# Question to Republican voting woman. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377 "2014-04-04T22:32:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/21 "2014-04-06T01:46:53Z")
The women in my family who vote Republican do it against their own best interests, along ideological lines. This would not dissuade them. They care more about preventing abortions and a Christian leader than any.thing.else. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/22 "2014-04-06T02:00:23Z")
Human rights and civil rights are not “political” issues. I do not care about these issues because they effect my daily life; I care because I respect people. ---
**Author:** ![delsina363](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@delsina363](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delsina363)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/23 "2014-04-06T03:35:50Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > **delsina363** , anecdotal evidence are not valid arguments and statistical evidence generally indicates that people on welfare are not particularly lazier than the average person nor do they cheat the system. Are there some exceptions? Probably yes, but then there are plenty of bankers living lives of sybaritic luxury thanks to the bank bailouts which saved their arses back in '08. I agree though that teen pregnancy (and illegitimacy in general) is a terrible social evil. As for the rest of what you say, much of it can be solved by simply establishing a universal welfare state rather than a one that’s means-tested-ie assuring everyone has a minimum standard of living including health care, free daycare, and free college education (at least if one meets certain academic requirements). Another problem obviously is that there isn’t enough taxation of the wealthy ensuring that a lot of taxes fall on the middle-class instead. I would go out on a limb and guess that valid statistical evidence, would most certainly show that people on welfare cheat the system. If you, in fact, do need welfare assistance, they make it so you must cheat to survive. If you do work part time, if you report it, you could lose all your bennies. Never get married if you are poor. You need to stay single, if you want to qualify for certain bennies. If you have a partner that they know of, they will want to see their paystubs also. It is a slipperly slope. I do not think people on bennies are lazy, just stuck in a cycle. Once you get on bennies, it is hard to get off. If you even make $.20 cents over the limit, you are crap out of luck. So, one needs to cheat to survive. Once you get on, it is very difficult to get off, unless you get a high paying job. My problem is not with the poor and needy, I have a problem with the way the democratic system works, I do not believe it helps. The old adage is true, if you give a man a fish, he will eat for the day, but teach a man to fish, well you know the rest… ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/24 "2014-04-06T04:22:20Z")
> [@delsina363](#): > > I live in Boston. It is a very liberal State. Over my lifetime I have seen how the government works, and I hate it. 90% of people I know take advantage of benefits offered by our State. A lot of people have no drive, vision, or hope. They feel comfortable and safe living off benefits. Then they have kids, and those kids have kids. It is depressing and unless you are one of the few who escapes, you are destined to fail. > > If you do not work in this State you are eligible for welfare, food stamps, Section 8, that will pay your rent. They can get everything for free. Even phones!!! > > As for hard working folk like myself, I have to pay high taxes to support these people. One example: I grew up poor. My best friend became pregnant (as did most of the girls in my neighborhood) when she was either 14 or 15 y/o. > > Now this friend has never ever worked one day in her entire life. She had a total of 7 kids. They are all grown now. She always had her rent paid for, her utilities paid for, her food paid for, clothes paid for, ciggies paid for, drug of choice paid for…by the State. There are sooooo many things out there. > > What incentive do they have? None. Now 6 of her children are either on Social Security Disability (mental health), or other bennies from the State. Now they are having kids. I believe 4 of them are heroin users. > > Did you know if you live in housing, ie. the projects, you can get a FULL scholarship to college. If you have kids, they will pay for your daycare. > > I can go on and on and on. I believe in supporting good people who are down on their luck, but the abuse of bennies is insane. > > I am so jaded by all this, I could probably quit my job, blame it on anxiety and depression, get SSD, and welfare, and help with my mortgage, and food for me and my kids, free phone, and do not forget all the free health care I need. Did you know, you can also get free care for your pets too? > > They even pay for braces! I kid you not. I am paying for my kids braces, and they are expensive. I cannot even get my other kid braces right now, she has to wait. > > Oh yeah, if you do ever decide you want to do some work, do not worry, they will give you a State job. > > I have a very, very strong dislike of all the democratic bs that goes on. I guess if I was well off, and did not have to watch every cent I make, I too would be a democrat. Until then, I am stuck in the middle, entitled dems on my left, and crazy republicans on my right. O.K. I am done whining (but just for now) :smack: I’ve lived in several different states and there have been