McCain the Sexist?
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:11am Mark Noonan
So says Kate Sheppard over at In These Times, by reason of McCain’s pro-life stance - calling a it “war on women”:
McCain’s campaign has been making a clear play for women voters in recent weeks, hosting conference calls with Republican women and touting that his policies on national security, the economy and healthcare appeal to women voters.
But the suggestion that women — and feminist women, at that — will be lining up behind him is a fairytale. At least, it should be. McCain’s record and policies on issues of importance to women are neither moderate nor maverick.
In The Nation, Katha Pollitt put it simply: “[T]o vote for McCain, a feminist would have to be insane.”…
…the number of progressive or even moderate voters who would seriously consider voting for McCain is much smaller than the media would have you believe. Unfortunately, McCain’s propaganda seems to be working, at least on those who aren’t aware of his record on issues of concern to women voters.
A February Planned Parenthood poll of 1,205 women voters in 16 battleground states found that 50 percent of women voters don’t know McCain’s position on abortion, and that 49 percent of women who backed McCain were pro-choice. Forty-six percent of women supporting McCain said they’d like to see Roe v. Wade upheld — though McCain says he supports overturning the decision. When they learned of his position on Roe, 36 percent of women who identified as both pro-choice and likely McCain voters said they would be less likely to vote for him.
These moderate, often suburban, middle-class women could be critical swing voters this election. At the time of the Planned Parenthood poll, Obama held only a 5 percentage-point margin over McCain with its swing-state demographic, 41 percent to 36 percent.
Planned Parenthood concludes that these findings suggest “that just filling in McCain’s actual voting record and his publicly stated positions on a handful of key issues has the potential to diminish his total vote share among battleground women voters by about 17 to 20 percentage points.”
All of that predicated on a theory that women are so in love with abortion that the mere fact of McCain’s opposition will doom him - such theory being a standard on the left every election cycle with the only flaw being that it never comes out that way. We GOPers are always warned that our pro-life stance will destroy us at the polls and yet we manage to win from time to time (like 7 out of the last 10 times - and the times we lost it wasn’t because we’re pro-life). Be that as it may, does McCain’s pro-life view make him a sexist at war with women?
If you’re a leftist, it does - because for the left, abortion has become a sacrament in the Church of Secularism. As a Catholic views Annointing of the Sick (”last rites” for you non-Catholics out there), so the leftist views abortion - a thing not done all the time, but vital to the overall health of the organism. To be opposed to abortion on the left is akin to being opposed to forgiveness of sins in Christianity - it just isn’t done. So entrenched is this view that even someone as kooky as Kucinich was forced to drop a lifetime of pro-life views when he made his quixotic run for the White House. Calling McCain a “sexist” is just liberal-speak for saying “he disagrees with us on abortion”.
And thus the real battle is joined - in the end, Iraq, Afghanistan, oil prices, inflation and the rest are all secondary: the dividing line in America is over the issue of Life. The Culture of Life battles the Culture of Death, and eventually America will become all one thing or all the other. That is, all Life or all Death.
The particular issue, abortion, won’t be on the ballot - but the mindset which allows abortion and the mindset which seeks its end will be, and in this year of 2008 the stakes are very crucial as the judges who will either overturn or uphold Roe for another generation are likely to be appointed by the next President. It will be one battle in a long war, but for those of us who fight for Life, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Life Issues, Popular Culture, Republicans, Social Issues
18 Comments
1. Dennis | July 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 am
Noonan: “The Culture of Life battles the Culture of Death, and eventually America will become all one thing or all the other. That is, all Life or all Death.”
This is a false dichotomy, not only false but absurdly so.
I do not know anybody who is pro-abortion. Look at it like this: I am quite against people taking the Lord’s name in vain, but would vigorously oppose any legislation seeking to criminalize swearing. That does not make me pro-profanity - only pro-free speech. Likewise many Americans, including Christians, regard abortion as a private matter best left between a couple or a woman and God. That is not being “pro” abortion. Rather, it is respecting personal conscience and opposing government intrusion into a highly personal matter.
“The mindset which allows abortion and the mindset which seeks its end ” is a more accurate description of the reality. In fact one mindset is in favor of free will and the other seeks to criminalize personal behavior.
And before anyone says it, no representation of abortion as “murder” can be taken seriously as long as those who style themselves “pro-life” do not object equally strenuously to capital punishment and preventive war as also being “murder.” To argue with this is blatant moral relativism.
2. Mark Noonan | July 23rd, 2008 at 1:49 am
Dennis,
You’re rather tiresome on this issue - but outside of your normal meme on abortion, your fundamental problem is that you don’t recognise evil when you see it…fairy tale evil you’ve got down, but real evil escapes your notice.
There are people who think abortion is a good thing, and the rule the roost in leftwing politics.
3. Dennis | July 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 am
The definitions of good and evil are invariably shaded by personal prejudices of individuals. The Ten Commandments are absolute, but the New Testament teaches that “love covers a multitude of sins.” And how one chooses to interpret that principle is a whole other matter.
