http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/06/hail_to_the_housewife.html
The role of women in politics has been a growing one ever since the acceptance of women into the political process since the ratification of the nineteenth amendment in the early twentieth century. Religion has recently started to play an important and highly publicized role in the political process because of female candidates of the past two elections alignment with the GOP and the prevalence of religion among some of their supporters.
Both during the 2008 election and so far on the road to the 2012 election, the role of the woman in an evangelist Christian home has been a widely publicized point of discussion between Bachmann and Palin critics alike. Their critics are both women who are against the submissive role politicians like Bachmann and Palin are expected to fill according to strict Christians, and members of branches of highly traditional/conservative Christianity who think that women would be abandoning their posts as women if they were to run for public office.
The article writes that, "Reverend Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said that while he liked Palin's political views, he worried about the effect of her candidacy on her domestic priorities." Ideas like these are likely to face Bachmann again if she ever shies away from her already established claim that she would remain a submissive wife in the White House, though she believes that she and her husband respect each other, so it won't be a problem. However, feminists and women supporters of an egalitarian approach to religion will not be won over with that kind of talk. While Bachmann may be gaining favor with prominent men and other submissive women like herself, she will continue receiving opposition from women who believe the opposite on the role of women in the family.
This dichotomy is sure to divide a majority of women, whether it be in support of Bachmann's respect for family and duty on the home front, or challenge against Bachmann's passive attitude while she runs for arguably the highest position of power in our country. The problem that comes with evangelists supporting Bachmann's quest to be a powerful woman, yet still second in command in her own home originates from the idea that, "If his fellow Christians supported a woman in a position of civic leadership, they should logically support the notion of women exercising leadership in church and at home—but most of them don't."
Christian voters will have to decide whether they are willing to abandon the strict interpretation of the Bible which asserts that women be quiet and remain subservient to their husband, or if they will seek a new interpretation that allows women to compete with men in positions of power without abandoning their families or duties as women.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
On the Fence
Last Saturday, Michele Bachmann addressed Perry, Iowa, a town which has a 32% population of Hispanic residents. Throughout the race, the Hispanic vote has been acknowledged as a very important factor in the upcoming election. At the beginning of the Obama administration, Hispanics gave Obama a 60% approval rating which has dropped to about 49% in recent months. While Hispanic voters have usually voted blue, the increasing dissatisfaction with Obama may cause Hispanic voters to search for another leader.
While most Hispanics are either Catholic or some other form of Christian, they are considered swing voters because their minority status draws them to a party which outwardly encourages welfare, equality, and general support for the underdog. However, as the Obama administration is proven to be increasingly inefficient, the capacity of the Democratic party to engage support and incite this kind of welfare-based change is likely to decrease.
For Bachmann to say that she will build a double fence along the entire Mexican border with the U.S., as this articlein the Huffington Post Latino Voices section writes, does not appear to be a move that would bring Hispanic voters over to the GOP. Many questioned the motive behind making a speech like this in a town where a third of the residents are Hispanic. However, Bachmann may have a wiser goal behind this action; during the address she "rejected suggestions that talking about cracking down on undocumented immigrants is racist or anti-Hispanic" (Glover). By dividing the illegal immigration issue from attitude toward Hispanic voters, she is almost asking Hispanic voters to detach themselves from the illegal immigration issue as it does not affect them directly and is an issue that affects all Americans; Hispanic, Asian, African, what have you.
As we learned through Fowler's writing on Latinos and African Americans, Latinos are divided into many small groups depending on their religion and background, and within these groups, ideologies remain fairly consistent. In my opinion, Bachmann is trying to gain the Hispanic vote by appealing to those second-generation Hispanics who identify more as Americans than as Salvadorians, Cubans, or Venezuelans. These young Americans are more likely to appreciate solving an issue that will affect them as Americans, rather than fastening their political beliefs to an old identification to which they no longer have any connection outside of their family.
It will be interesting to see how many Hispanic voters start to think as Americans rather than as a minority group leaning on the Democratic Party.
While most Hispanics are either Catholic or some other form of Christian, they are considered swing voters because their minority status draws them to a party which outwardly encourages welfare, equality, and general support for the underdog. However, as the Obama administration is proven to be increasingly inefficient, the capacity of the Democratic party to engage support and incite this kind of welfare-based change is likely to decrease.
