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Obama’s Domestic Violence Initiative:
Hope, Hype, and Hogwash
Desperate times call for desperate measures. So
shortly before the November 2 elections, Barack
Obama pulled out all the stops to woo the fading
female electorate, unveiling a multi-pronged effort
to “end domestic violence against women,”
as the president theatrically called it. But did
the president’s 5-point initiative deliver on
the goods?
Let’s begin with Obama’s Hope about
“ending” domestic violence. Folks,
let’s get real – the only way to put a
stop to partner aggression – think Blondie
chasing Dagwood with her rolling pin at the ready
-- would be to separate men and women at birth and
ship them off to opposite corners of the universe.
But wait! It turns out domestic violence is
twice as high among lesbians as among heterosexual
married couples. Well, scratch that idea.
If the hopey-hopey routine doesn’t do the
trick, let’s turn to the Hype. And here,
Tinker Bell’s magic wand sparkles with a
wondrous gleam.
Because President Obama has taken to casting a
spell on women with this Abuse Fairy Tale: Take a
piece of paper and inscribe the words, “Stay
away, you big meanie!” Sprinkle Pixie Dust,
and now call it a Restraining Order.
And the would-be ravisher of women will slink
away, knowing her magical scroll has the amazing
power to ward off bullets, knives, and any other
conceivable weapon of mass destruction.
Seriously, there’s not a scrap of research
that shows restraining orders deter violence, but
this is what President Obama’s “Fact
Sheet” claims with a straight face:
“Protective orders are effective in reducing
the level of violence.”
Once the woman comes to believe that piece of
paper will ward off the Abuse Demons, the
Protector-in-Chief will conjure up a copy of A
Woman’s Guide to Green Jobs. According to the
Department of Labor website, the Guide will
“aid in increasing women’s access to
high-growth and emerging industry occupations in
the green jobs section nationwide.”
That and the Jolly Green Giant.
Enough Hype? Now on to the Hogwash!
Folks, this is really the best part. But before
we plunge any farther into President Obama’s
domestic violence rabbit hole, let’s get a
firm grip on reality. (For the skeptics, I’m
providing the links below.)
In the area of child abuse, the federal
Administration for Children and Families somberly
notes, “In 2008, approximately 56% of child
abuse and child neglect perpetrators were women and
42% were men.” faq.acf.hhs.gov/cgi-bin/acfrightnow.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=70
As far as dating violence, girls win the battle
of sexes hands down. According to a national survey
by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 9% of
teenage girls, compared to 11% of adolescent boys,
have been slapped, hit, or otherwise hurt by their
opposite-sex partner: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5704a1.htm
,
Table 11.
And in a landmark 2007 article published in the
American Journal of Public Health, Centers for
Disease Control researchers reported 7 out of 10
instigators of one-way partner violence
are…can we break the spell?...female:
pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/42/15/31.2.full
Scholarly research echoes the same theme:
“Women are as physically aggressive, or more
aggressive, than men in their relationships with
their spouses or male partners,” according to
a recent summary of 275 studies by California State
University researcher Martin Feibert, PhD.
The evidence is conclusive: Government surveys
and scholarly research point to members of the
Fairer Sex as the persons who are more likely to
abuse. But not a single word of the
president’s carefully orchestrated White House
event even hinted as to the existence of aggressive
women or abused men.
The truth about female-initiated violence should
be vexatious to persons who fancy themselves the
champions of women. Because if the abuse escalates,
it’s more likely the female who will be
harmed. As CDC lead researcher Daniel Whitaker
explains, “a woman’s perpetration of
violence was the strongest predictor of her being a
victim of partner violence.”
So in a sane world, we would get more help for
stressed-out moms, teach conflict resolution skills
to teenage girls, and provide drug and alcohol
treatment for violence-prone women. We might even
devise a few programs to help abused men.
According to a 2006 Harris Poll, 88% of
Americans have seen or heard of a male abuse victim
in the past year. So most voters, men and women
alike, will view the Administration’s domestic
violence initiative as a cynical political ploy.
But Barack Obama is seemingly enamored of a
different logic: As long as we can sway
unsuspecting women into believing their husband is
a closet batterer, we can justify the unfettered
governmental intrusion into the private affairs of
citizens, and the continued expansion of the power
of the state.
* * *
Carey
Roberts probes and lampoons political correctness.
His work has been published frequently in the
Washington Times, Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com,
ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media
Network. You can contact him at E-Mail
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