From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/15/republicans-persuaded-women-reelect-obama
For the activists of Emily’s List, working to improve women’s political representation, Republicans like Todd Akin were a gift
Naomi Wolf
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 November 2012
In spite of the hype from Fox News that the gender gap of women voting in Democrats‘ favor has vanished, a new Gallup poll revealed that this year’s gap was the largest ever recorded in the polling company’s history. With Obama winning women by 12%, and Romney winning men by 8%, the full gender gap was an unprecedented 20 percentage points.
While analysts point to the obligatory “social safety net” appeal of Democrats for women, versus the entrepreneurship appeal of Republicans for men, few commentators are addressing the real reasons. Obama’s win, and the victories of the additional Democrats in Congress, are due to the Democrats’ success in appealing to minority voters, the youth vote and, in particular, women’s votes – by siding with each of those groups’ concerns on a variety of pertinent issues.
Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman at the pro-choice Democratic advocacy group Emily’s List, analyzed the role of women voters during this election thus:
“Emily’s list has been around for 27 years. We have been building the pipeline of women candidates who are ready for higher office. So when opportunities arise, we have a bench of strong women candidates ready to go. And they were ready to capitalize on this absolutely insane divisive social agenda.”
Republican extremists, she noted, have managed in past election cycles not to tip their hand about an agenda that broadly targets reproductive rights – let alone let slip their views regarding “legitimate rape“. So why did these messages come out now? McIntosh further explained:
Continue reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/15/republicans-persuaded-women-reelect-obama
