Are You Ready for a Woman President?

Election Day Message: Let Patriarchy Fall

Are You Ready for “Madame President?” (ERIN SCHAFF | Credit: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Over this past weekend, a lightning bolt struck the state of Iowa. If you were conscious, you would probably hear that loud “BOOM.” Ann Selzer released her last pre-election poll through the Des Moines Register, showing Harris ahead of Trump by 3 points.

That was on Saturday, and it sent the Trump camp into such a panic that by Sunday afternoon, that campaign began running ads in Iowa…for the first time since the primaries. That is the definition of panic.

On Monday, I was privileged to be on a webinar call with Ann Selzer, sponsored by Julie Gammack’s “Iowa Potluck Podcast.” (Thank you, Julie) What I heard from Selzer was astounding. Here is what she shared:

First, Ann uses a forward-looking methodology for pulling polling data, which is the opposite of what many pollsters do. In other words, her algorithm predicts future behavior based on responses from those who “definitely plan to vote” or have “definitely already voted.”

Traditional pollsters usually try to “sculpt” a population based on the past voting behavior of various groups, premised on the idea that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Both methods are valid, but one cannot dispute the accuracy and efficacy of Selzer’s model.

She correctly predicted Trump’s win in Iowa in 2016 and 2020 within one point of the actual totals. She mentioned that she tries not to manipulate the data much to let it speak for itself. She doesn’t overestimate support nor try to compensate for intangible factors.

Second, she also identified the month-long trendline that showed growing support for Harris in the Hawkeye state. In June, Biden was down in Iowa by 18 points. But by September, Harris had narrowed that gap to a -4 point deficit. Friends, the simple math shows that she erased 14 points off the deficit in two or three months. That should have been an earthquake.

Then, Selzer went on to identify the group driving the trend line. Older women (over 65) are breaking for Harris and likely breaking their husbands' wishes in the process. Women who grew up under the protection of Roe and had personal bodily autonomy and access to reproductive healthcare are not going to stand for a society where their daughters and granddaughters have fewer rights. women in conservative states are denied reproductive rights, meaning jurisdiction over their own bodies and in some cases survival if an abortion or pregnancy becomes a medical emergency.

Let the patriarchy fall. It is time for women to save our democracy and save our country from the worst impulses of MAGA men who see women as almost chattel. Thank you, Ann Selzer, for revealing this trend. I can only hope and imagine that if this is true in Iowa, there must be a similar trendline in other Midwestern States like Wisconsin and Michigan. And how about Kansas? Please keep an eye on Kansas tonight. There may be a surprise brewing there.

Women have put up with ceaseless rude and rogue masculinity long enough. I outlined Trump’s history with women in my last article, “Donald Wants To Protect Women?” so I won’t restate all of those gems. But his behavior, even in these last few weeks, has gotten more crude and lewd. Mocking sexual behavior with a microphone. His VP candidate, Vance, is calling Harris “trash.”

Women in conservative states are denied reproductive rights, meaning jurisdiction over their own bodies and, in some cases, survival if an abortion or pregnancy becomes a medical emergency. But beyond those fundamental violations of women’s rights, there is the MAGA philosophy of extreme patriarchy. Maga men don’t think that wives and girlfriends should be free to vote as they wish, nor that wives and girlfriends have the right to privacy in their political choices.

Consider the toxic “Christian Masculinity” from the MAGA “Christians” like Charlie Kirk, who said on his podcast on November 1 in response to a Harris ad encouraging women to vote their conscience, which includes not having to be accountable to their husbands for voting differently,

I think the Democrats do not believe in the nuclear family, and they've already destroyed it in the macro, and now they're trying to destroy it in the micro. In no political situation should you want to undermine a union between a man — a husband and a wife. And voting is really important. And you have to ask, what else is she lying to him about? Is she stealing money? Is she lying about other potential things? Because that's — what that is — that is a lie. She's obviously saying one thing to her husband and doing a different thing. It is hard to put into words how vile that is.

How about the fundamentalist Christian pastor Dale Partridge arguing in a series of tweets that “in a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction”? For MAGA Christians, the 19th Amendment is null, and a woman as an individual has no personal choice or agency.

There is this gem from Jesse Watters, the Fox News personality, who has argued that if he found out his wife “was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair.” It violates “the sanctity of our marriage; what else is she keeping from me?”

The insecurity and fragility of toxic masculinity are evident in all these comments. Women have had enough. They are rising up to exercise their Constitutional human rights, taking back their agency, and in the process, will likely save us from the worst effects of the patriarchy we have lived under for centuries.

My good friend Bob Leonard, a member of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative, has written this wonderful assessment of the role that women are playing in Iowa politics. Read his substack article, “Women Will Save Democracy.”

Bob attended the Marion County Democrats meeting recently and observed:

Women here run the Marion County party. They mostly do all the hard work like organizing, paperwork, and door-knocking. The women also know how to gather and use the online data, and all of the information provided by the state party. I’m not sure that any of the men do. A couple of guys do door-knock, but most of the time they are happy driving around town and putting signs up.

Women are motivated and have decided they aren’t going to take losing their basic freedoms and rights any longer. Enough is enough.

I mentioned in another earlier article White Supremacy Is On The Ballot, that we are at a historic juncture, and it is time to put white supremacy in the rear-view mirror. I will add to that proposition that it is long past time for us to put patriarchy in the same mirror. Let’s turn the page; let’s elect Kamala Harris as the first woman President and female person of color to inhabit the White House.

Get ready for “Madame President.”