Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:32 pm
*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*
There was little doubt that white males, particularly white Christian males, were going to vote heavily for a misogynistic loudmouth authoritarian like Donald Trump to be their fascist leader. As Dr. George Lakoff explained in the brilliant book The Political Mind and other works, conservatives, particularly weak-minded faith-dependent conservatives, require a “strong daddy” figure to tell them what and more importantly how to think, tell them what they really want and need to do, and tell them that only he can make their miserable wretched lives worth living. In turn, the brain-addled frightened conservative duly serves the “man-god” without due regard to their own self-interests; because those interests are defined by the “daddy figure” they handed control of their pathetic lives over to.
One expects more from women; particularly from American women. However, the recent election proves that no matter the high regard one might have for American women, at least half of women voters who ticked the box next to Trump’s name are just as frightened, just as weak-minded, and just as “man-dependent” for life direction as their male counterparts; and now they have a misogynist “daddy authority” who will decide what they need, what they want and decide if and when they get anything. To make matters worse, they gave clearly bizarre reasons for willingly voting for the man who will hand religious Republicans a legislative rubber stamp to put women precisely where the religious right and Donald Trump want them; under religious white men’s thumbs where the bible says they belong.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Now, everyone and their pet canary understands why women ensconced in the religious right voted for a misogynistic daddy figure; they suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. For the uninformed, that particular affliction describes prisoners who get so accustomed to being tormented and tortured that they embrace their captor’s mindset and offer their assistance to punish other prisoners. As noted here, evangelical women who are stuck in torment and forced to submit to a man’s demands without even a whimper believe that all women should share their torment and pathetic fate. And, absent the power and authority to force other women to be in servitude to men, any men, the Syndrome sufferers’ simply help elect religious Republican men who force biblical subjective compliance by government fiat.
However, reports are that half of all women who cast a vote chose Donald Trump as their champion and interestingly when NPR looked into why, and what kind of woman would vote for a misogynist, they gave a reason that many voters, male and female, gave for opting to put a fascist in the White House. In particular, the NPR interviewer’s picked out two women to interview because they didn’t fit the “ignorant Trump voter” profile, but they gave the ignorant voter reason for choosing Trump; “the country is going in the wrong direction.”
Now, two of the women cited in the radio broadcast were successful in business and were not in thrall to evangelical fundamentalism, so their comment could not be driven by the bible. But both claimed they opted for Trump over Hillary Clinton; not out of animus for the candidate who actually won the most votes, but because Trump had the right genitalia, is a business “man,” and was the only candidate willing and capable of turning the country around and heading it in the right direction. Seriously, and these women were not outliers. It leads one to wonder how they could possibly be successful in life, much less business while being so inherently stupid. Let’s face it, any American who thinks the country is going in the wrong direction is not only stupid, they are either insane or they want the nation to fail and its people to suffer; especially other women.
So, for the women who voted for Trump, it is apparent that American women controlling their own reproductive health and making their own medical decisions are the country going in the wrong direction. Democrats pushing to enact legislation so women earn the same wage as a man doing the same job is also the country going in the wrong direction. Those women also certainly believe that equal protections for women in the workplace are also the country going in the wrong direction.
Unfortunately for America, and the women who don’t require a man to think for them, Trump’s ladies will get their wish and the country is now on pace to go in the opposite direction because those women helped install the religious right’s and conservative patriarch’s rubber stamp in the Oval Office; he will make sure women are put right in the place evangelicals want them. If the women are really lucky and the Trump supporters, male and female, get their wish, Republicans will really take the country in the “right” direction and eliminate women’s right to vote; that should really please “Trump’s women” complaining about the nation’s direction.
Now, one can even understand Trump’s women wanting to roll back women’s rights for everyone else thinking that Republicans or “the daddy” will never abridge their rights; even highly educated people can be naïve. But women, any woman, cannot seriously want the nation abandoning the economic policies that not only saved the nation from a Great Recession, they created economic growth and jobs the business women NPR interviewed benefited from. But they still said it was the wrong direction and they want change immediately.
What that means to “smart women” is that solid economic growth is the country going in the wrong direction. It also means that a rapidly declining deficit, historically lower taxes, and a historical record of job creation is “the country going in the wrong direction.” Median income rose over 5 percent for Americans for the first time in two decades, but that too is a sign the country is going in the wrong direction to women supporting Trump. 22 million more Americans have healthcare insurance than a few years ago, but to women Trump supporters that means the country going in the wrong direction. Wages are climbing across the nation, particularly in left-leaning states, but that too is something that has to be reversed because it means the country going in the wrong direction.
More Americans are able to enjoy their Constitutional equal rights than ever before, but even that is a sign the country’s going in the wrong direction according to Trump supporters. More Americans are reaping the benefits of cheaper energy due to efforts to combat climate change with clean and renewable energy, but that is the country going in the wrong direction. And President Obama has been called the “deportation president” for deporting a record number of undocumented immigrants, but that is the wrong direction too?
This bizarre idea that the “country is going in the wrong direction” was an oft-repeated claim by nearly every human being this author “used to know” and that includes women who are successful in business and the workplace and are not religious or racist. One has a fairly good idea where they heard the “country is going in the wrong direction” and it didn’t come from Hillary Clinton or any Democrat or anyone with healthcare insurance for the first time, or anyone now employed or making higher wages; it came from religious Republicans and the authoritarian “daddy figure’ they voted for to take the country in the opposite direction it has been going. Half the women voters who chose Trump as their “daddy figure” may not be deep in the throes of Stockholm Syndrome yet, but by embracing his bovine excrement lies as fact means they are a step away from helping identify the women they know did not support “daddy” so the religious right misogyny police can target them for special torment evangelicals and Donald Trump believe they deserve.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
