#also someone in the comments on twitter said that this is actually schmidt talking to cece

[tangerinesunbeam]

PERFECT IT’S PERFECT

[duaneodavila]

Law Professor Think Women’s Success In Elections Is A ‘Sad Achievement’

Kenneth Dau-Schmidt

Welp, this law professor is an asshat.

Here’s the thing, once someone starts talking about reverse discrimination, I just can’t take them seriously. That’s especially true when your “argument” for reverse discrimination is filled with unevidenced, warrantless claims. To wit, check out this letter to the editors of Bloomington’s Herald Times from Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, who is very concerned that so many gosh darn women are actually winning elections these days!

I was very disturbed by the results of the recent Democratic primary. I was glad to see women candidates do well, especially those who were accomplished and who had worked hard. But the fact that all women candidates won, even against accomplished male incumbents, was troubling.

At the state delegate level, combining the city’s districts 1 and 2, women candidates averaged 1,779 votes while the men averaged 696. All of the male candidates received less votes than any of their female rivals except the sitting mayor and Alphonso Manns.

Clearly, hundreds of Democratic women are voting just for female candidates based on their gender and have been encouraged in this regard by the Democratic Women’s Caucus. Ann Birch of the League of Women Voters said that the women’s success was the result of “nurture rather than nature.”

I agree that discrimination is an unnatural act and that the Democratic Women’s Caucus has taught many Democratic women to discriminate on the basis of gender. What a sad achievement.

Yes, this is the entirety of his letter. And, as Wonkette points out, he ignores the two instances where a male incumbent was running for the House of Representative and won their primary — including André Carson, who actually managed to beat out a woman, Sue Spicer. Guess those facts ruined the thin argument he was trying to spin together.

Dau-Schmidt also undermines all of the work that the candidates themselves and the League of Women Voters did to achieve these historic results. None of the candidates’ websites say “I have a vagina, vote for me!” Of course not. They talk about the issues and why voting for them matters. And of course there is no evidence, nor does he suggest any exists, that indicates women voted for other women despite their politics.

Also, you know, men voted for women candidates too. But, of course, they are afforded the presumption they did it for “logical” reasons while women voters who supported women candidates must have done it in a hysterical display of support for the sisterhood. I told you, he’s an asshat.

As Wonkette goes on to note, seeing nefarious gender motivations in voting booths really only goes one direction for men like Dau-Schmidt:

What are the odds, do you think, that if all the male candidates won their primaries, Mr. Dau-Schmidt would suggest that men had cruelly conspired to vote for men instead of women? What are the odds that he would suggest that those men were less competent than their competitors? I am going to guess that they are not very good.

In fact, he probably would not even notice. It would just be our glorious meritocracy at work!

If you’re at Indiana Law, I’d steer clear of this guy. There’s got to be a better way to learn employment law.

Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Law Professor Think Women’s Success In Elections Is A ‘Sad Achievement’ republished via Above the Law