people with stories like yours in every one of them, including Texas. I don’t know of a single state anywhere in this country where there aren’t people bemoaning the fact that you can live high on the hog as long as you are willing to use your vagina as a slip’n’slide. Go ahead and pack up your stuff and head out to Arizona or Texas and plop yourself down in a similar neighborhood and you will find all of those same characters. The redness didn’t make them go searching for their bootstraps. When we were looking at places to move we looked all over the country to find a state with excellent schools, lots of jobs, and a general high quality of life. Massachusetts is where we ended up (right outside of Boston actually) because it met all of our needs and then some. My husband and I both found work almost immediately upon searching for jobs, the environment is clean and well protected, the schools are second to none, and the government is smart enough to fund itself to take care of the needs of the citizens. But somebody somewhere got something for free so obviously none of that is worth it.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/25 "2014-04-06T04:53:38Z")
_Shrug_ I have maybe half a dozen female republican friends that would agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Hell, they say similar things all the time. They even parrot all the evils of feminism and how it’s damaging and has gone too far. Most (but not quite all) of these women are Mormon, and the other two are fundamentalist Christians, so I’m sure their religion plays some part in it. It’s kind of hard to argue against this sort of party line when you truly believe “a woman’s place is as a homemaker or else taking care of children” is the inspired word of God. Edit: They usually don’t go as far as telling other women to get married/have kids, but they do rather strongly believe it’s “proper” in a way. ---
**Author:** ![delsina363](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@delsina363](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delsina363)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/26 "2014-04-06T04:56:51Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > I’ve lived in several different states and there have been people with stories like yours in every one of them, including Texas. I don’t know of a single state anywhere in this country where there aren’t people bemoaning the fact that you can live high on the hog as long as you are willing to use your vagina as a slip’n’slide. Go ahead and pack up your stuff and head out to Arizona or Texas and plop yourself down in a similar neighborhood and you will find all of those same characters. The redness didn’t make them go searching for their bootstraps. > > When we were looking at places to move we looked all over the country to find a state with excellent schools, lots of jobs, and a general high quality of life. Massachusetts is where we ended up (right outside of Boston actually) because it met all of our needs and then some. My husband and I both found work almost immediately upon searching for jobs, the environment is clean and well protected, the schools are second to none, and the government is smart enough to fund itself to take care of the needs of the citizens. > > But somebody somewhere got something for free so obviously none of that is worth it.:rolleyes: What is with all this anger? It is all IMHO. You live outside of Boston, bravo, so you do not use the Boston Public School system you speak so highly of. I live in Boston, because it is the only way I can see my children. I need to work in Boston, and if I lived “outside” of Boston, I would never see them, with the crazy traffic. Living in MA, you must know about the terrible welfare and food stamp abuse, that is rampant, and makes the front page news often. Oh, and how about of wonderful Dept for Family and Children? How many children did they let slip through the cracks this month? I am so glad you find the State so wonderful, I wish I too could put on rose colored glasses, but reality and bills and taxes get in the way. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/27 "2014-04-06T05:32:42Z")
> [@delsina363](#): > > If you, in fact, do need welfare assistance, they make it so you must cheat to survive. You think they need to cheat to survive so you blame them for cheating? Is survival so overrated? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/28 "2014-04-06T06:32:56Z")
> [@j666](#): > > My priority is a woman’s right to her own body. My priority is human and civil rights in general. > > I think that’s more important than financial policy. The great issues of our times are not the essentially settled issues (like it or not) of abortion and gay marriage (at this point it is quite certain that gay marriage will be legal nationally at least by the end of the decade if not next year) but the battle against the forces of Plutocracy, to reverse income inequality, to preserve the achievements of the New Deal, and to expand our definition of the social contract to ensure high-quality health insurance to every American. > [@delsina363](#): > > I would go out on a limb and guess that valid statistical evidence, would most certainly show that people on welfare cheat the system. If you, in fact, do need welfare assistance, they make it so you must cheat to survive. > > If you do work part time, if you report it, you could lose all your bennies. > > Never get married if you are poor. You need to stay single, if you want to qualify for certain bennies. If you have a partner that they know of, they will want to see their paystubs also. It is a slipperly slope. > > I do not think people on bennies are lazy, just stuck in a cycle. Once you get on bennies, it is hard to get off. If you even make $.20 cents over the limit, you are crap out of luck. So, one needs to cheat to survive. Once you get on, it is very difficult to get off, unless you get a high paying job. > > My problem is not with the poor and needy, I have a problem with the way the democratic system works, I do not believe it helps. > > The old adage is true, if you give a man a fish, he will eat for the day, but teach a man to fish, well you know the rest… The solution here it seems to me is to make the welfare state universal so that those with part-time jobs or those are married do not lose their benefits. