OPINION:
As the midterm elections rush toward the finish line, it is important to understand the psyche of the single woman and the single mother. Garnering more of the single woman’s vote is essential for the Republican party to win, and a win is sorely needed in order to remove Harry Reid from his post as Senate Majority Leader.
Only then will the true intent of the republican governing process be reinstated. Reid’s omnipresent roadblocks have stifled the will of the people, both Democrat and Republican. His ideological fervor and unswerving loyalty to President Obama have wrecked Constitutional checks and balances.
If there were ever a time for change, this is it. It is the worst of times – a Democratic majority in the Senate - and the best of potential times – if the Republicans can win back the Senate.
In order to do so, Republicans desperately need the single woman’s vote. Republicans have been losing the single women’s vote - big time – due to the Democrat’s chauvinistic, brainwashing tactics. It is also due to much of the conservatives’ detrimental messaging.
The Democrats play on women’s uninformed biases, the most dangerous kind. An example is the decision of the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case. To watch liberal women chant with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) against that decision to protect religious liberty makes me embarrassed to be a woman. The chanters do not know about what they protest. Hobby Lobby pays their employees more money than comparable stores and they offer many forms of birth control. It was abortifacients that they did not want to provide and as a faith based company, Hobby Lobby exercised its First Amendment religious right to object. (These common-sense facts need to be put forth in a clear, concise way to teach these women that they are really chanting to have their religious rights thwarted.)
Women need and deserve to have better messaging regarding women’s issues; Republicans are telling them the truth, but they must be more efficient at doing so.
Single women and single mothers are not listening to Republicans. They are not listening to the truth and hope offered by Republican representatives in the legislative branch (such as Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and current Republican candidates who are running for office (such as Ed Gillespie, running for the Senate in Virginia).
Single women and single mothers are not listening because they have heard relentless counter-intuitive bias from conservative pundits that are offensive, distasteful and judgmental. Some conservatives are doing Republicans a disservice by spouting such things as: all woman need to be married, all single mothers are living off of the government and all children of single mothers will become strippers and drug addicts. Not helpful.
The bottom line is that statistics don’t vote; individuals vote. And individuals are human beings with a journey and a heart that only God knows.
The judgmental tone has to stop. It is impeding not only the work of our Republican representatives but also the Republican candidates who are running for office. Conservatives need to get off of their high horse and see the carousel effect of their tactics. If the Republic is to survive, then women need to stick together. Women are vital, arguably the most important voting block in the country. Conservative women need to cease pushing single women and single mothers away with pious rhetoric, realizing that single women and single mothers would benefit from the Republican party. The GOP offers independence. The Democrat party offers dependence.
As a single woman, a single mother and a Hollywood actress who has worked among the liberal elite for decades, I have a unique view of the political landscape. I have worked with many folks with alternative lifestyles. I hear their passions, and I see their humanity. I see issues with a wide-angle lens, not a zoom lens.
As a Republican in Hollywood, however, I have borne the brunt of liberal bias and stereotyping. Consequentially, I have a keen ear for hypocrisy and prejudice.
I have felt the sting from both parties. I believe, however, that the Republican party is the only hope for our nation, and the women and their children who abide in it.
Here is the bottom line: Speak to the individual, not to the statistic. Speak to the woman, not the status. Speak to the child, not the situation.
Single women are strong, independent, hardworking and survivors. Single mothers are resilient and devoted. It’s time to speak to them that way.
Janine Turner is an actress, author, speaker and a single mother. Her new memoir is “A Little Bit Vulnerable – on Hollywood, God, Sobriety & Politics.”
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