The good news comes from Renew America columnist Nathan Tabor, who also happens to be running for NC State Senate in our district.

Let’s take a closer look.

After years of holding America a virtual hostage, old-fashioned radical feminism appears to be just about dead.

Hostage to what?

But don’t take my word for it.

We weren’t planning to.

No less a feminist authority than Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist who has never met a Bush — or Bush policy — that she’s actually liked…

Guess opposition to Bush makes her a "feminist", right?

…. has all but written feminism’s obituary in her book, Are Men Necessary? 

A book which Nathan has no doubt read.

Dowd notes that feminism "lasted for a nanosecond, but the backlash has lasted forty years."  I would take issue with that statement. Feminism has been thwarting America’s growth and vitality for years — but, finally, a number of women are rejecting it for the silliness it is.

Yup.  Having all these damn women in the workplace is only slowing America down, people!

Dowd writes, "It’s the season of prim, stay-in-the-background First Lady Laura Bush, not assertive two-for-the-price-of-one First Lady Hillary. Where would you even lodge a feminist protest these days?"

Didn’t know you had to fill out forms, but okay.

The signs of the decay of feminism can be seen far beyond Pennsylvania Avenue.

Apparently, Nathan hasn’t read Phyllis Schlafly’s latest column: "Does Feminism Control The Bush Administration?" in which she writes: "We are more than five years into the Bush presidency, but it appears that Bill Clinton’s feminist policies are still in force."

In cities across the U.S., women are chucking the corporate world and embracing Barney’s world instead.

Where they belong, dammit!

Seriously, Nathan.  Are you one of those emasculated paranoid men who think that "feminist" women are out to get you?  Feminism, at least as we understand it, means being able to enter the corporate world or become Mommy.  Or both.  It isn’t one or the other — it’s about options.

And speaking of options and the supposed "death of feminism", what say you to the fact that women are outpacing men when it comes to law school applications?  Does Barney teach at our major educational institutions now?

They have found fulfillment where their grandmothers did — in the home, raising their children, offering love and support to their husbands.

Nathan knows whereof he speaks.  His lovely wife Jordon, for example, supports her husband by writing to websites, assuring the public that "Nathan is very straight…"

Many do not consider domestic work a drudgery — rather, they see it as a comforting alternative to the 24/7 career life.

Unlike Suzanne Tabor (pictured here), Nathan’s mom, the CFO of Physicians Pharmaceuticals.

But what has brought about this seismic shift in American life? Feminism may, in fact, be responsible. Young women have seen the fallout from feminism and, as a result, they want no part of it.

That fallout being . . . what?  Nathan is being sooooo cagey.

Public opinion polls generally show that younger women flinch at the thought of being called "feminists."

Cite?  Link?  No, I didn’t think so.  Guess we will have to take Nathan’s word for it after all.

They may have been raised in the broken homes spawned by the nation’s divorce culture, and they don’t want their own children to suffer the fate that they did.

Feminism is to blame for the decline of marriage?  We thought it was boys kissing boys.

In essence, they suffered parental loss early in their lives because their mothers were rarely home long enough to be a nurturing force.

And fathers — well, they’re not supposed to be a nurturing force.  Everybody knows that!!

Instead of tugging on their mothers’ apron strings, they were left to tug on the telephone cord that connected them to their working mothers’ offices. They felt a distance from their mothers that no amount of therapy could adequately address.

And that’s why there’s a high divorce rate.  Gotcha.

In one noteworthy case, a poll commissioned by Faye Wattleton, former head of the pro-abortion Planned Parenthood, showed the generation gap which feminism caused. Wattleton asked women whether keeping abortion legal was a major concern, and they said "no."

Okay.  No link again, but we know Nathan is lying here.  So we did some research.

Sure enough, he is lying.  Out of his ass. 

In Wattleton’s study, 3,000 women were given a list of 12 concerns for women, and asked to say which ones should be a top priority for the women’s movement (so, it wasn’t a yes/no inquiry). 

Here are the results, directly lifted from Part One of the Report (PDF format):

 

Now, there are a few things to note about this.

The #1 top priority (tied) is "Equal Pay for Equal Work".  That’s an odd priority if women have supposedly "found fulfillment where their grandmothers did — in the home, raising their children, offering love and support to their husbands". 

The same could be said for other high-ranked priorities, like "child care", "taking time off from work to care for family members", "increasing the number of women who study math, science, and technology", and "getting more women elected into political office".

So women are now preferring to stay home?  Not according to the one study that you cite, Nathan.

Secondly, half of the women in the study still thought that "keeping abortion legal" should be a "top priority".   Hardly the rejection of abortion that Nathan claims.

Yes, keeping abortion legal is a lower priority than other issues, and according to the study, 25% of the women thought it shouldn’t be a priority at all. 

But why?  Was it, as Nathan argues, is a rejection of feminism? 

Nope.  Wattleton herself explained to CNN:

[W]omen in the poll told us that they did not believe that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, or legal abortion. So, perhaps this is a reflection of women wanting to be more conservative about this issue and more thoughtful about it, but also not fearing that it will be overturned.

So there it is Nathan.  Women aren’t concerned about abortion rights …because they already have abortion rights.  That’s why it is ranked low compared to things women don’t have, like "equal pay for equal work".

Now that that’s settled . . . remember earlier when Nathan claimed — without citation — that "younger women flinch at the thought of being called ‘feminists’"?

That’s addressed in the Wattleton poll, too:

So when Nathan says that women flinch at the word "feminist", he means that that 64% of them regard the word as "positive".

But wait.  Nathan said that "younger women" flinch at the word "feminist".  Uh, okay…

So 72% of younger women find the moniker "feminist" to be positive, more than middle-aged or older women.

Ah, Nathan.  You should be a politician.  You’ve got your lies down so pat.  So unabashedly false.

But let’s return to Nathan’s column.

Years of Planned Parenthood’s preaching about the alleged necessity of abortion-on-demand have failed to convince the younger generation, who realize that sisters, brothers, cousins, friends, and potential mates are missing because they were aborted by their misguided mothers. Younger women tend not to see abortion as a right — but rather as a profound wrong.

Oh, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan.

South Dakota’s recent decision to ban virtually all abortions demonstrates that radical feminism’s clarion call to kill the unborn is no longer being heeded. The U.S. Supreme Court — which has its share of pro-feminist holdovers — may still claim that abortion should be the law of the land, but elected representatives in South Dakota have proven that it doesn’t have to be.

They’ve proven nothing.  All they’ve proven is that it is possible to pass laws which violate the Constitution.

Recent national public opinion polls also show quite clearly that Americans support legal abortion in only rare circumstances — in fact, most people believe it should be banned in 99 percent of all cases.

Oh, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan.

Feminist icon Molly Yard, who was marching for abortion well into her golden years, must be turning over in her grave.

Wow.  Nathan Tabor, talking smack about recently deceased women.  How manly.  How virile.

Young women simply don’t relate to Eleanor Smeal, Gloria Steinem, and the other "founding mothers" of the modern feminist movement. They see such women as out-of-touch, angry, and unfulfilled. They admire women who can keep a household together under trying circumstances.

Nathan, from his vantage point in Kernersville, North Carolina, has his finger on the pulse of young women today.

They may have iPods and Blackberries, but they still believe in the value of hearth and home.

Why would a child-raising, stay-at-home, apron-string wearing Mom need an executive powertoy like a Blackberry?

And they definitely believe that men are necessary.

Nathan knows it, too.  Every night when Nathan comes home from a hard day of demagoguery, Jordon looks deep into his eyes and sighs, "Nathan, you’re just so . . . necessary."