Posted on 01/13/2006 4:15:31 PM PST by flixxx
“Enraged and Engaged” The women of the Left whine again.
By Carrie Lukas
Ever subtle, feminist groups last week launched the “Enraged and Engaged” campaign in anticipation of Senate hearings on Samuel Alito. The National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Feminist Majority pledged to mobilize their grassroots activists to warn the public and the vote-wielding senators about the danger Alito poses to America and American women in particular. The hyperbole is familiar to anyone who’s followed politics during the last decade: Feminist groups regularly proclaim that nominees, candidates or legislation spell doom for women.
Bush-administration appointees — from John Ashcroft and Tommy Thompson to appellate-court nominees Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owens, and Charles Pickering Sr., to name but a few — have all been targets. Consider that then NOW president Patricia Ireland declared the battle against Ashcroft’s nomination as a fight to stop “the savaging of everything we've worked for,” earnestly declaring that the fight was about “saving our rights and constitutional protections.” The Senate confirmed Ashcroft and Thompson despite the feminists’ dire warnings, and both men served four years. Yet most women would agree that, somehow, they emerged from that Dark Age with their rights intact.
The Chicken Littles of gender politics also have cast spurious aspersions against sensible legislation. In the days before President Clinton signed welfare reform, NOW members protested by fasting and picketing the White House in a “Hungry for Justice” campaign. Months earlier, Ireland hijacked Mother’s Day to argue that welfare reform would put women and children in peril: "Women are being handed an eviction notice with a painful message: If you are poor and on welfare, then you are not welcome in mainstream society.”
As welfare reform’s ten-year anniversary approaches, it’s clear that the legislation’s impact was the opposite of what NOW predicted. Instead of an eviction notice, woman received a ticket out of the humiliating cycle of government dependency. Millions have since regained self-respect through work and rejoined productive society. These women were not the helpless children described by feminists, but rather just needed a push toward self-sufficiency while receiving assistance. As a result of treating women like responsible adults, welfare caseloads, unemployment among single mothers and childhood poverty all have plummeted.
Feminists also demonized President Bush’s proposed tax cuts in 2001. NOW warned that tax-rate reductions would “hurt women's physical and economic health as well as the safety of women and families.” Hindsight suggests that, again, such comments were off the mark. The Bush tax cuts have been critical in sustaining an economy rattled by terrorist attacks, hurricanes and corporate scandals and helped bring the steady economic growth and low unemployment America today enjoys.
Of course, feminists view George W. Bush himself as the biggest threat to women and so were at their hyperventilating best during the past two presidential elections. In 2004, current NOW president Kim Gandy warned that women’s very lives would be endangered by a Bush reelection: "We are in a state of emergency and NOW encourages everyone who cares about women's rights, civil rights, and the constitution to help ensure that Bush does not have another four years to wreak havoc in the United States and around the globe." This echoed earlier warnings from the 2000 campaign, when Ireland implored activists to “fight like women’s lives depended on it….because they do.” In a Halloween event, she compared Bush to a vampire who “will suck our rights away."
There are many on the far left who make the case that President Bush has lived up to this ghoulish characterization. Most mainstream women know that little has changed for them in the past five years, beyond seeing their pay rise through reduced taxes.
So here we go again, with Kim Gandy warning that a Justice Alito would be an unprecedented tragedy for women: “From sexual harassment on the job, to equal opportunities in education, to harassment in the schools, to violence against women, this is a justice who would shift the balance of the Court in the wrong direction." American women have rationally responded with a collective yawn, weary of the increasingly shrill warnings of an anachronistic movement dedicated more to big government than women’s progress.
The “Enraged and Engaged” campaign will no doubt continue slurring Judge Alito as (the latest) Armageddon for women. Thankfully, most won’t buy it. As the mild-mannered and thoughtful judge has show this week, the feminist screeching is best tuned out.
— Carrie Lukas, an NRO contributor, is the director of policy at the Independent Women's Forum.
Better President Bush sucking their rights away than them sucking the lives of their innocent children away.
I'm an older woman and I felt more respected and appreciated BEFORE the woman's movement changed things.
Flame away !!!!!
I just don't know where these women get the idea that Alito is a danger to them.He clearly supports equal rights for ALL.
P.S. My wife thinks he's great!
NAG's.
Ignoring it yes. From what I hear, when the NAG's talk they sound like the teacher on Charlie Brown. The young women get annoyed and tune them out.
No flame from this end Mears, I agree with you!! My good friends do too.
Is anyone else getting sick of these agenda groups and their little sayings? We all know the agenda they present to the public and what they are actually doing are not the same thing. These groups are usually trying to pull the wool over the public's eyes at our expense too.
So is the threat to "mobilize their grass-roots activists." There aren't any. One of them died from a nasty tattoo accident, and the other one got blood poisoning from the ingrown hair in her armpits.
Its all about having sex with a man that they don't want to father their children'
Sucks to be them.
I thought that crowd was out buying MoDo's new book and would be too busy for the Alito hearings. sigh
I remember way back(really way back) when I was about 18 years old and the man downstairs,Mr Murphy,tipped his hat to me when he met me walking down the street.I was stunned(and pleased).
Could you see a 40 year old man doing that to an 18 year old girl today?
That is absolutely true and it is due to the fact that even older women know that NOW lied to them during the past few decades - about abortion, about premarital sex, etc. etc.
Look what's happened to women - instead of being pampered and lovingly pursued (dates and flowers, anyone?) they now "hook up" for anonymous sex with men whose names they don't even know. Women now dress like tramps and porn stars and act like them on the dance floor and at parties - all in the desperate attempt to attract a man who no doubt will dump them right after the next sweet thing comes along.
Wonder why MoDo is so bitter? She's finally caught on, and it's too late for her to have a normal family life.
The NAGS drove the final nail into their coffin when they defended Bill Clinton - a man who embodied the exact definition of sexual harassment at work - and refused to take the side of Monica. Put a fork in them, they're done. Fortunately, more young women than ever before are seeing through their lies.
Nope. In some areas of the south they do. Of course they possess a lot more in the area of manners and decorum as well!
You're right!! It's all in the marketing. Much like the "Marketing of Evil" excellent book!!
They should put some ice on that.
They've got their story and they're sticking to it
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.