On the 20th of January 2010, Obama and his fellow Democrats were handed a resounding defeat in the race for a Massachusetts’s senate seat. This was all thanks to the all pervasive ‘weakness mentality’ in and about women in the society.
This particular senate seat was crucial for both the Democrats as well as the Republicans. A win for the Democrats would have given them a majority that would ensure that their bills, including the Health care Bill, sail through without ‘sweet –talking’ the Republicans.
The win for the Republicans gave them the muscle to forestall any Democrats’ bills, if they so wish.
Democrats considered this particular senate seat ‘a safe seat’ for various reasons. The seat had been held by the famous Kennedy’s (democrats) since the ‘70s and the number of registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans 3:1 in Massachusetts. Having ‘won big’ in ‘08, the Democrats were hoping that the tendancy of the people to associate themselves with winners would work in their favor. Democrats also counted on the fact that since in any normal society women outnumber men, Martha would have an ‘undue advantage’.
The democrats went right ahead and carried out a lackluster campaign in the belief that the senate seat was already “in the bag”.
They didn’t factor in two major factors:
(a) The 'high stake' health care bill debate which was producing more heat than light.
(b) The “weakness mentality” in and about women
I stand by my assertion that any time in campaigns when the stakes are high, men and women tend to gravitate towards a ‘strong choice’ (read man) as a safe bet.
The health care bill debate had long ago evolved from a simple straight-forward issue of legislation to the highly emotive realm of a ‘campaign’, replete with labels such as socialism, capitalism, weakness, etc. A bill about giving fellow Americans access to health care became just an unnamed “IT”
I n the senate race campaigns, Martha was just going to the senate to ‘pass ‘it’’. But Scott was going to the senate so that he could ‘kill ‘it’’.
“Killing it” coupled with terms such as ‘a strong America,’
“Say no socialism’ etc had all the ingredients of “maleness” in it. It wouldn’t take rocket science to figure out where all the women’s votes were headed. It mattered none that most of the ladies who voted for Scot wouldn’t have an issue with the whole issue of providing the over 30 million Americans with health care. They just wanted somebody ‘strong’ to go the senate to ‘kill ‘it’’ (not the health care bill!) for them.
Martha’s goose was cooked as soon as the campaign and the debate on “it” merged. Incidentally negative labels such as “socialist” ‘weak’ stick easier on women any day.
I posit here that in the mid-term US elections slated for later this year, not one woman candidate will succeed. Unless of course, their spin-doctors carry out a massive campaign strategy akin to “project Queensville 2012”.!
No comments:
Post a Comment