PrintJanuary 28, 2009
Women Want Safety
The biggest problem we remaining conservatives have to consider is the Woman Problem. We have to confront the fact that one of the reasons that we live in an age of Big Government is that ever since they first got the vote, women have used their franchise to vote for more government. Can we even hope for change?
Consider a moderately liberal woman of my acquaintance pondering the awful fact that her son, studying for a Ph.D. in Classics, considers himself a conservative. Fortunately a mother, even a liberal mother, cannot bring herself to disown her son for apostasy. So she has allowed our worthy brother-in-arms to persuade her that there is something of life beyond "basic needs." Whereas his mother thinks of politics as legislating to make people safe through schools, health care, lunches, etc., her son asks her to consider also the call of the good, the true, the beautiful, and the care of the soul. Then he asks her to wonder what it means to pass a law that weakens the ability of people to develop these perennial virtues.
Woman thinks first of safety, and thinks nothing of erecting a vast apparatus of compulsion to achieve it. But woman is not just wedded to safety. She is also defined by her relationships. She does not just want those in her circle of care to be safe; she wants them to thrive and be happy.
Woman wants safe, but does government really deliver on safe beyond national defense and domestic policing? Is it safe for government to run risky "affordable housing" schemes? The result is a Federal Reserve Board swinging madly from credit flood to credit crunch and foreclosing women out of their dream homes. Is it safe for government to compel children into its government schools? The result is said to be STD infection in about 25 percent of high-schoolers. Is it safe for government to subsidize single parenthood in the name of compassion? The result is fatherless children growing up into violent adults and criminals that disproportionately target women.
Our task is clear. We must persuade women in the truth, that they will not find safety in a pile of government programs for health care, for education, and for welfare. Government does not care for women; it just wants their votes. Government cares about only one thing: Power.
We must work for the day when women wake up and realize that big government oppresses women more than the patriarchy ever did. If they come to realize that, it will be because conservatives have persuaded them, using good conservative conversation, that government doesn't care about people. Government is force, not safety.
While everyone is wondering what kind of stimulus package President Obama will offer to the nation, let us start work on the big issues on women and safety. President Obama proposes to increase government control of health care. This means that health care will become less responsive to the special needs of consumers (read: women). President Obama proposes to increase government control of education with the first step towards universal pre-kindergarten. This means that education will become less responsive to the needs of the parents of special children (read: women). President Obama proposes to increase the investment into alternative energy and discourage use of fossil fuels. That will make transportation for expensive for consumers (read: women).
A majority of male voters are already sold on the conservative vision. That's not too surprising, given the costs that government piles on every man of aspiration from Joe the Plumber on up. Now the job of conservatives is to persuade women. Can we persuade women that safety is not spelled government? There's one encouraging indicator. Women are more easily persuaded to change their minds on political issues than men.
But there is still the awful possibility that women actually like the current system, in which government gets to demolish freedom every day with some new legislation to improve "safety." After all, if TV commercials are to be believed, women eagerly respond to the idea that men are useless incompetents that need constant direction and supervision.
It couldn't be that women actually prefer the present welfare state. It couldn't be that they want suffocating government control and regulation over the conservative alternative. It couldn't be that they prefer compulsion over a voluntary community that mediates between the individual and the megastructure of government. Could it?
Christopher Chantrill is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. See his roadtothemiddleclass.com and usgovernmentspending.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.
