The debates are over, the conventions long gone. Just a little over two weeks until the election.
But the ugliness unleashed by the meanest presidential campaign in history will remain with us long after the ballots are counted.
If the polls are correct and Hillary Clinton is our next president, we should brace ourselves for an outpouring of especially toxic misogyny. A reported that political scientists believe that the election of Barack Obama led to “greater acceptance by whites of racist rhetoric.” If Clinton is elected, it said, a sexist backlash “could convulse American politics for years to come.”
For women, especially those running for office, that means the terrain will be increasingly treacherous.
Former state Sen. Morgan Carroll, who is running for Congress in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, said she has noticed an uptick in hate speech in this campaign.
“Most of it is digital, online,” she said, citing a tweet targeting her saying, “She should get a bullet in the head.”
And this time around, online critics feel no compunction about hurling the B-word at her. The language employed by Donald Trump and his supporters has “emboldened” some people who “feel freer to abandon social norms,” said Carroll.
The worst part of the presidential campaign, said state Rep. Beth McCann, a candidate for district attorney in Denver, is the “mob mentality.”
Itap not respectful disagreement over policy, she said. “Itap much more visceral hatred. Trump has allowed people to bring that forth and own it. He’s bringing out the worst impulses in people, a hatred of women.”
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette said she rarely encounters the raw sexism that has characterized this year’s presidential campaign except online. “The people acting out at Trump rallies already can’t stand me,” so they’re not likely to show up at her events. They attack her in blogs, she said, “and I never read them.”
Carroll said itap obvious that people find it much easier to be obnoxious online. As the target of $6 million in attack ads this year, she realizes that to some voters she’s become a caricature.
“You can say anything you want in those ads, so people don’t see you as a person anymore. But words have consequences,” she said. She cited the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Gifford as an example.
Another example is the blowback from Trump’s attacks. “He has literally disqualified himself,” she said, and his vitriol has energized voters against him.
At one point in the campaign, she encountered many who said they didn’t plan to vote because they were not excited about the choices for president. Now, as the Trump campaign has become more unhinged, Carroll rarely hears voters say they’re boycotting the ballot box. “Most people understand there’s too much on the line.”
Many are voting early in an attempt to escape the madness, if only psychologically.
“I think the electorate is just beaten down by this presidential campaign,” said DeGette. “They just want it to end. They’re disgusted by what is happening … and they wish they could be talking about the issues.”
If the political scientists are right, little may change after Nov. 8 on the national scene, but Colorado’s women candidates say they remain optimistic.
“In this cycle there are so many women running in Colorado — for county commissions, the statehouse,” said former state Sen. Gail Schwartz, who’s campaigning for Congress in the 3rd District. “Colorado elects women who are willing to listen and be at the table. Everybody respects hard work.”
Our leaders should not be given a pass to tolerate racist, sexist, hateful rhetoric, said DeGette. “Itap the job of both parties and all leaders — both men and women — to confront this and take back the conversation.”
While neo-Nazis, KKK sympathizers and other fringe groups have been emboldened by the Trump campaign, Schwartz said, women too, are feeling emboldened. “There are too many big issues to be confronted — the economy, schools, water, climate. We’re not going to sit back and take that B.S.”
Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant. Her column appears monthly.
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