Thoughts On Trump's Problem With Women, and Lessons From Afghanistan.

[TrollBuster9090]

If the American republic is saved in this election, it will be women who will have saved it. No question.

Trump's schoolyard bully style of governing resonates with little boys, and also with men who have an authoritarian personality, and who (sadly) never progressed beyond the schoolyard on an emotional level. But it falls flat with women, as the polls are showing.

As I watched this happen to American, I was reminded of what the Taliban did in Afghanistan, and how the west tried to convert Afghanistan into a liberal democracy 20 years ago. The Taliban maintained control over their society through machismo, and religiosity. Religiosity being where fake holy men (who are really just politicians---think Mike Huckaby) maintain power by telling their followers that they speak for god. They back up their orders with gibberish quotes from the Koran, which they know their followers have never read. At least not in any critical detail. Any macho man who wears a turban, and waves an RPG in one hand and a Koran in the other gets an instant following. The same thing is true of the modern Republican base. Any macho man who wears a cowboy hat, and waves a gun in one hand and a bible in the other becomes an ideal republican candidate.

When NATO removed the Taliban in 2002, and attempted to convert the country into a liberal democracy, the first thing they did was to make a massive effort to send as many girls as possible to school. Women were kept deliberately ignorant and suppressed in that society, mainly because they can't be hypnotized by the authoritarian bully the way many men can.

I clearly remember a State Department diplomat saying "educated, middle class women are a moderating factor in politics, and form a BULWARK against authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism. If you want to have a stable, moderate, functional democracy; you want to have as many educated women participating in it as possible."

It's hard to believe that we're having to now apply the same remedy for populist religious authoritarianism, based on schoolyard bully governing strategies, right here. But that's what's happening.

Not to get TOO religilous here...but all I can say is THANK GOD for the influence of the enlightened woman in politics. You can always be relied upon to rescue us from our worst instincts.

[crickets]

1. This is an enlightening post, giving lots of food for thought.

Thanks for sharing this, TrollBuster.