NOW Is Then -- Women’s groups are out of touch

National Review ^ | 1/19/05 | Myrna Blyth

[wagglebee]

Feminists were really on a rant last week telling the Associated Press's David Cray that the sky was falling. "Our health, our rights, and our democracy are teetering on the brink," wailed Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization of [Some] Women.

You can understand the panic, since NOW, Feminist Majority Foundation, and numerous other like-minded groups campaigned so zealously against President Bush. One can only imagine their dismay when the president not only won but Republicans increased their majority in both houses of Congress, too. Most significant of all, in this election the "gender gap," much touted and much needed by Democrats, was sharply reduced.

Still the women who head these organizations tend to ignore women who disagree with them and continue to act as if they speak for all women — though that must be getting harder and harder.

Said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center: "What I...see is an administration with policies that are fundamentally out of touch with what women really need. " Clearly Greenberger sees herself and her organization as the arbiters of "what women really need." Gee, what if a man had said that!

She also commented about the administration: "They have other priorities that consistently outweigh and trump the everyday concerns women have." But it was clear in polls taken after the election that the reason so many women voted for President Bush was exactly because of everyday concerns like security. Their highest everyday priority, Marcia, is keeping their families safe.

Kim Gandy, meanwhile, tried a low blow when talking about male Republican leaders. She snapped, "They like women just fine — as long as we know our place, which is preferably under a man's protection."

Now that particular snarl was too much for House Republican Conference Chair Deborah Pryce (R., Ohio), who promptly issued a statement declaring, "As the highest ranking Republican woman in Congress's history, I find it personally offensive that an outside organization would tell me my party keeps me stuck in a position of subordination. It's sad that the president of an organization that claims to advance women would paint such an unrealistic and dated picture of the amazing advances we have made."

And we all know how well women, in general, are doing, and how President Bush especially respects the counsel of women advisers. His new Cabinet will likely have four women, including Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State. For years women have been among his closest political advisers. And both Karen Hughes and Laura Bush were clearly an important part of the team that helped fashion the president's victory.

That's why it is so odd that while leaders of the Democratic party are doing a lot of soul-searching about what turned voters off in the election and how the Democratic party needs to change its agenda and message, the leaders of these women's groups remain stuck in the past, mouthing the same-old, same-old,. These organizations have never been more marginalized, yet they keep right on bashing Republicans, criticizing men, and ignoring the millions of women who no longer respond to their decades-old rhetoric.

Deborah Pryce suggests that "an acronym change for the nation's most extreme women's rights group might be in order. 'NOW' is hardly apropos for a group of extremist women who tell other women leading the way in politics, business and education that they're living in male-dominated times. Better we call them THEN — it's obviously where they are stuck."

Said Christina Hoff Sommers, an author and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institue: "Women have achieved parity with men in most fields. You'd think feminists...would be celebrating but in many ways they've never been more despondent."

In the next couple of years it will be interesting to see whether these groups can do what they must do to remain viable: acknowledge the increasing empowerment of women and modify their basic belief that women just because they are women are a victim class.

It will also be fascinating to watch how crafty Senator Hillary Clinton deals with her old friends at NOW as she moves so determinedly to the center to increase her appeal as a viable presidential candidate. Remember, Hillary is the greatest superstar for all these feminist organizations and their members are her most devoted groupies. But then, the Clintons have never had a problem dropping old friends.

So far these groups, stuck in a time warp, seem unable to change — even when the statements of their leaders are increasingly hollow and ironic. Said Eleanor Smeal, former President of NOW and currently the president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, "We have to hang tight. This is going to be a tough time for us, but in the long run we have many things going in our direction. One important thing we've got — people know they want more opportunities for their daughters."

You are absolutely correct, Eleanor. And there are people who see the world for women not victim first, but opportunity first. I think they're called Republicans.

[wagglebee]

It will also be fascinating to watch how crafty Senator Hillary Clinton deals with her old friends at NOW as she moves so determinedly to the center to increase her appeal as a viable presidential candidate. Remember, Hillary is the greatest superstar for all these feminist organizations and their members are her most devoted groupies. But then, the Clintons have never had a problem dropping old friends.

How true.

[Lorianne]

For groups who claim that women can think and act on their own without supervision, they sure don't like it that many women did just that, and voted for Bush.

[sassbox]

NOW = Nine Overweight Women

[KoRn]

NAG Alert!

NAG = National Organization of Gals.

[Billthedrill]

Kim Gandy, meanwhile, tried a low blow when talking about male Republican leaders. She snapped, "They like women just fine — as long as we know our place, which is preferably under a man's protection."

Try that line on Condi, sweetcakes. That would be "Dr. Rice" to you.

[vpintheak]

Said Christina Hoff Sommers, an author and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institue: "Women have achieved parity with men in most fields. You'd think feminists...would be celebrating but in many ways they've never been more despondent."

That is because they are mentally deranged, eternally PO'd fascists.

