Needing to win more of the women’s vote in November than they currently have, the GOP is apparently courting women using reverse psychology. They tell women that the biggest problem with some of them who are raped is that they complain too much about it, that women prove they wanted to be raped by getting pregnant from it and not using their mystical anti-pregnancy powers instead and that when it comes to making decisions over a woman’s body, old white men in Congress know best.
The Republicans’ simultaneous War On Women and campaigning for their vote is a bit like going on a date, being insulted and demeaned throughout it then being asked, “So, you want to get married?”
In this way, Republicans come off like gorillas at a buffet, everyone else understands how to properly conduct themselves but the Republicans just do what comes naturally with no awareness of the mess they make and the disgust that others feel towards them.
What Todd Akin highlighted is not some fringe sensibility of Republicans, it is the mainstream GOP thinking. His sin in the eyes of the GOP that has come out to squash him is that he said aloud what they keep to themselves. The GOP base and elite share the same trait, a need to feel superior to others because they are white males. There is the same kind of nurtured, in-a-bubble bigotry against minorities as there is against women by Republicans, both represent a threat to their entitlement to superiority that they feel they should have because they were born white and male.
The core Republicans hold tightly to the chauvinism in The Bible to justify their support for oppressing women…conveniently flipping past the pages referring to some guy named Jesus and his philosophies about treating others with respect and kindness. The GOP Elite, many of who merely feign religiousness for ulterior motives, simply want the status quo of white males having most of the money and power to continue.
So when it comes to their collective view of women, as they are surrounded with each other, their bigotry comes off as conventional wisdom since everyone around them feels the same way. There is no guilt or shame for a racist who is surrounded by racists saying and thinking the same things, just a sense that these things aren’t an expression of prejudice, just a recognition of the way things are.
And Republicans have many hatreds, fears and prejudices that they see instead as “the way things are”.
It’s been announced that the official Republican platform for 2012 includes a ban on abortion in all cases. How does this conflict with the beliefs of Todd Akin? It doesn’t. As is quite obvious, Republicans only want Akin to drop out because he’s damaged himself with voters and they want to have a better shot at winning control of The Senate…but their stands on women’s rights, rape and birth control are identical to his.
The Republican House has voted to kill funding for Planned Parenthood (bringing the country to the brink of shutting down to force this through), restrict abortion, re-classify some rapes as not being legitimate unless they were accompanied by physical force, etc. Republicans opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that insured women deserve to be paid equally to men, held a hearing on birth control with only males allowed to give testimony and in the process, attacked Sandra Fluke, a college student, as a slut and a whore for daring to speak her mind on the valuable non-pregnancy-related medical applications of birth control pills.
Paul Ryan, the Republican choice to be the next Vice President of the United States, voted with Todd Akin and/or co-sponsored the extremist anti-woman legislation listed above including a Personhood law that would declare an egg “a person” the moment it was fertilized, outlawing all abortions and many forms of contraception as murder as well as making in vitro fertilization illegal. This is who the Republicans want women to vote for as being one heartbeat away from the Presidency.
The GOP is at low tide, all that’s left in it are the dregs of our society, the greedy, sociopathic elitists and the hateful and insecure bigots. The problem this presents in national and some statewide elections is that to keep those in their party on board, they have to either be one of these types or cater to these types while somehow trying to appeal to independent voters.
That is a difficult proposition. When your base needs to have their racist and misogynist views validated but indie voters are turned off by that, you don’t have many paths to choose from…other than to field a pandering, dishonest candidate who won’t discuss any legit details of his plans.
Mitt Romney is the personification of the dance the GOP must do now in each election. He lies constantly to demonize Obama to indie voters, panders to his base with extremist views and hides his tax returns and true agenda because he knows that no majority in their right mind would vote for him if they knew what he truly supported.
Though Republicans would vehemently disagree, there is no doubt in the minds of those who view that party at least a little objectively, that Republicans see women as lesser human beings, deserving of less rights and autonomy than men and that they view white men as entitled upon birth to be financially and politically dominant over women, the poor and minorities.
It is disappointing that a party which is so clearly the enemy of the majority of Americans is not relegated to cult status, controls The House and is capable of winning The Senate and the Presidency. The Republicans’ efforts at brainwashing people to vote against their own interests, coupled with their strangling of state and federal education budgets to limit the education of Americans has paid off.
Still, there is always a bridge too far. Extremism can’t expand infinitely, eventually, it devolves into something so repulsive that no amount of propaganda can make it palatable for a vast majority.
