For four decades in the news business, Robin Abcarian has reported, thought and written about the intersection of feminism, culture and politics, from the glittering runways of Milan's Fashion Week, to New Hampshire's snowy byways in presidential campaign season.
One week before an extraordinary election shaped by the most striking gender gap history, she is emphatic and direct about what's at stake on Nov,. 5.
"I think women are kind of pissed off, to be honest," Abcarian said in a one-on-one Newsmakers interview.
From her perch as a twice-a-week opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Robin has provided a stream of smart and insightful commentary amid the unprecedented twists and turns of the unprecedented 2024 campaign -- from J.D. Vance's world-class gaslighting on abortion and tech-bro views on the proper role of post-menopausal women, to Trump's attack on Taylor Swift and word-salad thoughts on childcare, along with the very real threats posed to democracy by the covert white Christian nationalist movement, not to mention the former president's overt promises to rule as a dictator.
Abcarian dropped in for a pre-election chat on Monday in advance of a planned, post-election appearance in Santa Barbara on Nov. 12, when she's scheduled to headline the Women's Political Committee annual anniversary celebration (that's thirty-six years - 36, count 'em 36 - for the venerated feminist organization - details below).
"There's always been, in the last several decades, a gender gap in the presidential election, but I think this year it's particularly acute because of all the anti-abortion stuff - the Trump anti-abortion laws, the Dobbs ruling - I think women in many places are up in arms about this," Abcarian told us.
"And, as we know, the rate of abortion has not slowed down, and women are dying who are having miscarriages, or having pregnancies with fetuses that are incompatible with life," she added. "So women are left to die in parking lots thanks to this boneheaded decision by the Supreme Court."
After starting her career in the 1980s writing lifestyle pieces for the Detroit Free Press, Abcarian landed at the Times in 1992, where she's stayed ever since, except for a two-year stint as an L.A. radio talk show host, doing almost every job in the joint, from features to news and national affairs reporting, before starting her latest chapter on the opinion page five years ago.
In our conversation, Abcarian derided the Trump-Vance effort to soft-pedal their reactionary line on reproductive rights ("you've seen J.D. Vance saying, 'oh I have a friend who had an abortion and I love her, and I totally understand") while simultaneously advancing rhetoric and policies steeped in misogyny and belief in the "trad wife" role of women.
"It's...just saying to women, 'you're vessels, you carry the babies. And then after you're done carrying the babies, and raising the babies, then you're going to care for somebody else's babies," she said.
"Not to mention the Republican candidate's really awful treatment of women, his history of sexual assault, his convictions, his wife-cheating, just the nasty things he says about women - and he continues it, he doesn't ever soften it," she added.
In our conversation, Robin also discussed the transformation of the news industry during her career, the role of social media in corrupting the nation's political discourse, and the damage inflicted by the MAGA movement on the very notion of truth and shared reality.
And she offered some inside perspective on the current turmoil at the Times, triggered by the billionaire owner's torpedoing of a planned editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris, a move that has led to high-profile staff resignations, subscription cancellations by angry readers, and ongoing friction in the newsroom. The tension, and the stakes, have been heightened by a similar step by Jeff Bezos, the multi-billionaire owner of the Washington Post.
"I think there comes a moment in a billionaire's life where the billionaire has to decide, 'am I looking out for my company, and if so what's the harm in pulling an endorsement?'" '
"I think what they know is, we all can figure out that if Kamala Harris wins, she's not going to engage in vindictive punishment for people who didn't support her - that's not who she is. She's a mature adult capable of seeing past that political stuff," she said. "Donald Trump is not. He has promised retribution against prosecutors, politicians, business people, you name it.
"I think this is, quite simply, a form of hedging their bets," Abcarian added. "And it's disappointing (and) I do think it's indefensible."
Check out our full conversation with Robin Abcarian via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. The podcast is here.
Tickets for the WPC's "Cosmopolitics" celebration on Nov. 12, featuring Robin Abcarian, are still available.
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