One of the myths perpetuated by Conservative Inc, a sort of PragerU level of conservatism, was that only third-wave feminism is bad. Christian Nationalism is one segment of the dissident right that is specifically named by John Wesley Reid in his recent column at Christian Post. The article “My Conservative brothers: True masculinity means celebrating our sister leaders” argues against the growing conclusion, held by many on the right, that feminism is bad by arguing that feminism is specifically good in the civic arena.
An unclean house is not suitable to host. Similarly, a broken ideology is not befitting to convince a society of its ideas. To juxtapose, conservatism has a stain that needs deep cleaning.
A stealth uprising of conservative men is opposing women in public leadership — even their right to vote. This niche-gone-trend has been gaining new traction, namely within some Reformed and Christian Nationalist communities whose leaders endorse archaic positions — positions that I cannot oppose enough.
Reid begins by calling opposition to all feminism a stain that needs deep cleaning before disclaiming that his argument does not apply to the household or the church. He then asserts that masculinity coincides with protecting the capacity of women to be in public office. His evidence in support is are major court victories.
My conservative brothers, undermining our sisters’ place in public leadership is not the way. Masculinity means protecting our sisters against ideas and people that would subvert our sisters’ desire to impact culture righteously, even if that means in public leadership. To undermine our sisters’ role in public leadership is to abandon our role to protect and honor them. To undermine our sisters’ role in public leadership is an assault on the amazing righteous impacts they’ve had in our dark cultural arena.
Indeed, women were at the center of two of the most celebrated conservative victories in the last few years. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a woman, supported by several pro-life groups led by women, spearheaded the Dobbs case that overturned Roe v. Wade — a decision made by men. Alliance Defending Freedom CEO Kristen Waggoner was the lead attorney for 303 Creative v. Elenis, a major free speech victory whose precedent will secure Americans’ expressive and religious freedom for decades. Waggoner also successfully defended Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. ColoradoCivil Rights Commission.
The above victories aren’t simply convenient facts that support my thesis. They’re few of many.
Masterpiece Cakeshop was not the court victory it needed to be, and this is the type of Supreme Court Case that is decided by the Justices, not the evidence of the case. In fact, the evidence of the prejudicial nature of Colorado gave John Roberts leeway to screw Americans with his decision. The Dobbs decision similarly was premeditated by Justices favorable to life and had little to do with how well the case was argued.
This trend caught a recent boost after Matt Walsh tweeted that “…Western Civilization has declined as women have assumed more and more power.”
To be clear, I like Matt Walsh. But as much as I’ve valued his insight over the years, he got this one wrong. This is a classic correlation/causation scenario. Walsh provided no evidence as to why the results (decline in Western Civilization) correlate to the alleged cause (women in leadership). To blame women for the decline in Western Civilization is to forget that the fiercest of tyrants, slave moguls, abortion-solidifiers, and mass murderers were, in fact, men and that even now, evil men are at the helm of so many institutional, political, and otherwise influential entities.
Matt Walsh is right, and it’s obvious. In America, the 19th Amendment irrevocably shifted American politics in a more liberal direction. Democrats could not win the Presidency without the 19th Amendment, in their current form. Majority of American women love killing babies, and any exit poll on a recent referendum will show you that.
Abortion has killed more in western civilization than slavery or genocide. Reid’s point on abortion-solidifiers forgets both Margaret Sanger and self-performed abortions. Reid tries to rebut the claim that women vote liberal by citing Roe. v Wade
We can play the numbers game all day. On one hand, a voting map of America shows that women’s votes lead to liberal elections. But are we really going to punish our conservative women for the actions of liberal women? With that logic, men shouldn’t be in Congress since the vast majority of Democrats in the House and Senate are men, and they’re making evil decisions. Roe v. Wade was a 7-2 decision made by men. It’s as if gender isn’t the issue.
This is a rather facepalm argument, as Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female SCOTUS Justice appointed by Ronald Reagan, immediately went and saved Roe v. Wade. It’s worth mentioning that the potency of the female vote allowed abortion policy to become rampant in the first place, and in the aftermath of Dobbs, this potency is succeeding in red states.
When Matt Walsh is arguing that all feminism is bad, he’s arguing from solid historical standing. Universal suffrage was antithetical to what our Founding Fathers intended, as they created an aristocratic republic. Under the initial vision of the country, we not only elected better public officials, we had more freedom. The Progressive Movement of the early 20th century eroded the founding system of government, first by having the direct election of US Senators and then by extending suffrage.
The Christian Nationalist movement acknowledges this and thus seeks out a post-liberal society. The boomercon that is John Wesley Reid is cherry-picking victories that only occurred because of the losses inflicted by that which he’s advocating.