All right. I'll say it. Mitt Romney looked and sounded a lot smoother than our President in the debate last night. I give him points for being a better actor. Lest we forget, that's the quality that allowed Reagan to win an election over Carter.
But that's not the reason I was feeling increasingly angry and frustrated yesterday evening. We had a whole debate, on a variety of topics, and not once did any of the participants--the moderator, the candidate, the President--address one of the most important issues of this campaign, the biggest major difference between the positions of the two political parties in this election: women's health.
I am totally disgusted with this whole gentlemanly charade. Yes, taxes are important, the economy is important, employment is important, the implementation of a national health care plan is important.
But the Republicans want to turn back the clock on women's health care to the levels of the mid-twentieth century.
In the U.S., it was against the law to disseminate information on birth control until 1938. Abortion was a crime until 1973. These are two important historical landmarks. But there's more.
Women were employed only in specific "women's jobs" until 1969. A young man with a high school diploma might enter a "management trainee" job in a company, but a young woman with a college degree could only be employed as an "assistant" -- doing one of those typing-and-filing-and-telephone jobs that Della Street performed for Perry Mason.
After the equal employment legislation of 1969 passed, Title IX followed in 1970, affecting thousands of schools and colleges across the United States.
Today's world is nothing like the world of 1938 or 1973. Society, and women's place in society, has completely changed.
But that change has come about because women have choices now that women have never had before. Women can choose to have their families when and how they want them. Because of this, they can plan their own futures, and they can contribute to the world beyond their homes.
The Republicans want to change all this.
And last night none of the three men on stage even brought the subject up.
That's why I'm disgusted.
