Single Women, Second Class Citizens

For those of you who aren't interested in my first life, you can skip this commentary.

Today, while reading some political websites, I came across a link to Dennis Prager's column at townhall.com. Now, keep in mind that townhall.com publishes the craziest of the crazy conservatives, but Dennis Prager is ostensibly someone who is taken seriously those on the right. His column seeks to minimize the implications of an Obama win by analyzing (and by analyzing I mean "make shit up") why certain groups of people might vote for Obama and why those votes don't count as votes for transforming America. I fit into a couple of the groups Prager lists, including "Single Women". This is what Prager has to say, in toto, about single women:

Single women of all colors and ethnicities vote Democrat. They do so primarily because many of them are financially dependent on the state, because they have no man to depend on, nor a husband who might influence them politically (married women are considerably more likely to vote Republican than single women). Whatever their reasons for voting for Barack Obama, transforming America is not one of them. They would vote for any Democrat.

What. The. Fuck. Single women vote for Democrats because we're poor and don't have a man in our life to tell us what to do? I can barely express how angry this makes me. I voted for Obama for myriad policy reasons, not because I'm on welfare or lacking proper male guidance. And what about single women who vote for Republicans? What does that say about *them*?

I absolutely voted for Obama to transform America. I want to transform America into a country which respects the right of all of its citizens to get married to the person of their choice. I want to transform America into a country that harnesses its immense resources to improve the lives not only of Americans, but of people around the world, instead of squandering billions to fight an unncessary war. I want to transform America into a country that doesn't torture political prisoners so we have the moral standing in the world to ask the same of other countries. I want to transform America into a country which respects the civil rights of its inhabitants by not eavesdropping on its citizens. There are so many problems we face, so many challenges, and look at the campaign conservatives have run. The only thing they've sought to transform America into is a country divided by race and ethnicity, a country cowed into fear of terrorism, a country filled with people who will gladly give up the rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution to pretend that somehow they are safer, a country in which we are asked to believe that simply having the right religious beliefs is experience enough to be President.

America, led by conservatives, had done tremendous damage to itself over the past eight years. I don't need a paternalistic asshole like Dennis Prager to tell me my vote isn't a vote for change. But this is how certain conservatives view women--make no mistake about it. We're to marry, have children, keep quiet, learn to vote Republican. It's enough to make one cry, especially after having been accused time and time again of not being a feminist, or worse, a woman-hater, because of not supporting Sarah Palin. I wonder if Palin's daughter voted for her mother, since she's not married yet. Oh, right. She's not old enough to vote. That's okay Bristol--Levi will smarten you up.