I was browsing through a used bookstore the other day and I came across Andrea Dworkin’s “Right Wing Women .” I have read some radical feminist theory and while I have admiration for radicals of many stripes I’m too practical and optimistic to call myself one. I much prefer liberalism in most senses of the word. Still, I picked it up and thumbed through it, wondering what Dworkin had to say on the subject. Hell, there might be some useful commentary to understand a Sarah Palin run for the presidency 2012. It was pretty cheap so I bought it. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s at the top of my to be read pile.
The book came to mind again when on The Colbert Report Megan McCain said of the Republican Party “It can be a party for a 24 year-old pro-sex woman .” When I heard her say that I thought it was her own wishful thinking, and I still do. I’ve heard it before from women who are Republicans. Christie Todd Whitman – who quit the Bush Administration over their gutting of air quality rules , authored a book called “It’s My Party Too ” expressing a similar sentiment as McCain. There are a number of women in the Republican party who seem to insist that pro science, pro woman people can fit under the “big tent.” Unfortunately for those women and the men who support them, the departure from the Republican party of folks like Arlen Specter, and (dubiously) Mike Bloomberg makes it harder for the public to believe.
The Democrats aren’t perfect either, of course, just generally better on feminist issues. Which is why I felt sorry for McCain when she said what she did. It’s not impossible, of course for the Republicans to see the light, but there are no indications that they will anytime soon.
I grew up on Long Island, where Nina Petraro Bastardi is from. I lived in the Nassau county legislative district where she is currently running for office from the time I was 12 until I was 26. I went to high school with her husband. So I might be a little biased in favor of her but I want to share her campaign announcement video with the feministing community readers so they can decide for themselves the accuracy of what I’m going to say next.
Nina and her husband Chris were Republicans for a long time. They’ve recently changed parties , and while I can’t blame the Republicans for feeling sorry to see such a bright young power couple go, they lack the human decency to express that respectfully. I’m all about free speech. I’ve been a clinic escort at Planned Parenthood so I know the strength it takes to stand by silently and watch people promoting a cause you are deeply opposed to. So I wouldn’t be complaining if they had shown up with signs or were singing or heckling. It’s expected. But this went beyond protest or outrage that she is a “traitor” to the Republicans. They were there to threaten, demean, and silence. And I think that a woman dare to defy them is a part of their anger. Sure they’d be mad if it was a man who switched parties. But the sexual nature of their insults at the rally (Did Tom [Suozzi] tell you to say that last night?) and on local political boards like The Schwartz Report couldn’t paint a clearer picture. She’s not just a threat to their party, but to the right wing’s anxious masculinity.
The women of the Republican party are barely taken seriously. Megan McCain was called fat for disagreeing with Ann Coulter and a whore for being against abstinence only sex education. Despite perfectly fulfilling a saintly mother role, Sarah Palin was often referred to as a MILF by those who supported to her.
So, I welcome women into the Democratic party who are sick of the corruption of the Republicans and probably the misogyny too. I’ll admit I was shocked when I first heard Nina had switched. All I ever knew about her was that she was a rising star of the Republican Party. But I also knew she was smart and politically savvy. After I thought about it for a while I started to feel the way I did when the Yankees acquired Johnny Damon. I am a die-hard Yankee fan, and I couldn’t bear the thought that someone who had made my team suffer the worst defeat in the history of sports would soon be wearing pinstripes. But I was living in New England at the time and I saw how pissed the Red Sox fans were. I thought about all the amazing defensive plays he had made and home runs he had hit, and I was glad he was now a member of my favorite team. The more smart women we have on our side, who refuse to be intimidated – even when there’s a thug screaming in their faces, the stronger we will be.
So if you know any young idealistic republican women, heck, any republican women at all, send them this video. Ask them what they think. Nina isn’t going to be the only Republican woman who leaves and is forced to face the wrath of the machine. Women like her need our support, and the sooner and more enthusiastically we give it, the sooner we can get to work together.
You can visit Nina Petrato Bastardi’s campaign website at http://www.electnina.com/.
