Have you noticed what’s missing from media pre-election comment? Nobody’s talking about “the Year of the Woman” or the “Gender Gap,” both of which always were slogans to advance the ideology and the candidates of the radical feminist movement.
President Clinton’s dramatic drop in popularity is due principally to the free fall of his support by women. And feminist Democratic candidates, such as Dawn Clark Netsch running for Governor of Illinois and Kathleen Brown running for Governor of California, are being spurned even by regular Democratic voters.
The American people have had a good look at having our country controlled by the “politics of meaning” as defined by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Janet Reno, Donna Shalala, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Joycelyn Elders, and are saying “No thanks.” However, don’t count the feminists out because so many of them hold taxpayer-funded perches from which they continue to promote their agenda and do a lot of mischief.
A case in point is the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
It passed this year as part of the massive Crime Bill, but unfortunately failed to receive any of the media coverage lavished on other sections.
The radical feminists are now boasting about their legislative coup and particularly at the docile way that conservative Republicans (including Orrin Hatch) swallowed the handouts of the National Organization for Women. Andrea Dworkin explained their success: “Senators don’t understand the meaning of the legislation they pass.”
Congress had ample information explaining how bad VAWA is, including testimony from reasonable feminists such as Christina Hoff Sommers. The bill incorporates the anti-male bigotry that is so pervasive in radical feminism (i.e., the man is always guilty, and the solution is to change him, jail him, or make him pay).
Professor Sommers refuted the phony and inflated statistics propagated by VAWA’s advocates. Of course, domestic violence should be dealt with, but it is not a crisis or an epidemic or a female-exclusive experience, and the crime should not be federalized.
VAWA is even worse than a mistake based on false propaganda; it’s even worse than bringing Janet Reno’s criminal jurisdiction (including dubious interpretations of VAWA’s “hate crime” provisions) into homes across the nation. Like all feminist-endorsed legislation, it’s a device to put their activists on the public payroll where they can advance their radical agenda and make the rest of us pay for it.
Of course, it’s “feminist pork,” as John Leo called it! VAWA’s advocates
started out asking for $400 million, but by the time Clinton signed the Crime Bill, this section had escalated to $1.8 billion. It will provide lucrative careers for those who major in feminist/lesbian studies in college!
The California State Legislature passed a bill similar to VAWA. Last year’s funding was $1.4 million. Next year, it will be $15 million, a 1,000 percent increase. No wonder California is having a financial crisis.
The feminist ideology is based on the lie that American women are oppressed victims, whereas in fact American women are the most fortunate class of people who ever lived. “Violence against women” laws are based on the lie that all women are at risk of being beaten up by their husbands or boyfriends and so we need an expansion of the Federal Government to protect women.
The feminists propose government as the solution to every problem. Feminists first seek liberation from husbands and children, and then look to Big Brother Government as a replacement.
Need a job? Big Brother will get you an affirmative action quota position. You don’t meet the physical requirements? Big Brother will gender-norm the test results and give you a high score.
Not satisfied with your salary? They want a Comparable Worth commission to order your employer to give you a raise. Want a promotion? The Glass Ceiling commission will force your employer to give it to you.
Need time off to tend to a sick child? The Family Leave commission will arrange it for you. Need a babysitter for your child? A federally-funded daycare center will relieve you of the burden of caring for your child. Need an abortion? Universal health care will pay for it.
Want to punish your boss for some remarks you didn’t like? The Sexual Harassment gestapo will give him a hard time.
Not getting along with your husband? The Legal Services Corporation will get you a divorce. Want to punish your husband? VAWA will give you free housing while you accuse your husband of spousal “rape” and the local prosecutor will believe your story without corroboration.
If one thing is clear in this year’s election, it is that the American people are turning away from the concept that government is the solution to all problems. It took the Republicans in Congress nearly two years to discover that it was politically safe to vote NO on Clinton nationalized health care. How long will it take Republicans to wake up to the fact that it is politically safe to oppose all feminist legislation, no matter how bleeding-heart its rhetoric?
