Using gender to undermine Clinton
Trump camp sticks to comments many see as misogynistic
COLUMBUS, Ohio — What do voters hear when Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, in interview after interview, praises his running mate Donald Trump’s “broad shoulders”?
What do they hear when Trump repeatedly criticizes Hillary Clinton for not looking presidential — “and you need a presidential look”?
Or when he, time and again, calls into question her strength and stamina?
Many people, to use one of Trump’s favorite phrasings, hear an effort to raise questions about whether a woman can serve as president.
“Could it be more obvious?” asked pollster Christine Matthews, who has studied women voters for years amid work on Republican political campaigns.
Gender now is being wielded in a somewhat more subtle fashion than in the primary season, when Trump blistered Clinton for playing “the woman’s card” and said if it weren’t for her being a woman, “I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.”
Trump also engaged in a dispute with Fox broadcaster Megyn Kelly over his history of caustic remarks toward women, and he sniped about the face and voice of opponent Carly Fiorina.
Defenders insist Trump is an equal opportunity offender, as likely to label Republican Jeb Bush as “low energy” as he is to critique Clinton as “weak.” And Trump supporters say they do not consider the candidate’s remarks insulting to women, by any stretch.
“I don’t think he said she was weak because she’s a Donald Trump has his supporters, but the GOP nominee has touched on his difficulties among female voters recently.
woman,” said Beth Siracuse, who lives in Upper Arlington, a suburb of Columbus. Whatever his remarks, she said as she drew a contrast with Clinton, “it isn’t as bad as lying to the American people or calling us names.”
Others, including Clinton partisans, said they were offended.
“He’s racist, misogynist,” said Cheryl Shilling, anotherUpper Arlington resident. His remarks, she said, are “terrible — especially towardwomen.”
Testosterone has infused Trump’s candidacy from its inception. He has cast himself as a strong and tough leader, and his opponents— including some men — as wimpy alternatives. In one debate, taking offense at criticism of his hand size, he referenced his sexual prowess.
In the carnival atmosphere that often surrounds Trump rallies, the message is far from subtle. Buttons
and T-shirts critique the size of Clinton’s thighs and breasts, make a play on words about her engaging in a sex act and cast her as a “bitch” and Trump as “someone with balls.”
That sensibility is part of what has led women, on average, to be far more skeptical than men of Trump and the impact he would have on their lives as president. And that has threatened Trump’s efforts to defeat Clinton’s historic campaign.
Asked in anewCBS/New York Times poll whether Trump respects women, 53 percent of women voters said “not much” or “not at all.” Only 20 percent said he had “a lot” of respect for women. The sentiment split on partisan lines, but a majority of independent women voters also held a negative view of Trump’s respect forwomen.
Amongwomen voters, 45 percent felt that a Clinton
presidency would be good for women; only 12 percent said the same about a Trump presidency.
Aswithmany elements of the Republican campaign, it’s not clear if Trump’s use of gender to question Clinton’s qualifications represents a carefully crafted strategy, the candidate’s own views or an effort to boost the enthusiasm of his most loyal supporters — white men.
It’s also not clear whether Trump will persuade any voters he doesn’t already have. Views ofTrump— and of Clinton — are firmly held at this point, according to Matthews, whose partner ran an anti-Trump super PACthis year.
“I don’t think significant numbers of women will change their minds,” she said.
Women accounted for 10 million more voters than menin the 2012 presidential election, which accentuates
the need to get maximum support from them, said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.
Gender gaps — the distance between two candidates’ support among men and women — have marked every presidential contest since 1980, she said. A doublegap between genders secured victory for President Barack Obama in 2012 and Bill Clinton in 1996; in recent polls, Hillary Clinton has narrowly exceeded the gaps that benefited those Democrats.
Bystrom said that Clinton’s edge derives not only from her own gender pitch — she has detailed her life as a mother and grandmother and cited her long experience in pushing women’s rights — but from limitations inTrump’s approach.
Trump has nodded lately to his difficulties among women. This month, he unveiled a child care policy — although its rollout was marred by his false claim that Clinton had no such plan herself.
Not long after, he described a woman pastor as a “nervous mess” and questioned her motives after she calmly asked him to skip anti-Clinton remarks in her Michigan church. He took to Twitter over theweekend to castigateNewYorkTimes columnist Maureen Dowd as “crazy,” “wacky” and “a neurotic dope” — the latter adjective one he regularly uses againstwomen.
His campaign recently launched a push to attract women voters withTrump’s messagesonnational security, the economy and social issues.
Kamilah Prince, who organized a statewide women’s tour for Trump, said voters are concerned with those issues.
“You know, he’s new to this,” she said.“He’s not your retail politician where people are taught ‘don’t ever say this thing.’ And that what makes him organic and real. ... Right or wrong, people appreciate that honesty.”
But Clinton operatives contend Trump has given the Democratic campaign an opening among Republican and independent womenunavailable to previous party nominees.
To boost those odds, Clinton has been airing ads showing Trump’s insults to women and others and emphasizing her proposals.
She received high-level backup Sunday from Obama, speaking at a New York fundraiser.
“I will also say that there’s a reasonwhywe haven’t had a woman president; that we as a society still grapple with what it means to see powerful women,” Obama said. “And it still troubles us in a lot ofways, unfairly, and that expresses itself in all sorts of ways.”