Across the nation, the American people made their choice. The Senate remained red, while the House flipped blue. CNN Politics published a detailed breakdown of voter turnout demographics by age, race, gender, and party. Disgruntled voters shared screenshots of Democratic elections lost where women voted for the Republican choice.
The statistical breakdown of the white female vote “prove” to ideologues that white women betrayed themselves and the “sisterhood” by electing and re-electing white, male Republicans. This is the only conclusion they drew.
For the ideologically possessed, it could not be possible that women would willingly and wholesomely elect, for instance, Sen. Ted Cruz by their own free will. If not betrayal, it must be oppression that forced their hand into a red vote.
White women “choose to uphold white supremacy and patriarchy,” according to Vox, likening the exit poll data of 2018 to the opposition of racial integration of schools. Ironically, this demonization of white women is a huge reason one might not consider a vote across the aisle.
The insult of this blame is two-fold. First, the collectivist view assumed of women only sees them as a voting bloc. In the effort to recognize women with a feminist lens, the left has only diminished each women’s individuality by writing her story for her. Insisting that women of any race are indebted to any political force sounds eerily like oppression. Oppression also sounds a lot like insisting one vote a certain way, think a certain way, and be shamed for deviating.
Secondly, the intelligence and autonomy of women is belittled. To say that the white women who voted for Cindy-Hyde Smith, a white female Republican, are subject to their own ignorance or familial oppression is laughable.
In a 41.4% to 40.7% vote, Cindy-Hyde Smith will have to win a runoff vote to retain her Senate seat. Are white women of Mississippi to blame for possibly electing the first female Mississippi Senator to office?
It is confusing to be a woman in Mississippi reflecting on these exit poll reactions. As a woman, ought I fall in line and vote for a woman or a Democrat? It is curious which would be a more loyal action to this myopic worldview.
Tracking social points following every election would prove to be exhausting.
The reality is every vote is counted once, not weighted by age, race, or gender. Ideally, our votes reflect our values and policy beliefs. Such a simple concept ought not be controversial.
It is not the burden of any single group or demographic to carry any candidate over the finish line. Instead, it is the responsibility of each active voter to consider their own decision. It’s shocking to see feminism ostracize their own people for the social crime of voting autonomy.
If Mississippi women are viewed as so void of independent thought that they can’t be trusted with their own beliefs, the left should get used to losing more female votes.
Anja Baker is a Contributing Fellow for Mississippi Center for Public Policy.