Total women in the U.S. House of Representatives:
1989:
16 Democrats
13 Republicans
2019:
89 Democrats
13 Republicans
There are terrible and embarrassing numbers, of course.
First, and most egregious: Only 23 percent of the House members are women. This Congress may have a record number of female members, but in a country where more than half of the population is female, this is a ridiculous number. A stupid number. An indicator of how much progress is still needed.
Also disturbing:
It’s almost as if there are members of the Republican party who really don’t think a woman’s place is in Congress. In 30 years, the anemic number of Republican women in the House has stayed the same. It seems as some at least a majority of Republicans favor men over women when it comes to national leadership.
They seem to specifically favor white men, too. Of the 55 African American members of the House of Representatives, just one is a Republican.
It would seem that Republicans believe that white men make the best leaders.
But that can’t be. It must be some kind of statistical anomaly. Some odd effect of gerrymandering.
After all, what kind of troglodytic moron would ever think that women or African Americans don’t deserve a place in Congress?
Or Muslims? Or members of the LGBTQ community?
The Republican party doesn’t have any of them, either, but again, it must be some kind of statistical anomaly. An unintended consequence of where African Americans tend to live.
And women, too. It would appear that even women are not evenly distributed across the country, and a vast majority of them settle in Democratic districts.
In fact, based upon Congressional representation, there must be entire swaths of our country populated primary by white, straight men.
Not a woman to be found.
Otherwise we’d have to assume that a majority of Republicans don’t want to vote for women. And African Americans. And members of the LGBTQ community. Also Muslims and Native Americans.
We might even assume that a lot of them are sexist, racist, homophobic, and Islamophobic.
In short, bigots.
But this can’t be. If given the opportunity, I’m sure the Republican party would happily elect an openly bisexual man or a Muslim woman. I’m sure they would flock to the polls to elect a plurality of women or many, many more African Americans.
Right?
