Women Are Making Rush Limbaugh Pay For Calling Them Stupid

There are few insults as demeaning and ire-inspiring than alleging a person is stupid and easily distracted from important events that have could have devastating consequences on their lives. Republicans have counted on the stupidity of their followers to inject meaningless canards into political discussions to divert attention from their real agendas, and they have been relatively successful convincing their base to vote against their own self-interests on a variety of issues. For the past few months, Republicans used religion to garner support for their attempt to restrict access to contraception and it has resulted in new anti-women laws being enacted in several states that punish all women despite their religious affiliation. Republicans assume they can distract women with shiny objects to divert attention from the brutal attacks on their reproductive health, and they still fail to comprehend that women who are not entrenched in a cult are livid and will remember precisely which party has been on a rampage to deprive them of their rights. Apparently, Republicans believe women are simple-minded, shallow, and stupid.

It has been  a little over a month since Rush Limbaugh attempted to impugn the character of Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke,  and the incident brought the Republican war on women into the national conscience after a year of brutal attacks on women’s rights in Congress and Republican-controlled states. After the results of a USA Today/ Gallup poll showed President Obama with a significant lead over Willard Romney among women under the age of 50, Limbaugh impugned women’s intelligence by calling the results a fluke and insinuating women are not as intelligent as men who are more evenly divided between the President and Romney. Republican campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, admitted the poll numbers were not so good, but like Limbaugh, he assumed that when the discussion shifts to the economy in the general election, women will forget the Republican’s assault and come to their senses. Schmidt said, “I think there will be time to repair the damage. It is not easy, but it shouldn’t be a mystery that American women don’t want to hear politicians talking about their contraception and birth controls.†Schmidt is absolutely correct, but that is all women have heard from Republicans for months.

Women will not forget the GOP talking about and attempting to prohibit contraception regardless how much Romney and Republicans talk about gas prices and the economy during the general election, and it is a monumental insult to women to think otherwise. Limbaugh especially mocked women when he said, “women buy gasoline, too. Women have to pay taxes women, some of them, like to have jobs†as if women are not as intelligent as men and that they shifted support to President Obama on a whim. What women do know about the economy is that they earn pennies on the dollar compared to men, their healthcare costs are higher, the President does not set gas prices, taxes are at their lowest rates in 60 years, and that Democrats tried to correct gender inequities in the healthcare system. If Limbaugh or Schmitt think talking about gas prices or the economy is going to distract women from remembering the brutal attacks from Republicans, then they are lunatics and they underestimate women’s intelligence and resolve.

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The war on women did not begin with Limbaugh’s remarks about Sandra Fluke, and it was well underway from the start of the 112th Congress. Women in states with laws targeting reproductive rights know Democrats are not responsible for forcing them to get their employer’s permission to use birth control or restricting access to cancer screenings by defunding Planned Parenthood. In Missouri, for example, two new anti-women’s laws are outright attacks on their healthcare choices. One allows employers to deny contraception coverage unless employees provide proof they are used for a “medical need,†and the other greatly expands the “conscious clause†exception to shield health care workers from participating in any medical procedures that conflict with their conscience. The legislation from Missouri Republicans has support among religious groups, but women are not amused and they will not forget who instigated and promoted the legislation. Do Republicans really believe women will forget the past year’s assault on their healthcare choices just because Willard Romney talks about prices at the pump or how big of a tax cut he intends to give the wealthy elite? Obviously they do and it is a fatal error because women are not simple-minded dolts who can be distracted by pointing to gas prices or the economy.

Republicans, and their de facto leader Rush Limbaugh, cannot comprehend that women are not to be trifled with and Rush’s disbelief that women are fleeing the Republican Party over assaults on their reproductive health is stunning in itself. But that is the Republican Party in 2012. They are a spectacularly misogynistic pack of degenerates who think they can assault women’s rights for over a year and that women will forget because of fuel prices is the height of stupidity. They certainly will not forget Romney’s Blunt amendment support, or that he gave his assurance that he will “get rid of Planned Parenthood,†or that House Republicans attempted to redefine rape, defund Planned Parenthood, and allow Catholic Bishops to restrict contraceptive coverage.

Romney and Republican misogynists are witnessing women rise up to end the Republican war on their rights, and that cretin Limbaugh cannot resist insulting women every time he opens his mouth. This time though, he insulted every woman in America by insinuating their stupidity, and if he, or Republicans, think they have time to repair the year-long damage they inflicted on women, they are sadly misinformed because women will not forget and neither will President Obama. The GOP, like Limbaugh, made crucial errors attacking women at all, but attributing simple-mindedness to American women is not only reprehensible, it is incredibly foolish, and their lack of cognition will keep them from realizing just how stupid they are until after women flush them out of office in November.



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