Donald Trump: the Uniter of All Things Anti-Woman
Trump has brought the alt-right and anti-choice movements together with frightening power.
Donald Trump will keynote the Values Voter Summit today in Washington, DC, an occurrence that would have seemed at least incongruous (if not laughable) even four years ago.
The Summit has become the go-to event every year for extreme religious conservatives looking to use government to achieve their ends. The line-up is always a veritable “Who’s Who” of intolerance and dogma, with of opponents of LGBT families and women’s equality trying to one-up each other at putting others down. Over the years, the Summit has hosted electeds like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Michele Bachmann.
This Values Voter Summit will also feature David Daleiden as a keynote, made famous by doctoring videos to make Planned Parenthood look bad. His videos sent House Republicans frothing at the mouth into spending taxpayer dollars on endless investigations and hearings that turned up nothing against the healthcare provider. If that wasn’t enough, the Summit will also offer the stage to Troy Newman, a man who has openly advocated state-sanctioned execution of doctors who provide abortions. Donald Trump’s arrival at this year’s Summit, while once unthinkable, heralds the coming together of two powerful constituencies with common ideology now focused on a common purpose: the alt-right and the anti-choice extremists are working hand-in-hand to elect Donald Trump and Mike Pence to the White House.
The alt-right movement has long been a force shaping American political discourse through media channels, but with the meteoric rise of Trump during this political cycle, their grasp on political power is all too clear. Trump’s appointment of an alt-right dream team as leadership of his campaign solidifies the normalization of what was once believed to be a fringe mentality.
Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon fired a woman with multiple sclerosis while she was on maternity leave. Trump spokesperson Wayne Allen Root thinks women on birth control shouldn’t vote. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway thinks rape only exists because women are weaker than men. Milo Yiannopoulos, a writer on “the platform for the alt-right,” thinks that it’s deeply immoral to let a woman choose what happens to her own body and regularly publishes articles claiming that “birth control makes women unattractive and crazy.”
Any one of these people would once be considered a political liability. Now, all are honored by plum positions in a major presidential campaign.
At first glance, the alt-right movement and the religious extremists that power the Values Voter Summit might appear to have little in common. One is brash, outrageous, and flamboyant. The other is pious, soft-spoken, and insidious. But scratch the surface and there’s remarkable uniformity there.
The policies supported by the alt-right and anti-choice movements either explicitly or implicitly state their belief that women are less than equal. The policies they support hold women back from being full partners in society.
At the core of these two movements is a deep belief in a “natural hierarchy” — that one group of people is “better than” and deserves more rights than another. As Richard Spencer, a major player in the white nationalist strain of the alt-right movement, put it: “I think men should be treated differently than women. I think white people should be treated differently than black people. I think people of high character should be treated differently than people of low character.”
Spencer’s sentiment bears a remarkable similarity to the late Values Voter Summit regular Phyllis Schlafly, who believed that “feminism is doomed to failure because it is based on an attempt to repeal and restructure human nature.” Schlafly was an early pioneer in the anti-choice movement, organizing against abortion rights as soon as Roe v. Wade passed. She once famously claimed that “sex education classes are like in home sales parties for abortions.”
Schlafly’s legacy can be heard in anti-choice leader Lila Rose’s call at a previous Values Voter Summit to shame women for having abortions by forcing them to have their abortions in “the public square.” It can also be heard in anti-choice leader Star Parker’s assertion from the same stage that insurance coverage of abortion just encourages women to be sexually promiscuous.
In Donald Trump, the alt-right and anti-choice movements have found a candidate who shares their desire to maintain the existing power structure — one that benefits them nicely. Trumps deftly weaves together language and policies that paint a clear picture of what society would look like under him: he said he would punish women who choose abortion and doctors who provide them. He would nominate Supreme Court Justices completely committed to overturning Roe v. Wade. He vocalizes the belief shared by the alt-right and anti-choice movement that “putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing” and disparages men who want to play a role in raising their kids. He calls women “pigs” and “dogs.”
Trump’s appearance at the Values Voter Summit may surprise some. But dig a little deeper and this event symbolizes almost the inevitable convergence of two very similar ideologies. Their gathering spots, language, and cultures may have kept them separate until now. Trump has brought them together with frightening power.
While there may well be many things on display at this weekend’s Summit, what you won’t find are core American values — family, opportunity, and equality.