As much as one would hope that such a boundary has already been reached, it seems that we still have a bit farther to go. About 40% of Americans seem to be firmly conned into supporting the GOP no matter how intolerant and offensive they become but a majority of Americans reject this kind of thinking. Polls consistently show movement towards Obama when such misogyny or racism is displayed by yet another Republican which bodes well for November.
Until then, we can expect the Republican campaign for the oppression and control of women to continue as an undercurrent in their campaigns as they pander to their base while putting on a facade for women that they “care about you”.
Unfortunately for them, most women have experience at hearing flattering things from an insincere jerk who only wants to get them to put out for them so they better be prepared to go home from the party in November all by themselves.
Mmmmm!
Recipe for ~Romneycakes~
1 gallon Monsanto
1 tablespoon pure Manchurian extract
10 cups Mormon-style cream of wheat
1 bag Mittsy-bits
Tithing lemon zest
Mix and bake anywhere outside in the summertime midwest.
Hey Q!
BTW, how many wives does it serve?
Legitimate or illegitimate? Hi AdLib!
Outsourced.
Wife outsourcing is a new joint partnership industry between Bain and the Mormon Church.
Can also be made as Rahmni dosas. Just add a little ghee.
You have to be careful with ghee, it can go bad and give you a case of Rahmnitosis.
It seems to me that any woman or man who cares about themselves or a woman they love and hold dear would NOT vote republican.
The republican platform says they care more about an unborn fetus than they do about the life of a woman. No matter the circumstances of how they got pregnant (rape, incest, accident) the republicans want to force the woman to suffer 9 months and bare the child of the tormentor.
I think it is barbaric to force a woman to have a child if she was raped or got pregnant through incest or an accident (mistake or failure of condom) !
If you don’t like;
birth control, don’t use it
abortion, don’t get one
GOP platform, don’t vote republican
Nirek, I think it’s actually quite obvious that many of these “pro-lifers” actually are pretty unsympathetic and cruel people who have no respect for life.
Many of these same people who claim to be pro-life beat their chests over the sanctity of all life and that all pregnancies must result in births…yet the second after a baby is born, they are perfectly fine with it dying from lack of medical care.
“Pro-lifers” oppose the ACA as well as all universal and single-payer health care systems, aid to the poor, food programs at schools, etc.
They are conditional about their alleged pro-life beliefs, they’re all for forcing women to conform to their religious beliefs that all fertilized eggs must become babies without exception but the moment the baby is born, they have no respect for its life. They don’t want it to have health insurance or health care, be assured of a secure home or food or have any financial assistance for its parents when they’re poor.
They are frauds who don’t really care about life (most pro-lifers support the death penalty), they only care about enforcing their religious beliefs on others and for these unChrist-like “Christians”, the concepts of compassion and caring for your fellow human beings are foreign and unknown to them.
AdLib, thanks so much for raising an issue that has troubled me — as a woman — for a very long time. Why would any woman be/vote Republican in the 21st century?
I’ve been thinking about the Repub women I know, and trying to figure out what common thread there might be in their lives that causes them to cling to the slithering thing that wants to harm them. Social class doesn’t seem to be it. They’re from all economic strata. But the thing that does seem to be almost universal is that they came from families where there was major dysfunction. It seemed to take the form of a lack of power-sharing within the family. There was often one dominant, abusive (sometimes alcoholic) adult, a weak spouse and bullied (occasionally spoiled, as well) children.
I think these women decided/discovered early on that fighting back against that bullying was a losing game. The ticket to survival was to ally themselves with the person with “the juice” — the power. It was the same defensive move that makes kids side with the schoolyard bully or the high school mean girl. Better to be predator than prey. At base, it ends up being a demonstration of craven cowardice.
So they align themselves as voters/cheerleaders with the herd that appears to be the alpha male chest-thumping group. (Pay no attention to those old white guys with someone else’s donated heart thumping away in their flabby chests.) They think that these guys will keep every bad, scary thing far away from them for all of their fearful lives. They never suspect that they’re being manipulated and exploited. To them, it just feels that — right or wrong– they’re with the winning army.
They do whatever they feel needs to be done to hang on to their sense of security: hand over children to the military, abdicate their own free will, allow others to control their sexuality, become “one of the boys” by shooting wolves from planes, have plastic surgery, and run as “token” candidates to advance a misogynist agenda.
In essence: they become what would have been called — in WWII — collaborators.
It’s depressing to hear Kes but that’s for your insight. I can’t get my head around why so many women vote for the GOP woman haters club. Their is only one group that should even consider giving the GOP their vote, rich white men because they are the only people all their policies are geared towards advancing.
