The Drudge headline the other day read, “Poll Shock: Women Want Republicans!” The story is that for the first time in I don’t know how long, likely women voters want the GOP to control Congress, albeit by the slim margin of 44 to 42 percent. Last month the numbers were 47-40 in the Democrats’ favor.
Yes, this is just one poll. And, yes, smart money might still pick the Democrats to carry women in November. Nonetheless, this unique result does reflect something: the unique time in which we live.
Before getting to that, let’s place the poll in further perspective. Women have long been so solid a liberal constituency that the dichotomy between their and men’s voting habits even has a name: the “gender gap” (in non-Leftspeak language, the “sex gap”). How significant is this political difference? As pundit Ann Coulter pointed out during the G.W. Bush years, “In every presidential election since 1950 — except Goldwater in ’64 — the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted.” Even the GOP’s banner election year of 2010, where they assumed control of the House in grand style, did not buck this trend; contrary to popular myth, women still went Democrat that year, 49 to 48 percent. Add to this that the recent poll showing the Republican shift is not from a conservative organization but is Associated Press-GfK handiwork, and you have something worthy of pause for thought. And what does it really mean?
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Consider our times. The Islamic State is on the march, severing heads, giving no quarter, and providing the kind of medieval material for print and pictures that could scare chicken off the bone; moreover, domestic terrorism increasingly hangs over our heads like a sword of Damocles. Feeding this fear is the feds’ unwillingness to control the southern border, thereby allowing who knows who and what to slither across. Punctuating this is that the open-door mentality brought Ebola to our shores, and the government won’t even entertain a West African travel ban; this, not to mention the tens of thousands of south-of-the-border children of a larger growth who’ve already diversified us with the “JV diseases,” such as enterovirus D68. And as Uncle Sam floods our land with undocumented Democrats, his perpetual-motion money printer floods it with dollars, auguring the currency’s eventual collapse and causing prices to rise, all while a record 92 million Americans are no longer in the labor force. Disease, pestilence, wars in various places and rumors of wars — it sounds almost biblical.
More could be said, but this goes beyond an intellectual understanding that can be articulated. As with animals fleeing a shore shortly before a tsunami, many people just sense, in their bones, something is wrong — and that something wicked this way comes.
And so to the GOP do women go. These are scary times for everyone, but this is an especially significant factor among women. Why? They are the Security Sex. As I wrote in a 2011 article by that name:
Did you ever wonder why women are so often attracted to strong, burly men? It’s the same reason why they’re drawn to men boasting wealth and/or power. It’s the same reason why they’re more careful investors. It’s the same reason why male animals show off and act dominant to attract females. It’s the same reason why women are drawn to highly intelligent men (Einstein had many female fans).
Women crave security.
Ideally, they want to “marry up” — up in terms of strength, finances, clout, and intellectual capability. And this is reflected in a not uncommon female reaction. When a woman falls for a man whom she can look “up” to, she may say to him something such as “You make me feel safe.”
This desire makes sense from a survival standpoint: If a woman’s children are to survive, she must secure a safe environment for them.
And when electing the “nice guys [who] finish last” might mean your nation’s last days, the (seemingly) nice guys finish last in elections. This is relevant because, as radio host Rush Limbaugh discussed recently, polls show that people generally don’t consider Republicans nice guys; this is due to branding by leftist media, academia, and entertainment, of course. Regardless, this is why swing voters thrust the GOP into power on occasion but then recidivate to their liberal pathology.
And here’s a good analogy: Liberal politicians are like that poor “buddy” parent who spoils his kids, telling them they aren’t responsible for what they do and don’t have to pay for what they get. Hey, you can eat ice cream for dinner. Vice all around! Republicans are a bit more like that strict father, demanding accountability, expecting some virtue and, as is always the fate of those who must lay down the law, not always seeming likeable. And when the undisciplined kids can vote for daddy, the callow candy-man is quite alluring.
Except in one situation.
At the end of the day, the young’uns know Metrosexual Dad is a wimp. When the chips are down, the barbarians are at the gate and the kids need someone who can take care of business and secure the home front, Conservative Dad is their go-to guy.
A good example was when the British swapped Sudetenland-trading Neville Chamberlain for the crusty Winston Churchill; he was the right man when Britannia faced its darkest hour and needed someone to help author its finest hour. And then his time in power was up once the war was won and security restored.
This is the reason women are trending Republican: They may not like all of what they (wrongly) see as big strong daddy’s cloistering rules — but they feel as if he knows how to protect his daughters.
Note that this is an analysis of not just realities but perceptions; I personally don’t see any prominent political figure who can diagnose what ails us well enough to prescribe the correct cure, nor do I believe the American people would accept the cure were it proposed.
But for sure is that if the GOP can hold the Democrats to even just a one or two-point victory among women this November, joining the illegal-alien and currency floods may be one that sweeps the Democrats from legislative power.
