Female political success in USA – unfortunately it’s Tea Party and Republican

The Economist today features a neat summary of the money (and some politics) surrounding several female Republican candidates in California and Nevada state primaries. The worrying success of Nevada's Sharron Angle, the Tea Party candidate, and her dubious approach to healthcare policy, should make interesting reading.

The Huffington Post also has some further details of Ms Angle's policies, which include elimination of the Education Department and phasing out of Social Security for young workers. The ideological content here, and extravagant sums of money involved, are repellent. I hope that tokenist claims of a win for 'female representation', or bizarre claims of feminism made by the Tea Party movement, do not obscure these ugly politics.