Sadly, KQ, there are boatloads of (mostly) women who feel they only need to hitch their wagons to one of those rich, white men to make their own fortunes. And to hell with everybody else. Another ‘lesson’ learned in their abysmal childhoods.
Well said kes. Women who have been manipulated, controlled and often times battered by their “old fashioned,” husbands are almost always co-dependent. I used to wonder, what is the difference between co-dependency and simple devotion to the one you love. It didn’t take long to understand the difference though. Co-dependent women give away their entire notions of self. They replace their “selves,” with whatever their husbands want them to be. They lose their identity to some image or another that their husbands favor.
They have been so successfully manipulated and frightened by their husbands, that the thought of going against them or leaving them altogether, is just too scary. Even imagining such things scares them.
These victimized women raise girls that also become co-dependent. That’s the role model that their mothers set. So it continues from generation to generation. When these girls grow up, they look for the same type of men that their fathers were. I have known more than a few women who, though they often changed boy friends, they always end up with same “type,” of boy/man. They often times don’t recognize a pattern of seeking the same type in different faces. Usually girl’s like this are attracted to the “bad boy image.” When they find out how bad these boys can really be, they want out. And many times they do get out, only to fall back into the same type of relationship they escaped, because they remain attracted to the very same type, over and over again.
Excellent insight, Kes! It rings quite true to me.
There are those who see a corrupt and oppressive system and fight against it and there are those who accept it as the way things are and adopt it themselves. Even when it cements them into a subservient role.
Environment is a powerful thing, children who grow up in an environment where women are 2nd class citizens and men dictate to them, can accept this as the norm. And for some people, it is more important to them to keep the pillars of their belief system about the way things are intact than to have equality and freedom. They would be lost and fearful if everything they took for granted about the way things were taken from them, even if those things include being treated as a lesser person. So, they cling to the belief system they were indoctrinated into even at the expense of their own futures.
It’s a bit sad to see some women so vehement in their support of a party that declares them to be inferior but whether it comes from insecurity or ignorance, they are no less of an adversary to most American women than the chauvinists they stand behind.
Excellent post per usual. But the thing that still worries me is that this race is still close when women make up 53% of the electorate. Sure Obama has a slightly higher than 10% lead among women but it should be 15% or more. Most undecideds are women and if they don’t get it this time around I still think Romney and Ryan could steal this election.
First, I find many of these polls suspect. Second, there may be many more motivated Repub voters in red states who are reflected in these polls but make no difference in the election (more Repubs voting in TX or AL doesn’t give Romney any more electoral votes then he will already be getting from them). Third, the advantage Obama has with women and Latinos is insurmountable by Romney and in swing states, the only elections that matter, they will be a firewall against Romney winning.
I remain very confident, especially with Obama’s solid leads in OH and PA this close to the election, that Romney simply isn’t going to beat Obama.
Can’t believe women are constituents of the Republic Party!
I live in Missouri and can assure you that Akin has quite a following among women who are drawn almost entirely from the fundamentalist, evangelical churches. Met one today at a program. I was wearing my Obama cap and she decided to take me down. Fierce champion of Akin and of his views.
It’s like The Stockholm Syndrome, some women surrounded by these chauvinist types begin to sympathize with their “captors”. As Murph described below, some even become fierce soldiers for those who oppress them.
It’s bewildering and obscene but unfortunately it’s a psychological condition that many fall victim to.
You make a strong case for the GOP as the Iceberg Party. 10 percent is above the water and 90 percent below. Akin gave the masses a peek at what lies below and for that he is being excoriated by the GOP.
The game for the GOP has been to lead a double life. They are typically chauvinist, racist, plutocrat, elitist, anti-science, in general, their views are in sync with the hateful and ignorant minority in America and repugnant to the majority.
So, they serve the nutjobs but put on a mask for the rest of the country and pretend they’re reasonable and palatable.
The Todd Akin scandal tore off the mask on the GOP and revealed the reality that they are indeed a party of extremists, no matter how they try to hide it with propaganda.
We saw this trend begin in 2009 with the faux Tea Party takeover of the GOP by the Kochs and their like, this trend doesn’t seem to be one that the GOP can escape. With only extremists remaining in the GOP and the billions of dollars from the Kochs, it seems that the GOP can only veer farther and farther to the extreme right.
Could this be a key milestone on the path of the GOP to becoming a permanent minority party nationally? I think that may be the case so no wonder they have such a major focus on voter suppression.
They will only become a permanent minority if they can be kept from taking it all in November and if we can push back enough for a beachhead.
