By Diane Roberts
The United States might soon elect its first female president.
If that happens, it will be no thanks to the self-loathing women reluctant to vote for her.
As one said in a focus group run by Never Trump Republicans: “I don’t feel as though a woman belongs in the presidential seat.” Women “think with our heart, mostly, over our mind, and that’s not what we need right now.”
A young woman wearing a “Say No to the Hoe” T-shirt at a rally in Pennsylvania told the Washington Post, “When I sleep at night, I want a man running our country,” adding, “Men are stronger. Women are hormonal.”
But none of these female misogynists come close to the contempt exhibited by the men who think God ordained them to rule the world — and women.
Former Fox “News” host Tucker Carlson warmed up for Donald Trump at a rally in Georgia, crowing about how “dad” is coming home to teach the vice president of the United States a sharp lesson: “You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now.”
Nice, huh?
Of course, Trump is America’s undisputed champion sexist, a Me-Too monster and adjudicated rapist who began his original run for the White House by attacking a debate moderator (“blood coming out of her wherever”) and carries on lobbing gendered insults at the Democratic nominee, calling her “stupid” and “nasty,” and suggesting she slept her way to the high office.
Trump’s mini-me, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also despises women: Indeed, his disregard for us and our right to determine what happens with our own bodies is nothing short of obsessive.
Any means necessary
DeSantis knows the majority of Floridians — like the majority of Americans — support a woman’s right to choose whether to have a baby, and he’s so scared Amendment 4 will pass he’s resorting to using every dirty trick in the patriarchal book to stop it.
A new University of North Florida poll shows 60% of voters are in favor of enshrining the right to abortion in the state Constitution.
That’s the minimum required to pass. Around 8% say they “don’t know” or are “undecided.” It’s close.
So, DeSantis has thrown himself, his administration, and a not-inconsiderable amount of your money into defeating the amendment by any means necessary, including lying, spending state money unlawfully, and violating the First Amendment.
Pro-Amendment 4 groups have been running television ads — normal election-year stuff — that feature a woman called “Caroline” who’d been pregnant when she was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer. To be treated with chemotherapy, she had to get an abortion.
If Florida’s six-week law had been in effect when she found out how sick she was, she would likely have been denied the right to end her pregnancy. It could have killed her.
Other Florida women, now subject to DeSantis’ de facto abortion ban, have nearly died because doctors, fearing they could be prosecuted under state law, hesitated to intervene even as theirr patients became infected and nearly bled to death.
DeSantis, the Florida Department of Health, and the quack who calls himself the state surgeon general, are running around pitching hissy fits over the Amendment 4 campaign, claiming “Caroline’s” story is fake: nothing more than pro-abortion liberal lies.
‘The First Amendment, stupid’
Lawyers in DeSantis’ office drafted cease-and-desist letters to broadcasters, threatening them with criminal charges if they didn’t take down the ads.
That is not legal.
Indeed, John Wilson, general counsel to the state DOH, resigned rather than participate in the governor’s assault on media freedom.
“A man is nothing without his conscience,” he said.
Federal Judge Mark Walker was also unimpressed, temporarily barring the state from trying to strong-arm broadcasters and “trampling” on free speech.
In his order, Judge Walker wrote, “To keep it simple for the state of Florida, it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
Maybe Ron DeSantis slept through class at Harvard Law, or maybe he just figures he can flout the Constitution whenever he feels like it.
He’s sent his “election police” to intimidate people who signed petitions to get reproductive rights on the ballot.
He mandated an absurd “Impact Statement” appear on the ballot right below the amendment itself, claiming more abortions means fewer people in Florida and thus less money.
And it might be the state will choose to sue over the right to abortion (no matter what the voters decide) and that will cost the state — that is, you, taxpayer! — more money.
Plus, what if somehow the state is forced to subsidize abortions, even though the amendment says nothing about that?
DeSantis claims that because the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Michigan challenging that state’s ban on public funding for abortions means the same thing will happen in Florida and the end of the world will be at hand.
Never mind that Michigan law applies only to, er, Michigan.
Goons
Now DeSantis and a goon squad of anti-choice doctors, dressed in immaculate white lab coats, are barnstorming the state from Jacksonville on down, railing against Amendment 4.
Did I mention taxpayers are footing the bill for all this?
In Coral Gables, the Archbishop of Miami prayed over the governor and the doctors, though when it comes to questions involving children, I’m not sure the Catholic Church has a whole lot of credibility.
Neither does Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, who has adopted the same wild-eyed crazy lady act as the Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake or the dog-shooting Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, exhorting the faithful, “We cannot go to church and pray like Christians and turn around and vote like atheists.”
If you know the New Testament (which the DeSantis administration clearly does not), you’ll recall that there’s not a single word in there about abortion.
The governor is becoming increasingly hysterical, calling Amendment 4 “radical,” “dangerous,” and that, since it requires parental notification, but not parental consent, if a minor wants an abortion, teenaged girls will run amok terminating pregnancies all over the place.
Far better their mothers and fathers force them to have a baby at age 14 or 15 or 16.
It’s the wages of sin, right?
Even worse, DeSantis says, Florida will become “this major abortion tourist destination.”
I thought we loved tourists in this state.
But we don’t love women.
We don’t trust women, even with their own bodies.
It’s 2024 and we still have people who think women can’t run a country (tell it to Margaret Thatcher) or should be disciplined when men decide they’re “bad little girls.”
Who knows what will happen on Nov. 5, but it may be the misogynists and the autocrat-wannabes getting the spanking.
Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she began producing columns on the legislature for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo. She has been a member of the Editorial Board of the St. Petersburg Times–back when that was the Tampa Bay Times’s name–and a long-time columnist for the paper in both its iterations. She was a commentator on NPR for 22 years and continues to contribute radio essays and opinion pieces to the BBC. Roberts is also the author of four books.
Jason Barton says
Excellent opinion piece, and it’s terrifying that so many men (and some women) want to go back to a time when a man pretty much could slap his wife around, and the law, and society at large, pretty much looked the other way. To paraphrase Tim Walz, this Tue the women of America are going to tell them what they think of ideas like that … whether they like it or not.
Jim says
I hope that 60+% of the voters in this state will support this change to the constitution. First, because it’s the right thing to do. Second, it would be great if DeSantis and his cronies would have to face the fact that they are out of step with their citizens and since we’re still a democracy as I write this, public servants should acknowledge the will of the people.
DeSantis has gotten away with spending a lot of our tax dollars on political stunts (flying migrants from Texas; election police and protecting our southern border from a hoard of Haitians that surely will arrive any year now…) so this is nothing new.
I just hope to be able to watch and listen to him blustering about a defeat the day after the election.
Deborah Coffey says
Even beyond contempt…murderous.
JC says
I’m Pro-Choice but not everyone wants the extremes of both sides. We know people don’t like the six-week ban, but there’s also a lot of people who don’t like the old Roe standards of normally 24-weeks where someone can end their pregnancy. I am not talking about medical issues (due to this is separate), I’m talking about just feeling like ending it near 24-weeks. We know this is rare, but just even having that law on the books is silly.
Polling doesn’t lie: People are ok with abortion up to around 12-15 weeks in numerous polls. Just having it back to Roe standards is just gross, and that’s what the people in the middle don’t want. I know a few people who are moderate in the debate in Flagler voted no on 4 due to the language is too board and too much in the other direction. They also hate the six-week ban, but they can’t vote for another extreme as well. They wish 4 was allowing abortion up to 12-15 weeks because that’s where the people in FL mostly want.
James says
There are certain issues for which there should be a third option on the ballot, that of abstaining.
This is one such issue.
Abortion rights (local or national), is one issue that should be determined by the female population among us, not the male segment. And to force a vote of yes or no on the issue by someone such as myself (who is male) by pushing it onto the ballot without an abstention option is absurd.
Just my opinion.
Atwp says
Tomorrow is Election Day. Will women vote for their or vote like crazy Republican men want them to vote? We shall see. Will women vote for their right to their bodies?
Jay Tomm says
Fact is you don’t try to pass amendments. This loophole needs to be closed. You want laws changed you go through the legal process. The voting people can be bought, sold, & lets be real are not that intelligent. A bunch of lawyers are the ones that got the MJ one on the ballet. THAT should tell you something!
No on all amendments!
JC says
Most of the amendments on the ballot was put on by the FL GOP in the FL Legislature, just a FYI.
Skibum says
I hear what you are saying, but men should be smart enough AND value women enough to be able to support them. One particularly important way we show our support for women and let them know that we value and respect them is to vote in favor of issues that are not only important to them, but critical for their health and wellbeing. Amendment 4 is just the issue to be able to let women know that men SEE them, we HEAR them, and have RESPECT for their views and their very lives.
Laurel says
Jay Tomm: Politicians can be bought and sold far more easily and often than the voting public. So, you prefer that the citizens have no say? You think the politicians are so much more intelligent than the public as a whole? You rather have big daddy tell us what’s good for us? Bet you’re voting for Trump.
Jay Tomm says
Yeah, only proves they are in the same boat with the dems…..
Not going to matter one bit who wins.
demand better says
any cancer patient that gets pregnant should be allowed to sue the GOP for pain and suffering. Defund the crooks.
demand better says
dont expect a concession speech this cult wont admit defeat no matter what.
James says
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree.
It’s a complex issue for which we have nothing to say… for or against.
If there was one observation that I made for which I was genuinely surprised by when Roe v. Wade was overturned, it was the fact that so many women were supportive of the decision.
Moreover, the reaction of many of these people didn’t seem at the time to be solely based on religious grounds (to me anyway), but on something more primal.
It did almost seem to be an expression of relief that this choice was removed from them. That a burden had somehow been lifted.
It was through those expressions that I then realized the enormity of the situation of making such a choice (that choice between life and death) for many of them. Just the possibility of making such a choice.
It is one that no one really should have to make. And clearly, that NO woman DOES MAKE LIGHTLY.
But many men are called upon to make nonetheless.
So, in short, this led me to consider the possibility that there is indeed a fundamental difference in the experiences of man and woman that are intertwined, but separate. Probably originating long ago in our social evolution. Our common hunter-gatherer origins.
For the most part, the female of the species was probably the gatherer and the male the hunter. It was probably, even then, the females choice as to when to bring new life into the group, based on what she perceived around her from what she gathered. She would be in a better position to judge the chances of survival than her male counterpart, who’s existence was always precarious and chance based.
What I’m suggesting is that at it’s core, it’s probably always been a woman’s decision. And one that was never taken lightly… to the extent that many understandably do not want.
Support and understanding of their delema yes, but voting on such a matter no.
Just some thoughts on the matter to explain my opinion, nothing more.
Skibum says
Thank you for clarifying your point. I can’t argue with your position.
James says
But I can.
I again realize another point, why is it that we as men always seem to want to “support and understand” this issue from a women’s perspective after the fact?
Perhaps we should strive to understand them before the fact.
Just one last opinion on the matter.
Peace.
Dolores says
didn’t quite happen that way.