Robert Reich comments on Trump's problem with women. Here is part of what he says:
Donald Trump has a yuge woman problem. Below, I first examine why; then discuss how women are likely to vote; and, finally, put Trumpism in the context of authoritarianism and fascism.
1. Why Trump has a woman problem
Not just because he’s had many wives and sexual escapades.
Not just because he had an affair with an adult film star soon after his wife gave birth.
Not just because of his crude references to women: “stars can do anything with women … grab ‘em by the pu**y;” a female interviewer “had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever;” women are “crazy,” “unhinged,” “nasty.”
Or his recent repost of old photographs of Harris and Hillary Clinton followed by the comment: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently” (referring to Harris’s once dating San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern).
There’s also the issue of abortion. Trump was dead against all abortions in 2016. He put three justices on the Supreme Court who joined Justice Samuel Alito in reversing Roe v. Wade, with the result that one out of three women of childbearing age now lives in a state where abortion is effectively banned.
Swing states Nevada and Arizona have abortion-related ballot measures this fall, which may fuel turnout among independent women.
Beyond all this are the dozen or more allegations of Trump sexually harassing, abusing, and, yes, raping women. . . .
Trump’s woman problem has grown even worse by his picking JD Vance for vice president.
In an interview from 2020, Vance agreed with a podcast host who said having grandmothers help raise children is “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female.”
When confronted about his 2021 reference that women leaders in America are “a bunch of childless cat ladies,” Vance told Megyn Kelly: “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats.”
Vance has criticized divorce even for women suffering domestic violence. When “people can shift spouses like they change their underwear” it doesn’t work out “for the kids of those marriages.”
2. How women are likely to vote
There are 3 million more women in America than men. And they almost always vote in larger numbers than men. In 2020, 74 percent of adult U.S. women said they voted, vs. 71 percent of men.
That split has held true for more than 40 years — in every presidential election beginning in 1980, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
There’s also a big split in voter registration: 89 million women told census surveyors they were registered in 2020, vs. 79 million men.
The 2024 election may set the record for women voting — and voting for the Democratic candidate for president. As I noted at the outset, the ABC News/Ipsos poll released September 1 found Harris leading Trump among women by 54 percent to 41 percent.
The gender chasm is even larger among women under 30 — an overwhelming 67 percent of whom plan to vote for Harris, while just 29 percent back Trump, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.
A Quinnipiac Poll in mid-August found a similar gender chasm among likely voters in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania: Women backed Harris 54 percent to 41 percent, while men went for Trump, 49 percent to 42 percent. (Overall, Harris was up 48 percent to 45 percent.)
3. Trumpism and male dominance
Trump’s world view is organized around male dominance. For Trump, as in most authoritarian and fascist states, anything that challenges the traditional heroic male roles of protector, provider, and controller of the family is considered a threat to the social order.
Last week, Trump’s new ally, billionaire Elon Musk — whom Trump wants to run a “government efficiency commission” — promoted a theory that advocates a “Republic” led exclusively by “high-status males” with “high testosterone levels.”
Friends, we’re close to The Handmaid’s Tale territory.