For Bachmann to say that she will build a double fence along the entire Mexican border with the U.S., as this articlein the Huffington Post Latino Voices section writes, does not appear to be a move that would bring Hispanic voters over to the GOP. Many questioned the motive behind making a speech like this in a town where a third of the residents are Hispanic. However, Bachmann may have a wiser goal behind this action; during the address she "rejected suggestions that talking about cracking down on undocumented immigrants is racist or anti-Hispanic" (Glover). By dividing the illegal immigration issue from attitude toward Hispanic voters, she is almost asking Hispanic voters to detach themselves from the illegal immigration issue as it does not affect them directly and is an issue that affects all Americans; Hispanic, Asian, African, what have you.
As we learned through Fowler's writing on Latinos and African Americans, Latinos are divided into many small groups depending on their religion and background, and within these groups, ideologies remain fairly consistent. In my opinion, Bachmann is trying to gain the Hispanic vote by appealing to those second-generation Hispanics who identify more as Americans than as Salvadorians, Cubans, or Venezuelans. These young Americans are more likely to appreciate solving an issue that will affect them as Americans, rather than fastening their political beliefs to an old identification to which they no longer have any connection outside of their family.
It will be interesting to see how many Hispanic voters start to think as Americans rather than as a minority group leaning on the Democratic Party.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Values Voter Summit shows support for Bachmann
This weekend, the Family Research Council is sponsoring the Values Voters Summit. The summit will bring prominent figures of the Republican Party in to address voters, and to emphasize the importance of voting to improve American values this coming October. Michele Bachmann spoke on Friday, delivering an address reiterating her campaign platform and riling up the crowd with issues of "life, on marriage, on family, [and] on
religious liberty."
Major participants in the Summit were the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and the American Family Council. Throughout her speech, Bachmann addressed many issues relevant to the aforementioned organizations and expressed her personal views on gay marriage, abortion, separation of church and state, and "dismantling bureaucracy", as she says. The groups to which she is obviously pandering will be a very important voting bloc for Bachmann, especially if she continues escalating or even just maintaining the level of her religious and values-oriented rhetoric, which she employed heavily in her address to the Values Voter Summit. She referred heavily to the greatness of "knowing the Lord" and pronounced the decision she made to "radically abandon myself and my life and my future to Jesus Christ."
Josh Lederman of The Hill, a publication based in Washington D.C. writes that "while the candidates will likely emphasize their conservative credentials to appeal to the social conservatives, it could make it much harder for them to inch back to the center if they win the nomination and face a general election, where they will have to win over more centrist voters... But Perkins said there’s no reason to worry that Values Voter could push candidates too far to the right." (See the rest of the article here: The Hill - GOP candidates take on social issues) With that in mind, the role of the Values Voter Summit attendees and voters like them is a very supportive one, where candidates are trying to establish rapport with them in order to secure firm backers in the future. However, the candidate who advances to the general election will either have to learn to adjust to not only organized groups like those listed above and appeal to a wider voter-base, or gain all of the support from their largely politically active fans and simply out-mobilize moderates and liberals. The former does not seem likely for candidate Michele Bachmann, who is very good at reaching specifically organized groups with values resembling her own, and said in her address to the Summit, "Don’t listen to these people who every four years tell you we have to select a moderate from our party and we have to settle for the sake of winning. I am here to tell you, we are going to win, not - this year we don’t settle. We’re going to win the White House." For Bachmann, it's too late to turn back. She has promised her devoted backers that she will continue to represent the rightest of the right, which will be a very difficult promise to uphold when she faces voters like the protesters from the Southern Poverty Law Center who set up a news conference outside the Values Voter Summit in efforts to call "values voters" out on their "hatred" of gays.
All in all, the organized groups present at the Values Voter Summit are fairly representative of the groups that Bachmann is targeting in her goal of gaining a devoted following. However, her competition with Rick Perry for the evangelical vote or the "values voters" vote will divide the voting bloc she is counting on, and her refusal to budge on far right ideologies will alienate her from various other prospective support organizations. Bachmann's success in the primaries and possibly the general election will depend on which organizations she is able to win over and how many of them she will lose to Perry's similar socially conservative, yet slightly more moderate.
The transcript for Bachmann's address to the Values Voter Summit can be found here: TIME - Bachmann Values Voters transcript
religious liberty."
