The Democratic Party has long been portrayed as a champion of women’s rights. They continue to insist that there’s a gender pay gap, despite the fact that that claim has been debunked. They’ll advocate for a variety of issues under the umbrella of “women’s rights” in order to give the appearance they are the party that cares about women.
At the height of the #MeToo movement, they took their views to the extreme by suggesting that the right of women to be believed when they claimed sexual harassment or assault superseded a man’s right to due process. Democrats promoted the incredibly weak allegations of Christine Blasey Ford in their attempt to thwart the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. “Believe women!” they said, over and over, even as Ford’s bogus story fell apart.
Since then, Democrats have gone from #MeToo to #HimToo, and they seem to care very little about the rights and dignity of women anymore. For several years now, we’ve watched as countless young women and girls have been robbed — of opportunities in high school and college sports; of their dignity and privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms; and of accolades in women’s competitions, business, and even government — all in the name of “inclusivity.”
According to the Pew Research Center, “the Democratic Party held a wide advantage with women: 56% of female registered voters identified as Democrats or leaned toward the Democratic Party, while 38% identified as Republicans or leaned toward the GOP.” Meanwhile, men lean 50% Republican and 42% Democrat. This gender gap in party affiliation is critical for the Democrat party, especially since women are more reliable voters.
Yet Democrats went all in on radical gender theory at the expense of women. It’s hard to understand how they felt they could do that without alienating the very demographic for which they’ve long claimed to be fervent advocates.
In fact, feminism and transgender rights can’t coexist. One can’t claim to be an ally of women while simultaneously forcing women to change in the presence of men or compete with them in sports despite their physical advantages. When a man who identifies as a woman gets incarcerated in a women’s prison and rapes his fellow inmates, Democrats are more likely to be outraged if you use male pronouns than about the rape. If your daughter is flashed in a public restroom by a “trans woman,” she is more likely to be called a bigot for having a problem with it than he is to be criticized for exposing himself.
How were the Democrats able to make this “transition” from staunch feminists to trans activists without worrying about alienating real women? How can Democrats claim to be the party of and for women when they have clearly abandoned them?
The answer, of course, is abortion. For decades, Democrats have framed abortion as an essential “women’s right,” giving them a solid lock on the female vote. That issue has somehow managed to transcend the transgender rights debate.
It’s ironic, really, considering the way we’ve seen radical leftists literally erasing women from everything, including pregnancy and motherhood. Your smartphone likely has a pregnant man emoji on it now, and prestigious medical organizations and publications have literally called women “bodies with vaginas.” Democrats will even claim endlessly that “men can get pregnant, too,” but the moment abortion is thrown in the mix, it’s a women’s issue, no caveats about it.
The Democrats have spent years pushing their abortion narrative, and honestly, they’ve done so quite effectively. So far, we have yet to see their embrace of transgenderism at the expense of women’s rights make a huge dent in their lock on the woman vote. But maybe that will change.