Another step toward femocracy

By Jon Gunnarsson: In my article Germany’s Quota Politicians, I showed how much influence feminism already asserts in German politics. Since then, the only party solidly opposed to women’s quotas has been voted out of the Bundestag[1] and it is likely that the next government will push for women’s quotas in private companies. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the feminists have now won another victory over democracy.

As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports[2], in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the ruling coalition of social democrats and Greens have passed a law to manipulate local elections. According to the law[3], the ballot paper for local elections must contain the following quote from the German constitution:

Men and women are equal before the law[4].

Further, it must list the ratio of men and women for each party as it was two months before the vote as well as the sex ratio of those candidates nominated in the top half of the suggested list of each party. This is a none-too-subtle hint to voters that they ought to vote for more female candidates. It’s also intended to shame those parties who dare to have more male candidates. The suggestion is of course entirely fallacious. The constitution only mandates Gleichberechtigung (equal rights), not Gleichstellung (equal standing or equal outcome), but in public discourse the two entirely different and incompatible terms are frequently conflated.

It’s hard to say how successful this attempt at influencing voters will be, but even the threat of possibly being seen as anti-woman may induce parties to nominate more female candidates, thus taking politics one more step away from meritocracy. But not content with this, the new law also contains the following passage:

Women and men should be equally represented in the representative councils (gender parity). When assembling the list of suggested candidates, the parties and voters’ groups are advised to strive for gender parity[5].

This does not forbid parties from having lists that violate gender parity, but at the very least strongly discourages it. It creates the definite suggestion that there’s something suspicious and possibly illegitimate about a party that nominates more men than women. This of course entirely ignores the fact that many more men than women are interested in participating in politics. But pesky things like uncomfortable facts are conveniently ignored by the ruling femocrats.

It’s also rather arbitrary that this measure singles out sex as the sole characteristic deserving of such treatment. If gender parity is so desirable, then why not also educational or intelligence parity? Surely we wouldn’t want to deprive uneducated or unintelligent people of representation. Why not also proportional representation based on religion, race, ethnicity, income level, marital status, number of children, sexual orientation, and a host of other categories? If we apply this principle consistently enough, we won’t even have to vote any more, we can just determine who gets to be in councils and parliaments based on group membership. And while we’re at it, then we can also do away with such old-fashioned notions as individual achievement and merit.

Right now, this law only affects local elections in one Bundesland. But similar attempts have also been made in Baden-Württemberg. Right now we can still hope that laws like these will be struck down as unconstitutional, though I’m not very optimistic about that prospect. But if they stand as they are, they could be a mighty weapon in the hands of those parties who already have a higher ratio of female members and internal women’s quotas.

In any case, this is another step on the path to absolute feminist rule: femocracy. For while feminists have infiltrated all major parties, the chains of constitutional democracy still hold them to some extent and can only be loosened gradually. But in the long run, only popular opinion can avert the course we’re currently on. Thanks to the PR debacle that is modern feminism, a recent study in Germany (commissioned by a women’s magazine, no less!) has found that 64% of men are fed up with what passes for “gender equality” these days and 76% say they’ve been discriminated against based on their gender[6].

This vast number of people is currently being ignored by all major parties in Germany. Instead, the powerful feminist forces in politics and media treat them either as confused and helpless manlings who’ve been overwhelmed by all the progressiveness of our age and who need to re-educated to join the feminist cause, or else as dangerous Neanderthal machos who need to be put in their place. We can only hope that soon enough, some party will wake up and realize the great number of potential voters it could gain if only it had the courage to openly oppose the feminist hegemony. Until that happens, things are only going to get worse.

Notes:

[1] Lest there be any misunderstanding, I hasten to point out that the failure of the classical liberal FDP at the recent election very likely had little or nothing to do with their stance on women’s quotas or feminism.

[2] Die gendergerechte Demokratie

[3] See:
-Beschlussempfehlung des Innenausschusses zu dem Gesetzentwurf der Landesregierung,
-Recommendation of the Committee on Internal Affairs on the draft law of the state government,
-Änderungsantrag der Fraktionen der SPD und BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN

[4] Article 3, paragraph 2, sentence 1 of the Grundgesetz. Translation mine.

[5] Änderungsantrag der Fraktionen der SPD und BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN, I.1. Translation mine.

[6] DER MANN 2013: Arbeits- und Lebenswelten – Wunsch und Wirklichkeit