It's not us, it's you

In an attempt to become politically relevant again, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., said recently that Americans simply “aren’t ready” to have a female president.

Bachmann went on to detail a plethora of reasons why Americans should not vote for Hillary Clinton for president in particular, claiming that Clinton would “effectively ... be Obama’s third and fourth term in office.”

Upon reading this, the Editorial Board acknowledges Michelle Bachmann is a troll.

She obviously said Americans aren’t ready to have a female president to outrage everyone in the liberal media, and perhaps she doesn’t even actually mean it.

Then again, it’s Michelle Bachmann.

Let us not forget that Bachmann in 2012 had her own presidential aspirations, which didn’t last long. Perhaps she is using this new line of argument to make herself feel better about having crashed and burned miserably on the road to the White House in 2012. Regardless of Bachmann’s intentions, her argument might be silly and trivial on the surface, but it reflects something more politically sinister.

She essentially is arguing against the election of Hillary Clinton in 2016, because Hillary Clinton is a woman.

A logical argument against Clinton for president is a substantive one that leaves out her gender entirely. Hillary Clinton’s being a woman has nothing to do with her policies and how she would perform as the commander in chief. Still, Bachmann chose to attack Clinton’s gender instead of her ideology, a cheap political shot.

The innocuous, misogynistic idea that Americans “aren’t ready” for women to be in positions of power implies that women are incapable of doing a job simply based on the fact that they are women. The Editorial Board fully rejects this notion. There are more than enough qualified and skilled women to work in just as many positions of power as men in government and in the private sector.

In fact, several countries around the world already have female heads of state, including Denmark, Thailand, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Liberia, Bangladesh, Iceland, Costa Rica, Finland, Lithuania and Trinidad and Tobago. To claim Americans are “not ready” for a female president, while the citizens of all of the aforementioned countries are, is ludicrous.

This argument empowers bigots who are against women holding positions simply because they are women. It enforces the status quo with a seemingly innocent excuse for America’s lack of progress, and it perpetuates stereotypes about women being less capable of leading than men.

It is likely that Bachmann did not think through her comments. Surely she does not wish to be boxed in with all other women as being unfit to lead simply based on her gender. Bachmann should find healthier ways to vent her frustration about her own failed presidential campaign that don’t include undermining the abilities of every woman in America.

Just because Americans weren’t “ready” for Michelle Bachmann to be president in 2012 doesn’t mean Americans aren’t ready for a woman to be president in 2016.

opinion@idsnews.com