The war on the war on women
This seems like an exceptionally worthy cause:
The UP Project, which stands for “Unlocking Potential,” will seek to help Republicans win back the Senate by directly confronting Democrats and their “war on women” narrative.
But unlike other super PACs, the UP Project will not do battle on TV. Instead, the PAC will solely focus on the ground game, organizing and mobilizing grassroots networks, especially of women, that can help Republicans win the messaging battle woman-to-woman and neighbor-to-neighbor.
“We need to name and shame Democrats who play the ‘war on women’ game,” Fiorina told Breitbart News. “Too often, Republicans have allowed the label to stick because of a misguided theory that by ignoring a charge it just goes away…We need to organize strong conservative activists, especially women, and energize them to take action on behalf of our conservative principles. Women make up half this country. The UP Project is no longer going to allow Democrats to pretend we are single-issue voters.”
Do Fiorina is playing the activist game (heads up, commenter “Eric”).
I contributed $100 to UP last week. My reason is that I think Carly Fiorina has the aggressive drive, and articulate talent to challenge the Dems in what I think has been a very successful capturing of the single female vote. More power to Carly!
Great GOP insight, that women make up 50% of this country, and it has the courage to say so. Gosh, wow and golly gee. Who would have thought?
What is implied, if only to me, is that this UP group sees women just as chicken-brained as the Dems do. Just gotta herd them in the right direction. I guess activism requires activity, as in “If in doubt, do something, anything.”
I expect this to die out soon.
Don Carlos:
Mock all you want, but it sounds like a good idea to me. The GOP hasn’t countered the Democratic “War on Women” meme effectively, and it was one of the main things that cost them the 2012 election, with all the awful stuff that has followed from that.
As for women as being chicken-brained: women do seem to respond to different approaches and to have different voting patterns than men, on average. There are a lot of illogical people of both genders, but women (including many of the academically intelligent women I know) seem to react quite emotionally to issues. A political party ignores all of this at its peril.
Personally I think this is a good idea, and I’m glad UP will be working to boost Joni Ernst’s campaign. JE has a very good chance of winning Harkin’s empty chair.
shall await the UP campaign. But Carly Fiorina is a woman, ran as an identifiable woman in CA where women were/are still presumably 50% of the electorate, and lost. So she didn’t suck in female votes by being female, unlike black Barack with blacks.
Something is missing for me here. Maybe getting all emotional about it is an answer. The vision of women running around flapping their arms as an election solution leaves me cold, though. It is too unreasoning, almost mob-like, to be a sound answer to electoral prayers.
Now, if the object is to overcome emotive thinking among females, I’m all aboard.
I just checked. Fiorina lost the women’s vote to Boxer 40/60. So Fiorina was seen as too masculine by too many??
She ran in California with an (R) next to her name. That’s the same state that currently has Democratic supermajorities in both legislative houses, in addition to the Democrat in the governor’s mansion.
If you have an R next to your name on the ballot, and you’re running for statewide office, you’re going to lose in a big way in California.
Now part of the reason why the libs are able to get the support that they do is because of certain wide-spread assumptions. Republicans are racist. Republicans are sexist. Minorities and women who run as a Republican aren’t really minorities or women. These are attitudes that large segments of the population hold. These views won’t be overcome by a candidate running for office. A conservative candidate who somehow got large chunks of the Democatic base would essentially be viewed as winning *despite* the fact that he or she was obviously racist and sexist.
The only way to overcome those views is by educating the public at the ground level. And it appears that’s what Fiorina is attempting to do here.
Don Carlos:
I don’t think Fiorina is suggesting arm-flapping as a solution. Her PAC seems to be geared to recruiting conservative/Republican women to speak to other women about the issues and the conservative take on them. In other words, to cut into the emotional messages of the left (War on Women! They’ll take away your precious birth control!) with the actual facts of the actual conservative positions. That sort of discussion can probably best come from a woman to other women in terms of what the liberal women might be able to take in, information-wise.
DC has already given up and is shipping out to some foreign country with his Doctor credentials.
He has no skin, and thus no weight, in this conflict any more.
junior: “Now part of the reason why the libs are able to get the support that they do is because of certain wide-spread assumptions. … These are attitudes that large segments of the population hold. These views won’t be overcome by a candidate running for office. … The only way to overcome those views is by educating the public at the ground level.”
You get it. It can be called pre-politics but saying it that way privileges electoral politics as the primary focus.
Rather, electoral politics have been subsumed by the full-spectrum activist game so that electoral politics are a lesser included element.
The activist game is the only social political game there is.
Thanks for your kind words, Ymar. But I know futility when I see it. I am amazed at Neo’s enthusiasm for UP, given that a Mind is a Difficult Thing to Change.
I’d like to see her strategy. The board fired her from Hewlett Packard for her business strategy which some characterized as a lack of strategy. She also gave a speech which is so PC it’s funny.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/minnesota01.html
Don Carlos:
Who says it’s easy? But it’s necessary.
Ray:
Great link. Most valuable. I am not sure if it tells us about her, or about the audience she was trying to impress. Neither is good.
I particularly enjoyed her high praise of Islam from 800 to 1600 AD, including reference to Suleiman the Magnificent–two weeks after 9/11.
What a worm. She would have been just as intellectually impaired a Senator as B Boxer.
grassroots are not organized by PACS, astroturf is