Should Women Have The Right To Vote On The Same Basis As Men?

Should this alien be deported?

A few months back I was continually blogging about Mike Lux's fantastic new book, The Progressive Revolution: How The Best In America Came To Be and what I tried getting across-- and I believe what Lux has tried getting across-- is that all the best in America, from the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, the Bill of Rights, the emancipation of the slaves, the right of women and minorities to vote, the right of working people to form unions, the minimum wage, to Social Security, Medicare, the national parks, consumer protection, etc-- was a pitched battle between progressives pushing for these things and conservatives trying to prevent each and every one of them. Conservatives have always been, and continue to be, on the wrong side of history.

Yesterday a prominent conservative author and pundit, John Derbyshire best known for his reactionary columns in the National Review, was on the radio defending a chapter in his new book that has gotten some attention, "The Case Against Female Suffrage.” Basically, he is willing to admit what conservatives in general believe but keep to themselves, that their vision of the American Dream does not, has never, and will never include women being allowed to vote.

“The conservative case against it [women's suffrage] is that women lean hard to the left,” Derbyshire explained to an appalled Alan Colmes. “They want someone to nurture, they want someone to help raise their kids, and if men aren’t inclined to do it-- and in the present days, they’re not much-- then they’d like the state to do it for them.” Like most conservatives, he doesn't just want to take away the right of women to vote. He also doesn't see why minorities should be voting and freely admits opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Are all conservatives as reactionary as Derbyshire? If you dig deep enough, absolutely. The Republican gubernatorial nominee in Virginia, Robert McDonnell, has written about how America would be a better place if women stayed home and didn't trouble their little heads with such things. And what about women conservatives, some of whom will certainly be voting for McDonnell and others like him? Yes, them too!

DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I'll say this-- if it were to be, I wouldn't lose a minute's sleep.

COLMES: We'd be a better country if women didn't vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don't you think so?

COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.

DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here.

COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.

Imagine the tizzy fits and paroxysms of rage and reveling in victimhood, conservative's default mode, were someone to ever go on the radio and make a case that men-- particularly wealthy white men, those who have done so much for so long to make the world unbearable for so many-- should be deprived of their right to vote. Think about it for a minute or two.