I was driving in my car to a rehearsal. Michelle Obama’s speech had been playing on the radio when I started the car and so I kept listening. It was beautiful, as her speeches tend to be. But then suddenly it became stunning.
I encourage you to listen to the speech in its entirety, but if you only have a short time do listen from around 20 minutes. What is stunning about this speech is not the content. Of course, as a woman, I’ve heard this all before. What is stunning is the context: women talk about all of this with each other, we write about it in articles, and sometimes those articles are even published in mainstream magazines. But let’s be honest: we assume that men skip those articles. All the greatest, most feminist men I know do. But here was Michelle saying all of this directly to men in a political context.
Because of the reality of the bodies that we live in, women can’t afford to vote on any basis other than survival. That’s what this election is about. Before the Dobbs decision, American women already got substandard care as compared to those in other developed nations, especially Black women.
But the numbers post-Dobbs are (though predictable) staggering: a vote for Republicans to lead is now a vote against women’s health. Women in Republican-led areas of this country are suffering. Look it up. Only two years in, we can see where this experiment in the denial of appropriate healthcare is heading. We can see what happens when politicians legislate the actions of doctors.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Republican Party of the past had many issues, but intentionally making women sick was not one of them.
But here’s the reality: it IS this way. A vote for a Republican anywhere from local judge to congressperson to president is now a vote against women’s health and well-being.
Many young people are understandably distressed about international issues and are saying they’ll vote third party or sit this one out. But this isn’t the time to take a stand with your vote. This is a time to get a party with the sick agenda to harm women out of power – at every level.
I’m so relieved that the young adults I know are aware of this, and are voting to protect women. But young people around the country are disengaged right when they need to be most engaged. This is about their health, their families, their future.
Texans, my fellow Michiganders, Nevadans, Californians in conservative districts, Pennsylvanians, Arizonans, Nebraskans, and everyone else in an area with a close race – this is your job. Hold your nose if you must, but please vote to support over half the population of this country. Of this world.
The Republican party needs to lose in order to learn that women hold up half of this beautiful world that we live in.
