Tweeted photo from Minnesota Republican Randy Gilbert, far right. Where are the women?
Oh how the Republicans like to lie. I’ve examined more than a few examples of this in the past few days. But it is not only you and I they like to lie to, but themselves. They exhibit a blind insistence on what “must” be true rather than what “is” true.
The photo above says it all. Contrast this with a tweet from the Republican base in response to my post yesterday:
Most Republicans are women
Endless lying from you ignorant ugly "liberal" pieces of trash
@JamesWr27277885 @USNavyMomPA @AHeathensDay
— Black Tea Party (@MLKrepublican) October 26, 2014
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
But the Republican Party’s “women problem” and its war on women is very thoroughly attested, and has been examined by many, as The Washington Post pointed out recently. There, Melody Crowder-Meyer and Benjamin Lauderdale asked, among other questions, “Why do women compose only 8 percent of the Republican House caucus, compared to 29 percent of the Democratic caucus (a gap that holds in other offices as well)?”
Politico reported in August of this year:
A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups — including one backed by Karl Rove — paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past.”
Women are “barely receptive” to Republicans’ policies, and the party does “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast and Midwest, according to an internal Crossroads GPS and American Action Network report obtained by POLITICO…The report is blunt about the party’s problems. It says 49 percent of women view Republicans unfavorably, while 39 percent view Democrats unfavorably.
Really, given the rhetoric, why would ANY woman vote Republican these days? And how can the GOP convince them they should? According to Politico,
The solutions offered include neutralizing Democratic attacks that the GOP doesn’t support “fairness” for women; “deal honestly with any disagreement on abortion, then move to other issues”; and “pursue policy innovations that inspire women voters to give the GOP a ‘fresh look.'”
Like Jindal’s claim that the GOP must stop being the party of stupid, it’s clear that Republicans are not following the report’s advice, whether it’s lying about rather than dealing honestly with the abortion issue, or taking policy stances that are anything but new or fresh. If your policies are carved in stone – and Republican policies are as unyielding as the Ten Commandments – it is absurd to even talk about “fresh looks.”
Some Republicans clearly remain in denial; they like to insist women love them, despite the gender-based attacks launched on Democratic candidates like Wendy Davis and Allison Lundergan Grimes.
If Republicans want to believe they have no gender problem, they must ask themselves a few questions:
- But if this is true, why are Women more likely to be Democrats, regardless of age?
- If this is true, why do 37% of women self-identify as Democrat, compared with 24% who say they are Republicans?
- If this is true, why is it that 55% of women voted for President Obama in 2012?
- If this is true, why is it that only 14 percent of women say GOP has moved closer to their perspective and 33 percent, said the party had drifted further from them?
Republicans think pretending to read women’s magazines proves they love themselves some women:
They come up with all sorts of interesting rationales to convince you – and themselves – that they can have diversity from a party that has few female candidates. Keep in mind (since the GOP will not) that as Jane Timm at MSNBC pointed out in May, “No women are polling in the top 10 for potential Republican presidential candidates two years after the party identified outreach to women as a weakness.”
Of the most prominent female leads in recent Republican history, one is now engaging in drunken brawls and the other is facing charges that could put her in prison. Not that this latter is all that different from the potential fate of some prominent Republican men, but let’s face it, there are more men to go around, so the impact is less.
Doug Grow wrote in the Minnesota Post this summer about the Minnesota Republican Party’s struggle with not only gender, but racial diversity:
Chris Fields, the party’s deputy director and an African-American, was more direct than Downey when asked if the lack of diversity on the GOP ticket would be a problem for the party.
“It would be if your view of diversity was the color of somebody’s face,” Fields said. “But I look at our ticket and I see real diversity. We’ve got a businessman (McFadden), a county commissioner (Johnson), a fighter pilot (Severson), a lawyer (Newman) and an auditor (Gilbert). Just because you have half men, half women, if they’re all saying the same thing, what difference does it make?”
Obviously, diversity is more than skin color. It is also gender, something Field ignored. Diversity is also a party that includes more than members of a single religion. Not to mention a party that does not eject those who fail to attain a certain level of ideological purity.
As Grow quipped, “It’s an interesting point. But, on the other hand, it seems unlikely that members of the GOP white male chorus will have diverse campaign themes.”
No indeed. And Republicans stubbornly resist seeing that their conservative policies are alienating women voters. As New Jersey Republican Jeff Bell said earlier this month, “Single mothers particularly are automatically Democratic because of the benefits. They need benefits to survive, and so that kind of weds them to the Democratic Party.”
So young women are just in it for the free stuff. You know, like black people. And Mexicans. The problem, the GOP is telling us, is the “liberal media elite,” or with women being “sluts” who want sex without consequence on the taxpayer’s dime. Nothing wrong with an exclusive and hate-filled Republican message. Just with the people who aren’t sufficiently white, male, and Christian.
A Quinnipiac University Poll showed Booker leading by 20 points among women. Only a Republican could think it has nothing to do with his misogynist rhetoric.
What can you do with, or say to, a party where self-examination is something “commies” do, and where myopia has been institutionalized?
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.
