Why We Shouldn't Ignore Pete Hegseth's Retweet on Women's Voting Rights

[Quiet Em]

While Hegseth doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally declare the 19th Amendment over, the fact that he’s sitting in the executive branch feels like a step toward this viewpoint gaining legitimacy. And given how much women’s rights have been eroded in just the past decade, it’s not hyperbolic to call this out as the danger that it is.

“When leaders entrusted with safeguarding our nation amplify messages that undermine democratic ideals, they normalize the dangerous notion that equality is optional,” she says. “Authoritarianism doesn’t arrive overnight—it advances through small, corrosive concessions disguised as ‘tradition’ or ‘order.’ Every American, regardless of political affiliation, must reject such calls to turn back the clock.”

It’s about more than our right to vote, though. By saying we don’t deserve autonomy over our own participation in democracy, Wilson is effectively relegating women to second-class citizen status. And once we go there, it’s a slippery slope.

“The idea that women should surrender their vote to male authority is an affront to every American who has fought, marched, and bled for the right to be heard,” adds Stewart. “When men make diminishing statements about women, it harms our autonomy and our safety.”

https://www.glamour.com/story/why-we-shouldnt-ignore-pete-hegseths-retweet-on-womens-voting-rights

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. Hegseth's tweet has less power than a sharpie on a hurricane map

It gets lots of attention, but changes absolutely nothing about reality - women can still vote, regardless of what he says.

[hamsterjill]

2. For now...

The plan is set out in Project 2025 and taking the vote away from women is most definitely one of the goals.

People told me Roe would never be overturned. I don't believe anything any more.

[Quiet Em]

3. No, the reality is that this viewpoint is becoming more and more mainstream and that is extremely troubling.

There are Republican legislatures in States who are actively looking for ways to deter and put up barriers that prevent women from voting.

You may not take this obscene viewpoint and issue seriously, but I do.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. Viewpoints don't change reality

Women’s right to vote still stands regardless of anyone’s viewpoint, just as it did in 1920, when millions of men (and women) were against women voting, but the amendment was ratified anyway.

[Americanme]

6. A couple years ago, womens' right to choose still stood, regardless of anyone's viewpoint.

The Hegseth moron is one of the people influencing trump. And absolutely nothing is too radical for trump to consider, especially when he wants to distract from his past sins. A conservative congress will fall in line.

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. Just one thing:

Neither Hegseth, Trump or SCOTUS has the power to repeal a constitutional amendment.

(The Dobbs ruling didn’t involve erasing black letter law contained within a constitutional amendment- It was an egregious rejection of stare decisis , which is outrageous itself, but didn’t involve the removal of text from the constitution)

Everybody seems to forget that, and they imbue a tweet from a former FOX moron with all sorts of magical powers.

Don’t buy into the myth that Trump is omnipotent and the states and the people are powerless.

There are too many real life, here and now problems to be dealt with to be distracted by idiotic trolling.

[Quiet Em]

9. you are too focused on the 19th Amendment that you are completely ignoring

how women can and will be disadvantaged at at State level. There are States working on their own versions of the SAVE act as we speak.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. Indeed, those threats are real

The SAVE act copycats should definitely be challenged.

I was responding to the assumption by some that all women’s right to vote would be stripped away simply by Hegseth willing it to be so.

[T_i_B]

7. Wasn't the purpose of the Tweet to promote Doug Wilson?

Given Doug Wilson's target audience is pretty much exclusively MAGA types it will have definitely served that purpose.

[Solly Mack]

5. ...

“When men make diminishing statements about women, it harms our autonomy and our safety.”

And that's precisely why we can't ignore their attacks on women and promoting the idea that we should lose our right to vote is an attack.

[valleyrogue]

11. The only way a constitutional amendment can be overturned,

is via another constitutional amendment. The numbers in Congress and in the state legislatures repeal the 19th amendment are not there and never will be. The only way woman suffrage could ever, ever, ever be repealed is if there was another constitutional convention and they would have to start all over from scratch. It isn’t going to happen. The only reason these men are wanting to do away with the 19th amendment is simply as a means for voter suppression because women are far more likely to vote Democratic than men. The gender gap has been known for decades. Many men can be very politically stupid and vote against their own best interests. Women are far more likely to know what is that stake because they are less privileged than men are as a group. Rather than acknowledge these men vote the wrong way and should perhaps do some reflection and realize Republicans do not have their interest at heart, these men double down, especially the religious types of the so-called Christian reconstructionists.

[Quiet Em]

12. They don't need to repeal the 19th Amendment to take away women's voting rights.

There are States that are currently looking into implementing their own versions of the SAVE act.

One major driver of disenfranchisement has increasingly become voter identification laws. Studies on the impact of ID laws, which require certain standards of identification in order to vote, demonstrate that “women, especially low-income, older, minority, and married women,” are most vulnerable to these stringent new laws. Women generally have more trouble than men presenting proper identification, in part because marrying or divorcing often involve name changes that make it harder to present multiple, matching forms of identification. In terms of race, Black and Hispanic Americans are generally three times more likely to be told that they lack the identification needed to vote. Even more commonly, one in ten Americans has trouble taking off work in order to vote – a rate even higher amongst Black or Hispanic Americans (16%) than White Americans (8%). There are clear barriers that make it harder for women and people of color to vote, demonstrating that even today, women of color still face major impediments to exercising full voting rights first granted over one hundred years ago under the Nineteenth Amendment.

https://journals.law.harvard.edu/jlg/2020/01/the-19th-amendment-at-100-modern-challenges/