GOP Writer: Women Shouldn’t Vote

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National Review columnist John Derbyshire has made a name for himself saying really stupid things. Like when he lamented America’s Hispanic “invasion,” or called affirmative action “hideous,” or criticized Virginia Tech victims.

His latest insane claim: Society would be better off if women didn’t vote. No really, he thinks that. The statement comes from the chapter “The Case Against Women’s Suffrage” from We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism.

When pressed about this view on a radio show yesterday, he replied:

(The) logic of that chapter, that chapter five in my book, rests on the proposition that women voting is bad for conservatism, and as a conservative, of course, I think that’s bad for society.

A ridiculous statement, of course, and one that does his party zero favors. The GOP is floundering; the last thing it needs is some bonehead publicly suggesting gender inequality as a party antidote.

So why provide him a high-profile platform in a major right-wing publication? News flash, Repubs: What’s bad for conservatism is people like John Derbyshire.

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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