Does anyone watch The View at this point? I guess they must hold down a solid viewership for the show to keep getting renewed every year. Honestly, the idea of The View is better than the execution and reality of it – an all-woman panel discussing the news of the day, politics, crime, entertainment, etc. I don’t mind the idea of having one woman hold down the political left and one person holding down the political right. But the execution, my God. Whenever I watch a clip, I can feel my blood pressure spike. Anyway, currently The View’s panel includes Sunny Hostin, a Democrat, and Alyssa Farah Griffin, a Republican (and a Trumper). They got into it this week about how white women will vote in the midterms.
Sunny Hostin fired shots at both conservatives and the insect community amid the heated run-up to the 2022 midterm elections. The View cohost escalated an already tense debate on Thursday’s episode of the long-running talk show when she compared white women voting for Republicans to a particular species of invasive pest.
“What’s also surprising to me is the abortion issue. I read a poll just yesterday that white, Republican, suburban women are now going to vote Republican. It’s almost like roaches voting for Raid, right?” Hostin said, to which her fellow panelist and former Donald Trump associate Alyssa Farah Griffin quickly responded: “That’s insulting to the voter!”
While Griffin continued to criticize her stance, Hostin dug in her heels, adding that women supporting anti-choice candidates are “voting against their own self-interest. Do they want to live in Gilead? Do they want to live in The Handmaid’s Tale?” with reference to the Hulu series about women who live in forced sexual servitude among an oppressive, religiously motivated country.
Hostin said that white, female conservatives who support the Republican party are “voting against their own healthcare,” all while Griffin pointed out her cohost’s personal anti-abortion views.“I have that view,” Hostin replied. “I am very surprised that white, Republican, suburban women are voting against their own healthcare. I have not really recently evolved on the issue. I’m Catholic, that’s my faith. I believe that abortion is wrong for me. There’s a separation between a government and church, and I do not have the right to tell someone else [what to do]. However, they are voting against their own self-interest.”
Joy Behar eventually lightened the mood, joking to the ladies that Americans are no longer “voting for Republicans,” but rather “a cult.”
“Remember that. It’s a cult,” she said. “It’s not Republicans anymore.”
Republican women – or the right-wing media dominated by men – are now very mad that Sunny Hostin compared them to roaches. But I understood her analogy and I find it apt – if there’s one thing white women have shown this country, it’s that the majority of them are going to vote against their interests all the f–king time. White women are going to vote for sexual predators like Donald Trump. They’re going to vote for men taking away their healthcare in droves. They’re going to vote to uphold their white privilege in every f–king election. The only hope I have with the midterms is that the “white woman” voting bloc demographic is going to be skewed once so many new voters – young white women, under 30 – turn out to vote.
Photos courtesy of Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon and Darla Khazei/Avalon.
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- Sunny Hostin at Variety’s 2022 Power Of Women at The Glasshouse on May 5,2022 in New York city.,Image: 689041431, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Darla Khazei / Avalon
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- Sunny Hostin at Variety’s 2022 Power Of Women at The Glasshouse on May 5,2022 in New York city.,Image: 689041437, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Darla Khazei / Avalon
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- Sunny Hostin attends The Revival of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” Broadway opening night at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre on October 13, 2022 in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 730441672, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Sunny Hostin, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
I’m just fine with Sunni’s remarks. I keep reminding myself that if Kansas women can rise to the occasion then we’ll see more of the same everywhere. Feeling good about the election. It’s been rough campaigning but mostly rewarding. Love getting my hands dirty and foot pain and the camaraderie. The only kind of campaigning I didn’t do this time around was texting.
Although she makes a strong point she should have used another word. Roaches will of course infuriate potential voters and sway them even farther to the right. Not a wise thing to do.
Even farther to the right? There is no middle ground here. Anyone who says well I was going to vote Dem but then I heard something about a roach on a talk show and decided not to is straight up lying about voting Dem in the first place. That or they are completely insane.
You are right, of course, “roach” is a loaded word. However, ANYTHING in the way of a comment on politics to the right causes instant offense. They are permanently offended and outraged.
The fragile white people are screeching that comparing them to roaches is racist.
I’m a white woman who lives in suburbia who didn’t find it racist (I’m a blue voter anyway) so they’re just yelling into their echo chamber. Comparing them to roaches voting for Raid is 100% NOT RACIST Karen!
But how sad has the American education system proved to be if people don’t know what a simile is?
+1
Problem is it’s not strong enough. White women voting republican is more like roaches setting off a raid bomb that will poison all the residents of the house in addition to themselves.
