Whenever someone says:
'there is no difference between parties'
-- show them the composition of the 116th US Congress.
Of the 102 Women in the US House,
only 19 are Republicans.
I think this is because too many women, especially Republican women, are content to keep on making the coffee while the men make the decisions. Democratic women make coffee too, but we decide what brand to buy and insist on having a fair shot at chairing the meeting.
Granted, there are Republican women who are elected officials. However, there are more Democratic Women in higher offices than Republicans.
It is not easy to get men to share power,
even with other men.
- White men, especially White Republican men vote for women much more rarely than White Democratic men, Latino men or Black men.
- Women help keep men in power. Over 50% of the US population is female but women have less than 20% representation in the 115th Congress and slightly under 25% in the 116th Congress which will be seated in January 2019.
- Republican women are more likely to vote for a man than for a woman.
The numbers tell it loud and clear.
- If you are female, and you want to serve in the US HOUSE or SENATE, you are five times more likely not to be elected if you run as a Republican than if you are a Democrat.
- Republicans elect women to serve in honorary positions where they make few decisions. For example,most of the Republican electors in the 2016 Texas Electoral College were women. They were bound electors pledged to support the Republican Convention's choice of candidates. Republicans are generous in electing women to the electoral college because they send them as bound electors -- not in positions to actually make decisions.
- Republicans like having tokens. They like having a few Blacks and Latinos in the crowd. It makes the party It looks more inclusive if they have a person of color immediately behind the candidate for photo ops.
- Even women corporate CEOs rarely win the nomination of the Republican party for President, Senate or US House of Representatives.They are more likely to be chosen as a Vice-Presidential running mate than for positions with greater immediate power.
Again, the numbers tell it all.
The Republican party has never
nominated a woman for president.
- Out of 25 GOP controlled US House seats in the Texas delegation and 2 Senatorial Seats, the Republicans have only one woman in the Texas delegation in the 114th and 115th Congress. Texas has been really slow to elect women to Congress. Most Congressional seats are gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
- In the history of Texas, only one Texas woman has ever been elected to the Senate, and she won with strong independent and cross-over partisan support.
- Currently, neither of the Republican senators from Texas is female.
- Democrats controlled only 11 Congressional seats in 2014 and 2016, but three of the Democratic U.S. Representatives are female.
- Following the 2018 mid-term election, the number of women in the Texas Federal delegation doubled. None of the new Congresswomen from Texas are Republican.
- Texas Republicans did not add any women or persons of color into their federal delegation. Republicans lost two congressional seats: one to a Democratic woman (Lizzie Fletcher - US TX 7) and one to a Black Democratic man (Colin Allred - US TX 32).
- Two of the 11 Democratic Congressional seats vacated by the resignation of Democratic Congressmen will be filled in the 116th Congress by former El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar and former Texas State Senator Sylvia Garcia, the first Latinas to serve in the US Congress.
Ideology aside, there is a vast difference between the parties.
A mere photo of the Republican Federal Delegation from Texas and of the Democratic Federal Delegation from Texas clearly shows that Republican voters are much less inclusive than Democratic voters.
Until you do, your daughters are bound to old tyrannies, and those who are forging our own paths are obstructed by the decisions of men you enable and propel into power.
We settle for too little.. As long as one woman works and votes against her own self interest, we are all hindered in our journey.
We may think that labels such as liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican or Independent are the great divide. I think the bigger divide is between those who are daring to swim for our lives and those who stand on the shore yelling that women have no business being in the water.
A mere photo of the Republican Federal Delegation from Texas and of the Democratic Federal Delegation from Texas clearly shows that Republican voters are much less inclusive than Democratic voters.
- Nationwide, that same reality is reflected in the composition of the 115th and the 116th US Congress.
- If there were no difference, we would have many more women in the US House and Senate.
- If Republican women were as likely to be elected as Democratic women, this year, instead of approaching 25% female in the US House, we would be approaching 40%.
Republican women need to wake up.
You can continue playing the little woman who is the worker bee while letting the boys make the decisions for you, or you can think for yourself and step into roles where you forge your own destiny. Until you do, your daughters are bound to old tyrannies, and those who are forging our own paths are obstructed by the decisions of men you enable and propel into power.
The biggest obstacle in America today
is not Donald Trump.
It is that too many women
underestimate our own worth,
decision making ability and competence.
We settle for too little.. As long as one woman works and votes against her own self interest, we are all hindered in our journey.
We may think that labels such as liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican or Independent are the great divide. I think the bigger divide is between those who are daring to swim for our lives and those who stand on the shore yelling that women have no business being in the water.
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