I have to admit, I have found it curious and rather head scratching. Every time I have heard that women who were going to vote for Hillary were seriously thinking of giving that vote to McCain, I blanched, then recoiled, then went in the best Jon Stewart tradition—whhhaaaahhh?
Well it seems that like most of the electorate, a fair number of women are just not aware of the Mac’s history with women. Oh and I don’t mean his divorce and remarriage to wealthy Cindy. No, I’m referring to his past stances on women’s issues.
First it need be said that the now famous group, PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) formed after Hillary bowed out, and composed of her female supporters who refuse to go over to Obama, was (hold on to your panties ladies) actually formed by a McCain campaign donor. Yep, so says the Federal Elections Commission, and one would think they would know such things.
Thus the media has fallen down on the job once more. The size of PUMA is a good deal much smaller than claimed as well. Now McCain has said he welcomes these votes, but of course is not going after them. Bull-hockey pucks we say to that. Of course he is, (pointing up to the PUMA thing again.)
Much as I hate the carry-over language of the 2004 election, our dear old man is full of cow doodoo, and is once again rightly called a “flip-flopper.”
Facts: As early as 1999 McBush claimed he would not be for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, claiming it would force women to undergo illegal and unsafe medical procedures. Today: Oh, that was misunderstood, somehow. He has “stated time and time again that Roe was a bad decision.”
He brags that he receives a zero rating from NARAL and Planned Parenthood. He claims his record is consistently pro-life. He has publicly claimed he will nominate pro-life judges to the SCOTUS.
According to Kate Sheppard in an article in In These Times, McCain has tried so hard to appease the wingnuts on the far right that he supported an amendment to SCHIPS declaring the unborn a child for the purposes of coverage, but then voted against extending coverage to poor women and pregnant women. Course that makes no sense, but we are talking about McCain after all.
He has consistently voted to imprison doctors and otherwise deny health care grants to institutions that provide abortion services. He routinely votes against providing education and contraception to teens, and opposed legislation that demanded that abstinence only education be accurate medically and scientifically. He votes against medical insurance coverage for contraception, but votes for measures that require insurance companies to cover Viagra prescriptions.
Of course, as McCain is wont to do, much of this he doesn’t remember anyway. When queried he gets confused, assumes he follows the President on this issue, and then when given specifics, just throws up his hands in confusion.
Many conclude that McCain’s position is not very clear in some sense, since it seems he’s not particularly passionate about the issue. This is not necessarily a good sign, since he will probably allow the party to dictate the platform.
On other issues he is also not favorable to women. He avoided the fair pay legislation, meant to over turn the SCOTUS decision that left women out in the cold when it comes to suing for unequal pay. Employers need only make it a policy that pay cannot be discussed by employees and then pay men more. If a women doesn’t some how uncover the unfairness for 18 months, she is out of luck in the courts. He avoided the vote but spoke out against the bill on the campaign trail, according to Sheppard. Course, as Sheppard points out, he comments were both sexist and showed a pathetic lack of understanding of the case in the first place.
As to civil rights, McCain has not shown any care for the plight of women of color either. He has consistently voted against affirmative action legislation. For instance he voted with the NAACP position on issues related to blacks, an abysmal 7% of the time.
The list goes on and on, and I urge you to read the entire article. In some respects, it seems that McCain is only being McCain. His personal life is reflected in his take on women’s issues it seems.
Send this around if you see fit to other women you know who may be fence sitting. Much thanks to Essential Estrogen for the link to the article cited above.