Chicago - A front-page article in the New York Times tells us that George W. Bush must win the women's vote in order to win the presidency. Ann Coulter, one of the interchangeable blond right-wing commentators, says that he can do that easily: "Chicks like cute dumb guys."
I don't know how many "chicks" like Bush's stand on abortion, but I do know that women have reason to be leery of a man who counts as one of his principal advisers Marvin Olasky, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas who is a promoter of "Christian journalism."
Olasky has been credited by Bush with his ideas on compassionate conservatism and on "faith-based institutions" as substitutes for welfare programs. Bush was drawn to Olasky because of a drug program, Teen Challenge, supported by Olasky - a program that seeks to convert addicts to Christianity.
Given his attitude to biblical values, it is perhaps not surprising that Olasky would give an interview to the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, though most people involved in politics would have some misgivings about appearing in a journal devoted to proving that the Bible says men and women are not equal, that women must be submissive to men, and that men who do not assert their superiority have been "neutered" by secularists.
This goes beyond Bob Jones'views on interracial dating. It argues that all dating is mixed - between superior and inferior creatures. Those who deny this are called "egalitariansquot the supreme term of denunciation in magazine. An egalitarian anyone claims men women equal.
What message did Olasky have for these fellow believers? He probably sounded like a heretic to them, since he said he might conceivably vote for a woman to be president - but only if there has been "an abdication of men." The role rightly belongs to a man, in other words, and a woman could be considered only if men had been derelict in claiming their right. "I would vote for a woman for the presidency in some situation, but again, there's a certain shame attached. Why don't you have a man who's able to step forward?" A woman in office is a shame to the community, which has not done its job of putting the rightful person there.
Do chicks love dumb religious guys? If not, George Bush better find a new adviser on compassionate conservatism and faith-based institutions.
© Copyright 2000 Omaha World-Herald Company.
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