It's been a while since I've done an impulse micro-diary, but today for the first time a while, I saw something so egregious that I wanted to share it.
That's Lou Dobbs on Fox News. I made a rough transcript, because these things strike even greater incredulity when read than when heard. Dobbs begins by referring to the recent data from the Pew poll survey that showed more women becoming the primary breadwinners as a "troubling and concerning statistic."
Dobbs turns the floor over to Juan Williams who dives into the subject with an apparent relish and without an ounce of respect or moderation: "What we're seeing with 4 out of 10 families now, is that the woman is the primary breadwinner. You're seeing the disintegration of marriage [...] something going terribly wrong in American society, and its hurting out children."
Dobbs: "And you mention children. Those are the ones who survive." Then of course connects women working with having abortions, and treats abortion like its some modern perversion, when in truth, a quarter of all pregnancies ended in abortions in the 19th century in America, and that similar rates have been estimated in many societies going back to the earliest stages of human history. But no mind. Because Erick Erickson, founder of RedState, hasn't spoken yet.
Erick Erickson adds, with a bit of his usual, haughty self-righteous tone: "Lou, I'm so used to liberals telling conservatives they are anti-science. But liberals who defend this and say its not a bad thing, are very anti-science. [...] having mom's as primary breadwinners is bad for kids and bad for marriages and reality shows us that is the truth."
It's one of those moments where your only possible reaction is astonishment. And then the realization that if any Democrat or liberal news commentator had made a similar kind of bigoted statement about, say, some positive statistic for farmers or some (hypothetical example) statistic showing a resurgence in rural American life and economic standing, they not only would have been ostracized in a national firestorm, but every Democratic politician with even loose connections to them would be tarred and feathered by the Right's media machine. The commentators would never find work again; and rightly so for neglecting their duties and failing miserably as people supposed to inform the public and help aid reasonable and enlightened discussion on major issues. But there hasn't even been the slightest bit of media attention even to Dobbs' or William's or Erickson's statement, which is per the course, as Democrats and leftist have to struggle and make tremendous noise to even bring negative media attention to the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
This is why there is an increasing gender gap. Why Republicans are falling behind in that area, especially among younger women. In the Senate there are currently 16 female Democratic Senators to 4 female Republican Senators. In the House there are 19 Republican Congresswomen to 58 Democratic Congresswomen. Put in another perspective, 209 House Republicans are white men, compared to 96 in the Democratic caucus. Put another way that means 90% of the Republican House caucus consists of white males, who constitute only around 36% of the U.S. population. In the Senate, the Republican caucus barely performs any better at 84% white men.
Despite the efforts of smart conservatives and pragmatic or desperate leadership within the Republican party, this is not going to change. It's not going to chance because the new base of the GOP, the group that drives their ideological and emotional culture, are white males angry at their loss of special social privilege as minorities and women begin to achieve a more equal place in the society of the United States, which was traditionally heavily hierarchical with white men heavily favored. This is what drives the GOP, this is what fills its echo chamber and its internal socializing; a very narrow and parochial view in other words. It's other bases of support are all those heavily defined by the predominant cultures of white men like must of rural American and evangelical Protestantism, or by racialized heritages like white culture in the South. This is not a party that will accept immigration reform or cultural diversity, and it certainly is not going to place importance to ensuring an even playing field and equal rights for women and minorities. With those voting groups emerging as ever larger and more important, conservatives are now losing the ideological debates that take place in acculturating entire political classes of people to one ideology or the other, especially young people, and they are just a few steps away from falling off into what would/will be one of the most extended periods of political irrelevance for a major party in national politics in the history of the U.S. And many in the GOP see it coming, yet can't effectively do anything about because of the Catch-22 that rancor and animosity related to this issue effectively drives the Republican party right now.
The kinds of repulsive statements made in that Fox News clips are just per the norm for a group of people used to natural privilege, who attempt to justify that privilege in any way possible and refuse to adjust to change, reacting bitterly and even virulently to such change, with no concern or thought about how that degrades the freedoms of other human beings. It's shallow egotism at its worst and most thoughtlessly ugly. That such people are actually offended that women are coming closer to parity with men in American society, and now have more opportunities to take advantage of, more freedom to choose career paths, earn good wages, and the like, than women ever have in American society up to this point, displays the nastiness at the heart of many "conservative" cultural values. In the meantime, let's celebrate here the rise of new options and financial independence for many of America's underprivileged, socially defined, demographic groups.
P.S. While DKos does have reader gauges, these aren't entirely accurate. I always appreciate users who vote in my poll as that gives a more accurate count of readership, and always get an idea of what my readership looks like; how familiar they are with my topic; how I may have influenced them, etc. Which is always nice to know for something you worked hard on; sucks to feel like you are talking to a wall, that is why every diary I've ever written contains a poll.
UPDATE: Erickson has even continued his spiel on the safe confines of RedState, writing:
Many feminist and emo lefties have their panties in a wad over my statements...
http://www.redstate.com/...