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Whitman is the author of It’s My Party Too. In her book, and in her speech, she argued for more moderate ideology in both parties.
“We have an increased number of voters becoming disenchanted around the center,” Whitman said. “We have only about 10 percent turnout in primary elections. We have about 35 percent turnout at mid-term elections, and 50 to 60 percent for president. That is a very poor showing."
The governor said she has heard Americans in the center profess that they're just not going to vote. "A pox on both your houses," she related. "And that is all age groups, both sides of the aisle."
And as voter turnout shrinks, the political wisdom becomes: appeal to your base instead of the center. In this effort, Whitman said, parties “find those emotional issues that get people fired up.” And the cycle continues.
Politicians' increased use of partisan rhetoric, inflammatory language, anger and pure loudness drives the parties more towards their extreme wings.
The key to bringing the political system back to the center, she said, is for both sides to focus on solvable problems instead of fighting over irreducible principles.
“We need a vital, two-party system where people can talk with each other about the problems which can be addressed,” Whitman said. That wouldn’t bar them from fighting over principle, she added.
In addition to appealing to the center, both political parties need to do a better job at bringing women to the table, Whitman said.
“We do bring a different set of experiences, a different approach to problem solving, a different set of eyes,” she said.
But once they get elected, women face different obstacles.
Men in politics tend to underestimate women, Whitman believes. “There is no doubt that not being one of the boys made it more difficult,” she said of her career in New Jersey.
As a fledgling policy staffer at the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C. in 1969, her Republican state committee newsletter congratulated her by describing her as “Papa Bear’s little bundle of wit, charm and political savvy.”
“That still rankles,” Whitman said.
Some 25 years later when she was running against Senator Bill Bradley for the nomination for the U.S. Senate, “some political reporters were writing about me as if I were running for prom queen," she said. "I think some of them found their inner fashion reporter trying to get out.” She was described as “too aristocratic, too serene, in her tweed jacket and gold jewelry.” And she was called a “Tom Kean in pearls.”
“I do not recall any reporter commenting on my opponent’s wearing a predictable blue suit with white shirt and red power tie,” she said.
And as governor of New Jersey, a newspaper once referred to her as “Mrs. Whitman” rather than “Gov. Whitman.”
Governor Whitman urged women in office to look out for each other, to form their own 'old boys' network. “Not an ‘old girls’ network,’ I wouldn’t call it that,” she said. Citing the “contacts and relationships” that result from such networking, she added, “We need to be more intentional about it.”
Whitman conceded that government would not be perfect if it were run by women.
"But," she said, "it wouldn’t be worse than it is today."
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