+1
Am white and Sunny is more than correct.You almost want them to go ahead and show themselves in their true color by gutting social security and Medicare etc.The Republicans have no plan to fix the economy,just going to go after Hunter Biden illegal aliens etc while federally banning reproductive rights,trying to gut Medicare,Social Security.These voters honestly deserve the crap that may rain down on them.Unfortunately you don’t want it to happen because alot of good people will be brought down as well
Just as Loras1 says below (I cannot reply to her) the republicans have their eyes set on weakening or abolishing Medicare ( just try to purchase health insurance at ANY price when you are older and no longer employed and have health issues), social security ( because we will all have saved enough to support ourselves for decades), Medicaid (approximately 75% of people on Medicaid are elderly persons in nursing homes who have already exhausted all their assets before qualifying for assistance). The republicans are already teeing this up by saying that we are now forced to axe or cut these programs because the democrats have driven us into debt , etc, ignoring the wealthy class tax cuts and their own spending since Bush 2.
Also, let’s briefly touch upon contraception because I remember when it was actually illegal in several states ( for example Connecticut and Massachusetts) and that ban even included barrier methods like condoms. I am 70 yo.
OUCH….and accurate!
Straight, married, white mother (but I live in NYC, I fled the suburbs as soon as I was old enough to live on my own). I agree with you 100%. Calling white women who vote Repugnican “roaches” isn’t racist. It’s fact. I cannot understand them. I cannot agree with them. For the sake of my family, I stopped talking to the ones I’m related to (I have a non-binary child – I will not expose them to the malicious cruelty of some of their relatives).
The “GOP” is all about tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulating industry. Strip the country for parts and sell it all to the highest bidder. They have made it clear that they will eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public schools, environmental protections . . . . anything that serves the public good will be on the chopping block. TBH, I don’t know why anyone with two functioning brains cells would vote for them. Except blind hatred and fear.
I doubt they can eliminate things like public school. You are letting your imagination run wild.
I can’t reply to Fabiola so I’d like to note that charter schools (often Christian charter schools) are a blatant and overt funnel diverting funds away from public schools, depriving them even further of both student population and budget. Teachers and administrators are leaving in droves because it’s such difficult, thankless work and the pay is garbage.
So yes, say goodbye to any hope of a quality public school education, and say hello to shitty, religious-backed charter schools. Oh, and charter schools are also not subject to Dept. of Education oversight, just like private schools.
This was Betsy DeVos’s pet project. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/08/a-sobering-look-at-what-betsy-devos-did-to-education-in-michigan-and-what-she-might-do-as-secretary-of-education/
Don’t forget the young males, under 3, too. They will go out to vote blue.
Yeah, it’s pretty f’ing scary. Those woman who voted for DT, if they have children are setting a very poor example for their daughters, and showing the world they have no respect for themselves. It’s quite embarrassing.
No lies detected.
I was just talking about this with a friend. We determined these white women obviously want to be the “Aunts” when Gilead finally rises.
I honestly don’t understand it. Do they think they won’t be spared? Internalized misogyny? Purposely being obtuse because questioning their own, personal beliefs would be too uncomfortable and could potentially mean questioning their entire existence? All of the above?
Not Aunts. They want to be Wives. They want Marthas to cook their food, and Handmaids to service their husbands. Who cares if the world goes to hell if they have their pedestal.
If white women as a group vote Republican, then the idea of women’s solidarity will be completely over. I already put white women in the category of white men. I can like individuals, but I will never put my trust in them as a group. because white supremacy trumps all for them. Men and women. My only hope is that the polls are wrong, and young women will prove me wrong like they did in Kansas. For the life of me, I don’t understand how any woman who wants to have children could vote for Republicans. If they have a risky pregnany, if they have pregnancy complications, there’s a strong possiblitity that they will die. Die. Die in childbirth in 2022.
They will pay for white supremacy with their lives. Make it make sense.
I wish I could upvote this instead of just commenting. You are DEAD ON.
Even if you vote republican does not mean you will lose your insurance. Most of us have insurance from our jobs that we pay into so I don’t see how all these women are going to die in childbirth.
It’s racism pure and simple. White women who vote republican identify as white first and as women second. Arlie Hothschild brilliantly explains the need to value whiteness above all else in Strangers in Their Own Land. I can’t recommend it enough.
Thanks for the recommendation Bettyrose. I just ordered a copy.
That’s great, Blithe! I got so much out of it. I read it after the awful election when I was seeking answers. I hope you . . .well, enjoy is the wrong word … get something meaningful out of reading it.
