I Think Pollster J. Anne Seltzer Underestimates Women's Rage

Caption: Maria Houser Conzemius riding next to the Mississippi River in 2017 before the pipe bombs and before the Tree of Life mass shooting in Pittsburgh.

As my husband and I watched "Iowa Press" on Iowa public TV at noon on Sunday, I was surprised to hear pollster J. Anne Seltzer, known for her accuracy in polling, say that she doesn't specifically poll suburbs. She polls towns and cities and rural areas, but not suburbs. I also thought she didn't talk about the gender gap widening enough, either. Republicans are losing women, especially millennial and younger women.

Another thing I have a problem with is the deference that news anchors and pollsters give to red states that voted for Trump by large margins. Georgia Senator Doug Jones (D) beat "Judge" Roy Moore (R), a credibly accused pedophile, in suburban areas of Georgia that Trump carried by over 30%! Ralph Northam, a Democrat, beat a Republican in Virginia in another Republican state. The top issues were health care and education, just like they are in Iowa.

Republican women tend to see themselves as Republicans first and women second. Democratic women see themselves as women first and Democrats second. As Susan B. Anthony said, "No woman should support a party that doesn't support her."

"Remember Kavanaugh" should be a rallying cry for women leaving the Republican party and showing up to vote against sexist Republican Congressional representatives and senators. "Remember Kavanaugh!" should be a rallying cry for Democratic women and decent men, too, as I'm sure it is!

In the November 2, 2018 edition of "The Week," an excerpt from the Pew Research Center read, "Just 25% of Americans believe that Brett Kavanaugh was telling the entire truth during his testimony in his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Thirty-nine percent think Kavanaugh was mostly honest but hiding something, and 31% believe he was mostly lying. Seventy-seven percent of Republicans approved of his confirmation, while 74% of Democrats disapproved.

"Forty-eight percent of voters under 20 say it "really matters" which party controls Congress. Eighty-three percent of voters 65 and older say it really matters."

So while just 25% of Americans believe that Brett Kavanaugh was telling the entire truth during his confirmation hearing, elderly, mostly male Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee wanted their pro-corporation, pro-life, anti-worker, pro-imperial presidency (Trump is above the law) judge on the Supreme Court and they got 'er done, thanks to the mealy-mouthed "ethical" Republicans like Senators Ben Sasse (R-NE), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Bob Corker (R-TN), all of whom voted for the tax cut that conferred 83% of its benefits on corporations and the richest one percent of Americans and for Brett Kavanaugh.

On the clearly demonstrated lack of judicial temperament alone, Brett Kavanaugh should not have been promoted to a lifetime appointment.

Don't let misogyny win. I've changed since the Kavanaugh hearing and confirmation. I've started noticing things, like who gets the right of way in a grocery store or a parking lot when a man and a woman have equal right of way. Who defers to whom? Does the man dominate? Usually. An elderly maintenance man shuffles forward across my way in the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics parking lot like I'm not even there, though I'm purposefully walking toward the hospital. I never noticed those things before.

I was unloading my groceries into my Suburu at New Pioneer Coop in Coralville as two men got into their vehicle. The one on the passenger side flung open his door without any care for the fact that I was right next to him. I had to grab my grocery bag (I'd unloaded one but was still holding the other) and run to the other side of my vehicle to avoid being hit as the two men sped away.

We don't matter? Yes, we do matter! Grab 'em by the ballot. Vote!