Yes, and there also are people who think capital punishment is a good thing - regardless of all those on death row who have been exonerated by DNA evidence. And there are those who sincerely believe the Iraq war was justified - regardless of all the innocent killed.
I frankly think you’re rather tiresome on the abortion issue. But I do believe in free speech and will gladly put our positions alongside each other, for other rational people to evaluate.
4. SEW | July 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 am
Half of the 50,000,000 abortions were female, the other half [approximates] male. Am I missing something, but where is the sexism in pro-life? Certainly the abortion crowd doesn’t think the father has a say in those 50,000,000 abortions. Just the “mother.” That is sexism.
5. Dennis | July 23rd, 2008 at 2:42 am
Deleted - off topic.
6. OhioOrrin | July 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 am
Abortion should not be defined by the extremes.
The Right extreme would limit woman, including contraception.
The Left would limit the unborn child even if it’s viable.
Proper public policy is in the center.
7. Jay Gaultieri | July 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
None of this matters because whoever is elected President this November abortion is still going to be legal.
8. hermie | July 23rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
The Left always uses extremist terms when the GOP is concerned.
‘War on Women’? Sheesh! How about the true war on women that radical Islamists promote and kill innocents to force upon others? Yet, these same organizations are mute and prefer to toe the liberal line when it comes to this 12th century mindset.
They prefer the company of ANSWER, CodePink and MoveOn, to the possibility of rubbing elbows with a Republican. They are quick to anger about a man’s words or behavior, unless it is a Democrat who calls them ‘Sweetie’ or puts them in the middle of a ‘Waitress sandwich’.
Defend CAIR and Gitmo prisoners, yet they would be considered a husband’s ‘property’ if radical Islam won.
Planned Parenthood is a multi-billion dollar, tax-exempt entity, and they know that Democrats are more than willing to be their cash cow, and facilitate their monopoly on reproductive services .
9. Sunny | July 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Deleted - repeats slanders, off topic, foolish beyond words.
10. Mark Noonan | July 24th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Jay,
Ah, but it does - and the pro-abortion people recognise it as well as the pro-life people…only people like you, who are “pro-choice” more out of fear than conviction refuse to recognise the salience of the issue.
11. Mark Noonan | July 24th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Ohio,
This isn’t policy - this is bedrock morality. Its a stark issue - do you believe that each human being has intrinsic worth, or don’t you? If you do, then pro-life is the only place you can be.
12. Mark Noonan | July 24th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Dennis,
We’ll keep waiting and one day you may actually address the issue at hand.
13. Kingdom Advancer | July 24th, 2008 at 8:11 am
“Be that as it may, does McCain’s pro-life view make him a sexist at war with women?”
No, But, it does sound like Kate Sheppard is leading the charge in the war on fetus’s.
14. Charles Userol | July 24th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Let me see:
He dumped his first wife to marry a rich girl.
Calls the rich girl the “C” word in front of reports.
Rich girl gets addicted to pain killers. Why is she in so much pain? How has he been treating her?
Makes a joke about how much a woman enjoyed being raped by a gorilla.
I don’t know. I need more evidence.
15. feminist theory&hellip | July 24th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
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16. neil | July 24th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Charles whats this have to do with the topic? Can’t you just answer the question closer to the point. Choose life or death that is the question. We as Christians believe that God creates life in the womb. yes it is the sperm and egg and then it becomes a human being in process of formation. It is terribly grisly to destroy human life in what ever stage it is.
17. cam | July 24th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Being against abortion does not make John McCain sexist.
Calling his wife a c*nt would appear to any reasonable person to show disrespect, especially if its done in public. In private each couple has their own rules but I would never call my wife that, regardless.
Even if he didn’t mean anything by it, making such public statements shows lack of judgement. Most people who said that in the workplace would risk being fired for sexual discrimination - a presidential candidate should know better.
Regarding abortion, I thnk it is unfortunate that anyone still feels that abortion is a good option and would ever want to make such a “choice”. By the time a woman finds out that she is pregnant, it is too late to talk about choice. We all know that many choices lead up to preganancy. I would hope that rather than abortion, a woman facing such a decision would chose adoption.
Even so, it is amazing that the life of an unborn child is precious to Mark Noonan but innocent children in Iraq are just collateral damage. What is clear is that the ‘culture of life” too many times embraces death as long as it doesn’t have an effect on people they can see. In a lot of ways dropping bombs that kill innocent people is a lot like abortion. Very few people could actually kill if they could see or know the innocents they kill.
Hopefully the day will come when abortion is no longer practiced. Hopefully the day will come when war is no longer necessary or at least is used as only the last option.
18. ElizabethR | August 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 am
My disgust at McCain’s record against women and my fear that he will get elected, resulted in me creating these sites to better document facts and help spread the word.
http://www.McCainHatesWomen.com
http://www.McCainNotFit.com
Thank you!