Strong Women

Just a quick thought before I lay me down to sleep:

I think it’s interesting that whenever a person criticizes a female liberal icon they’re likely to be told that they’re just afraid of a strong woman. This comes as quite a surprise to those of us Libertarian conservatives who were rather heavily influenced by the work of Ayn Rand. But the criticism is leveled nonetheless.

Hillary detractors are often bombarded with this sort of thing. To disagree with her policies is to reveal yourself as someone who simply can’t handle the idea of empowered women getting their turn at the leadership wheel. It couldn’t be that you simply have a problem with her ideas. The truth, so say the sycophants, is that your manhood is somehow threatened by her presence at the table.

The few remaining Cynthia McKinney advocates pick up the Hillary chant and up the ante with the race card. According to these devotees of the recently deposed representative of Georgia’s 4th district anyone inclined to debate her is not only afraid of a strong woman, but even worse, live in fear of a strong black woman.

The truly interesting thing about all of this is that conservatives never counter with the same logic even though they have more opportunity to do so.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is, by virtue of her position as spokesperson to the world for the planet’s only remaining super-power, arguably the most powerful black woman in modern history.

She is an opinionated ideologue with many detractors. She is often vilified by the opposition for her neo-conservative outlook. The Rolling Stones tore her to shreds recently with their song Sweet Neo-Con and an editorial featuring her speaking in ebonics on the topic of nuclear proliferation ran in many mainstream papers after her appointment to the cabinet. The point is that a lot of people don’t like her and opine about how idiotic her ideas are constantly.

And yet-
I’ve never heard a single conservative accuse her critics of being afraid of a strong black woman. Could it be that the right has a greater respect for the concept of debate based on ideas than the Left?