What Michelle Obama Taught Me about Voting Conservative
By Becca M.
Michelle Obama likes to be known as a symbol of feminism that transcends partisanship. She’s the author of an Oprah’s Book Club memoir, a top pick for bloggers’ booklists. She promoted her health campaign on Disney Channel and Sesame Street throughout her husband’s time in office. But after Donald Trump stunned the Left with his 2016 victory, Michelle Obama had this to say at a marketing conference in Boston:
“Quite frankly, we saw this in this election. As far as I’m concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice. What does it mean for us, as women, that we look at those two candidates… and many of us said, ‘That guy? He's better for me. His voice is more true to me.’ Well, to me that just says, you don't like your voice. You like the thing you're told to like.”
To put it nicely, this statement was a punch in the gut to conservative women who love and feel confident in their voices, principles, and beliefs and want them to be heard. The former first lady’s words may seem benign, but they levy a harsh and judgemental allegation against millions of women. After all it’s the Left that has tried to discredit and silence these women into submission, not Donald Trump. When a woman’s expressed convictions differ from what the culture prescribes, the Left is suddenly not a champion for women but the thought police.
Take the female-founded pro-life fashion brand Culture of Life 1972, whose founders face frequent discrimination from Instagram and Facebook on the comical grounds that the company name violates “community standards.” Or Abby Johnson, who left a promising career as a Planned Parenthood clinic directors to use her platform to expose the evil of the abortion industry. (Johnson was accused of saying “her brown son” was more likely to commit a crime than her white sons, when in actuality she said she would have to have a different conversation with her biracial son than her white sons about dealing with the police.) Or Ivanka Trump, who did more to combat human trafficking as presidential advisor than any of her predecessors. Her humanitarian initiatives and philanthropy went unnoticed and her fashion line was boycotted, ostensibly because she’s the daughter of Donald Trump.
Through her insulting and sexist rhetoric in 2016, Mrs. Obama peddled the harmful idea that conservative women are incapable of deciphering what candidate and policies serve them and their families best. She and other supposed feminist representatives are convinced that behind every conservative woman in the voting booth is an oppressive patriarchy pulling the strings. By their logic, I either refused to vote for Clinton because I denied my female identity or because the men in my life brainwashed me.
Was I coerced into conservatism by my dad, who works tirelessly every day in a treatment center, helping a diverse group of kids gain freedom from addiction and live a new life? My dad, who never thought twice about adopting my six internationally-adopted, special needs brothers and sisters? Who funded all my pursuits throughout my teen years and has never once imposed his beliefs on me?
Or is it my brothers, my heroes, who have supported me in everything I’ve ever wanted to do, who love God like nobody’s business, and are the most loving people I’ve ever known?
I grew up in Evangelical churches. I sang on worship teams as a teen, led missions trips, and traveled to Russia and China numerous times by the time I was eighteen. I have spoken in front of thousands of people as an adoption advocate. I ran a business as a teenager (together with my siblings). I was taught that I do not need a man because I am complete in Christ Jesus. My immediate family is made up of three different races/cultures. I was blessed to help my family with six adoptions of children who otherwise would not know the love, safety, and family that they do now. Children who were abandoned by the murderous, failed communist system that the Left romanticizes.
These are the opportunities that my ‘bigoted’ conservative upbringing afforded me.
Why do so many women disagree with liberal feminism? According to ABC News/Washington Post, up to 46% of women in battleground states voted for Trump in 2020. That’s far more than 1/3 of all American women. According to the same poll, 56% of all white women without a college degree voted for Trump in 2020. Why aren’t those women’s voices being heard by the Democratic Party and its talking heads?
Conservative Women Condemn Abortion
The Left pushes the narrative that abortion is health care, free birth control is a right, and our daughters should be trained to worship liberal women in politics. Many free thinking women don’t put abortion on a pedestal. According to a Gallup poll, only 32% of women believe abortion should be legal in all circumstances, while 66% of women believe it should be either illegal, or legal in only certain circumstances. This is a far cry from the “abortion rights are human rights” mantra that we’re supposed to believe is the majority view.
Many of the Susan B. Anthony-era women's rights advocates were also pro-life. Anthony’s newspaper, The Revolution, often referred to abortion as “child murder” and “infanticide." Alice Paul, whose influence helped bring about passage of the 19th Amendment, said “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.” Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., was involved in the abolitionist and suffragist movements as well. She wrote that an article about female abortionists was what spurred her decision to pursue medicine. “I finally determined to do what I could do ‘to redeem the hells,’ and especially the one form of hell thus forced upon my notice.” These first-wave feminists stood for things conservatives today also stand for: abolition of slavery, the well-being of women and their children, education for women, and equal voting rights. But the modern feminist movement doesn't hide the fact that it hijacks the ideals laid forth by the original women’s rights advocates, and subverts a cause that was once about the value and dignity of every human being, to serve a purpose that is solely political in nature.
Conservative, Christian Women Support Israel
For Christians, no matter what denomination you’re from, you can’t get away from the fact that the Bible comes right out and says it: “All Israel will be saved.” (Romans 11:26 NIV) and “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure.’” (Psalm 122:6 NIV)
I would never support a candidate that supports boycotts on Israeli industry or who normalizes friendly relations with hostile nations that want Israel destroyed. Trump’s successful peaceful diplomacy between Israel and three Arab countries speaks for itself. (So does the fact that 70% of Israeli Jews preferred Trump in 2020, according to the Israeli Democracy Institute.)
Conservative Women Like Guns
#Sorrynotsorry, Feminism. But the Well Armed Woman says about 20 million women in the U.S. are gun owners, a number that is rising. Women like their second amendment rights, they like their guns, and they’re not apologizing for it.
Conservative Women Like Religious Freedom
According to a religious landscape study by Pew Forum, 69% of women in the U.S. are absolutely certain in their belief in God. (Only 57% of men said the same.) In addition, over half of Catholics, Evangelical Protestant, and Historically Black Protestant Christians are women.
I have never felt shut down in churches I’ve attended, or in my loving Christian family. I did, however, feel shut down during this past election cycle.
At work, I was once yelled at by a Biden supporter, who went to my boss and said that we shouldn’t be allowed to talk politics in the workplace. I was told I could not wear a “Faith, Hope, Love” mask at work because of its “controversial” nature. I was told my view that employers should not be required to provide free birth control if it violates their conscience (which the Supreme Court agrees with) is “extremist.” I was disqualified from writing for several women’s lifestyle publications, whose rules for submitting include personal support for abortion. An abortion advocate once told me that abortion is not genocide because these children are “unwanted.”
Where is the liberals’ admiration for conservative women standing up for what they believe in? Women like Abby Johnson, Michelle Bachmann, Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Candace Owens, and Elisa Steele. My sister, a successful Nashville musician. My mom, who has adopted six children. The Christian adoptive and foster moms I know who show love without the love always being reciprocated. Maybe these women have minds of their own. Maybe they are standing up for their truth with their voices. I have no doubt that Michelle Obama is not listening to my voice. Nor does she care. But here’s what my voice wants to say:
I choose life.
I believe that all people are created equal in the image of God.
I believe in the truth.
I believe in Jesus, who lifted up downtrodden women before anyone else in history.
I support Israel.
I believe in America.
In freedom.
And I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
That’s who I am.
Photo via Harper’s Bazaar
