When considering the candidates this election, this question actually had not crossed my mind. It wasn’t until I received an email from a concerned reader that I realized how important of an issue this is.

So what do the candidates believe about domestic violence? More importantly, what are they doing about it?

Here are the facts:

Joe Biden is taking an active role in stopping domestic violence. He is responsible for writing and passing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Barack Obama co-sponsored the act. VAWA is the strongest legislation that we have today for combating domestic violence. It covers many areas, such as punishing those who commit violence against women, providing victims with support, and providing funding for non-profit organizations such as battered women’s shelters.

John McCain voted against the VAWA.

Senator Obama is responsible for sponsoring the Victims Economic Security and Safety Act (VESSA). This is a state bill that provides domestic/sexual violence victims with job security, financial help for victims leaving violent situations, and unpaid leave for abuse victims.

The answer is simple:

Senators Obama and Biden are taking a stand against domestic violence by supporting legislation that helps domestic violence survivors and holds abusers accountable. Biden even authored one such act himself.

Not only has Senator McCain failed to do anything about domestic violence, he even voted against legislation designed to tackle this problem. That tells me he doesn’t care much about the problem of domestic violence in America, so much so that he won’t even help out with a vote. With domestic violence being such a widespread problem in the U.S. (see the statistics mentioned in this article), I don’t feel like I can trust a man to run our country if he can just ignore what is happening to women every day. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. Women are being beaten, killed, and abused in other ways because our system does not yet do its job in protecting them. I believe VAWA is a good step towards protecting women and combating domestic abuse. McCain would look a lot better in my eyes, had he just voted yes.

For more information on the candidates and domestic violence, go to Feminists For Obama and this blog on the Obama/Biden website. I did visit McCain’s website to see where he stands on the issue, and I was unable to find anything about women or domestic violence.