Res Publica 2005

When 9/11 hit, two things came home to me. I wanted a cell phone right away (I had been resisting these for a while, but then I saw how people were at least able to leave last messages I knew I had to have one.) And I was scared. My husband was out of state and we had no idea of how he would get home with all the planes down. I had almost lost relatives in the Oklahoma City bombing (one was working in an office near by and got knocked to her feet, and another just didn't get out of the house in time to go to the Social Security office.) So maybe I was prepped already. Whatever. It hit hard.

I was one of those people who made an emergency supply and evacuation kit. I can understand the concept of Security Mom in a big way, cause I probably am one.

So now I see the press talking about how the candidates are playing with the women. An unusually large number are sticking with the president rather than gravitating to Kerry. I'm not surprised. I don't know if the Alan Alda model is what we want right now.

Anyway, I'm not the only one who feels like this. Kathleen Parker at the Pasedena Star News has written an article exploring this same thing. I quote:

On a deep-brain level, mothers want what they dare not utter aloud in a culture that pretends the sexes are the same. They want a man to protect them and their helpless offspring. And the alpha male will be recognized on a level too primitive to be measured by polls.

Oh, by the way, those tremors you feel? Don't be alarmed. It's just the hate-Daddy Metro crowd stamping their feet in protest. This is not an unexpected response when long-buried truths bubble to the surface. It will pass. Sometimes they just need a nap. Meanwhile, as campaign strategists try to paint a portrait of their candidate as the more intellectual, or the smarter strategist, or the morally superior man, or the more nuanced or the tougher hombre, they're missing the point. The real issue in the post-9/11 dating game is simple: Which is the truer man?

Read the rest. It's worth considering.