Women in the United States are a majority-minority, odd as that sounds. Majority in the sense that they outnumber the men, minority in the sense that they still get dumped on as though men outnumbered them two to one. However, they’re often considered a “lock” vote for the Democratic Party as, by and large, any legislation from Democratic sources will have women’s rights in mind.
Seems the health care bill didn’t exactly warm the cockles of their hearts.
The love affair started to fade with Obama’s off-handed response during an MSNBC interview questioning his all-male outings: “I think this is bunk.” That remark gave women a reason to take a closer look at the inner workings of Obama and his ideas. And just as Betty Friedan described the subtlety of sexism as “the problem that has no name,” “bunk” revealed that the boys club was still alive and well at the White House.
And then came the Stupak Amendment. There were signs that Obama was agnostic on choice, but this sealed the deal.
Really, Siskind is underselling Obama’s agnosticism. More than just on choice, Barry-O seems often agnostic on all kinds of issues that one would hope he’s got some kind of idea about. I want to refer to yesterday’s post and what Obama said specifically vis a vis the Stupak amendment:
“I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill. And we’re not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions.”
Strangely enough, the man who campaigned on the platform of change seems hesitant to advocate any kind of change in key areas. His problem with the legislation wasn’t what it would do re: abortion, but that it did anything. Obama’s beef with the amendment was that it upset the status quo and he didn’t want to do that. Progressive indeed.
I’m not sure I’d say he “sold women out”, as that seems to be the phrasing du jour of the various affected interest groups who think that the president sold them a bill of goods to get their votes and then left them high and dry. However, it’s not exactly inspiring.