Major participants in the Summit were the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and the American Family Council. Throughout her speech, Bachmann addressed many issues relevant to the aforementioned organizations and expressed her personal views on gay marriage, abortion, separation of church and state, and "dismantling bureaucracy", as she says. The groups to which she is obviously pandering will be a very important voting bloc for Bachmann, especially if she continues escalating or even just maintaining the level of her religious and values-oriented rhetoric, which she employed heavily in her address to the Values Voter Summit. She referred heavily to the greatness of "knowing the Lord" and pronounced the decision she made to "radically abandon myself and my life and my future to Jesus Christ."
Josh Lederman of The Hill, a publication based in Washington D.C. writes that "while the candidates will likely emphasize their conservative credentials to appeal to the social conservatives, it could make it much harder for them to inch back to the center if they win the nomination and face a general election, where they will have to win over more centrist voters... But Perkins said there’s no reason to worry that Values Voter could push candidates too far to the right." (See the rest of the article here: The Hill - GOP candidates take on social issues) With that in mind, the role of the Values Voter Summit attendees and voters like them is a very supportive one, where candidates are trying to establish rapport with them in order to secure firm backers in the future. However, the candidate who advances to the general election will either have to learn to adjust to not only organized groups like those listed above and appeal to a wider voter-base, or gain all of the support from their largely politically active fans and simply out-mobilize moderates and liberals. The former does not seem likely for candidate Michele Bachmann, who is very good at reaching specifically organized groups with values resembling her own, and said in her address to the Summit, "Don’t listen to these people who every four years tell you we have to select a moderate from our party and we have to settle for the sake of winning. I am here to tell you, we are going to win, not - this year we don’t settle. We’re going to win the White House." For Bachmann, it's too late to turn back. She has promised her devoted backers that she will continue to represent the rightest of the right, which will be a very difficult promise to uphold when she faces voters like the protesters from the Southern Poverty Law Center who set up a news conference outside the Values Voter Summit in efforts to call "values voters" out on their "hatred" of gays.
All in all, the organized groups present at the Values Voter Summit are fairly representative of the groups that Bachmann is targeting in her goal of gaining a devoted following. However, her competition with Rick Perry for the evangelical vote or the "values voters" vote will divide the voting bloc she is counting on, and her refusal to budge on far right ideologies will alienate her from various other prospective support organizations. Bachmann's success in the primaries and possibly the general election will depend on which organizations she is able to win over and how many of them she will lose to Perry's similar socially conservative, yet slightly more moderate.
The transcript for Bachmann's address to the Values Voter Summit can be found here: TIME - Bachmann Values Voters transcript
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Bachmann's "Bigotry"?
In recent weeks, we've studied the tendencies and inclinations of members of different religious groups and how they are expected to react to the upcoming presidential election. Michele Bachmann is obviously appealing to an evangelical voter base, where as candidates like Mitt Romney are trying to both win marginal not-so-radical Christians and those independents who are defecting from the Democratic Party. As we've been studying Jewish political opinions and Muslim political preferences, I've started associating Michele Bachmann's lack of a appeal not only as one that does not appeal to those who are not extremely religious, but as a phenomenon that will prevent her from reaching all kinds of minorities, including the religious ones we've discussed.
President Obama did a very good job of improving voter turnout in the 2008 election among ethnic minorities, as well as picking up many civil rights believers and social liberals who are fighting for issues like gay rights, pro-choice, and welfare reform. This time around, it seems like GOP candidates are having trouble appealing to those minorities who are fighting for rights, such as the gay population, as well as those who support the gay cause. While Bachmann might pull defectors by advertising her support for improving America's values and respectability, I don't think she will be able to convince those who are at odds with religion as a whole, and especially with Bachmann's views, which include denial of the right to gay marriage and the idea that a woman should be subservient to her husband (an idea that probably does not sit well with a number of independent women). I think it will be very hard for Bachmann to swing voters over to her camp because of the radical nature of her ideas, and the idea that she is, as Kathy Griffin put it, "a bigot". As long as respectable gay rights advocates and their supporters in the media are broadcasting messages like these, it will be very hard for Michele Bachmann to reach outside of her already strong fan base. However, if she is able to win the full support of Evangelicals and other strongly religious groups over Rick Perry, that group may be all she needs to get ahead in the Primaries. In my opinion, that's not very likely considering Perry's good record with appealing to minorities and being relatively moderate as governor of Texas, but it will be interesting to see what happens.
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