“There is nothing funny or serious about repealing women’s right to vote.”

Statement by Women’s Voices. Women Vote

President and Founder Page Gardner

As noted by Think Progress, National Review columnist John Derbyshire recently told radio show host Alan Colmes that he “wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep” if “female suffrage [were to] be repealed” and stated that the United States would “probably” be a better country if women did not vote.  Mr. Derbyshire’s comments are as sexist as they are anti-democratic.  Women now makeup a majority of the electorate in this country (they accounted for 53.7% of the votes cast in the 2008 election), but Derbyshire would be fine if they stayed at home on Election Day.

Under the guise of a serious intellectual argument, Derbyshire made this case against female suffrage: “women lean hard to the left,” which means that “women voting is bad for conservatism” and therefore “bad for society.” I wonder what the 29.6 million women who voted for John McCain in 2008 think about that.  You see, Derbyshire is simply wrong when he states that “women lean hard left.”  While there is a gender gap, with women tending to vote more Democratic, the more important difference is the marriage gap, with unmarried women voting overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates.  Indeed, in 2008, McCain won the married women’s vote by 1.6 million votes, while President Obama won the unmarried women’s vote by 12.8 million votes.

Unable to win the hearts and minds of progressive women, Derbyshire would prefer they simply not vote.  So much for the marketplace of ideas or the principles of democratic deliberation and choice.  Based on Derbyshire’s logic, African Americans and young people should not be allowed to vote either because they tend to prefer more progressive candidates.  Perhaps Mr. Derbyshire would like to return to the days when only white men voted, but I’m guessing most Americans wouldn’t think that good for society, and I’m pretty sure they would not find it democratic.