US Campaign Pushes Secret Voting Agenda
A recent campaign run by The Lincoln Project is suggesting that in one of the most important elections in recent years that women should keep their vote for Vice President Kamala Harris a secret from their husbands.
This seems problematic for a number of reasons, but primarily shows the patriarchal and misogynistic nature of the campaign being run by former president Donald Trump.
The Lincoln Project website says the following about their campaign: “The Lincoln Project’s latest ad shows two married couples making their way to the voting booth, they have a secret though. The men think their wives are all voting for Trump…but the women have other plans.”
It goes on to say that women across the electorate are looking for ways to say: “Enough is Enough”.
“When you head to the voting booth, no one knows what you do. If you’re a woman, Vice President Harris is the only candidate who will protect your rights and promise you a future and not a past your grandmother would be familiar with,” Lincoln Project Chief of Staff Ryan Wiggins says on the website.
The organisation is a leading pro-democracy organisation in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defence of democracy. And there is no doubt there are concerns if Trump again becomes President that his plans border on dictatorship, but the advert has raised concerns for the type of relationships this is depicting online.
Comments such as:
“Ladies, if you’re with someone you have to hide your vote from, they don’t deserve to have relational proximity to you and you should strongly consider an alternative”; and
“Guys, if you’re voting for a sexual assaulter and/or intimidating or bullying a woman into doing the same, you’re a lousy man and a sh**** human being”.
Ultimately, as Americans go to the polls on 5 November 2024, there is no doubt this has been one of the most divisive campaigns in recent American history, one that is literally fighting for the rights of women on all fronts, so perhaps in reminding women of the secrecy of their ballot, the campaign provides a subtle yet liberating message: In the voting booth, women have the final say.