GOP candidate: "God Intended" Pregnancies from RapeFollow

You?

Your mom.

Don't do that to your mom

Honestly, I think the worse failure of the left in recent years has been to let the debate be framed in terms of abortion. The economic issues are much larger, and we've let those go completely unexamined and unchampioned.

I'm firmly pro-choice, but I am not willing to lose any more elections over it. It'd be easier to set up an underground railroad to Canada for women needing abortions, and take back issues of economic justice on the political front.

They were elected via our representative form of government? Next time, vote for a chick if it bothers you.

It's great that you know how to work Wiki and all but that's not an argument.

The internet is so feisty today. Hurricaneaggedon must be making us all tense.

Your argument is that, as a representative government, the ability to vote negates the issue of improper representation, as it is the choice of the people as to who enters office. Therefore, they are being represented to the extent that they, as a collective, have chosen to be represented. Yes?

So, obviously, the reason that there are fewer women in Congress is that we want fewer women in Congress, yes? And we aren't talking about a small difference, we are talking about a group that is 52% of the population only making up 18% of the legislative body of government.

What your argument completely fails to account for is the impact of culture that systematically disenfranchises a group of people. If you are constantly teaching young women that they aren't as capable to enter politics, if you set up barriers to hinder their progress, if you expect them to work twice as hard to get half as far, and if you allow for a sexist culture that systematically teaches everyone to expect less of women, then it is no surprise that you would end up with a representative government that has failed to be representative.

Not because you've taken away a woman's right to vote for a woman, but because you've endorsed a system that does everything possible to teach people that voting for a woman is a bad idea.

It's closet sexism.

[EDIT]

And I want to point out that you made your claim in response to my opinion that we should finally have a DISCUSSION out in the open of what the real problem is. That's what male privilege is. I didn't call for laws to add quotas to Congress, I didn't demand or endorse any particular solution. You dismissed the idea that it was necessary because, in a perfect system, it would right itself.

But endorsing a system that teaches disenfranchisement is endorsing disenfranchisement, whether you want it or not.

Edited, Oct 25th 2012 4:08pm by idiggory

Is where I chime in and point out the problems with women being assertive in mixed sex groups, not being seen as leadership types, or any of the other stereotypes or issues that would need to be overcome before you could say you have a system that's truly representative?

I would vote for more women, but it seems like the smart ones stay out of politics.

All people? It certainly suggests that people who view race as their primary voting factor (and are against African-Americans) make up a minority of the population.


Sure. As you said (and as I said), your elected representative will not relate to you in every way. It's up to you to decide which ways are most important and vote accordingly. Personally, political ideology trumps gender, race, religion, etc for me but if you think it's most important that it be a woman representing you then vote for the best woman on the ballot. If there's no women on the ballots (general or primary) then get to work getting some on there.

Edited, Oct 25th 2012 3:30pm by Jophiel

People aren't capable of advocating for a candidate, collecting petition signatures or other forms of political activism? I'll admit most aren't willing but that's a separate issue.

Edited, Oct 25th 2012 3:34pm by Jophiel