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The only question is- what the hell are you supposed to do when you're socially liberal and fiscally/economically conservative, when you want the size of government to be small (a la Barry Goldwater-era Republicanism)? I have always resisted the Democratic party because I champion the limited government, even though the Republican party is sure a poor fit, too.
I guess in the end it comes down to whether you believe that we should be fighting to change the Republican party, or if we should abandon it as unsalvageable. I don't know. When she was on the Colbert Report, Megan commented that the party had been "hijacked", and I think that's quite fitting, as it most certainly has been taken over by extremists and the Religious Right. And that makes me angry- I want to take it back! I want to fight! I want to join her and other similar voices in rolling back that hostile takeover.
And at the same time, I can watch the powerful voices in our party speak and feel dizzy and ill, asking "Why the hell would I want to even try to align myself with these people?". It seems overwhelming, impossible to change the Republican party and send us back to our roots. The real enemy is probably the two-party system itself, which leaves no room for a middle ground and no dynamic change for its parties, so that you have to leave and switch sides or go independent instead of expanding your party's horizons.
Anyways, I'm still really enjoying what Megan McCain has to say. Who knows if that will stay the same, or if I too will eventually shout "Why are you staying on that sinking ship that is the Grand Old Party?!?", but I think tackling the problems in her party, instead of running away, is admirable.
Big tent parties will always have chunks you disagree with (apart from the Marijuana Party, I doubt I could support any party on every issue, or oppose any party on every issue). On the one hand, I find it very easy to grok McCain; I identify best with a party that I've never voted for (though in retrospect, I should've in 2000), and never encouraged anyone else to vote for, because the other strains within that party are terrible. If one has connections to that party (personal & professinal), it's probably harder to say "the hell with it."
That said, there's something I don't get about how partisan Americans seem to be; I don't get why this didn't look like this.
If there were more options I don't know if Specter would be a Democrat, so I agree with you partially.
On the other hand Petraro Bastardi said that she didn't leave the Republican party - she said that they left her. If you read the Long Island Press article I linked to, you will see that it goes deeper than just vile rhetoric or awful policy ideas. They asked her husband to break the law and engage in voter suppression.
It depends on how cynical you are about the ability of the republican party to change.
Meghan McCain was raised republican. Her father is one of the better republican politicians -- if he'd run his campaign like he ran his career instead of pandering to the far right, he would have won the election and been a big improvement over George Bush -- and she's spent a lot of time with party moderates. Her father, a moderate, won the nomination against much more right-wing opponents. She's currently being touted as the new direction of the republican party, and she's getting a lot of media coverage for it. She has good reason to be optimistic.
She's also fiscally conservative, pro-war (I think) and pro-life, so she doesn't quite fit as a democrat or a libertarian. Where else is she supposed to go?
On another note:
Why am I running across so many articles about how people feel sorry for Meghan McCain? I stumbled across this one earlier today when it was covered at Jezebel.
She's intelligent, very beautiful, incredibly well-connected, and more media-savvy than some people twice her age -- she certainly came out on top in her feud with Laura Ingraham, and she came across very well on Colbert. She has a great career ahead of her that she stumbled into by being born.
I don't know what I messed up with my HTML.
NY times article: http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/meghan/
Jezebel article:
http://jezebel.com/5266144/why-would-you-feel-sorry-for-meghan-mccain
If you want my slightly jaded thoughts on it, I believe that "feeling sorry for" attitude is intolerance cloaked as compassion, something you see a lot nowadays.
She MIGHT be any of those things she is accused of being by those who are busy pitying her, but certainly it is not for Jezebel or anyone else to tell without knwing her personally and engaging in a close and respectful exchange of ideas (the only way you can really know another person, IMO).
Frankly, I think that it is impossible for some people to believe that a smart, talented woman can think for herself and come up with ideas that don't fit the standard "conservative" or "liberal" line.
There are LOTS of women like that out there, but the blogosphere is too dominated by pithy/witty cutdowns rather than thoughtful conversation. Even very, very smart people I know can't believe that anyone good and decent could turn out to be a Republican...or pro-life....or pro-war.....or religious....the list goes on.
mccain definitely did this to her self. She is just like her husband. I an not sure what to think about her.
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