Now THERE'S an inflammatory title for you.
But just for the record, this falls under the "It's OK To Knock Your Own Team" rule, because I am one.
But Naomi Wolf leaves me with no other conclusion after reading her article "
Female Trouble" in
New York magazine.
Her main points:
1. The Karen Hughes factor: "they devised a deliberate strategy that went unnoticed by Democratic strategists, most of whom are white guys over 50: to showcase a moderate, mainstream feminist makeover for the Bush brand....Bush’s speeches are routinely cast before the eye, I am convinced, of Karen Hughes, who spins tax cuts as a boon to women entrepreneurs, like the one Laura Bush mentioned in her convention speech (Carmella Chaifos, “the only woman to own a tow-truck company in all of Iowa”). The fallen heroes of Iraq are “moms and dads.” Afghanistan was the first time U.S. troops were deployed for a feminist goal, “so Afghan girls could go to school.”"
2. The "soft wives" factor. Now that Bush needs to present a softer face, suddenly Lynne Cheney, who writes
lesbian erotic fiction and has been a career woman her whole life, talks about Dick making eggs for breakfast. And they've taken Laura off the Thorazine long enough to make appearances where she refers to young George changing the twins' diapers.
Compare this with Mrs.
Vagina Dentata, otherwise known OUTSIDE wingnut circles as Theresa Heinz Kerry. Mrs. Kerry is a castrating bitch because she's kept her dead first husband's name, much the same way Hillary Clinton was a castrating bitch for keeping her maiden name. She is a figure of exotic sexuality with a social conscience, as opposed to Mrs. Bush's demure, if zonked-out, demeanor and prior gender-appropriate career as a librarian.
Bush knows that Laura is his outreach to that swing voter in Michigan who is juggling work and family, who wants to feel that her abortion rights are secure and her kids are safe. Whenever his anti-environment, anti-choice, anti-peace, anti-working-class-women policies obtrude onto her consciousness, all he needs to do is point to Laura; his recent stump speeches promise that if you vote for him, you get four more years of her.
Are women really so fucking idiotic that they're
falling for this load o'manure? Or are they just not paying attention? Either way, girls, you'd better wake the fuck up soon. Because if you don't, you may find your 13-year-old daughter having to bear the child of that perv she met on the internet while you weren't looking, and your 18-year-old son will be sent to the meatgrinder in Iraq.