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/29 "2014-04-06T11:05:01Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The great issues of our times are not the essentially settled issues (like it or not) of abortion and gay marriage (at this point it is quite certain that gay marriage will be legal nationally at least by the end of the decade if not next year) … And that’s very nice for gay men. Can we focus on women? Reproductive health rates for women are being eroded. It’s much easier to be concerned about financial, economic, and monetary policies when those in power do not consider the right of a single sperm more important than yours. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/30 "2014-04-06T13:02:25Z")
> [@delsina363](#): > > \*\* am so jaded by all this, I could probably quit my job, blame it on anxiety and depression, get SSD, and welfare, and help with my mortgage, and food for me and my kids, free phone, and do not forget all the free health care I need. Then why don’t you? If living on welfare is so great and wonderful _why don’t you do it?_ I get seriously tired of people who aren’t poor going on and on about how easy it is to get everything paid for, how the poor are coddled, they get everything for nothing, how easy their lives are… yet not one of the complainers ever volunteer for that lifestyle. Now, why is that? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/31 "2014-04-06T13:15:12Z")
Why shouldn’t the state be doing all those things- in one of the world’s most wealthy countries, why shouldn’t every single person have a decent standard of living? Why shouldn’t the state make sure everyone has access to: Enough nutritious and varied food (even nice food mixed in, not just beans and cheese) Good healthcare Good education including a range of higher ed choices (vocational, technical, community college) A phone (this program started under Reagan, btw) so you can get calls about jobs etc High quality daycare and preschool Don’t you see the longterm advantages of a healthy, well-educated population? If moral reasons don’t move you, then the economic ones should. We are already paying the price for poverty. I’d rather pay the price for social support instead. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/32 "2014-04-06T13:36:27Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I get seriously tired of people who aren’t poor going on and on about how easy it is to get everything paid for, how the poor are coddled, they get everything for nothing, how easy their lives are… yet not one of the complainers ever volunteer for that lifestyle. Now, why is that? Self-respect? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/33 "2014-04-06T13:42:08Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Self-respect? > > Regards, > Shodan Exactly. So the implication, then, is that people who take advantages of this good life that the state has to offer have no self respect. Since the state offers such a woohoo good life, only people with self respect choose to work and support themselves. The reality is being on welfare sucks and the vast, vast majority of people use these services because they’ve run out of options. Not because you can live it up on the state’s dime due to your laziness and moral failing. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/34 "2014-04-06T14:47:06Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > How are Republican voting woman able to dismiss this and still vote Republican? > Mona Charen and the Heritage Foundation. > > [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-women-gop-mrs--men-oped-0404-20140404-4,0,6100081.story](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-women-gop-mrs--men-oped-0404-20140404-4,0,6100081.story) Perhaps the OP could let us know what “this” is, and why he or she thinks it would discourage women from voting for Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/35 "2014-04-06T15:14:46Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > > [@Broomstick](#): > > > > I get seriously tired of people who aren’t poor going on and on about how easy it is to get everything paid for, how the poor are coddled, they get everything for nothing, how easy their lives are… yet not one of the complainers ever volunteer for that lifestyle. Now, why is that? > > Self-respect? Seems to me that maximizing one’s return on investment - in this case, effort required to make a comfortable living - would be a source of self-respect. Why work harder than you have to, right? I mean, really, all those sorry, middle-class people being exploited and taken advantage of by the poor - why not jump on the bandwagon? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/36 "2014-04-06T15:57:05Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Human rights and civil rights are not “political” issues. 😕 I would have thought they are the _ultimate_ political issues. Recognition of rights and of who has those rights is a keystone of the polity and of any rule of law, and achieving and sustaining that recognition is a political process. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/37 "2014-04-06T17:36:30Z")
