Trumpio and Juliet

by Dr. Ellen Brandt


The Presumptive Nominee Should Court, Woo, Serenade, and Do Everything Possible to Put Women Voters in the GOP Column This Cycle.


Just the facts, Ma'am. Women voters lost the White House for the GOP in 2008 - when it probably could not have been helped - and in 2012, when it could have been.


It can't be allowed to happen in 2016 - an historical election year in which Republicans should have the edge. There is widespread dislike and distrust of the Other Party and its Presumptive Nominee Hillary Clinton - widely acknowledged as Limousine Liberalism Incarnate, at a time when the Limo-Liberals and their destructive agenda have placed much of the human race in peril, economic and otherwise.


Women voters are the third key group within the GOP Loyalist Base which the Trump Train must win over quickly. And despite a faulty start, marred by accusations of disrespect and out-and-out misogyny, we believe our Presumptive Nominee can turn things around, successfully courting not only the large - and highly activist - cadre of female voters within the GOP Base, but also many Independent women and crossovers from the Democrat camp.


Like their male counterparts, many women have become disgusted with the path on which this Nation is heading and are eager for the U.S. to change course dramatically, which can best be accomplished by a change of control at the top.


And as we stated in the last story in this series (My Fellow Gray Voters . . . .), the GOP and its nominee will have a built-in electoral edge in 2016, because Gray voters age 50 and older have been skewing very heavily towards the GOP in recent years. Grays 50 and over will make up about half of the U.S. electorate - 1 in every 2 voters - in 2016. Because women still outlive men by several years, that edge will be even more dramatic among female voters.


More than half of Women voters in 2016 will be age 50 and older. And more than half of Women voters within the GOP Loyalist Base will similarly be part of the Gray voter base over 50.


Trump, himself among the oldest Baby Boomers (now age 52-70), as is Hillary Clinton, should try hard to establish a climate of empathy and understanding with Mature GOP Women over 50, his own Age Peers and a group which was not particularly enthusiastic towards the GOP Nominee in either 2008 or 2012.


How can the Presumptive Nominee turn things around and win over Women voters of all ages, both within the GOP Base and beyond it? Here are a few suggestions we think he should heed from here on in:


***** Include many more women at the top of the Trump Campaign. Preferably, one half of all paid campaign staff should be female. And one half of the entire paid staff should consist of Republicans over age 50, with half of them female, to reflect the makeup of the GOP Loyalist Base.


Among the three top staffers at Team Trump so far, one has been let go because of an incident which qualifies as a (hushed up) sex scandal; one was loudly accused of assaulting a tiny female reporter; and the third made an incredibly silly remark three days ago - quoted all over the place - about how the Presumptive Nominee cannot "pander" to GOP women.


Does Trump not realize by now that he needs the steadying influence of more savvy female advisors who have his ear - and his attention?


***** As for the Candidate himself, he must exercise the utmost self-control and never - never, ever, ever! - make a remark, off-the-cuff or on, that Women voters (and the Media) can possibly construe as misogynistic, which we now all know is the Clinton campaign's favorite word.


Having a volatile temperament myself, this author well understands that it is hard to keep one's emotions under control, particularly when you feel that you're being attacked in some way.


However, I am not running for President. Trump is. And if he needs some sort of quick-fix therapy - hypnosis, perhaps, or increased intake of Tryptophans - as the Nike guys say, Just Do It! Shell out for your personal Svengali on staff, or have turkey sandwiches and buttermilk for lunch every day.


***** One particular kind of misogynistic comment has been - and will continue to be - deadly among Women voters. That, of course, is careless comments about women's looks.


Comments like these are the province of 11-year-old boys who play video games all night, sleep through math class, and give wedgies to one another chuckling maniacally. In other words, it's not a province presidential candidates should visit - ever. 


Beauty is very much in the eyes of the Beholder, anyway. Many people think Trump's favorite bash-ee, Rosie O'Donnell, is not in the least bit ugly, and she looks like so many women of Irish descent, it makes the Presumptive Nominee's attacks practically anti-Gaelic. And Carly Fiorina and Heidi Cruz are both exceptionally pretty women, who in no way deserved Trump's critical remarks.


In fact, it's the waking nightmare of some Republican female activists that Trump might decide to derogate Hillary Clinton's appearance. This would be an egregious mistake, because Clinton, a few months younger, not older, than Trump himself, represents not just women in general, but women over age 50 in particular. And we Grays - women and men alike - tend to be sensitive about our appearances as we age. 


Remember how miffed Trump himself became when another GOP candidate talked about his spray-on tan and how it was getting blotchy? What's sauce for the Gander is sauce for the Hillary Clinton.


***** Speaking about cosmetics, one effective conciliatory ploy we think Team Trump should consider immediately is setting up an Advisory Council - right now, pre-Convention - of 10 or 20 prominent female GOP activists, "to advise (us) on matters important to Republican women."


At least half of these GOP women should be over the age of 50, reflecting the Demographic makeup of both the American female population and the GOP Loyalist Base. And I would include some powerful women behind the scenes, such as those heading GOP PACs or prominent Republican fundraisers active in key States.


It might also be useful - and conciliatory - to include some leading lights in the Party who did not endorse Trump at the outset and might have been working for other candidates. Dare I say Nikki Haley and Carly Fiorina?


Such an Advisory Council would appear cosmetic at the outset. But the Trump campaign's goal should be to allow it to evolve into a trusted and valuable body of political allies, permitted to ride herd on the Candidate's pronouncements and proposals which are of special importance to the one-half of the electorate which happens to be female.


