Romcom Mel Gibson isn’t the only one who doesn’t understand “What Women Want.” Neither do the old men (or any lawmakers) on the Senate Armed Services Committee who voted last week to extend the Selective Service to women.
Though the provision to force women to register for the military draft was written by Democrat committee chairman Jack Reed, eight Republicans in the committee either voted “yes” or “not present.”
Voted NO to drafting daughters:
James Inhofe
Wicker, Roger
Cotton, Tom
Hawley, Josh
Rounds, MikeEither Voted YES (or Not Present) to drafting daughters to war:
Fischer, Deb
Ernst, Joni
Tillis, Thom
Sullivan, Dan
Cramer, Kevin
Scott, Rick
Blackburn, Marsha
Tuberville, Tommy— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) July 26, 2021
The provision was prompted by the report of a commission created four years ago to study the issue. “The Commission seriously considered a wide range of deeply felt moral, legal, and practical arguments,” said the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, concluding that women should be forced to sign up for the draft. “This is a necessary and fair step, making it possible to draw on the talent of a unified Nation in a time of national emergency.”
I’m sure, if you asked the women of America for a list of things that could make their lives better, being forced to sign up to go to war would not be high on the list. (Incidentally, I’m also sure most things on that list would not be best provided by the government.)
The Pew Research Center actually did ask women what their top policy priorities were at the beginning of the year, and the most popular answers included strengthening the economy (80 percent of women) and improving job situations (71 percent of women). Instead of prioritizing either of these things, leftist politicians over the last year have advocated for and enforced shutdowns that resulted in many women losing their jobs and economic security.
Besides, if there were an active draft and the nation’s fathers, sons, and husbands were hauled off to war, many women would find themselves providing for their families with far less help. I highly doubt the threat of being sent to war herself would help alleviate a working mother’s fears about her economic situation.
Instead of threatening to draft them, maybe politicians should be fighting for the rights of women to compete fairly in sports without having to give up awards and scholarships to men. Or going to bat for the women in shelters and prisons who have been sexually assaulted by men pretending to be female.
Lawmakers could be helping worried moms whose kids have lost a year of in-person schooling, by making sure schools stay open. They could be supporting, not denigrating, women (especially pregnant women) who want to make sure an experimental vaccine is safe before they are forced to take it.
But nope, Senate Democrats think the best way they can help women is to put them on a list from which, if those same lawmakers ever decide we need to activate the draft, women will be yanked and handed a pair of combat boots.
Senate Democrats, the ACLU, and pontificating CNN opinion columnists might support this position, but most actual American women don’t. A 2016 Rasmussen poll found a majority (52 percent) of female respondents opposed including women in the Selective Service, while slightly more than a third (38 percent) supported it.
Democrats’ investment of time and political capital into a measure like this, under the banners of “equality” and even “feminism,” shows how out-of-touch Democrat positions that claim to be “pro-women” are. It’s also a biting exposé of the fact that being treated as if they are completely, unequivocally the same as men doesn’t always produce the best result for women.
Of course, women and men have equal value as human beings and equal estimation under the law. And it goes without saying, the women (and men) who choose to serve in our military are sacrificial defenders to whom we owe a debt of gratitude.
But fighting to erase the legitimate differences that exist between women and men is coming back to bite today’s radical, so-called “feminist” movement. Its ringleaders may not recognize this because they may actually insist signing women up for mandatory military service is a good thing. If they don’t realize it, though, many normal American wives, mothers, and daughters do. These women see a political faction that purports to help them hurting them instead.
And somehow, I doubt many of those women have sat around the kitchen tables, office desks, and bars of America this past week telling their friends and family, “I’m so glad the federal government is finally putting women’s priorities first and including us in the Selective Service.”
