The NOW National Conference was held in Tampa last weekend, and it confirmed my belief, if confirmation were needed, that the National Organization for Women doesn’t really promote women (especially not conservative ones), but rather uses them as a façade for a progressive agenda.
Although NOW is supposed to be non-partisan, there wasn’t a workshop that I attended that didn’t focus its attention on lambasting conservatives — “hissing” at the sound of Michele Bachmann’s name, joking about “right-wing extremists,” chanting in support of abortion, or cheering when someone announced that they were gay or had had an abortion. At one panel, women were taught to sue those greedy, entitled, old white men who gave them their jobs in the first place, over every minor offense or over nothing at all. If you don’t have a case, the attorney on the panel said, “Don’t worry, we can get very creative.”And of course, the bashing session wasn’t complete without an exhortation to get out the vote for Obama and the Democrats in 2012 in order to oust those “wack-job tea-partiers.”
Just outside of the Grand Ballroom, where supporters were allowed to showcase their individual organizations, was a booth selling the Communist Manifesto along with articles entitled “Education for Socialists” and “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.” Just a few booths down, a woman told me in conversation that “religion is the worst thing that has ever happened to women in America.”
When I was handed a button that said “Get the U.S. Out of Afghanistan,” I told the woman, “You should probably put all of the other wars, including Obama’s ‘humanitarian’ efforts in Libya, on there, too.” I kid you not, her reply was, “We’re focusing our efforts on abortion and fighting the right-wing extremists here at home instead.” Talk about a double standard!
My first reaction to all of this was, “What in the world does this stuff have to do with empowering women?” The leaps in logic that NOW took when connecting these issues to women were so far-fetched, I felt like I was playing hopscotch. Why is an organization that is meant to promote women preaching this kind of left-wing agenda? What about the women CEOs whose money you’re preaching that the government should take from them? What about pro-life women, or conservative women in general? What about the women who were taught that nothing in life is free, and that if you want something, you have to work for it? What about the women who live on the border of Texas and Mexico and have to deal with the ramifications of a liberal immigration policy? What about Christian women?
These women, obviously, are not represented. Do the country a favor, NOW, and change your name to the National Organization for Democratic Progressive Women, because this woman refuses to fall for your scheme.
— Kayla Westbrook is a Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute student activist at Florida State University.