twelve oaks

"War, war, war, war!  Talk of war has ruined all the best parties this year…" 

Well, jump up and slap the mule!  Southern women are leaving the Republican party in droves.

From the Department of It Doesn’t Get Much Sweeter Than This:

War turns southern women away from GOP

By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 7, 3:43 PM ET

MACON, Ga. –

President Bush’s once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks.

"I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He’s been an embarrassment."

It doesn’t get much nastier than a comparison to Grant.  At least, not in Macon, which was one of the only cities in Georgia left standing after Sherman’s march to the sea in 1864. 


Now, anger over the Iraq war and frustration with the country’s direction have taken a toll on the president’s popularity and stirred dissatisfaction with the Republican-held Congress.

Republicans on the ballot this November have reason to worry. A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that three out of five Southern women surveyed said they planned to vote for a Democrat in the midterm elections. With control of the Senate and House in the balance, such a seismic shift could have dire consequences for the GOP.

Yeaaaaaah!!!!  We like dire consequences for the GOP!  I would even go so far as to say that we love them.

Sandy Rubin, a high school teacher in Macon, voted for Bush and said she’s also likely to vote for (conservative Dem. Rep. Jim) Marshall. Rubin said the GOP’s focus on issues that appeal to social conservatives, such as gay marriage and abortion, have turned her off.

"I care about job security and education. The things I hear the Republicans emphasizing in their campaigns are not things that affect me or my family," said the 39-year-old mother of two.

Thank you, Jesus!!  Dawn breaks on Marblehead!!  God DAMN!  How long has our side been saying this now?  If you’re against abortion, DON’T HAVE ONE.  If you’re against gay marriage, DON’T MARRY A GAY PERSON.  And otherwise, how about minding your own business?  Because, right now?  There’s some huge and important shit that needs to be addressed in this country, and Bill Frist’s 2006 Senate agenda covered precisely NONE of it.

I see this as a deeply promising development.  I believe Southern women to be practical, pragmatic, and sensible as a group.  I have certainly known some brilliant, gritty Steel Magnolias in my time.  And let me tell you something.  The South is a matriarchy.  Sexism is alive and well here, but what this tends to end up meaning is that the men just think they run everything, and in terms of anything that can but put on a piece of paper, that’s true.  Tax codes, building permits, laws, licenses, and zoning regulations?  The men have got that sewn up.  But regarding everything else?  Two words.

Clue.

Less.

Send them home to a house with no women in it?  They’ll burn the whole place down trying to fix a cup of coffee.  They won’t be able to wash dishes because their brakes are in the sink.  It’s like the mother says in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "The man may be the head of the house, but the woman is the neck.  And the neck can turn the head any way she wants."

It looks grim for the GOP, alright.  Women control about 70-80 percent of all the food in the South and well, ahem, all the pussy.  (That’s kind of a monopoly market.)  I have high hopes for a Dixie Lysistrata.

Southern women know about hard times.  From the Reconstruction to the Great Depression to the Reagan Recession to now, they have fought to feed their families and provide stability and comfort amid shifting fortunes.  They know a raw deal when they see one.  And the GOP deal is appearing increasingly raw every hour.

It’s not just the war.  It’s gas and energy prices.  It’s groceries.  It’s health care.  It’s Katrina.  

Actually, I think a lot more of it than the article lets on is about Katrina.  You have to remember that huge swaths of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are still in ruins, and guess who lives in those states?  That’s right.  Southerners.  All of us know someone affected by that storm and the cascading sets of errors that followed.  

So, unless they’re crazy…

Still, some Southern women remain stalwart supporters of the president and the Republican Party. At a watermelon festival in Chickamauga, in the mountains of northwest Georgia, substitute teacher Clydeen Tomanio said she remains committed to the party she’s called home for 43 years.


"There are some people, and I’m one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord," Tomanio said. "I don’t care how he governs, I will support him. I’m a Republican through and through."

…Southern women pretty much hold the keys to the future!  Let’s welcome these newly minted Democrats to the party, shall we?  Show some love!  And just maybe, if we’re very lucky, they will bring some of those tiny crustless sandwiches with the pickles and the cream cheese in them. 

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