The other day @RexHuppke tweeted, “Wow. The Republican Party can’t even attract a female hurricane.” I laughed, I re-tweeted, then I legitimately thought about the upcoming 2012 election, its influence, its ironies and its problems.
Four years ago Hilary Clinton chose to run for President and became a symbol for increasing gender equality in this country. It was an election of historic firsts: the appointment of a black President and a woman’s campaign for the presidential office, just to name two. This election will also go down in the record books as social media potency predominates the campaigns, and the issues being faced are arguably grander in their significance than in many elections past: we still have an alarming unemployment rate, dangerously shaky foreign affairs, education/”future of our country” funding is in question and the seemingly out-of-place topic about women’s rights to reproductive choices seems to be at the forefront of political discussion.
Take Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s recent comment that can be paraphrased to say, “In cases of legitimate rape, women’s bodies are capable of preventing pregnancy.” This boldly uneducated statement, along with the Republican Party’s intentions to ban birth control for the more than four million women who use it suggests that not only are women incapable of understanding their own needs (from a reproductive standpoint), but also that the men who have been put in charge of determining laws that affect women are embarrassingly ignorant about the subject.
The United States as a country is admirably advanced while simultaneously embarrassingly regressed. We are advanced to the point that nuclear war is a legitimate concern, yet regressed enough that matters concerning women’s rights are discussed in seemingly circular, petty, uneducated forms, not to mention given more of a spotlight than issues that only affect half of the population.
Politics are hardly an objective science, but regardless of party affiliation or religious beliefs, three facts remain: 1)Women can vote, 2) Women are much more educated than they used to be and in some cases surpass the number of men in their industry 3) The political and economic climate is far from peaceful, and people are eager for change.
These three facts will undoubtedly affect the coming election. If the Republicans were smart they would consider what @RexHuppke said and maybe try to attract a female hurricane or two. Otherwise, they will lose by a landslide.
