National NOW Times >> Winter 05-06 >> Article

Viewpoint

By Kim Gandy, NOW President

"They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas!"

Who said that? Believe it or not, it was Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Nov. 1, sputtering about the Democrats who forced a closed-door Senate session to demand completion of the yearlong Senate investigation into whether Congress was misled by the White House in the runup to the Iraq war. They finally stood up.

And it's about time. Years after Congress was strong-armed by the Bush administration into giving Bush carte blanche to go to war, those who were lied to and given false evidence deserve the truth — no, I don't mean the Senate deserves it, I mean the WE THE PEOPLE deserve the truth. But it took the Senate "intelligence" committee's foot-dragging for the past year to finally give our elected representatives the backbone to stand up and demand answers.

Let's hope this example of leadership isn't a one-time event, and that it gives more politicians the confidence to take on Bush and his cronies. One thing that ought to stiffen their spines is the new CBS News poll conducted Oct. 30-Nov. 1, which showed George W. Bush's overall job approval down to 35 percent, with 57 percent disapproving – an unprecedented 22 point gap.

George W. Bush is taking this country in the wrong direction, especially when it comes to women's rights, and the politicians who count on women's votes need to be saying that EVERY DAY.

There are too many so-called political leaders who call themselves "moderate" or even "progressive" but who are really trying to be "Republican-lite," and they're being encouraged by many leaders (and consultants) in the Democratic party, which can’t seem to decide whether IT wants to be “Republican-lite” as well.

We can all disagree on strategy, but we can't sacrifice the rights of women and people of color (you know, the "special interests") and call that a winning strategy. In a recent discussion of the Alito nomination, one of the consultants actually said that while Alito's position on abortion was critical, we needed to reinforce that he was bad on many issues that affect "ordinary people." Oh, really. Maybe we need a "women are people, too" button.

Women are active in every coalition on every issue, working across the country for ALL of our rights, and yet our own rights are the first to be tossed overboard. Our reproductive rights are treated as a disposable issue, or even a "losing" issue by political party leaders.

We all know the numbers — that last year's election wasn't about values at all — at least not about the ones the pundits talk about. And most especially it wasn't about abortion — because both candidates ran away from the issue as fast as they could.

But the discussion does need to be about morality. Women in this country are losing their right to make their own moral decisions about childbearing, and whether and when it is right for them and their families. Those rights are being shredded by a Congress and state legislatures that are overwhelmingly male. These same legislators are letting pharmacists refuse to dispense birth control pills if they have a religious or moral objection — and even to refuse the "morning after" pill to a rape victim.

No, this kind of voting isn't only coming from the right wing. Earlier this year U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), changed his vote on a bill that would jail a grandmother or sister or aunt who went with a teenager across state lines for an abortion. He said: "I'm going to follow my church leadership and vote in favor of this bill." He went on to say that "We have to start being flexible" on issues such as abortion and gay rights.

Now where might that idea have come from? John Kerry saying "We need to recruit and elect more pro-life Democrats"? Or Howard Dean praising anti-abortion Democrats in Alabama? Or Chuck Schumer recruiting an anti-abortion Democrat to run for the Senate in a blue state — and forcing out a strong female candidate who was pro-choice?

If that’s is going to be their plan — if it means abandoning core principles — if it means throwing women's rights overboard like so much ballast — if it means picking and choosing which of us have moral value and which of us don't — just to create some sort of fictional "big tent" . . . then women will need a new tent.