CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Don’t tell Connecticut Democrats Patricia Miller, Nancy DiNardo and Susan Bennett that the Republican Party is not waging war on women.
Yes, they saw the cavalcade of strong women come to the microphone at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. They were watching when New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said, “I’ll be damned. We’re Republicans.” They even heard Ann Romney say, “I love you, women!”
The three Connecticut women, delegates to this week’s Democratic National Convention, are not buying it.
“Look at their policies,” DiNardo, of Trumbull, the state Democratic chair, said Sunday. “Every statehouse they’ve controlled, they’ve pushed the attack on women, women’s rights, women’s control of their own bodies.
“I tell young women who grew up with Roe v. Wade, it’s important you become active politically because there are people who want to take that from you. It’s a hard sell sometimes because they take it for granted.”
“All that window dressing the other night – that didn’t move any women,” said Miller, a state representative from Stamford’s 145th district.
Bennett said the comments of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin made more of an impression than anything she heard at the Republican convention.
“Rape is rape. Period,” said Bennett, a retired teacher and longtime Connecticut Democrat who served for 18 years on Fairfield’s Board of Finance. “The average person hears this, and knows it. You can’t talk around it.”
“Look how hard they’ve tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” DiNardo said. “I think they’ve tried 33 times. It’s funny, health care was one thing when Romney was governor of Massachussetts. now apparently it’s something else.”
The three women were in the advance guard of a 100-person Connecticut delegation – most of the delegates are arriving Monday – and to say they are fired up would be an understatement.
Bennett has been to several conventions since she first went as leader of the state’s Young Democrats in 1980, when she watched Ted Kennedy’s passionate but unsuccessful effort to unseat Jimmy Carter as the party’s presidential nominee.
But this is her first as a full-fledged delegate, and she’s relishing the role. The same is true for Stamford’s Miller.
“I’m excited,” Miller said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
Asked what has to happen at the convention to refocus the Democrats’ campaign after the Republican convention held sway in prime time for a week, the women each stressed getting people to understand that the “change” Obama ran on in 2008 doesn’t happen overnight – particularly with a balky Congress.
“The president has been dealt a tough hand,” Bennett said. “He’s been focused and he’s never stopped trying to make things better. But he still has more work to do.”
DiNardo said, “We are in this mess because of an eight-year Republican Administration and because of Congress. Bill Clinton left a surplus … and now we have a deficit. The President needs more time.”
What about the supposed “enthusiasm deficit” Democrats are facing, particularly among the young voters who propelled Obama to victory last time?
Miller said, “We have to assist the President in getting the word out to young people about how important it is to get out and vote. I met a young man the other day who was refusing to register to vote.
“I had to explain to him – he’s an African-American – how much some people went through to win him that right.”
Message received loud and clear. He registered.