Happy Friday! We made it! Thank you for reading and if you haven’t already please hit that subscribe button and share with the other women in your life that could use a dose of sanity. We aim to hit topics of interest to conservative women or conservative curious readers in general. Welcome to the part of the internet you rarely hear about: republican women calling balls and strikes on both sides of the aisle.
1 Thing to do today (if nothing else)
That thing you’ve been meaning to do for a while now, go do it! Write the manuscript, train for that race, buy the web domain, put $10 aside for the funding—just take the first step in investing in yourself because life is short and you can make a huge difference. You have to have the guts to believe in yourself first.
Gutcheck: Do we even like women anymore?
As the old campaign adage goes: No man will vote against another man because he’s a man, but a woman will vote against another woman because she’s a woman.
Hard but true and we can’t even blame the patriarchy for that—ha! Maybe some of this is generational or cultural but I can’t help but wonder why that’s the case. Why do some women go out of their way to cut down another person simply for being a lady? Any amateur psychologist would say this is related to deep-rooted jealousy, insecurity, or something that threatens a core belief. Society is changing so much right now it’s not difficult to point to dozens of examples daily of people grappling with cognitive dissonance. Feminists for Hamas, for example.
But as a Party (read: Republicans) or as a movement (read: conservativism broadly speaking) do we even want women to lead us? I’m not being rhetorical, I have seen too much tape and don’t know anymore. Republican women aren’t a monolith. If you are reading this I know your answer to this question, an emphatic, “OF COURSE WE WANT REPUBLICAN WOMEN LEADERS. I AM A REPUBLICAN WOMAN!”
Every prominent elected Republican woman who is/was a rising star eventually gets the red carpet unceremoniously ripped out from under them. Yesteryear’s Tea Party darlings are today’s RINOs, the once in vogue “Reagan Republicans” who bucked the “Establishment” in the 80’s are all sellout Neocon shills for holding the same beliefs. I’m old enough to remember what it meant to be a true Patriot in 2001. LOL that’s the third rail now adays. I don’t mean to imply this is a gendered thing like it only affects women and not men. I just know there are so few women putting themselves up for the scrutiny of running for public office that the limited sample size leads to ominous results.
I worry for my daughter that she gets the wrong idea about what being a loud and proud conservative means for her future. With friends like these why bother? We already get enough hate from the left—now I have to watch my back for the turning from the right?
Politics is a bloodsport, perhaps it’s good to scare away the skidish but I fear it’s scaring away more than just the politically ambitious —it’s chasing away voters, it’s numbing our allies to the point of neutrality, and worse still, it’s aiding in the mass tuning out of the national political conversation.
Moreover, I refuse to let conservative icons be made out to be the antihero using leftist talking points. This intraparty fighting is extremely shortsighted and hurts our ability to affect change in the policy and political fights that actually matter.
Feminist Files
Speaking of antiheros, they’re coming for Taylor now too. If the strategy for success in 2024 is to attack the most popular women in conservative politics and entertainment I would like to speak to the manager in charge.
The theory goes: The US Government staged a relationship between Taylor Swift, music icon, and Travis Kelce, twice Super Bowl Champ. Then in coordination with the NFL they fixed all of the games this season to put the Kansas City Chiefs, Kelce’s team, in the Super Bowl. All of this in order to orchestrate a scenario in which Taylor Swift will endorse Joe Biden for President live during the half time show at Super Bowl LVIII. And I guess that means Republicans lose in 2024. Got it?
The US Government spent years developing a pen that could write in space, when the Russians just used a pencil. These people can’t get two bureaucrats to agree on a meeting time let alone two of the most successful and famous people from the private sector to agree to do their bidding. What’s in it for Swift and Kelce? Ambassadorships to Switizerland and France? I can’t with this crazy.
Is feminism really in collapse? Well after reading this article, I’m convinced not only has it collapsed but it is dead. Buckle up for a fun read if you have a couple minutes or just skim my cliff notes below if you are short on time.
Here we are, ten years after Time declared 2014 “the best year for women since the dawn of time”. And if I’m following the throughline of this think piece correctly, that was the year feminism went mainstream. It was popular to be a feminist, everyone was excited about being a feminist, but it was problematic because the movement was commoditized by capitalists for profits. Those 2014 feminists were motivated to action and we saw that carried through in politics in 2016 and in the march of the pussy hats and handmaidens of the 2017s. What happened to the once vibrant feminist movement?
Blame Barbie, Hilary Clinton, Tradwives, and Feminine values. Girl boss is out, the future is not female, this is all about intersectionality now and to quote the author:
They [women] feel like they aren’t contributing to something important, and we [feminist thought leaders] don’t have a popular alternative theory, which is a significant issue we need to work on.
Back to the drawing board ladies, but you have your work cut out for you:
I think the biggest weakness of feminism is that it’s ‘femini’, meaning feminine. People always see it as meaning women. We live in a society where it’s all about representation and who we put at the forefront. So feminism equals more women on screen, equals more women on this and on that. And that is what progress looks like. But this is wrong. So what do we do about it? Should we get rid of this term? But that would be a victory for the right because that’s exactly what they want to do. They want to remove all meaning from these words that started social movements.
The intersectional feminists, who want to remove the concept of gender from the meaning of feminism, who will not define what being a woman means, tells readers with a straight face that its a victory for “the right” because they want to remove meaning from words? At least the author is self aware enough to know her cause is losing steam because they have bad ideas that no one is excited about. It’s so crazy that it is having a blacklash and causing women to take a second look at conservative values.
Conclusion: feminists broke their piggybank and are looking for a rebrand, but no one is buying into their faux movement. Is feminism really in collapse? | Dazed
Horse Race
2024 Republican Presidential Delegate Tracker Count
Trump: 33 delegates
Haley: 17 delegates
Upcoming Contests
Nevada Republican Caucus (26 delegates) 2/8: 6 days away
South Carolina Republican Primary (50 delegates) 2/24: 22 days away
Michigan Primary* (16 delegates) 2/27: 25 days
Idaho caucus, Michigan convention*, Missouri caucus (71 delegates) 3/2: 29 days
DC primary (19 delegates) 3/3: 30 days
North Dakota Caucus (29 delegates) 3/4: 31 days
Super Tuesday (874 delegates) 3/5: 32 days
In other news, the RNC is hurting for cash. The DNC isn’t thriving either. Are political parties irrelevant now? RNC Most Broke It Has Been In Nearly A Decade, FEC Filings Show
In Your Free Time
To Watch: Masters of the Air (Apple TV)
To Read: Nikki Haley Should Go for Broke by Peggy Noonan (WSJ)
To Follow: @gardenaryco on Insta for gardening tips ahead of Spring
To Attend: 2/8 GOP Women's Networking Event in DC | RSVP here
Thank you and we’ll see you in two weeks! -Sarah