Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:52 pm
The Urban Dictionary defines misogynista as “A man who is so afraid of women that he actively dismisses their ideas, thoughts, goals, accomplishments and status of equality.” Hillary Clinton tweeted the perfect reaction to such a man: “Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. Horrific and telling.â€
It is interesting that just as Gallup reports the completely unsurprising fact that “Donald Trump has the most negative image of the five presidential candidates, and his and Ted Cruz’s images are at new lows among Americans in March,†the two men seem to have embarked on a contest to prove who hates women the most.
Trump, who has a net favorable rating of -35 (and yes, that’s MINUS 35) announced that women should be punished for having abortions, and Cruz, who has a net favorable rating of -16, has an adviser, Troy Newman, who wants to execute abortion providers, and another who wants to execute Girl Scout leaders for “promoting homosexuality.â€
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You have to wonder what, if anything, either man is thinking. Ted Cruz’s announcement yesterday in Wisconsin of his “Women for Cruz†coalition brought this reaction from People For the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker:
“For Cruz to portray himself as a champion for women and families would be funny if it wasn’t such a dangerous misrepresentation of his anti-women stances throughout his career. As a Senator, Cruz has voted countless times against the priorities for women and families. He’s voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, to defund Planned Parenthood, to block raising the minimum wage, and against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act – just to name a few of countless examples. The prospect of a Trump, Cruz, or Kasich presidency is simply terrifying for women and all Americans.â€
Cruz supporter Kevin Swanson, the same guy who wants to kill Girl Scout leaders, has a bookstore which informs customers,
“If someone were to ask us why we don’t sell Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, or The Twilight Saga, our answer would likely be something like, ‘Because we don’t want our kids turning into sorcerers, feminists, or vampires.'”
So just so you’re clear on the Cruz scale of values, feminists, that is, women who want women to have the same legal status as men, are the moral equivalent to sorcerers and vampires, a category of people who, in stories, are typically burned at the stake or have a stake driven through their chest.
This should tell you all you need to know about what a Ted Cruz presidency would mean for women. Trump’s view of women is expressed in even cruder terms, if that is possible.
As People for the American Way report about “pro-life” Troy Newman, who wants to kill people,
Troy Newman, who is one of 10 co-chairs of Cruz’s anti-abortion group, argued in a book published in the early 2000s that a society following the wishes of God would execute abortion providers.
Of course, the problem for Cruz and Newman is that the United States follows the United States Constitution and not “the wishes of God,†which in any case, are nowhere to be found in Newman’s own Bible.
In fact, the God of the Old Testament regularly practices abortion on a wide scale, aborting entire cities worth of fetuses. In calling women who have abortions “murderers,†Newman is calling his own god a murderer.
Strong words. Ignorant words. And Old Testament misreadings (or lack of readings) aside, Jesus, in the New Testament, has no more to say about abortion than he does gays and lesbians.
Trump tried to “correct†his position later by saying something completely different was meant, but this doesn’t really help clarify anything as it just shows him saying different things to different people at different times. Critics will find it increasingly difficult to keep up with his revolving truth policy.
What we’re seeing here from both Trump and Cruz is a very strong trend of just saying really stupid things and expecting them to be believed. Sadly, misquoting the Bible (Jesus or otherwise) has a very strong tradition in Christianity and for religious conservatives, it has always been more about what they want to believe than what is actually there to be believed.
Yet these two white males claim they want to be elected president. On hate. Of women. It’s more than a bit like saying to women, “Vote for us, and we’ll take away your rights.†It’s exactly like that. And that doesn’t include everyone else they’ve announced they hate, like blacks and Mexicans and Muslims and other non-Christians.
As Jason Easley wrote here yesterday, “It is almost as if Donald Trump is taking positions that are intentionally designed to lose him the election,†and the same must be said of Ted Cruz, with his line-up of advisers.
You can find reviews of this unofficial contest online with various opinions offered, and you can find the Washington Examiner offering a feeble defense of Cruz, but the proof is in the verbiage. It isn’t want liberals say about the two candidates, but what they say about themselves.
And that verbiage is damning and unequivocal. There is no way to make their misogyny out to be a positive. These men have harnessed all the various forms of hatred festering on the right and vagina-fearing men are not least among them.
Liberals have long recognized that conservative politics are the politics of control and that is what these misogynistas want: Trump didn’t attack Heidi Cruz so much as he attacked Ted Cruz’s wife – a possession of Ted Cruz.
Because that is what women are to a misogynista: a possession. And possessions, as we all know, have no rights.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
