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Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Pigeonholing voters unfair and unwise
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Women.
Get ‘em all together, sit ‘em down and ask: What do y’all want?
No. Don’t all talk at once. Choose a representative and she will inform the world what women want.
Absurd? Of course. Even in Grandma’s day.
But every political season — during election campaigns and legislative sessions — the notion that “women” are a like commodity that can be weighed, graded and marketed surfaces anew. It’s no wonder that stereotypes fade so slowly and that politicians “fix” yesterday’s problems today.
In the governor’s race, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor is said to have a problem with Georgia women because substantial numbers of them intend to vote for Gov. Sonny Perdue. No doubt Taylor does have a problem with women who were passionate about the candidacy of Secretary of State Cathy Cox, whom he defeated. Many of those, it seems likely at this late date, will cast a protest vote with the Libertarian in hopes of visiting a pox on both their houses — Taylor and Perdue.
But attributing to all women the politics of “progressive” Democrats miscasts the majority. As the Mason-Dixon poll done for this newspaper in late September revealed, white women support Perdue at about the same level as white men, 66 percent to 21 percent.
The overall difference is when black women are added. About 90-96 percent of black women vote for Democrats, regardless of who’s running or where. In the Mason-Dixon poll, Perdue led among women 49-38, with the remainder undecided or choosing the Libertarian. Blacks represent 27 percent of registered voters. Of those, 16.2 percent are women, 10.9 percent men.
The overwhelming support of black women for the generic Democrat means that those who are hanging back are activist Democratic women who congregate around the issues, often gender-related, such as abortion, that attract activist Democratic women.
Taylor does appear to have lost them, but they’d never vote Republican. You’d find them now among the undecideds or the Libertarians. They’ll wind up either with Taylor, who is running about 15 percentage points below the Democratic base, or with the Libertarian, who’s running about 5 percentage points above base.
The confusion about the voting tendencies of women is because the Democratic Party’s activists tend to be articulate, passionate and media-savvy, much like the reporters who write about them. One would never find Christian conservative Sadie Fields, for example, or state Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville) or Rep. Sue Burmeister (R-Augusta) or Rep. Barbara Massey Reece (D-Menlo), quoted as the voice of women.
With the exception of Fields, who became media-savvy under fire as head of the organization formerly known here as the Christian Coalition, the others tend not to promote themselves in the media. Besides, none would be accepted as the authority to summon women to action — the media simply assume that Republicans or conservative women don’t speak for ‘women.”
That’s because a small but influential segment of women in the Democratic Party do. It’s the practical reflection of quota politics. It’s difficult and messy to sort out the differences in conservative and liberal women, or Cuban and Mexican Hispanics, or rich and poor blacks, so they are grouped by race, gender and national origin and spokespersons are recognized, even when they have little in common.
When three legislators of Hispanic origin reached the Georgia General Assembly three years ago, they were expected to, and did, form a “Hispanic caucus.” Journal-Constitution reporter Carlos Campos captured the moment: “They are men and they speak Spanish. But the similarities among Georgia’s first Hispanic state legislators pretty much end there.” The reality was that the three had no more in common than any other three randomly picked legislators.
Campos quoted the president of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber, Sara Gonzalez, who said something that should guide every soul inclined to think that people who share some identifiable characteristics or heritage should be able to speak for one another. “What unifies us is the language,” said Gonzalez. “Other than that, we have very different cultures and we tend to have our own opinions and that’s the way it is.”
That is, indeed, the way it is — and should be.
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