The Anti-Feminist?

During the second presidential debate, Mitt Romney introduced citizens to a new crisis plaguing the nation: the challenge of finding women qualified enough to serve in government. The governor of Massachusetts had to enact a statewide search that culminated in him getting delivered “binders full of women” qualified for the job.

With comments like these, the “woman vote” has been increasingly difficult for Mitt Romney to find. With that being said, however, 41 percent of women voters are still voting for him. How is it that close to half of all women plan to vote for a candidate that is essentially against them?

As a member of the woman minority who voted for Romney, it is not a decision I take lightly. While I certainly would not have been in the streets burning my bra in the fight for woman’s rights, I do consider myself a progressive individual and I believe I should be entitled to equal rights. With these ideals, the decision to vote for Romney was something I wrestled with until my ballot was dropped in the mailbox. I was going to have to put either my social views or my fiscal views aside with whichever candidate I voted for. I am willing to take the risk of Romney’s social policies in exchange for the promise of a stronger economy and a cleaned up government. The way the economy and government is handled over the next few years will dictate our country’s future.

The United States has still not completely rebounded from the 2008 recession and if we do not focus on cutting our government spending and getting people back to work we risk possibly never recovering. Our country will face ramifications far into the future if we don't fix this problem soon. That is why it is important to vote for a president that believes more in cutting back on government funding than in creating social programs.

While Barack Obama has suggested creating social programs, Romney has vowed to keep government spending to a minimum. Although his insistence on cutting funding to programs such as PBS and Planned Parenthood will affect people, the government will save money and the private sector can easily replace those programs. While his declaration to repeal Obamacare is certainly not the most progressive view, it is the most practical view. Funding trillion-dollar government programs such as Obamacare while unemployment hovers around 9 percent and the national debt is $1.6 trillion is not the answer to our problems. Focus on getting people working again and creating a stabilized economy then there will then be the availability of funds to create a progressive program like that. Social programs mean more taxes, and citizens do not have the money to be shelling out on taxes to fund these programs since we still haven’t recovered fully from the recession.

All of these programs will mean nothing if we continue to spend ourselves into the ground and have to continually borrow money from China to fund our social programs. Obama was handed a destabilized economy upon taking office, but the progress he promised us has fallen short. In his 4 years as president, government spending peaked at 27 percent, whereas it peaked at 23 percent under Bush. Obama has continued to suggest expensive programs. The situation has gotten so bad that I am forced as a woman voter to choose the lesser of two evils. And I chose Romney.

It is time to stop having such a lush government willing to spend so much money, and have one that actually gets things done. It may seem backwards to cut social programs to help our country, but the future of this country relies on us getting out from under the mountain of debt we have accumulated over time. The thought of my kids having to deal with this mountain in the future and be increasingly dependent on other countries is much scarier of a prospect to me than having any of my rights taken away.

As bad as it sounds, in this year’s election, I care more about how our economic future will look than whether or not Romney wants to repeal Roe v. Wade or is uninterested in signing an equal pay bill. As a woman, I understand that my view is not “feminist” enough or that I am voting against myself. It’s not that I am voting against myself, it’s that I am voting for something that I believe is a larger investment in my future.