[FeeinTennessee]

It will also be fascinating to watch how crafty Senator Hillary Clinton deals with her old friends at NOW as she moves so determinedly to the center to increase her appeal as a viable presidential candidate. Remember, Hillary is the greatest superstar for all these feminist organizations and their members are her most devoted groupies. But then, the Clintons have never had a problem dropping old friends.

Fee:
Hillary will, in time, try to come off conservative to the rest of the nation to try to earn points toward securing a spot to run in the next election, but we all know the true Hillary. And these feminine groups should do best to recognize the tide has changed and go with the flow and stop the militant attitude.

[glock rocks]

"Our health, our rights, and our democracy are teetering on the brink," wailed Kim Gandy

Somewhere in the distance, a fish pines for a bicycle.

[escapefromboston]

feminism is no different from communism in that all of its literature is founded upon convoluted syntax, bafflegab and academic jargon which paints a false (albeit attractive) picture of an unattainable utopia which can be achieved - easily! - by everyone in the world simply and simultaneously (in both feminist and communist literature the "crux point" is invariable) changing their basic nature overnight

[wagglebee]

NOW = Nine Overweight Women

And they smell!

[mowkeka]

I don't think most feminist truely realize how annoying they are. This is exemplified by Maureen Dowd, who recently wrote an article complaining about how she can't get a man.
I had a professor, who I swore was going to make us perform an abortion in class. She was SOOOOO far left and SOOOOO annoying. Every guy (even those who agreed with her politics) couldn't stand her. Listening to her talk was like scratching a chalkboard.
If I've learned one thing about life, it's that girls want to settle down. They can pretend that they are "free of men" for only so long. This doesn't meant that most women want to stay in the kitchen. But most women do want children and ALL women want someone to spend the rest of their lives with.
Note to feminists: When you do settle down, you'll want a guy who is trustworthy, honest and kind. Most of these guys are Republican.

[Calpernia]

Fee:
Hillary will, in time, try to come off conservative to the rest of the nation to try to earn points toward securing a spot to run in the next election,

---

Want to see how right you are? She is already trying to make friends with the Vets.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton


January 14, 2005

Mr. Tom Corey
President
Vietnam Veterans of America
Suite 400
8605 Cameron Street
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

Dear Mr. Corey:

Today, I joined thirty-two of my Senate colleagues in calling on the Administration to ask for full funding for the veterans' health care system when it presents its Fiscal Year 2006 budget request to Congress in the coming weeks.

America's veterans have served our nation and the cause of freedom proudly and bravely. We owe it to them to make sure they have access to the health care and support they need and deserve.

Throughout my time in the Senate, I have worked hard to protect the interests of New York veterans -- to provide full funding for veterans' health care, to make mandatory the funding of VA health care, and to keep New York VA hospitals open.

[Please see the attached letter sent to President Bush]

(snip)

[jdm]

Hillary is fundamentally, ultimately unelectable anyway.

[wagglebee]

Hillary is fundamentally, ultimately unelectable anyway.

Funny, I've never been able to think of anything that nice to say about Hitlery!

[Nick Danger]

[Hoff Sommers] "...in many ways they've never been more despondent."

That is because they are mentally deranged, eternally PO'd fascists.

No, it is because they are Marxists. They are the cleverest Marxists America has ever had, for they succeeded in selling class struggle (men vs women) in a country where class struggle had never worked. They achieved considerable clout and power doing this.

Unfortunately for them, women don't feel very downtrodden or oppressed these days, and class struggle against men has become a rather tired and unwelcome idea, except among a bunch of old lesbians who gave their lives to the cause.

In short, the air has gone out of their Marxism; there is no class struggle to exploit. So here they are swirling around the porcelain bowl, their last stop before the sewage treatment plant. The world is done with them.

If there is to be a competitive Democratic Party in the nation's future, those who lead its transformation must throw the feminists and the gays under the bus. They all know this, and it's only a matter of time. It will be a wrenching experience for the Democratic power structure, and it will be put off for as long as they can tolerate their losses. But the day is coming when they will have no choice.

[bray]

"They like women just fine — as long as we know our place, which is preferably under a man

No comment necesssary!

Pray for W and The Inaugaration

[Finny]

RE your tagline:

Some other favorite Gunsmoke quotes --

"Matt, when are you gonna get around to shootin' him?" -- Miss Kitty

"He's a gunman, Doc. He's got to be eliminated." -- Marshall Dillon

[An American In Dairyland]

Said Eleanor Smeal, former President of NOW and currently the president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, "We have to hang tight. This is going to be a tough time for us, but in the long run we have many things going in our direction. One important thing we've got — people know they want more opportunities for their daughters."

What an utterly bigotted and sexist remark. As a woman and a mother I like to think that "people" want more opportunities for their daughters and sons.

[jiggyboy]

Good analysis. The New Republic -- not usually ideologically in tune with conservatives -- wrote as much a few years ago. The most memorable phrase was along the lines of "...collapsing under the weight of its own doctrinal absurdities..."

[wagglebee]

I think the "opportunities" they want for their daughters is to give them the "opportunity" to commit infanticide at the abortion mills they fund.