While single herself, the always belligerent Ann Coulter seems to have a bit of a grudge against other single women — single mothers in particular. In a recent appearance on Fox and Friends, Coulter complained that the Democrats — and the media — were paying too much attention to what women think, and suggested that Romney could win the election without appealing to women — or at least to single women.
Ronald Reagan managed to win two landslides without winning the women’s vote, but it is as you say, it’s striking, it’s not the women’s vote generically, it is the single women’s vote. And that’s because single women look to the government to be their husbands and give them, you know, prenatal care, and preschool care, and kindergarten care, and school lunches.
Huh. Well, this might answer the central question in that National Review piece we discussed yesterday — why Romney isn’t getting 100% support from women, even though he’s the sort of rich guy alpha that evolutionary psychologists suggest is inherently appealing to “hypergamous” (i.e., golddigging) women. Turns out these women are already married to Obama!
The notion of government as a “substitute husband” is, of course, an old Men’s Rights trope. Warren Farrell devoted roughly a third of his Myth of Male Power — the 1993 tome from which the Men’sRights movement still gets most of its talking points — to explicating this particular theme. And it’s one that MRAs today return to again and again and again and again. (The notion of the “husband state” also, not coincidentally, played a role in the sprawling manifesto of mass killer Anders Breivik.)
As for Coulter, this isn’t the first time she’s singled out the single ladies. In a recent appearance on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox, Coulter went after Obama and the Democrats for focusing on what she called the “stupid single women” vote. “And I would just say to stupid single women voters,” she added,
your husband will not be able to pay you child support. If Obamacare goes through and Obama is re-elected, you are talking about the total destruction of wealth in America. It is the end of America as we know it. …
Great, you will get free contraception; you won’t have to pay a $10 co-pay, but it will be the end of America. Think about that!
Coulter is so miffed that single women don’t like Republicans that she’d be willing to give up her own right to vote if it means these “stupid … women” wouldn’t be allowed to vote either. As she once famously explained,
If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women. It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it’s the party of women and ‘We’ll pay for health care and tuition and day care — and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?’
Here’s a much more appealing take on single women. Well, honestly, it’s as terrifying as it is entertaining:
Oh yes, the complete end of America’s wealth. It’s not like the Republicans have been blocking any attempt to get the country back on its feet and have been offering budgets that would wipe out what little revenue we do get (RYAN, I’M LOOKING AT YOU).
I feel sorry for Ann Coulter, she’s filled with so much self-loathing.
I don’t raelly get this women = democrat thing. Maybe it’s different in America, but at least prior to 1997 (the convincing Labour victory where the Tories got their ass kicked by the majority of demographics) women in Britain have generally had a slight bias towards voting for the Conservative Party, I believe.(And the realtionship between single mothers and New Labour is far, far more complex than “they give them a load of benefits”, beacuse in fact, New Labour actually tried to get single mothers to work.)
http://www.earlhamsociologypages.co.uk/vbint.htm#comparison This is a random link I found on it, but I have read the same sort of stuff i actually academic work I just dow’t have the sources to hand…
Behold, internalized opression!
So you have no actual rebuttal to the charges she has laid out and instead offer empty quotes and snark.
Men always wrong, women always right!
/Owly
Often_partisan, I think it has a lot to do with the left wing in the US treading more carefully around things like women’s healthcare and providing equitable treatment for women– for instance it was the Democrats who pushed for the Lily Ledbetter Act, which provides for women (or marginalized groups) to sure if they learn after the fact that they’ve been getting paid less than men (or the privileged group).
If anyone wants to do any upvote squadding:
http://www.reddit.com/r/feminisms/duplicates/yrvh3/ann_coulter_channels_mens_rightsers_in_her_latest/
False premise. The conservatives in England are essentially the center left of this country, if you want an accurate comparison.
NOOOOOOOOOO not the three pronged evils of education, health care, and child care AMERIKA IS DOOOOMED
Yeah, the Democratic party threw single moms under the bus with the work requirements back in the nineties here in America.
But they still get much better support… because the Rs are so hideously anti-woman it’s hard to ignore. Anti-abortion, anti-welfare… so women lean away from the Rs hard. Especially young and single women.
…but stupid Lily Ledbetter still has no tools so you can find out what your male colleagues make, a key part of enforcement! And the Fair Pay Act, which had that, was shot down!!
Grrrr-face.
Yes, Ms Coulter, every country which has nationalised healthcare has subsequently become a shambles, a shadow of its former self. Australians, British, Canadians, Norwegians, and Swedes all live in post-apocalyptic wastelands, and that’s sad.
Where the fuck did this American myth spring up that any government spending = bad? Is sociology, you know, the measuring of these things to make decisions about them, completely dead there? I’m fascinated because it’s a bizarrely US-only view. When did this start? McCarthy era? Under Reagan?
TBF, I wasn’t arguing that the Democrats are very GOOD about this stuff, just that they don’t make any hatred of woman completely and obviously overt.
Ann Coulter pisses me off every time she opens her piehole. Why does anyone listen to this idiot?
And right on schedule Coulter shows up to perform her act, collect her check, and grasp desperately at her last little bit of relevance. Sarah Palin should be trotted out to talk about death panels next week or so.
I know I’ve probably already mentioned this a zillion times, but I was in a discussion section with her back in college. She was exactly the same as she is now, and she wouldn’t shut up.
Also, to everyone, on the Reddit thing, seriously, a couple of upvotes would help a lot. (I don’t mean to nag, but stuff gets buried quickly if it doesn’t get at least a few upvotes right away.) Thanks!
Isn’t everything the end of America according to Fox and co?
@lowquacks – the historical explanation often given, I think, is the ideal of American individualism (hence why the US has never had a party that could be considered “socialist” taht’s of any note). While I have studied politics I confess I have not done much on the US outside of basic comparative politics so I don’t really know apart from that.
@ Linds – That makes sense, especially as some Republicans seem pretty mysogynistic. We have had some “family values” Tories over here…Ann Widdecombe, looking at you…but the whole “family values” dynamic isn’t quite as prevalent over here. The socially conservative issues over herethat the Right seem to be obsessively focussed on the evils of the EU and Immigration, as well as Nationalism.
Why does anyone listen to this idiot?
According to her own opinions, they shouldn’t, since she’s a silly ladyfolk.
I really don’t get why there are so many people in the states who are opposed to the idea of healthcare, I mean it’s working just fine here in Canada.
@aworldanonymous
Because then The Government would have to steal YOUR money at gunpoint and give it to those people.
Methinks it is YOU who is the bigot, attacking wealthy people with threats of state violence like that.
David: Ugh, I remember people like that from discussion groups. The saving grace was they didn’t go on to be the darling of the Faux News set. They just wanted to be sports agents for the most part.
Wait. Now that I think on it, that is almost as bad as being Ann Coulter.
So… according to Ann… in a normal relationship, the daddy will replace the doctor doing the prenatal care, and preschool care, and kindergarten care and make school lunches for the kids?
Her bizarro earth is a pretty nice place full of men who have doctor’s degrees and just love to stay at home and take care of the kids apparently…
just sayan…
People shouldn’t just be given a basic standard of life, after all; they should earn it by being born rich, or white.