Clinton is mercilessly employing a new campaign tactic, which exaggerates rather than belittles sex differences—tears. Clinton is making an effort to attract women through an emotional appeal which worked in New Hampshire, instead of through an appeal to women’s intellect. Is this how early feminists thought the first women president would have to act to be elected? Early feminists were burning bras and writing intellectual defenses of female liberation, not crying for sympathy.
The decision to vote against Clinton is much easier for conservative women. She sees bigger, more expensive government, not strong families, as the solution to all of our problems. Think universal healthcare. She rejects traditional values, celebrating the hippie generation by even trying to get a $1 million earmark for a New York Woodstock Museum in an appropriations bill.
Worse, Clinton mocks women who take their responsibilities as a mother and wife seriously, responding to an interview comment about her outspoken role in the campaign by saying, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.”
Furthermore, Clinton’s campaign continues to claim that Republican women are going to vote for Clinton just because she is a woman. Last fall, Clinton’s chief strategist, Mark Penn predicted that as many as one fourth of Republican women would support Clinton in a general election because she is a woman. Are Republican women not smart enough to choose a candidate based on their policies? This seems to be the implication and one that should further motivate conservative women to campaign against Clinton.
Yes, Clinton has occasionally attempted to soften some of her policies in the past to broader her overall support, as all candidates do in elections. But any observant American knows that the only thing conservative about Clinton is her newfound love for pearls.
In the 1970s and 1980s, conservative and liberal women united to fight pornography, albeit for different reasons. Many religious conservatives argued against pornography because they thought it was sinful and increased sexual immoral behavior, while many noted feminists such as Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon and Robin Morgan argued that pornography was degrading to women and facilitated violence against women. Women of all political stripes spoke out, raising much awareness to the issue.
It is time for a new generation of women on the right and the left to speak out on an important issue. Like their alliance to fight pornography, conservative and liberal women should unite, rejecting Clinton’s attempts to woo our votes based on our shared gender, instead voting for the candidate who shares our policies and respects our intellect. Clinton may not be able to unite the country for her, but she has the power to unite women against her.