29 state governors and 31 state legislatures are now GOP…they control the House and have deadlock power in the Senate.
As you say, my living in Missouri and being so often in locked battles with troglodytes I may well have a pessimistic and jaundiced view but I find it realistic.
Everything you say about the GOP is true- and that is in light of my experience as a member of that party for many years. It actually hurts to see what the party has become.
I was at a meeting two days ago of a farmer’s association and the side discussion made me sick. It was a mixed crowd of men and women and the women’s perception of Akin as a man standing up against the godless was nearly universal.
Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) spiritual mentor Reverend D. James Kennedy harbored extreme and sometimes flatly misogynistic views about rape and abortion.
Kennedy, who the Anti-Defamation League has termed a “Christian supremacist,” repeatedly railed against legalized abortion, calling it the “American Holocaust” and suggesting that it would lead inevitably to genocide in the United States. But Kennedy’s discussions of rape and abortion in particular betray extraordinarily disturbing views about rape victims:
1. Kennedy believed that rape victims who chose abortion are “hysterical.”
2. Kennedy suggests rape victims can be responsible for being raped.
3. Kennedy held that the Bible should set our laws about rape and abortion.
4. Kennedy thought husbands should determine if their wives can have abortions.
Given that Akin’s rhetoric and policy views bear clear marks of Kennedy’s influence, it’s perhaps no surprise that Akin co-sponsored (with Paul Ryan) a bill that could, by limiting federal funding of abortion to cases of “forcible rape,” make rape survivors give birth to their rapist’s child.
Full text at: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/20/713571/akins-spiritual-mento
Bio of Rev. D. James Kennedy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._James_Kennedy
Very interesting and appreciated, Murph. Kennedy is a leader of the RW’s campaign to retreat back to a time when white men reigned in a social tyranny over those who were “inferior”, women, minorities and non-Christians.
It is kind of astounding that in the 21st century in America, the hatred and oppression of women can be so blatant and mainstream but it really underlines that a number of people in this country aren’t living in the same century as the rest of us.
Kennedy is dead, I think, but his ideas, his cancerous, festering, putrid ideas live on and on and on.
I just got an e-mail from Debbie Wasserman Schultz about the GOP’s desire to make a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, even in the cases of rape and/or incest.
While Romney calls for Rep. Akins to step down, his campaign is supporting the proposed amendment to outlaw abortion in all cases. Like the late, great George Carlin said about the GOP’s attitude toward women, “they want women to serve as brood mares for the state.”
The repubs believe they will need all the cannon fodder they can get for their dreams of world dominance.
I think the fundamentalist Christians view women the same as fundamentalist Islamics. They are afraid of women possibly making them fall from grace in the eyes of their strict and vengeful gods. That’s why the fundies refer to women as temptresses and whores. I think this also applies to male fundies who are so opposed to gay men. Homophobes that have bouts of secret self loathing because, the homophobes are very afraid that they themselves might be gay.
KT, very true, at the heart of bigotry is often insecurity and fear. Nothing seems to get Right Wingers more crazy than strong women or minorities (witness Hillary Clinton, Sandra Fluke and President Obama).
I wonder if the chauvinism and sexual repression evident in Evangelistic religions doesn’t instill this insecurity in some men by creating expectations that don’t match reality. That is, these men expect all women to be subservient and accepting of their superiority and when they are confronted by reality, outside the religious and cultural bubble they grew up in, they are intimidated and hostile.
When you see the acceptance of younger people towards women’s equality, gay rights and racial diversity, it does at least give hope that the haters’ days are numbered and they will shrink and shrink as a group, becoming archaic and powerless in the not too distant future.
Exactly so. It’s pretty bizarre stuff to attempt to understand the mindset. I think a number of the evangelical men are also afraid they are not doing their “duty” being head of the family and controlling the wife. This fits in nicely with a macho, redneck approach-you have to control your woman to be a real man. Used to be, you could control them with money but that’s tougher these days :), so of course the wealthier saw this fundamentalist religion stuff as a way to keep women well behaved. So you have those redneck men, wealthy men, evangelical men all joined on this.
Can’t you imagine them thinking “Are you telling me that this christian bible (old testament emphasis) tells women they are bad and they have to be subservient to men and stay in their place in order to make up for this woman/snake transgression, supposedly from thousands of years ago and they believe it? And all I have to do is go to church, have some prayer meetings AND we can work that into God wants us to be rich too?! Wow, I’m in…”
And if you can make those women feel guilty over a thousand years ago story about a snake and eating an apple-the rest has got to be a piece of cake!