Women’s Suffrage

At a July 4^th party last night I made the comment, half in jest, that I thought giving women the vote was a mistake … to the startled gasps of most in the room. I say half in jest because, even though I know this is a losing cause, there are arguments that might still be made on both sides of this “settled law.”  Nothing has 100% positive results and I believe that the 19^th amendment is recently exhibiting its downside … in particular a relatively recent and persistent gender gap ... see: New York Times Article.

Yes, I know that many of you now have steam coming from your ears … and are vowing never to read another thing I write … including the rest of this blog.  But bear with me, please.

Clearly there were many excellent presidents who were elected because of the female vote; FDR, and JFK come to mind. But then again, I believe that females were also instrumental in electing Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama (twice) … and, to my mind, as a result of knee-jerk feminism. One can also make the argument that Bill Clinton’s bad-boy image helped many females pull the voting lever for him two times too. Whether he was a good or bad president is still open for debate … but he clearly was better than the other two I have mentioned. And let us not forget that an all-male voting population did elect quite a number of presidential lemons before 1920 … Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce … to name just a few.

I know making generalizations is dangerous, but I believe that many … but clearly not all … women vote with their hearts and not with their heads. And I believe that politicians try to take advantage of this propensity when they callously put forward issues like “the war on women.” Perhaps I can be (wrongly) accused of being a misogynist, but no sane Republican politician cares to be tarred with that brush. If a female were to vote for a Democrat purely because she believes that she will have her birth control pills paid for by the government, then she is a silly and willing victim of this demagogy.

And I also know that, if Hillary Clinton runs for president in 2016, millions of voters, including a number of males, will vote for her just because she is a woman. And, if she doesn’t run, which name comes up next most often? … the female Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, that woman with Amerind cheekbones … a double whammy for the emotional voter. Does this not prove that savvy political operatives feel that gender is now a bigger vote getter than experience and qualifications? (Just as race was, I firmly believe, a big political plus to the voters in 2008 and 2012 … and we see what a mare’s nest that this voter naiveté has caused.)

Does this mean that I would never vote for a woman? Of course not. I can name many woman politicians whom I have admired … Maggie Thatcher, Barbara Jordan, Golda Meir, Condoleezza Rice … probably just as many as I can name outstanding male solons.  But this does beg the question: Have we now a population of callow voters who do not know … nor care to know the issues confronting this country … and will let their emotions govern how they vote? And I do believe that a statistically significant higher percentage of this voting bloc is likely comprised of women? This is my point regarding women's suffrage.

Perhaps, a 28^th amendment?  Just kidding …

Flat Line

The United States reported yesterday its first quarter GDP growth at 0.1% … see: My Way News Story. Wow ... a measly 0.1%! This is clearly flat-line economic growth after 4.5 years of mucho-trillions of dollars of fiscal pump-priming by this administration and the unprecedented monetary expansion by our Federal Reserve Bank. This anemic financial news, instead of being reported by banner front-page headlines in the New York Times was relegated to the “Business Day” sub-section of this Obama public relations rag.

Can the media suppress this bad news until after this fall’s elections? Sure … it has a quiver full of Obama’s distracting phony stories to mitigate such voter downsides … the war on women, increasing the minimum wage, rampant racism, the Koch brothers, immigration reform, etc. Yes, the stock market is up substantially since 2009 … primarily due to the Federal Reserve Bank’s easy-money policies. Yes, “reported” unemployment is down to 6.7% … mainly because over three million otherwise-employable adults have dropped out of the work force … see: Christian Science Monitor Story.

It is clear as glass that this administration cares not a twit about economic growth or reducing real unemployment. There are a plethora of levers that they could pull to improve things … meaningful tax reform, oking the Keystone pipeline, more international trade reforms … particularly in the Far East and in Latin America, reducing bureaucratic regulations, reforming entitlements, streamlining government, etc.... none of which seem to be being grabbed.

Actually when one ponders this anemic economic growth, one could easily justify this 0.1% number just with the extravagant spending that taxpayers are footing to keep the Obama clan living in the luxurious style to which they have become accustomed … see: WND Story.