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By Stephanie Herman Rightgrrl Co-Founder stephanie@free-market.net November 14, 2000 |
“Women and people of color fought too hard, for too long, to have their right to vote compromised by an inept process,” sniffed a N.O.W. statement released Friday, Nov. 10. “An absence of malice in this situation does not excuse the will of the people being thwarted. If it proves necessary, then a re-vote must be called in the affected Florida counties to ensure that voters' choices are accurately reflected in this election's outcome.” [emphasis added]
Yes, it would be nice, not to mention expensive, to ensure that all voters’ choices are accurately reflected. Unfortunately, the cruel reality is that voter mistakes are not preventable by law. Not in Utopia, and not in Palm Beach County.
This matter of revotes (yeah, right) and hand recounts will soon be settled, but it’s conveniently spawned a new crisis for feminists a group of ladies who have historically claimed to so value their right to vote, but who have suddenly found that the right to vote just isn’t enough. There must now be a Constitutional guarantee against their own voting errors. N.O.W.’s insistence that we “Fix the Florida Voting Fiasco” is another way of saying that in order to make our votes count, the state must ensure that all votes are correct, giving unconstitutional second and third chances to voters, or by proactively interpreting what each voter may or may not have intended to say in the ballot booth.
Of course, the feminist demand that government correct the mistakes of women is not new. Twenty-seven years ago they demanded the “right” to kill offspring they might mistakenly conceive. If feminist mothers make mistakes raising their kids, it should be the government’s responsibility to keep guns out of their misbehaving hands. And if feminists mistakenly fail to plan for their future, programs like WISER insist that Social Security not only bail them out, but prevent other forward-thinking women from investing for their own retirement.
The liberal feminist message to Big Daddy government was rather eloquently encapsulated by The Who back in the Baby Boom’s heyday: “If I swallow anything evil, put your finger down my throat. If I shiver please give me a blanket. Keep me warm; let me wear your coat.” And conservatives can save their breath trying to argue the cause of freedom against feminist attempts to regulate life. It’s the “freedom” to make mistakes that liberal groups like NOW want to eliminate. If only we could legislate our weaknesses, judgmentalism, greed, hatred, incompetence, and occasional voter-errors out of existence, eh?
But the fact that these Democrat voters in Florida were victimized by a ballot of Democrat design illuminates a reality that has always eluded us Republicans. It’s not the conservative mindset that Democrats fight most to overturn it’s human nature. Remember, N.O.W. admits an “absence of malice,” yet still finds that injustice abounds.
Personally, I find it ironic that in light of what is a presumably inexcusable level of voter error, Hillary Clinton’s recommendation is to “move to the popular election of our president.” Is that really wise? I can see it now: feminists filing suit and demanding a re-vote because an inordinate percentage of female Democratic voters in Palm Beach County accidentally wrote in Hugh Hefner for President.
This article copyright © 2000 by Stephanie Herman and may not be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of its author. All rights reserved.