All of the above. I know these women well. They were my mom’s best friends when I was a child. These were the women I railed against as a teen. My actions cost me my relationship with my mother, but they are the same f*cking pearl clutchers only they’ve discarded the pearls and found their voices (if you can call it a voice). They’re loud AF Stepford Wives. Fembots with guns.
Yeah, don’t depend on white women under 45 either. They are just like their mothers.
I said what I said.
Lol I can just see it , a Wasp saying Raid! oh honey if we find roaches we just move
Just had to laugh, it’s so true!
I don’t think her comments were racists at all but I felt it was unnecessary. I’m not going to act all pious but I just didn’t care for it.
This is one of expected reactions, and the only reason why I mentioned Sunny’s mother.
Well, this explains why my 90+ years old great aunt was shouting: “she’s right! You are cockroaches!” yesterday and why she was telling me, once again, that her mother was a suffragette. I was hesitant to ask what had set her off.
And yes, she proudly cast her vote early last week for Maura Healey and Katherine Clark. She’s no cockroach.
@LIGHTPURPLE
👍🏻
💗
Yeah they are roaches. It is interesting being white, living in the suburbs and a Texan. Most white roaches think their opinions are safe with me, they find out quickly that they are wrong! I’m part of MAGA the good and it shocks them to the core. I really can’t stand them.
What does “MAGA the good” mean? Never saw this before today.
MAGA the good stands for Mothers Against Greg Abbot. He’s the gov here in Texas and a repulsive hypocrite who attended an NRA rally after those children were slaughtered in uvalde, who signed one of the most restrictive abortion bills in this country and who had the state send dna kits to all elementary school kids’ parents so the state can have their dna on file in case they need to identify their bodies in another mass shooting. He’s a turd of a human being and a complete waste of carbon. I’m a white woman in Texas and I’ve always voted democrat and I was thrilled to see mostly women at the polls today. There’s no doubt which way a majority of the women are leaning in Texas, I just hope it will be enough.
Oh girl I feel you. I’m in the same position in Florida.
When Hillary said half of Trump’s supporters were “deplorable”, they and the media all had a major case of the vapors. No way they’re going to let “roaches” go, no matter how accurate.
Deplorable is a better word than cockroaches. Hillary would never be dumb enough to call potential voters cockroaches.
I think it is an overstatement that Republican women are voting against their interests. Some women simply don’t care about ensuring access to abortions (and those women are probably disproportionately Republican), because they either morally object to it, don’t anticipate ever needing that health service themselves, or know they will be able to have an abortion should they need one (because they have means). In these cases, it’s actually NOT against their own interests. (as a progressive, do I find that selfish and myopic? Absolutely….)
There are also many women for whom voting Republican IS against their interest in terms of healthcare decisions… But that is just ONE factor. For some people, abortion is THE issue this election, and for some, it isn’t. I am not making any normative arguments here; I am just describing the political landscape.
But then these same women whine and complain when they can’t get the healthcare they need (like the pro-life woman with a nonviable pregnancy who was shocked that she had to travel to another state to get the care she needed TO SURVIVE). “I never thought the leopards would eat my face,” sobbed the woman who voted for the Leopards Eat My Face party. That’s what’s so damn frustrating.
In Alabama in 2018, Roy Moore–a child sexual harrasser, a hypocrite, a corrupt former judge who had been removed from office, ran for the senate. Black women turned out in droves and voted for his opponent (who was one of the lawyers who prosecuted the Klansmen who killed 4 little girls in a church bombing) Doug Jones. Jones squeaks by in a victory, and all these women come out in the end saying they were so afraid Moore would win, and were so glad that Jones won. I wanted to scream. Then why didn’t you all vote for Jones, then! I think a lot of white women vote Republican because their husbands tell them to, but they hope that republicans lose. They expect other women to save them from themselves.
Black women continually carry the burden for white women in this country, and we get stabbed in the back over and over again.
Do you really believe that abortion is the only self interest women have? Pretty much all non billionaires who vote republican are voting against their own self interest but women even more so. Employment discrimination. Child support. Birth control. There are just a few of the many things that women need to fight for to maintain an equal economic standing in society. But even the most perfect Christian Stepford wife in Texas can experience the trauma of a miscarriage that has to spend five days in front of a ethics board before being properly treated, during which time they could develop an infection that hurts their future chances of getting pregnant. So it’s total BS that if they don’t believe in abortion they aren’t voting against their own best interests.
