We Remember

So,  Campbell Brown a former NBC and then CNN reporter, blasted Obama yesterday in the New York Times about being condescending to women, bestowing "fake praise," and being "maddeningly off-point."

Down in the eleventh paragraph, she reveals that her husband is an advisor to Mitt Romney, but that's beside the  point.

She also says, "The struggling women in my life all laughed when I asked them if contraception or abortion rights would be a major factor in their decision about this election.  For them and for most other women, the economy overwhelms everything else."

I read up on Ms. Brown.  She was born in 1968, the year I graduated from high school.   She grew up in a world where contraception was freely available, and by the time she might have wanted an abortion, it was legal.  As Anna Quindlen said recently on NPR, young women take for granted their right to contraception and "there's no going back."

But there might be going back.  Look at the current majority on the Supreme Court. Look at the possibility that so many women younger than Baby Boomers might vote for a candidate who is pro-business and socially conservative, because they think he'll help them find jobs.

Jobs are essential, I agree. But I keep wondering if see younger women see the connection between financial well-being and reproductive choice.  And are they aware of the perilous holes developing in a safety net that's supposed to help impoverished mothers?  The kinds of programs a socially conservative, pro-business candidate will cut?

I'm shaking my head. And I hope every last Baby Boomer woman votes in the next election. We remember.