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Just a week out from Election Day, the news cycle is moving at a rapid pace. It’s easier than usual for the story of one campaign event to be supplanted by the next.
But former first lady Michelle Obama’s message to men on Saturday — and its not-so-subtle references to the misogyny undergirding the MAGA movement — deserves some deep consideration.
In a lot of ways, the former first lady’s speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan, rebutted Tucker Carlson’s gross comments last week at Donald Trump’s rally in Duluth, Georgia, where he favorably compared the Republican presidential nominee to abusive fathers. Trump and Vance have relied on hypermasculine rage to fuel their campaign. That’s why Obama’s speech was powerful in its framing of some men’s support for Trump, whom she aptly identified as “a predator found liable for sexual abuse,” as aiding and abetting an “assault” on women’s safety.
To the men who love us, let me just try to paint a picture of what it will feel like if America — the wealthiest nation on earth — keeps revoking basic care from its women. And how it will affect every single woman in your life.
The former first lady spoke of the “chilling effect” that abortion restrictions have on the entirety of women’s health:
We will see more doctors hesitating or shying away from providing lifesaving treatments because they are worried about being arrested; more medical students reconsidering even pursuing women’s health at all; more OB-GYN clinics without enough doctors to meet demand, closing their doors, leaving untold numbers of women in communities throughout this country without a place to go for basic gynecological care, which in turn will leave millions of us at risk of undiagnosed medical issues like cervical and uterine cancers. This is real.
Obama also framed acts of protest, such as sitting out the election or voting for a third-party presidential candidate — which effectively endorse the scenarios she described — as acts of rage with real-life consequences. She said:
I recognize that there are a lot of angry, disillusioned people out there, upset with the slow pace of change, and I get it. It is reasonable to be frustrated. We all know we have a lot more work to do in this country. But to anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third-party candidate in protest because you’re fed up, let me warn you: Your rage does not exist in a vacuum. If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.
Young men who are vulnerable to this kind of appeal from conservatives are often treated with kid gloves, as if they lack agency in their choice to align with an unabashedly sexist movement. From my vantage point, it’s rare to see acquiescence to this appeal presented as a form of abuse through politics. But Obama didn’t cower:
Are you, as men, prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them that you supported this assault on our safety? And to the women listening: We have every right to demand that the men in our lives do better by us. We have to use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love — our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment. And we are more than just baby-making vessels.
Obama also spoke of men who are domineering partners — and told women that casting a vote is a private matter: “Regardless of the political views of your partner, you get to choose!”
That’s a key distinction being highlighted by anti-domestic violence activists this election cycle, and also underscored the former first lady’s broader point: Trump and his movement embody the right’s chauvinistic assault on women, and the best way for somebody to show opposition is to vote against it.