Start voting for policy and stop voting for principles. “Family Values” is an emotionally loaded phrase that ultimately means nothing but is great for manipulating voters. Politicians have a million of these knee-jerk phrases that mean nothing. I want candidates who actually have plans. You know, like Hillary Clinton. What happened to her was total crap. What might have been, what might have been . . .
I get what you’re saying, but telling republican women to vote for policy over principles amounts to the same thing. They’ll still vote for policies that privilege white men. It’s more about dismantling the racist structure of our society that gives the illusion of superiority to those who feed into it. There’s plenty of literature I’d love to get these women to read, but I’m not sure it would break through the mental barrier. They’ll change their alliances when the perception of power shifts. It would be a lot harder to stomach the unearned privilege of white men if suddenly they no longer presented a path to privilege for white women.
@Bettyrose: My theory is that they simply think none of these things will happen to them. I read so many opinions where they are accused of knowing they will always have access to abortions for example so they feel safe. I honestly don’t believe this. I believe they just don’t think it will happen to them. Their husbands won’t leave, their kids won’t get sick, they will never need life-saving abortions or get raped. Not them. Like poor people don’t want to tax the rich because they honestly think they might be rich someday. The delusions of these people. Of these women. I fear it’s a case of f*ck around and find out. Unfortunately, everyone else will pay for their stupidity. Oh and in the rarest of cases where it does happen, they were good little soldiers for white men so they have earned protection, right? Right???
They can always travel to another state to get an abortion. For many woman, there are other factors that effect why they vote.
Some of this is on Sinema and Manchin.Without them Biden would have gotten more accomplished if they hadn’t stonewalled him.They need to leave the party
Yes, Manchin and Sinema are not true Democrats and they sabotaged the first two years of Biden’s presidency. They should be KICKED OUT of the party. I wish it could be so.
They should be tried for treason. It’s a crime against democracy to pretend to belong to a party just to throw off the political process.
+1
Hard agree. It’s racism, greed and arrogance. My mother voted for DT because she wanted lower taxes and to “protect the border” (eyeroll) from the influx of people with darker skin than hers. She doesn’t care about abortion being abolished because she has the money to fly her granddaughters out of the country for one and is too short-sighted to understand the effects banning abortion will have on planned pregnancies that go wrong. I’m a white lady well past the point of having to worry about pregnancy, but (aside from the thousands of other reasons to vote blue), I still want other women to have access to health care! It blows my mind how many people feel justified in voting for what they see is in their best interest instead of considering the greater good.
I’m suburban. I keep my head down and vote blue every election like as if my life depended on it. I’m part of the block that keeps my state blue with a sanctuary city. I donate to swing races outside my state as much as I can, the amount of PAC $ and dark money in politics is INFURIATING.
Over the entirety of my life I’ve never had a single Republican boyfriend. In my mind I’d 💯 rather get with a sheep than a Republican. My mom may have been an older generation but still blue, in her last election (2016) she was a Bernie Bro who voted Hillary in the general. There are millions of us needed to keep blue states blue and never give up.
Not a lie detected tbh *shrug* . Lots of white women that are privileged have shown again and again they will vote for fascist, awful dudes who want to take all of the rights away from women. Its simply factual lol
The recent polls funded by republicans will show results in their favour in order for democrat and undecide voters to stay at home.
By the way, Sunny’s mother is white, Jewish from Puerto Rico.
The primary beneficiaries of the US Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, rights Black Americans marched, fought and died for for centuries, were and are White women (some great white and Jewish people eventually joined the 1960s C.R. Movement) When white women get angry at Black women for not fully embracing feminism, I explain that this is why and yet, the majority of them don’t really support civil rights, esp the “religious right”. The majority of white women proved by voting for #45, that they were determined to uphold their lifestyle and thus white supremacy. Sunny has a point.
Black Americans continue to fight for civil rights that other minority groups also enjoy, but neglect to continue to fight for. And here we are today, where the perceived threat to white supremacy and its inherent power structure has resulted in one of the greatest assaults on democracy since the rise and dominance of the powerful and wealthy triple K.
I almost sat this election out bc I’m extremely irritated and frustrated with politics and politicians. But I voted today bc despite my feelings, I’m aware of how important and crucial this election is. But its past time for Democrats to stop taking the Black vote for granted when they refuse to do anything for our community.
Thank you for not sitting this one out. It sucks that we have to keep carrying the load for everyone. It’s frustrating, believe me. But that doesn’t mean we can give up. Even if things don’t go our way next week, we still can’t give up. We have to fight for the future. because if the Republicans win, and keep winning, then we don’t really have a future at all.
