IS THIS THE NEW SOUTHERN STRATEGY

My Husband Owns My Vote

Why do southern white women vote against themselves?

I guess Amy Sea and I need to start a blog titled heard or experienced in Walgreens. We both have written about things seen and heard in our respective Walgreens. Well here is my latest experience.

I am awaiting my favorite pharmacist to give me my flu shot and overhear two women talking about the midterm elections. One lady says I voted for Greg Abbott because my husband said Beto O’Rourke is too liberal. Her friend says I also voted for Abbott because Brad said O’Rourke would let illegal aliens flood across the border.

I have no idea what too liberal means because it is such a broad statement to me. And I detest the term, illegal aliens. Are these women speaking about the people that come to this country seeking a better life for themselves and their children void of violence? Even though we all know that America is not void of violence.

Or is she speaking about the people that I see working in 100+ degree temperatures mowing lawns in long sleeve shirts and wide-brim hats, drying cars at the car wash, cooking in fast-food restaurants, bussing tables, climbing ladders carrying roofing material, and shoveling hot tar on the city streets and highways?

Their comments bothered me because I loved teaching the chapter on Voting Rights as a college Ethics professor. I enjoyed helping my student's research candidates to understand which ones had their best interest front and center. I wanted my students to understand issues that may affect them or their families personally. I tried to help them understand that their father, mother, or grandparent's interest may not be in their best interest. Grandpa may not care about your student debt and criticize student loan forgiveness as a socialist program. So you may need to remind him that the word social appears on his monthly social security check.

These two women clearly did not understand or care that the current state leadership in Texas is not their friend. Texas had a deadly power grid failure that still has not been addressed. I know someone that died of hyperthermia. The Uvalde school massacre only encouraged the state's leadership to loosen gun laws versus restricting them. We have people walking around with pistols in holsters all across the state imitating John Wayne and Wyatt Earp. And the criminalization of women's reproductive rights that enraged women across the nation didn’t seem to bother these two women or most of the women in Texas.

The next day in the Washington Post (November 11, 2022) there was an Opinion column by Karen Attiah of Texas entitled White Southern women are holding us back. She states “white men vote Republican; we all know that. But there is another group that consistently supports the GOP’s anti-woman, do-nothing-about-dead-kids stance, and that is White women.”

I am puzzled why people vote against their interests. When this occurs there is little chance for progress to be achieved. Is patriarchy that powerful that southern women only vote the way that husbands like Brad tell them to? I recently wrote an essay on Medium entitled Calling All Sheroes to the Rescue. I was imploring women to rescue us from Neanderthals. In Texas, during the midterm elections, 64% of white women voted for the Neanderthals.

I have no answers for this type of thinking. I only have a one-word question. Why?

Mom just sent me a text to pick up her prescription from Walgreens so stay tuned for more Walgreens adventures. I hope I don’t run into Brad.

Thank you Susan Brearley for superior editing.

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