Can the Women’s Movement Learn a Lesson from the Tea Party?
March 17, 2010
by Kitt
|
The New York Times reports Tea Party Avoids Divisive Social Issues. The article is all about how leaders want to keep their members focused on core issues of the debt and smaller government. They recognize that focus on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage is divisive and counterproductive to their cause.
But as the Tea Party infuses conservatism with new energy, its leaders deliberately avoid discussion of issues like gay marriage or abortion.
snip
Tea Party leaders argue that the country can ill afford the discussion about social issues when it is passing on enormous debts to future generations. But the focus is also strategic: leaders think they can attract independent voters if they stay away from divisive issues.
“We should be creating the biggest tent possible around the economic conservative issue,” said Ryan Hecker, the organizer behind the Contract From America. “I think social issues may matter to particular individuals, but at the end of the day, the movement should be agnostic about it.
snip
Jenny Beth Martin, the leader of the Tea Party Patriots, complained that she spent the days after the convention answering questions about social issues.
“When people ask about them, we say, ‘Go get involved in other organizations that already deal with social issues very well,’ ” she said. “We have to be diligent and stay on message.”
snip
Raising social issues, the movement’s leaders say, risks fracturing the strength it has built. “Every social issue you bring in, you’re adding planks to your mission,” said Frank Anderson, a founder of the Independence Caucus, based in Utah. “And planks become splinters.”
Agree with the Tea Party’s core mission or not, no one can doubt the effectiveness of their strategy or deny the impact they’ve had. It should come as no surprise that one of their primary tactics is unity and focus. For regular readers of our blog, this is not a new concept.
From the beginning, we chose a nonpartisan, big tent path, specifically not taking a stand on the abortion issue. This was the “new” in The New Agenda. The founders of our organization had the wisdom to see that the abortion issue was a divider for women. They asked themselves, “Have we come a long way baby?” The answer was, “No. We need to go further and this divisive issue is holding us back.” The goal of The New Agenda was and is to organize women around issues which unite us and bring women and girls forward in our country. We’ve been hammering that point over and over again. Yet the strategy which the Tea Party has embraced is slow to catch on with women. Can the women’s movement learn a lesson from the Tea Party?
It is possible for women to look beyond one issue and see what is waiting down the road? Can we envision a place where women feel safe at home and walking down a street at night? A society in which sexualization of our daughters is not a constant concern? A workplace where women are paid the same as men for the same work? A Congress with 50% women? A Madame President? A thriving country benefiting from having both halves of the population represented at all levels of government?
Have women been so focused on one issue for so many years they they cannot see that a better life is possible? Can women see that unity is the strategy of getting to that place?
I hope so. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a long way to go baby! But it can be done if women and like minded men unite. Will you join us?
Good point! Absolutely, I think women could learn something by avoiding divisive social issues and simply uniting on common ground.
I think the main reason the “tea party” has been more effective at getting attention, is because it’s a man’s movement, not a women’s movement. In a patriarchal system, men’s issues get paid attention to, women’s issues don’t. We know this. I really think it is that simple. We have to be persistent and not go away, someday our time will come and we’ll be ready.
Yes this is a very good point. Women are the majority and we need to act like it and take our power back. The women’s movement as represented by NOW had more outrage for injustices toward people of color and gay men than they did about anything women endure especially if the women in question were not well educated. Reproductive rights do not affect all females, probably half are too young or too old for the issue to matter, and there are other ways to control fertility than abortion. We need to stick to issues that affect all women like equal pay, the threat of violence toward women and images of women in media.
Another thing women need to do for ourselves and for our daughters is stop trying to make male corporate media meet our needs. We have tried and they have done nothing but get worse, Corporate media are happy with their misogynist product. We need to create an alternate media world for female ideas and entertainment. Stop complaining about mistreatment by media and start creating our own herstory, mythology, culture, news and entertainment. The internet and innovations that bring the cost of publishing down to nothing like the Kindle give us an unprecedented window of opportunity. But we need to be quick to utilize them because corporations will not be pleased to have their gate-keeping abilities ended and will work to control the internet and gate-keep who can use it to talk just like they have with TV, movies, magazines etc.
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
February 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm
January 30, 2012 at 2:36 pm
January 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
January 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
January 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
January 9, 2012 at 6:36 pm
January 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
January 5, 2012 at 9:31 am
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online