Derbyshire: 19th Amendment Was A Bad Idea

DERBYSHIRE: . . . [W]omen voting is bad for conservatism, and as a conservative, of course, I think that’s bad for society.

HARTMANN: So therefore if women were not allowed to vote it would be a better country in your opinion?

DERBYSHIRE: I think as a hypothetical I think that’s arguable, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

- National Review columnist John Derbyshire, discussing a chapter in his new book entitled “The Case Against Women’s Suffrage.”

The same author also urged us to follow the example of Stalin, the Nazis and Imperial China in our treatment of Chelsea Clinton:

Chelsea is a Clinton. She bears the taint; and though not prosecutable in law, in custom and nature the taint cannot be ignored. All the great despotisms of the past - I'm not arguing for despotism as a principle, but they sure knew how to deal with potential trouble - recognized that the families of objectionable citizens were a continuing threat. In Stalin's penal code it was a crime to be the wife or child of an 'enemy of the people.' The Nazis used the same principle, which they called Sippenhaft, 'clan liability.' In Imperial China, enemies of the state were punished 'to the ninth degree': that is, everyone in the offender's own generation would be killed and everyone related via four generations up, to the great-great-grandparents, and four generations down, to the great-great-grandchildren, would also be killed.

- John Derbyshire, National Review, 02-15-01

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

- 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified August 18, 1920).