photocredit: AP
She’s smart, attractive and lacks any brain-to-mouth filter. She came into politics by chance, dug her heels in, and much to the dismay of Democrats (and some Republicans) refuses to leave. She is not Sarah Palin. She is Michele Bachmann.
Like Palin, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann represents a new breed of conservative women that arent afraid to use their noisemakers. Sure, many women in the Republican Party have been fighting for ultra-conservative values for years, but Bachmann’s method of political leadership takes things to a whole new level.
To understand Bachmann, you need to hear the story of how she became a senator.
Once upon a time, a lawyer, mother of five, and foster mother of 23 got pissed off at her state senator. The senator, a Republican, had the nerve to stop supporting pro-life legislation, and support tax increases. Bachmann threw on a pair of jeans, showed up at the local Republican nominating caucus, and gave this senator a piece of her mind. Conservatives at the caucus liked this outspoken rebel with a cause, and when Bachmann left that day, she left with most of their endorsements.
Since gaining her seat in Congress, Bachmann has shown that she has no concept of the “speak softy and carry a big stick” ideology. She prefers to shout at the top of her lungs (frequently while in front of a Fox News camera), threatening, often with colorful language, to take down the Democratic Party. She could be described as a milder version of Ann Coulter, with brown hair and a legitimate position in politics.
She is passionate and feisty but it often seems as if Bachmann speaks without thinking. Her “facts” can be inaccurate and sometimes plain wrong. The recent “Super Bowl of Freedom” rally against health care reform, her brainchild, drew criticism from the Democrats who said that Bachmann’s language was encouraging violence.
During her speech at the rally, Bachman said to the enthusiastic crowd, “You came for an emergency House call, and are they going to listen? Oh yeah, oh yeah. They’re going to listen. It was Thomas Jefferson who said a revolution every now and then is a good thing. What do you think?”
Bachmann is pro-life, supports drilling, opposes gay marriage rights, believes that global warming is a fallacy and is strongly against health care reform. But her views on everyday political issues are not what make her newsworthy.
Bachmann is a bit of a conspiracy theorist.
She has a laundry list of conspiracies that involve the Democrats, namely President Obama. She believes that Obama is a socialist with a hidden agenda to do away with the dollar and brainwash the youth through AmeriCorps, which she refers to as “re-education camps”. She accuses the President of “palling around” with terrorists and during the presidential campaign she was shouting from rooftops that he was not born on US soil. She refuses to completely fill out the 2010 Census, because she is convinced that ACORN is part of the collection efforts and will use her personal information to…well no one really knows.
Democrats pretend that she’s not a serious threat, that her claims are so outrageous that the likeliness of anyone take her seriously is low. Republicans also cringe at her conspiracies but at this point most are willing to sit back and let her draw in as many followers as possible. She may rely on shock value to get attention, and for now it’s working.
Despite her arguably eccentric accusations, Bachmann, along with her political counterpart Palin, have transformed conservative politics. The GOP’s longstanding image of gray-haired men with a stern demeanors has been replaced by attractive, outspoken and passionate women. The change seems to be invigorating the party, dragging it out of the depressed state it’s been in since the 2008 elections.
The problem with this change is that the women at the forefront rely too much on emotion. Bachmann plays off of fear of the Democratic Party, which can only get her so far before conservatives start to realize her extreme views are not in line with the majority and will not help the Republican Party gain votes. Palin can only go so far with her horror stories about Katie Couric–it wouldn’t be surprising if when her book tour ends, her political career officially bites the dust.
Bachmann and Palin are temporary fixes for a party that is struggling to define itself.
Come 2012, the Republican Party knows that in order to take back the White House they will need to gain as many independent votes as possible. If Bachmann (or God forbid, Palin) gains the party nomination they can kiss those votes goodbye. But perhaps for now the GOP needs to let the media attention focus on Bachmann and Palin while they quietly groom their future leaders…distract the Democrats with the shiny balls before they pull the real punches.
Ashley is a contributing writer at PoliticsMajor.com. She initially caught my attention with her writing on politics, culture, and its many cross-sections, at her very interesting blog: Coffee Late@Night. Look out for more of her contributions in the near future. She resides in Wisconsin.
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Tags: gop · michele bachmann · sarah palin2 Comments
I think Bachmann is a much better choice for any sort of conservative “feminist” role model than Sarah Palin. If a woman is going to tell other women they shouldn’t have the right to control their own bodies, it’s sure as hell less offensive coming out of the mouth of someone who has taken in 23 foster children, than someone whose daughter could serve to benefit from a safe sex lecture.
My concern is that, if we assume Bachmann and Palin are indeed shiny distractions while the party grooms their “serious candidates”, then the conservative party is merely exploiting “attractive, outspoken passionate women” for their utility to serve a male agenda that has no intention of honoring their contributions. If the party has no intention of putting an outspoken female in office, but is merely attempting to garner attention and support through “displaying” these women, what are they doing to really empower women?
You yourself say Bachmann or Palin as the front runner means the party can kiss their votes goodbye — is there no woman you can write about in the party who can garner the attention and earn the votes to stand on her own two feet? If so, would you care to elaborate on who conservative women have to look up to and why any woman should support a party that doesn’t support them, but instead values them for their physical utility and “ridiculous” opinions?
While most republicans in general tend to infuriate me, it’s the ignorant ones that make me the angriest. Bachmann and Palin are two examples of ignorant republicans. Not only are they making liberal voters run away with more speed than usual from anything labeled “republican” but they are also making the party look bad to its usual followers.
At this point in time anyone who denies global warming is happening is obviously either a total idiot, willingly lying to themselves and others, or brainwashed by the corporations that will be most hurt by the fact that our environment is being destroyed. In Bachmann (and especially Palin)’s cases it wouldn’t surprise me if all of these are true.
As far as the feminist movement goes, I think that figures such as Palin and Bachmann are just pushing women’s rights further and further backwards. If women really want to break into the high ranks of politics they need to be respectable, intelligent, and informed. This is no different than what we ask of our male politicians. You will recall how much President George W. Bush was ripped on by the media for his inadequate ability to speak publicly (without making up words and new grammatical rules). This is no different than the pressure and ridicule Palin and Bachmann receive. In order to get into the highest ranks of politics people (regardless of sex) need to not only be qualified but also be informed and able to perform under pressure.
Refusing to fill out a census and embracing political conspiracy theories that even Dan Brown wouldn’t discuss in his FICTION books makes Bachmann look like an idiot that will believe anything she reads in a forward she receives.
If the Republican Party wants to secure the independent vote they need to get FAR FAR AWAY from any person who claims scientifically proven fact (that is science not funded by big oil, for one) is not true. They need to find someone who will deal with the developing environmental, cultural, and economic problems head on. Someone who won’t deny global warming exists as the next Katrina hits, the forest fires in California born more out of control than ever, and the fish populations in the oceans slowly dwindle to nothing.
If the Republican Party continues to live in the early to mid 1900s (when most of their party members were born) they will find themselves continuing to be unable to confront the problems of the 21st century.