While over a week has passed since the midterm elections, ultra-feminists are still wildly confused by the loss of their preferred female candidates, namely Wendy Davis (D) for Texas governor and Sandra Fluke (D) for Beverly Hills state senator. They are also fuming that their definitely nonpreferred female candidates emerged victorious, winning races as representatives to Congress from unexpected areas, namely Mia Love (R), Utah and Elise Stefanik (R), upstate New York.

Two days after the election, writing in the British Guardian, Jessica Valenti spat out:

Under normal circumstances, a triumphant woman standing behind a podium giving a political victory speech would thrill me to the core. After all, what feminist worth her salt doesn’t like to see a woman win an election?

Me, when the winner is a Republican -– because your gender doesn’t make you pro-woman, your actions do. And the Republican Party is not just anti-“women’s issues”; it is anti-woman.

Gender parity in politics –- even across the aisle –- is essential, but it’s difficult not to bristle when I see women shilling for the GOP. The official Republican platform states that the party “affirm[s] the dignity of women by protecting the sanctity of human life” and wants to “empower them to choose life” – as if they wanted women to have a choice at all. Even the GOP’s efforts to ban women from combat is made to sound like a favor the party’s doing for women in uniform: “We support military women’s exemption from direct ground combat units”. The word “exemption” may sound better than “ban” but, once again, what the GOP wants for women is not an opt-out scenario –- it is a method of forcibly keeping rights from us.

In a way, female Republicans almost bother me more than their male counterparts. I can almost understand why a bunch of rich, religiously conservative white men wouldn’t care about the reality of women’s day-to-day lives -– they’ve never had to. But throwing other women under the bus? For what? Lower taxes? Three minutes on Fox News in the 3pm hour? It makes me wonder what is wrong with you. (snip)

There will be six female Republican senators, a record number for the GOP. There are now 100 women in Congress.

This may have been an election of firsts for Republicans – and women – but it’s not a “win” for women. Equal representation is important, but it doesn’t equal justice.

As Kevin Williamson pointed out, Julia Lost.  Remember Julia, the Obama-inspired helpless, insipid  female role model who couldn't make it through any phase of life without government support if they didn't have male support? That seems to be the story of some of the losing feminist-centered candidates. 

Wendy Davis, whose wealthy husband financed her Harvard Law School degree before she dumped him, gained fame for wearing pink sneakers during a 13-hour filibuster on late term abortion in the Texas state legislature, when she didn't sit down, eat. or pee, lost to a wheelchair-bound white man whom she consistently belittled. Ironically Davis' replacement for her former state senate seat is also a female, Konni Burton,(R), a pro-life, pro-safe and guarded border conservative.  

And then there was Sandra Fluke, who peaked politically at the 2012 Democratic presidential convention, whining that while a helpless law student at a Catholic university, her misogynist school didn't provide contraceptive insurance coverage. Left unsaid was why she couldn't go to her nearest off campus pharmacy and purchase $10 a month contraceptives. Now married to a wealthy man (hmm, is there a pattern here for Democratic women interested in politics? Hillary, your answer please. You too Michelle Nunn. Oh right, you both had a wealthy male politically connected relative.) Fluke decided to run for state senator. However, the very liberal district overwhelmingly chose a male candidate. Although she initially attracted some outside interest and donations, Fluke was forced to finance her own campaign... well, her wealthy husband and his family were forced to do so. 

What about the liberal-reviled female Republican winners? Their winning tactics and strategy did not revolve around gender and victimization; their interests were not confined to their lady parts. Maybe that's the not so secret of their successes.

For instance, Elise Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, won over an experienced, wealthy male on her platform, her merits and her hard work. As Roll Call reports:

...Stefanik’s dominant win was of her own making.

Stefanik defeated a wealthy Democrat, Aaron Woolf, by more than 20 points in a district the president carried just a couple years ago. At 30 years old, she’s the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, and New York Republicans now tout her as the future of their party.

But that’s nowhere close to where Stefanik started the cycle in the upstate wilderness.

In late summer of 2013, she drove an F-150 truck to methodically meet local Republican leaders in the vast district represented by a popular Democrat, Bill Owens.

“I had this 29-year-old political unknown who was introducing herself as willing to challenge an entrenched political incumbent,” recalled Ray Scollin, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, who found Stefanik on Twitter before meeting her in a Saranac Lake coffee shop last year. “I know a lot of people who thought of it as laughable.” 

(snip)

Stefanik spent her days working for her family’s plywood company, checking her gmail in between stops and carrying a handful of palm cards to the smallest of GOP functions.

“She put well over 100,000 miles on that truck,” recalled Stefanik’s ad-maker, Russ Schriefer. “She’d drive five hours to meet with a half a dozen people.”

And Iowa's senator-elect Joni Ernst highlighted her pig castration skills, her service in the U.S. military, and her legislative experience to defeat her male lawyer opponent who put down nonlawyers in Congress. Despite her victory, Ernst didn't shirk her other responsibilities.

Joni Ernst was elected Iowa’s first female U.S. Senator on Tuesday and was in uniform and on duty with the Iowa National Guard on Thursday. 

(snip)

Ernst, a combat veteran in Operation Iraqi Freedom, has told the Guard she wants no special treatment, but had to re-schedule her drilling from last weekend to till after the election.

And finally, there is the Congressional victory of Mia Love, the black daughter of Haitian-American immigrants, a Mormon who served as the mayor of a small Utah town. Previously she was a flight attendant. Her multiple firsts and her seemingly incompatible, uncorrelated combination of background and beliefs that didn't match stereotypes caused liberal heads to explode as Jon Stewart of the "Daily Show" jokingly explains. The mention of Love comes at the 55-second mark as Stewart tries to form Love's description into an understandable whole but watch the entire segment as he seemingly melts down over the unexplainable (to him) election results.

Darron T. Smith, Ph.D and a professor bluntly summed up his discomfort with Love in the Huffington Post.

She Looks Black, but Her Politics Are Red: What Mia Love's Victory Means for the Face of the GOP

Love's political convictions show a strong support for values that do not necessarily represent her interests as a member in any of these oppressed groups. For example, blacks are not doing well with respect to education, economics and health outcomes, while women still trail behind in salary and significant positions of power, and conservative politics are not typically known to aid these groups in such key issues. These actualities of Mia's existence seem to be diametrically opposed to her values that are grounded in a white, male, Christian context. She appears publicly unhampered by the daily grind of white racism that affects other racial minorities within the United States. Unlike most of them, Mia gets to walk through the hallowed doorways of white institutions controlled by elite, powerful men. She is allowed to pass through in her black, female body with the understanding that she must not see, speak or openly advocate for anything related to race or gender -- an unholy compromise. Hence, she might look black, but her politics are red. This is one way white privilege is reproduced at the legislative level of government. In fact, Mia, along with other notable black conservatives such as Allen West, Michael Steele, Amy Holmes, Alan Keyes and Tim Scott, subscribe to a party that rejects any notion of systemic racism as a central cause of black suffering within its basic tenets of individualism. What many conservatives fail to recognize is that individuals are connected to larger groups, and the group in which these Black Republicans belong persistently lags behind in every major social indicator.

Mia and others like her are seemingly out of touch with the political realities of African Americans and what remains at stake for them.

In other words, women as three-dimensional human beings with a variety of interests, ideas, and actions not necessarily related to their gender, women who are independent and able to function without government support, women who do not see themselves as victims and take responsibility for their actions, can win elections. Deal with it, liberals!