Posted on 09/09/2004 10:50:10 AM PDT by FlyLow
With the election season in full gear and less than two months remaining, there are a plethora of issues being bandied about and being incorrectly assigned to reflect negatively on Republicans as well as on the President.
Some liberals are attempting to target Republicans and the President for special derision because they have latched on to some misguided belief that the President and Republicans are insensitive to the issues that are important to women and especially to single women.
We are being unfairly and incorrectly tagged by these liberal pundits with the undeserved badge of outdated sexist Neanderthal thinking. Unfortunately with the rash of issues being bandied about during the waning days of the election and with the President ahead in the polls, some liberals are hoping for any issue to stick. And sometimes the liberals say misleading statements over and over that they hope people begin to believe them if they repeat themselves enough times.
What this has caused is a serious misunderstanding of the position of Republicans and conservatives and it has left a sour taste in the mouths of those who understand what this President has stood for, and what leadership has been taken by both married and un-married women who feel (and rightly so) the days of sitting on the sidelines, and waiting at home to be commanded about like a china doll or a pampered puppet are as outdated as the era it originated with -- the Edsel, the hula hoop dress, and young girls being raised to have someone else controlling their thinking, planning, and actions for them.
There are, unfortunately, many who sincerely -- but incorrectly -- believe their shortcomings should somehow be embraced and adopted by young women in the general population. It is pretty clear that because they chose not to pursue a career or not to follow their dreams or carve out their ambitions that they believe it was the "right thing" to do for all women, single, young or otherwise.
Well in America there have been plenty of Republican women who have been able to pursue their educational and career dreams as well as develop and enrich relationships with their husbands and raise families much to the chagrin of the sanctimonious naysayers. But there is no badge of honor to be bestowed upon young women who believe that having a family either before college, after college, or after they ensconced themselves in their careers is anything more than normal. It's just the way it is for those who choose to work hard and try to achieve all they can in life.
Republicans, conservatives and people of faith do believe that young women can grow up to be responsible adults who pursue their dreams and hearts' desires. We believe girls can aspire to have a career, a family and, if they choose to, be active in their church, community or even politics, and to be able to balance everything because - and here is the key -- they have a husband and life partner who is sharing in being a true joint partner in accomplishing these goals.
Take, for example, the President and First Lady Laura Bush. Mrs. Bush was a teacher before she married - a very honorable career choice that would have made a stable living had she not given it up to begin a family.
Let's look at Michigan Republican Party Chair Betsy DeVos and Dick DeVos, former head of Amway of Michigan. What about U.S. Labor Sec. Elaine Chao who is married to Kentucky Republican U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, or even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife former NBC correspondent Maria Shriver? The list is truly as endless as the examples of Republican men and women who have not only learned to make their dual careers work, but their support for each other has strengthened the family bond and mutual respect.
We need to look at positive role models and encourage young people to follow their lead. Good relationships and stable families can be accomplished at all economic and social levels with the right commitment by both people.
Equally important, the children are left with examples of marriages that reflect a loving respectful partnership instead of a woman exiling herself to self-imposed servitude until the children leave the nest only to have the scenario recreated and continued with the same wrong-headed pattern for their children's future marriages and relationships.
That type of outdated scenario was no where to be found at last week's GOP National Convention in New York. With so many Republican leaders gathered in the Big Apple, surely this would have been an opportune time for the "up and coming" women of the GOP to have been told to turn on their heels and go back home, find a man, marry him and never to be heard from again.
Instead it was quite the opposite. Instead you could hear women talking about their daughters going to college, embracing rewarding careers, or discussing their own lives which were intertwined with their faith, their children, their marriage, their community service. It was the total package. It's not that Republicans have any corner on the happy marriage market - they don't. But they do believe that everyone (regardless of race, gender, or economic background) has the right to be educated, work hard, and achieve success at whatever they put their mind to.
Many of us Republicans in America, if not most, don't believe that there should be some kind of "marriage police" who should shame young girls and teenagers who want to grow up and become doctors, judges, engineers, governors, ambassadors or even president and chain them instead to the kitchen or the bedroom (or worse) merely for the service and entertainment of men. Most of us believe what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke about in 1963 in his Washington D.C. "I Have A Dream" speech when he said every American should "fall heir to" the American Dream.
I don't know of any Republican who is an official in my party in Michigan or any other state who would work from the premise that our goal as a party is to alienate women. I had a chance to talk with Lt. Governor Jeanette Bradley of Ohio, as well as women leaders from Florida, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, New York and others, and I can assure you no one, not a single delegate, expressed a scintilla of discussion that single and young women should unilaterally abandon their lifetime of hopes and dreams of self-reliance or their goals of being able to provide for a future or current family financially -- just because.
As a party we deeply believe in self-reliance not conditional reliance. As a party we welcome single women not label them with derision. As a party we respect the concerns of women not trivialize their concerns by marginalizing their God-given right to choose the course of their dreams, pursue those dreams and determine when they decide to marry. These young women are not being self-absorbed. They are being intelligent and prudent.
For the record, the President understands the issues of young and single women who are striving to create economic and career opportunities for themselves. His administration's policies have created more business and job opportunities for women than any other president.
The President has increased funding to college Pell grants, which take away some of the burden of debt that many young women and men who are pursuing careers have to worry about paying. The President is making health care more affordable and last week recommended smaller firms join together and collaborate by creating affordable health coverage pools so that they can provide improved health care coverage to their workers -- many of them women with families.
Our founding fathers would frown at denying young girls growing up in America the right to determine a career, an education, and a future. That freedom of choice to determine the course of your future, and the true meaning and direction of your life is after all the American Dream.
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Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. Kevin Fobbs is also Second Vice Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and National African Americans for President Bush Steering Committee member as well as host of the weekly NuPac Urban News and Views radio show on WQBH - 1400 AM as well as co-founder of the Jackson, MI-based American Conservative Values Television Network as well as Partner and Director of Government and Civic Affairs for Soul Source a Michigan-based monthly urban Christian news, views and inspiration magazine.
This whole article glosses over the fact that too many children are being placed in child storage (daycare) so their mommies can pursue a career. It's probably the second most selfish act a mother can commit - the first being the "choice" of terminating her children.
"There are, unfortunately, many who sincerely -- but incorrectly -- believe their shortcomings should somehow be embraced and adopted by young women in the general population. It is pretty clear that because they chose not to pursue a career or not to follow their dreams or carve out their ambitions that they believe it was the "right thing" to do for all women, single, young or otherwise."
Although I believe that it should be left up to the woman to decide if she wants to work outside the house, raising a family is a noble proffesion. My husband has a good job, and when I got pregnant with our daughter I left college to raise her rather than putting her in second rate day care. Families can make their own decisions, and many women need to work for monetary reasons, but it is ignoble to mock those who put the future of their children ahead of prestige.
ping. I think this meets the requirements.
To hear them gripe about how they always get the short end, because they're single and without "outside" responsibilities...they're the ones working late...etc. etc. If the republicans want this demographic, they just have to treat them with the same financial fairness that a duel income couple gets.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Here are some (Mainly Gen-X?) women that I as a conservative am glad they are living their American dreams.
This article glosses over the point that the major problem with democrat voting women (if they vote at all) are as narcisstic as gay men.
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