“The reality, the panelists at Heritage said, is that women are less happy than they were before the feminist movement, that women enjoy domestic work and that most moms would prefer not to work full time, if at all.” I’m a Democrat (for reasons of economics, foreign policy and environmental policy), but I think that’s more or less true. Women seem to be less happy now than before the feminist reason. Of course, you can argue that doesn’t especially matter, and that there are things more important than happiness- as the saying goes, it’s better to be an unhappy Socrates than a happy fool, etc… But more generally, I think it’s true that the feminist revolution was a mixed blessing and ended up going too far. I’d imagine there are a lot of women who agree (not all of them Republicans, either- culturally conservative Democrats certainly exist). ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/38 "2014-04-06T17:51:22Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The great issues of our times are not the essentially settled issues (like it or not) of abortion and gay marriage […], but the battle against the forces of Plutocracy, to reverse income inequality, to preserve the achievements of the New Deal, and to expand our definition of the social contract to ensure high-quality health insurance to every American. **Qin** , _please_ understand that what I’m about to say is not intended as an attack. I think you exemplify this board’s goals - you are extremely intelligent and are truly willing to examine other perspectives and viewpoints to grow as a person. But dude, this post? Extremely irritating. You really think fucking reproductive rights and abortion rights are essentially settled? Fucking _really_? Look, YOU are not \*personally \* impacted by laws restricting women’s reproductive rights - I’m going to suggest that perhaps you don’t worry about this because _you don’t have to_. [In the past 3 years, we’ve enacted more abortion restrictions than during the entire previous decade](http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/02/3112081/abortion-restrictions-2011-2013/) > [@](#): > > That political landscape [the 2010 victories of Tea Party candidates] had \*\*dramatic consequences for women living in states across the country. Back in 2000, Guttmacher defined 13 states as “hostile” to abortion rights because they had at least four major abortion restrictions on the books, and about 31 percent of U.S. women of reproductive age lived in those places. By 2013, the number of hostile states swelled to 27 states — and now, over half of women in need of reproductive health care live in a place where they will likely struggle to terminate a pregnancy. \*\* > > The number of states that Guttmacher ranks as “supportive” of women’s health dropped from 17 to just 13 over that same time period. This stuff has serious, real-world consequences for women. What about the [2012 study that showed _31_ states can OVERRIDE a woman’s advanced directives regarding medical care and life support… _if she is pregnant_?](http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/programs/health/statepolicy/documents/REPRO_PregnancyExclusionsinStateLivingWillandMedicalProxyStatutesMeganGreeneandLeslieR.Wolfe.pdf) They are legally able to ignore her written legal document AND her medical proxy to keep a woman on life support to continue fetal gestation. Do you have ANY idea how it feels to learn you live in a state that has declared it can use your body as a literal incubator? Or seeing the legislation that passes? And then read a post that says that all these reproductive rights issues are “essentially settled”? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/39 "2014-04-06T19:21:11Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > Women seem to be less happy now than before the feminist reason. Of course, you can argue that doesn’t especially matter, and that there are things more important than happiness- as the saying goes, it’s better to be an unhappy Socrates than a happy fool, etc… Or, you know, the fact that women were being ignored and shouted down for hundreds and thousands of years and men didn’t fucking CARE that women were unhappy. So now our voices are being heard. And some of us are unhappy. Some of us aren’t. I’m pretty pleased, personally. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377/40 "2014-04-06T21:21:37Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > How are Republican voting woman able to dismiss this and still vote Republican? > Mona Charen and the Heritage Foundation. > > [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-women-gop-mrs--men-oped-0404-20140404-4,0,6100081.story](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-women-gop-mrs--men-oped-0404-20140404-4,0,6100081.story) Because they have different views and feelings about what is best for women in general, and themselves in particular, than you do. I am not saying that they are right and you are wrong, but if you truly cannot understand how any women could have beliefs and values like those expressed in that article, then that is more a failing on your part (of empathy and open-mindedness) than it is one on theirs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-to-republican-voting-woman/685377.md?page=3)