This article contains news and liberal commentary.
No surprise, really, the GOP is massively losing women voters. They don’t know how to treat women. They still live in the Stone Age.
“As soon as Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate ended, like clockwork, cable news pundits and focus groups assessed Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ performance using sexist and racist undertones,”
Huffington Post reported (here). GOP pollster Frank Luntz said
“his focus group of undecided voters deemed Harris, the first Black and Asian American woman on a major-party presidential ticket, ‘condescending’ and ‘abrasive.'”
Let’s be clear: I’ve watched plenty of these focus-group interviews, and the people describing themselves as “undecided” are Trump supporters — something I wouldn’t admit on TV either, with my family, friends, and neighbors watching.
Bret Baier from Fox News asked Karl Rove if Harris was “likeable.”
“‘If she was trying to, she failed at it,’ Rove said.”
What do you expect Karl Rove to say?
“Similiarly, Fox News host Geraldo Rivera took issue with her ‘over-smirking, over-smiling.’ Overall though, he said, he felt she did well in showing debate viewers she was ‘not a scary lady.’
But no mention of Pence’s overtalking, rule breaking, name-calling, and general rudeness. Typical smug white male. But that’s what Rivera is all the time, not just during election seasons. It gets him white male conservative fans. I doubt many women watch his show.
“In a tweet, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote that he would prefer to have dinner with Vice President Mike Pence, the “MOST LIKEABLE” of the two.”
Because no one else will eat with him, least of all his wife. She probably doesn’t vote for him, either. (Sure, wives of Republican politicians play the public game. But given secret ballots, how do they know what their women do behind their backs in voting booths?)
And last, but hardly least,
“In what amounted to a call-in therapy session on Fox Business on Thursday morning, the president called Harris ‘totally unlikeable.’ Later, Trump referred to the senator as ‘this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence.'”
I didn’t see a monster, but I did see this, and so did every woman voter in America:
“Throughout the debate, Pence repeatedly interrupted and talked over both Harris and moderator Susan Page. As Pence told a series of lies and tried to deflect from the Trump administration’s failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris’ facial expressions summed it all up, as if to say: ‘Can you believe this guy?'”
If Harris’ facial expression was condescending, I wouldn’t criticize that, I’d call it “restraint.” Four years ago, Madonna was less restrained (video below, NSFW or children), but she spoke for millions of women.
It’s very clear the GOP alienates women. They’ve become a party of smug white males. And from all indications, they’re about to get their butts handed to them. We’ve seen this before; it’s been building up for years. How many women are governors, senators, and representatives now? I’d wager Harris is more likely to become president someday than Pence is. She has better manners.