GOP presidential candidates, even if Fred Thompson aka Arthur Branch jumps in the race, have a tough time against the now-ready-for-primetime Hillary. On "Letterman," Hillary was relaxed, trimmer, stylish in her long-jacket pantsuit, energetic even stressing the term "stamina," funny, not-preachy and unselfconscious [vs. Obama when on the show]. All that smartest girl in the class and being in Bill's shadow is history. Hillary has come into her own. And to us women she looks very much like a candidate we can vote for.
Sensing this threat, Kimberley Strassel today publishes her well-thought out opinion piece in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL "What Women Want." Strassel argues that the GOP does have a shot at getting the women's vote. Actually they have more than a shot. They have an advantage. They can frame issues important to women in their traditional messages. Right on the message machine, Strassel.
In particular, the GOP can promise us women that it will ensure our current economic and social gains and add to those through legislation, not litigation. Legislation gives us a say, a voice in what goes down. I would prefer my rights and opportunities shaped in the legislature, federal and state, than in the courts, especially the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sure courts, as society's institutions, can be influenced by forces such as media, politics, grassroots pressure and tricks such as bringing down the servers with email from interest groups. But the courts run by the law and by the lawyers. The legislature is run by our elected representatives, therefore much closer to the levers of people power.
The GOP can demonstrate to us women how litigation has harmed us, directly and indirectly. Regarding the latter, just think of the so-called "tort tax' that siphons much more from the economy each year than all the years of the Iraq war. That leaves less money for health care.
Bringing this to an issue close to all women - children - the GOP can clearly document how all the lead paint public nuisance litigation has not helped one child. Had the laws passed by the legislatures been enforced so landlords maintained the lead in their properties, lots of children would have avoided any possibility of being lead poisoned.
The effective push-back of tort reformers during the past several years has proved, yeah, conservative thinking not only works. It can work for women and children.