They may also make suggestions about new policy and programs which the Presumptive Nominee might wish to adopt and present to the American public as part of his evolving campaign.


***** One of the most dramatic - and effective - ways to get American Women voters on his side - and to cement the loyalty of GOP Women in particular - would be for Trump to choose a highly-qualified female leader as his VP running mate.


We are pleased that after a few false starts, Team Trump is at long last floating the names of several potential female VPs and leaking them quietly to the Media and others.


An especially good choice might be a woman leader who balances Trump's own strengths, in terms of experience, ideology, geography, and perhaps generation. For example, he might want to pick someone who has been a successful and well-liked governor or senator and who has been in the political arena for a number of years.


He might also wish to cement support among still-disgruntled Conservatives by choosing someone with impeccable Conservative credentials. He might focus on women leaders from the Heartland, perennially Red States in the Midwest, South, or West. And because he is among the oldest Baby Boomers, Trump might want to choose a younger Boomer or older Gen-Xer, someone in the 45-60 age range.


***** Once a female VP running mate is chosen, make her the highly visible Voice of the Trump campaign on issues important to Women voters, particularly GOP Women.


She should make one of her top priorities wooing and courting the one-half - 1 in 2 - Women voters this cycle who are age 50 and older - which happens to be the exact constituency that cost Candidate Romney the White House in 2012.

 
(If that boggles a few strategists' and pundits' minds - Good, it should!)


Besides focusing on this key constituency of Women voters over 50, a female VP running mate might also shine her light on several kinds of issues which appeal to the U.S. female electorate as a whole, not just Republican women. A few examples:


***** First up, Security issues. Women within the GOP may be even more focused on national security and safety than their male counterparts. And Security could be the hot button issue for every American as the campaign proceeds, with trouble spots around the globe heating up and domestic tranquility a continuing concern.


The Presumptive Nominee's Protect the Border initiatives have been quite popular among both GOP and Independent Women voters, as have his attacks on the Obama administration's horrid Sanctuary Cities agenda.


Trump also found very early support among Military Women, and he needs to continue to keep them prominent and visible within his campaign.


***** Media bias: Most Republicans of both sexes understand that the current Mainstream Media is very close to a farce, in terms of showing any semblance of fair and balanced coverage of the GOP, our candidates, our activists, our issues, and our ideology. But we think GOP - and Independent - Women are even more sensitive to this bias than our brethren.


That's because it is mostly a small cadre of smarmy, scowling, malicious, and thoroughly unpleasant male Media personalities who are doing the bulk of GOP-bashing. And GOP Women don't like it - or them!


And while some within the Party have disagreed, we believe Nominee Trump is correct to attack specific Media outlets whose anti-Republican rants have become intolerable. What he should not do, of course, is turn this into a matter of personalities and counterattack specific publishers or site owners. We feel it is much more effective to turn one's rage towards the offending publication or website itself, with the ultimate best goal of getting them to moderate their tone and alter their coverage, making the site more GOP-friendly.


***** Privacy. A Media-related issue important to many Women voters is Privacy. And interestingly enough, one's stance on this issue doesn't seem to correlate well with one's Party affiliation or place on the political spectrum - which makes it a fabulous campaign issue for candidates who get it right.


Research has shown that Women voters, GOP or not, seem to skew closer to Rand Paul than to Big Brother advocates Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton on matters of Privacy protection - so this is something Team Trump can use against the Democrats.


Women voters are extremely sensitive about - and largely opposed to - excessive Internet or other monitoring by the government, which we emotionally equate with stalking.


We tend to dislike unbridled data mining, which is used for many illegitimate purposes - like age-based or ethnic-based marketing and advertising or even the criminal theft and dissemination of health and financial records.


There's some anecdotal evidence that women are more likely than men to fall victim to identity theft crimes. And women are more often the victims of on-line malicious bullying, with GOP women possibly even more vulnerable, since a large proportion of malicious hacktivists on the Web skew far to the Left politically.


***** Economics issues. We believe that like their male counterparts, many GOP Women - and many female Independents - put Economic issues at the top of the list when making electoral decisions.


We talked about the GOP's large cadre of Economics voters in the first story in this series. Please read it now, if you have not already done so. (In It to Win It - Economics Voters)


Women within the GOP may be slightly more concerned than Republican men about the abuses perpetrated by Wall Street and about financial crimes and financial predators in general. (Although we think the majority of Republican men are 100 percent with us this cycle.)

   
The Presumptive Nominee's essential economic Populism resonates with many women within and outside the GOP. Women are particularly sensitive to Income Inequality and its ill-effects, since we have all-too-often been pushed to the bottom of the income ladder. That goes double - or more - for Gray women over age 50, which again means half the women in the GOP Loyalist Base.


Note, too, that because of societal and educational prejudices and individual preferences, GOP Women - like all American Women - are more likely to fall into the white-collar, no-collar, or professional categories than to self-identify as blue-collar.


This means that when talking about issues - or formulating agendas and programs - in the realms of economics and employment, Team Trump needs to focus on every category of worker, especially when appealing to GOP Women.


We believe our Presumptive Nominee can turn things around and appeal strongly to Women voters, not only within the GOP Loyalist Base, but throughout the American electorate.


Do most of the things - and make many of the changes - we've outlined above, and any remnants of the female voter problem we experienced in the elections of 2008 and 2012 will miraculously disappear.



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