“I disagree with him when he suggests it’s not possible to
have meetings with women alone by himself. I think that’s ridiculous — the idea
that you would deny a professional woman the opportunity to have a meeting with
the vice president of the United States is outrageous.”
Kamala Harris – candidate for President – commenting on Mike
Pence’s adherence to the Billy Graham Rule.
Since I’ve already addressed Mike Pence’s following the
Billy Graham rule, I won’t make the same observations again (Mike
Pence Episode - Honor Means Nothing (Unless a Feminist Says So).
What Ms. Harris is doing here is mere political theater and
raw emoting. It is not real, it is not
sensible, it follows no logic and isn’t even rational. It’s a sound bite that people can now
re-tweet and like. It offers no rebuttal
of the Billy Graham rule; it offers no suggestions as to what Mr. Pence ought
to do otherwise (other than implying he should
meet, alone, with women who are not his wife).
More importantly, the statement is blatantly false. Ms. Harris offers no evidence to suggest Mike
Pence denies professional women the opportunity to have a meeting with the Vice
President of the United States. She just
says it as if Mike Pence failing to meet alone with women means he never meets
with women at all. The absurdity of what
she is implying, without saying it, would be pricelessly hilarious if she
didn’t think that she was Presidential material.
This is the world we now live in. People who claim they are competent to lead
the most powerful country in the world don’t care if what they are saying makes
sense or not. As long at it gets votes,
it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s a good
sound bite, it doesn’t matter. As long
as it get likes on Twitter and as long
as it SOUNDS like it’s fair-minded, inclusive, diverse, etc., etc., etc., then
it doesn’t matter.
Never mind that such statements are illogical, irrational
and false. Why, after all, should we
care about that?
