June 04, 2007

By my reckoning, the United States officially became a matriarchy on January 20, 1993. That's the day Hillary Clinton moved into the West Wing. Soon she prevailed on Bill to establish the President's Interagency Council on Women, the group that railroaded feminist-inspired policies and programs throughout the federal government.

Matriarchy refers to a society in which feminist beliefs have become entrenched in the government, mass media, and other institutions. And the cornerstone of feminist belief is the dogma that patriarchy is an unrelenting, pervasive threat to women's well-being.

That means wayward women always have a convenient excuse. Consider the recent escapades of the Hollywood pop-tart brigade.

Lindsay Lohan? Surely we can blame her father who caused her to flee to cocaine. Paris Hilton? The judge who sentenced her to 45 days in jail was only trying to make a name for himself. Britney Spears? We can blame her demise on her self-absorbed boyfriend, Kevin Federline.

Under the matriarchy, entitlements, quotas, and set-asides are the coin of the realm. That mindset was on display during a recent Fox News debate featuring author Marc Rudov and attorney Lis Wiehl.

The spicy exchange was triggered by Democratic candidate John Edwards' recent proposal for equal pay legislation. But Rudov ridiculed Edwards' claim as "sexist and making women out to be victims" and charged the pretty-boy candidate with spreading V.D.: "victimhood demagoguery."

But Wiehl shot back, saying that Rudov believes that "women are just too darn stupid to be able to see through somebody that's coming up with platitudes and no real plan."

Wiehl then cited the recent survey from the American Association of University Women. The AAUW found that after you even out differences in education, occupation, and other factors, the pay of men and women differs by only 5%.

But that's not what Wiehl said. She claimed that women are "making 80 cents on the dollar." Obviously she didn't bother to read the AAUW press release, which states the 80 cent figure is before those critical adjustments are made.

Rudov reasoned that if it was really true that women are paid so much less for doing exactly the same work, then "all the men would be unemployed and all the jobs would be going to women."

Touché, Mr. Rudov.

Matriarchs also believe that emotion and intuition hold priority over reason and logic -- what they call a "woman's way of knowing." Last Wednesday we got a glimpse of that erudition on ABC's The View. There Rosie O'Donnell tried to bully and intimidate co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck in front of a nationally-televised audience. The slugfest made for one of those must-see, can't-wait videos.

The incident was triggered by Rosie's implication a couple days before that American troops in Iraq are terrorists. O'Donnell started the spat with this ludicrous claim: "Because here's how it gets spun in the media: 'Rosie, big fat lesbian loud Rosie, attacks innocent pure Christian Elisabeth.'"

As the argument escalated, the two women referred to each other as "cowardly." Through it all, O'Donnell never clarified whether she believes American troops are terrorists.

On Friday O'Donnell asked for an early out from her contract. And now O'Donnell says she won't talk to Hasselbeck again.

That's right. Go to your room, shut the door, and pout for awhile. Life goes on.

Thirty-odd years ago someone hauled patriarchy into the dock and charged it with a long list of crimes against womankind. The jury was rigged, the defendant was never given a chance to testify, and the verdict was foregone: Guilty as charged.

The sentence? Put the loathsome patriarchs in the pokey and bring on the matriarchy.

Nearly 15 years later we see where it has taken us. But the problem does not lie just with our ersatz celebrity culture, the bogus wage gap claims, or the pointless catfights.

The real threat of matriarchy is to our children. Ponder the long-standing feminist assault on the traditional family. Dads were told they were redundant, and women were advised that marriage was oppressive and children represented a barrier to self-fulfillment.

Now Americans are getting married 30% less often, while the number of unmarried couples living together has increased tenfold. So no surprise that nearly two-in-five American children are now born out of wedlock.

So when future generations ask where it all went wrong, we can offer these words of solace: It takes a village.

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.

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