I’m already drawing a line in the sand–thinking about what steps I will take if things go badly in 2022 and 2024. I’m not going to stick around the US for Gilead, nor for Kristallnacht 2.0. My best friend’s father was born in Germany, and he was a child in 1938. After Kristallnacht, his family fled, 1st to South America, then to the USA. Had they waited 2 more years, they would have likely died in a death camp.
I’m a white woman and I totally agree with you. I’ve been a lifelong feminist and, embarrassingly, I was initially surprised and confused when I heard that many Black women had mixed feelings about supporting the women’s marches back in 2017 and about supporting “feminism” in general. I grew up in a predominantly Black neighborhood, attended very diverse schools, etc, and *still* I was pretty clueless about why this would be.
I got curious and started doing some digging and soon happened upon the term “white feminism.” That sent me down a rabbit hole where I learned a lot of sobering stuff about some of the leaders of the suffragette movement whom I had long idolized–about how a big chunk of the suffragettes were white supremacists, and about how many of those who weren’t still sold out their fellow Black suffragettes when push came to shove and they believed that they wouldn’t get the vote any other way.
As white women I believe it’s so important that we get curious rather than offended when we hear terms like “cockroaches” and “white feminism.” We need to understand why non-white (and especially Black) people feel the way they do about us. It’s *especially* crucial that those of us who consider ourselves feminist learn the unsavory history of racism that has been present in the feminist movement. We need to know so that we can do better this time around.
I’m a white woman, and I’ve vote blue no matter who since I turned 18. I see no problem with what she said. Republican women are awful. I could maybe understand the brainwashing pre-internet, but as time goes on, I understand it less and less. It’s not just the abortion issue- point after point, debate after debate, candidate after candidate has shown they don’t give a f*ck about women. How anyone can repeatedly vote against a better life for themselves makes no sense to me. And there’s no excuse these days, we’ve known how awful the republicans are for a while now and actual information is freely available. F*ck anyone who supports the right wing.
This ^^^ times a million.
Racism. It’s all about the racism. I suspect those women will have racism to keep them warm when energy bills rise. Racism will help them take care of elderly relatives who will be dependent on their labor and care when social security, medicare, and medicaid are gutted. Racism will make sure their kids get educated when schools become corporate indocrination factories.
Do white republicans who aren’t rich think they will be let into the gated communities of the billionaire class? Is white skin their pass to safety? Do they really think that Trump really wants to socialize with truck drivers and food servers at Mar a Lago?
Roaches for Raid is perhaps the kindest way Hostin could have put it. She should have been even more harsh. It’s crazy that Blacks for the KKK is an actual thing.
Jessica, same. And Sunny is right and I’m not offended in the least. It’s a great simile.
Sunny stated it perfectly…but the reality is actually even worse. It actually like the roaches are picking up the can of Raid and spraying it on the rest of us aw well as themselves. I am a white woman living in Colorado and the headline on the front page of the newspaper today said the abortion rates in our state have gone up 33% this year and the 100% of that is women coming from out of state. It is insane what women are already having to resort to just to get healthcare in the country. I am a 50 year old non-practicing catholic, unaffiliated voter who has gotten more and more liberal with each passing year…I just dropped my ballot of at the local drop box and voted blue the whole way down the ticket. I am done with this bullshit. I pay my taxes the same as any man, I deserve the same rights! But I have friends who I know will twist themselves into pretzels defending their republican vote. It is like they simply cannot bring themselves to believe that they and their daughters wont be spared from the misogyny. And don’t even get me started on the holier-than-thou ones who believe they have the right to shove their religious beliefs down everyone else’s throats. It is just pathetic! I can’t help but to look at them a bit differently now and often find myself avoiding them these days. But that group of women have always voted against their own interests and sadly they probably always will. But, I can tell you that my 17 year old daughter’s friends ( many of which are those women’s daughters) are a very breed…they believe in themselves and their rights to equal treatment in ways we never did even when their own mothers are trying to teach them otherwise. So, there is hope for the future if we can get through the next couple of elections with our democracy still intact.
Eh I may not like the wording, but she’s got a point. I just don’t like all white women being painted with the same brush. I’m saying this a black woman, but something has got to give. I do realize they vote a certain way because they’ve been indoctrinated with bs for so long. I have faith that we will all make the right decisions come Election Day. Rock on sisters this is our time!
^ 100% Yes to everything you said @Rilincmom
I usually say ‘chickens voting for KFC’, it’s a little less loaded than roaches.
But she’s dead right : any woman, working class person, senior person, LGBT person or BIPOC who would vote republican is 100% voting against their own interest.