Elizabeth Warren

Mayor Wu came out swinging against Senator Will Brownsberger last week, right after Senator Elizabeth Warren did the same thing. Both women endorsed Brownsberger’s inexperienced opponent in the upcoming senatorial race for a seat that covers a region stretching from Belmont to Boston. Wu and Warren are reportedly upset that Brownsberger didn’t support Wu’s plan to increase taxes on businesses in Boston.

Reasonable people on both sides of the aisle disagree about the business tax issue, with most saying that more taxes on businesses is bad for economic development. Businesses already pay a much higher tax rate than individuals, and many have threatened to leave Boston if taxes go up, not only because higher taxes hurt profit margins but also because Boston is already too expensive, especially for mom-and-pop stores, and lately it’s becoming more dangerous, too.

Others say that more taxes on businesses could help alleviate taxes on individuals, but the data isn’t there to support this claim. More likely, Wu wants to tax businesses because she knows that taxes are going way up, and she wants to be able to assuage her base by saying, “but I taxed businesses more.”

Regardless of how one feels about the business tax issue, it’s petty for Wu and Warren to endorse a guy with no experience. They’re punishing Brownsberger for thinking carefully about the tax issue, and disagreeing with them, rather than blindly obeying their demands.

Taxing businesses is a serious decision. Grown-up politicians should be able to disagree with each other without resorting to vindictive endorsements. Serious politicians understand that state senators have more on their plates than whether to raise taxes, like the well-being and safety of their constituents. 50% of the population in this state are women, and more than 1/3 have suffered some sort of abuse, yet among this cast of characters, only Brownsberger has a record of caring about the epidemic of violence against women. Only Brownsberger has taken official steps to address the problem, rather than showing up at fundraisers to spout meaningless words about how terrible it is that women suffer domestic abuse, then going back to the office and doing nothing about it.

For many years, Brownsberger has sponsored a bill to add women to the hate crime statute, because Massachusetts is the only state in New England that excludes women from protection. Under the current law, if a man beats the hell out of a transgender person because they’re transgender, or an Asian person because they’re Asian, it’s a hate crime, which means they face harsher punishment. But if the same man does exactly the same thing to a woman because she’s female, it isn’t a hate crime at all. This is not only sex discrimination, and a violation of the Massachusetts Consitution, it’s a prime reason why so many women are beaten, raped and killed in this state.

The fact that Mayor Wu and Senator Warren have never spoken up about this, while insisting that they deserve the women’s vote, is outrageous. The most severe expression of hatred for women is violence, but only Senator Brownsberger seems to understand the mportance of protecting women equally against hate crimes. He said he filed an amendment to add women to the hate crime statute because, “It’s time that we recognized misogyny as the basis of many hate crimes. It’s all too real and all too often behind tragic acts of violence and abuse.”

Senator Brownsberger’s opponent has a record of doing nothing for women. Like Warren and Wu, he boasts about how much he cares about people because he support causes like immigration, civil rights, abortion, and LGBTQ issues, but he has done nothing to alleviate women’s suffering. Senator Brownsberger also has a stellar record on immigration, civil rights, abortion, and LGBTQ issues, but he alone has also taken steps to address women’s suffering, because he knows that women endure more abuse than all the other classes of people – combined.

According to the Supreme Judicial Court, the number one violent crime in every district court and in nearly every city and town in Massachusetts is domestic violence. Most often the victim is female. And just last month, a report was released showing that domestic violence homicides are up 20% in the past two years, under the not-so-watchful eyes of Mayor Wu and Senator Warren. Neither Wu nor Warren said a word about the report, though they run to the microphone when other people are killed.

It’s strange to see such powerful women pay no attention to all the dead women, while insisting that they deserve the women’s vote. They apparently think it’s enough that they’re women, and they support abortion rights, but they’re wrong. Women don’t just vote for females because they’re female, and they certainly don’t vote based on the abortion issue. They know that only 2% of women need abortions in a given year, while 100% of women need protection from abuse 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Women vote for candidates who sincerely care about their well-being, and show it by actually doing something to stop the violence.

Women are tired of being told to vote for females, and focus on abortion. Women will vote for Will Brownsberger in September because they know damn well that dead women don’t care about taxes, and they sure as hell don’t need abortions.

Wendy Murphy is a lawyer and victims’ rights advocate