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Sexism, White Male Hyper-Masculinity and the Biden VP Pick

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It is no secret that in America's male-dominated society women are still fighting for respect in a supposedly Democratic example and world-beacon. Males - white, Black and in between - are today "rolling with the times" in many cases paying what amounts to public lip service to female aspirations and achievements, while, "on the down low," still peddling rabid sexism and misogyny in private. A little bit jarred and scarred by the rapid rise of the Me Too Movement #MeToo and the blinding flashlight now shining on their age-old bad behavior, these entitlement types all jacked up on hyper-masculinity are the perfect hypocrites - they say one thing in public that appears to be progressive and sensitive to female progress, while thinking the direct opposite. So, now that the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, Joe Biden vice presidential pick will definitely be a woman, it did not take long for the Right-Wing conservative talk radio shows, and pro-Trump echo chambers to fall back on racist, sexist and negative anti-female tropes.

But we do not have to go very far to see white male hyper-masculinity and pompous woman-bashing on display. America and the world are treated to its very ugly displays almost every day that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, holds a press conference/briefing and the way he bristles, gets petulant and angry, and usually storms out of the event in a huff when challenged, especially by female journalists. And the man has a long record of saying, in his own words, very "nasty" things about women. What we have here is the man holding the highest office in the land "leading by prime example" when it comes to treating women - all women badly. Trump's behavior is daily weaponized by Fox News on national television, and backed up by the hundreds of local ultra-conservative, Republican talk radio shows and podcasts that is today a powerful Right-wing, neoconservative ecosystem driven by all kinds of conspiracy theories and white supremacist ideology in the service of the GOP and President Trump.

In recent times they have amplified and turned up the volume on their attacks on Joe Biden as mentally unfit, some going so far to state that he needs to be in a nursing home. Others go a step further claiming that he IS presently in a nursing home, and not operating from the basement of his house due to COVID-19. All this without an iota of proof or evidence. Not necessary when feeding this toxic gruel to the Trump base. They've looked at the women on his short list of VP picks and started to speculate that some are "communists," and questioned the abilities of others saying they do not have the "nerve or guts" for the job, obliquely suggesting to their male, white supporters, jacked up on "Trump Juice," that these women and any Joe Biden VP pick will be "weak." But that should come as no surprise. Just a few weeks ago America was treated to a member of the United States Congress calling a young, bright and brave female colleague from New York State a "fu***ng B**ch." And he's not alone when it comes to this exact sentiment.

Indeed, the coming to power of Donald Trump has removed all of the social guardrails and civil protocols that hitherto hemmed in sexist and racist Republicans. Now unleashed by the most sexist and anti-women president in United States history, they feel free, no "liberated," to push their long-pent up, repressed sexist, racist and prejudicial tropes in an effort to further divide an already deeply divided populace. These days it's all about the 2020 Presidential Elections and the desperation that has set in - NOTHING that they have thrown at Joe Biden so far as stuck. The latest mud-slinging is two-pronged - attack and question Joe Biden's fitness to run Business America as POTUS, and to portray ANY FEMALE Vice-Presidential pick as "weak," "soft on crime" and lacking the "courage to confront our adversaries." Ironically, it was not Joe Biden who had to take a "cognition test" but Donald Trump who is so needy that he had to keep repeating how he "aced the test" - over and over and over again. The man was oblivious to just how silly, childish and hilarious his insistence that Joe Biden could not pass this test, ergo, "I'm a genius" was!

However, the fact is that ANY of the women on Joe Biden's short list would make an excellent vice president. His detractors are also mortally worried that this can morph into an "history making event" - if Biden wins in November. And they cannot stand that. What?! A woman who could become the POTUS after 250 years of male rule and mis-rule? We just can't have that! So, what do they do? Even before Biden's announcement the plan is to gin up the Trump base and prepare them to reject howl at ANYONE AND ANYTHING - but Trump. These right-wing media pundits have invested much time and effort to further divide the American voting populace strictly along rigid partisan lines. Their hope is that they can drive a major turn out event for Trump's base. while depressing Democratic Party voter turnout. It's that simple. They want to garner a slim re-election victory by keeping their voting base in tact while sowing discord and disunity in the Democratic Party's base. The strategy is to get the gullible and fanatic Trump base to forget and forgive his monumentally colossal bungling of the COVID-19 Pandemic response - pretend that never happened - and just vote.

But that old 2016 playbook is deeply flawed in 2020. Its nearly useless. In a real pre-COVID-19 world it was difficult to pull off at best, but today, with the virus driving U.S. politics it's virtually impossible. No amount of female-bashing, denigrating of the Democratic Party's presidential candidate can erase the epic failures of Donald Trump and his pathetic, incompetent and erratic responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic that has cost nearly 200,000 American lives, and zeroing on 6 million infections. And no condescending radio tropes and glib lying can paper over Trump's serious shortcomings as both a leader and a president. And no amount of deflection and distraction will turn today's depression-like serious socio-economic situation with nearly 40 million people now unemployed into a dystopian state of affairs picture. It also does not help when the president holds a press conference turned rosy national "feel good" kumbaya event at one of his upscale properties in New Jersey with his rich patrons yucking it up with expensive wines, booing and cheering on cue as the pretends to "do work."

Look, for ALL of America's political history "ole white men" have looked out for and sought the interests of other old white men when it came to the presidency of the United States. Sure, we've had one female VP pick who was held up to the kind of standards that no male VP candidate ever had go through. Back then, the mainstream media just like now questioned her "strength, bravery and resolve." In barely concealed sexist tones, some even laughed at the idea of a female VP. So, Joe Biden be warned: your Vice President pick will face the ire and fire of Republicans and she will be probed and examined like no one has before. She must also be ready and able to prove them all wrong. These conservative Republican types for decades also scoffed at the idea and possibility of a Black president. History has proved them wrong. It is time that history again prove them wrong and finally relegates this backward, reactionary thinking where it belongs -on the dump heap of history.

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MICHAEL DERK ROBERTS Small Business Consultant, Editor, and Social Media & Communications Expert, New York Over the past 20 years I've been a top SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTANT and POLITICAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST in Brooklyn, New York, running (more...)
 

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