Throughout this campaign, and every campaign since at least 2004, the Democrats have harped on a “war on women” being waged by Republicans. This is because Republicans, alone of the major party, are in favor of protecting families and eradicating the horrendous practice of infanticide. Each and every election the find some fatuous example of sexism (raise your hand if you knew keeping resumes of job applicants in a three-ring binder was sexist before Mitt Romney’s candidacy) and harp on Sandra Fluke’s inability to use birth control devices not purchased with your tax dollars in order to divert attention from actual issues.

This election, however, offered as pure a test as one can hope for of whether the war on women meme actually works or if it is simply something lefties fantasize about while engaging in self-stimulation. Trump, by any measure, is a misogynist, a cad, a man who has a history of treating young women as party favors. He is a shameless adulterer. He doesn’t like the company of women so much as he likes to be surrounded by eye candy. If any candidate was going to be damaged by the war on women nonsense it was Donald Trump.

So how’d that work our for Hillary?

Fifty three percent of white women voted for Donald Trump, this is a three point drop from Romney’s 56% in 2012 though it is exactly the same percentage that John McCain got in 2008. Interestingly, Trump did better with Hispanic women (26% vs. 24%) and tied Romney with black women.

The lesson here for Republican politicians is that women are a helluva lot smarter than Democrats think they are. Remarkably they actually consider a wide variety of issues before voting. They aren’t driven by an irresistible desire to rut indiscriminately or kill their offspring and the sooner we stop taking this war on women nonsense seriously the sooner we can get on with business.