc. We know less money means less freedom. Maybe if the president and Congress did the grocery shopping, they'd know why we're mad."... "Motherhood itself has become a political act," says Ms. Loesch. (co-founder of the St. Louis tea party) "And the tea parties are an extension of our need as moms to protect the future for our children."... The tea party idea "just clicked in the minds of conservative women," she (Keli Carender the Seattle-area mother of the tea party movement.) says. "Most women I know are thinking 'I'm taking care of my family and the government's taking care of it's business—right?' Then they see what the government is really doing and they saw 'Whoa, whoa! I guess I've gotta take care of their mess, too.'"
It's only fitting that this story was published on Mothers Day; mothers usually have to be the ones to take care of childish messes... here's hoping that we, as a nation, stop behaving childishly so the mothers of the nation won't have to clean it up in the future.
4 comments:
Sarah Palin's taught us Politically Conservative Women are something that shouldn't be. The left's at a loss to account for them.
I don't consider myself left, but I do consider myself left of Bill and that there would be politically conservative women doesn't surprise me. That the Tea Party would use that explanation surprises me as the politically conservative women I know mostly share the "household CEO" type duties with their husbands.
But sure, there have been no lack of women at the Tea Party rallies.
CC
There's been a lot of women in the business of politics, as opposed to elected politicians, for as long as I remember. Women fill many (sometimes the majority of) party positions such as Precinct Committeeman, Ward Chairman, etc., in both parties here in Indiana. (and yes, the position still reads Comitteeman, even though when spoken aloud they say "man" or "woman" as appropriate; I don't know why)
I've always suspected that there are fewer elected women not because the parties won't slate them, or the voters won't support them, but because most women aren't sufficiently ego-driven to put up with all the crap needed to run.
The left has spent more than a generation attacking "the traditional family." No one agrees what that means, in terms of whether it is extended or nuclear -- except that it has undermined women's desires and opportunities to stay home with children and still be respected and funded. Now, as declining men's wages force mothers to work outside the home for more hours than they wish, they have finally managed to complain in the quantifiable and policy terms so esteemed by the media.
I would rather have seen feminists take a more hardcore tactic of putting prices to what mothers do, and subtracting that from the gross national product, as mothers go back to work and these tasks lie undone. In other words, family income goes down if a house-spouse is forced to earn monetary wages of less value than the work they would have done for the family at home.
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