One of the things that hurt the Republican Party in the 2012 election was the huge gender gap in American politics. Women voters simply did not like the policies of the Republican Party, and showed that by voting for Democrats by a large margin. And that same gender gap still persists on many of the most important issues being debated today.That is the conclusion of a recent NBC News / Wall Street Journal Poll (taken between December 4th and 8th of a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults, with a margin of error of 3.1 points). That poll shows women still exhibiting a much more progressive attitude toward issues than men. Women have a much more negative attitude toward the NRA, and many more of them want to see stricter laws on who can buy a gun (about 19 points more than men).
Women also give the president a 12 point better rating on his job performance than men do, and have a 9 point more positive attitude about Obamacare than men do. They also, by a 20 point margin over men, believe the GOP shutdown of government significantly hurt the economy.
But perhaps the most significant difference between men and women is in who they would prefer to control Congress -- because that could have a very big impact on the 2014 election. While a slight 52% majority of men (within the poll's margin of error) would prefer to see the Republicans control Congress, women have a much different view (with only 38% wanting GOP control). That's a 14 point difference between the genders.
This should be a significant concern to the Republican Party, because women vote in larger numbers than men -- and that 52% majority among men is not nearly large enough to offset their disadvantage among women. And there is evidence that they are worried -- since they are holding training sessions for their candidates on how to couch their issues during a campaign in a more female-friendly way.
I doubt that will work though. They are not willing to change or moderate any of their anti-woman policies, but only to couch those distasteful policies in a nicer way. They evidently think women are stupid, and will vote for anti-woman policies as long as those policies are expressed in a nicer way. But women are not as stupid as the GOP thinks. In my experience, women are at least as smart (and probably smarter) than most men when it comes to politics -- and treating them like second-class citizens who must be coddled and guided by men is not only a misguided, but very stupid policy.
