Just as Mitt Romney was making the case to Newsmax, that paragon of journalistic integrity, that the so-called Republican war on women is entirely concocted by Democrats, Republican Scott Walker was quietly signing a law that repealed Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Enforcement law, which made it easier for women to seek damages in discrimination cases. Driven by state business lobbies, the repeal passed the GOP-dominated Legislature on a strict party line vote, and Walker signed it, with no comment, Thursday afternoon.
President Obama, meanwhile, was hosting a White House summit on women and the economy Thursday. Predictably, Republicans howled that the president is merely courting another “interest group†and playing politics. There was no doubt some politics at play during the summit; at one point participants chanted, “Four more years!â€
But really, when Republicans are repealing equal pay laws and proposing federal budgets that disproportionately hurt women, as well as restricting funding for contraception, who’s playing politics with women’s issues?
I read about what the leaders of Fitzwalkerstan did to Wisconsin’s women yesterday, and once again I was astonished at how tone deaf these jerks are. It isn’t just that they dissed women; it was that they couldn’t restrain themselves from dissing women at a time when the dissing of women by Republicans is headline news. They couldn’t even wait until all those caterpillars were distracted by something else.
And as for women being an “interest group” — yes, it’s the default norm syndrome. In their heads white maledome is the default norm, and any part of the population that deviates from the default norm exemplifies some kind of exceptional circumstance that doesn’t require serious consideration.
If you understand that’s how righties think, that they view the world through “default norm” syndrome, then you might see how they could see women as an interest group and the President’s recognition of women’s issues as nothing but “playing politics.” Walsh continues,
We know that most women who use the pill, for instance, use it for a health reason other than contraception only. Republicans are the ones fetishizing birth control and putting it outside the boundaries of women’s health care.
Mitt Romney and the GOP just don’t get it. Everything about the way they’re approaching these issues is backfiring.
Of the tone-deaf wonders who influence conservatives, possibly the most clueless of all is Rushbo himself. He honestly seems to have no idea why women would not want to vote for Republicans.
Women like being free, don’t they? Women love liberty. See, we’re being asked to accept the notion that women are monolithic. That all you have to do is approach every one of them with a lie that Republicans want to take away their birth control pills and just like the independents who don’t like confrontation, women, when they hear Republicans want to take away their birth control pills, make a mad dash to the Democrat Party and looky here, we got a poll to prove it.
Closing Planned Parenthood clinics really does amount to taking birth control away from a great many women. That’s not a scare story; it’s happening. The Blunt Amendment threatened to put contraception out of reach for many other women.
Yes, women do like being free. But for women, if we don’t have control over our own reproduction, none of the rest of the freedoms are going to do us much good. There’s a reason the phrase “barefoot and pregnant” stands for the subjugation of women. IMO it takes a particularly pernicious level of narcissism for a man not to be able to see this at all.
Polls show that most of the independent women who are running from Republicans and toward President Obama are college educated, says Steve Kornacki. These women are primarily concerned about reproduction rights. Might stunts like Walker’s raise the consciousness of blue collar women? If they hear about it, maybe.
See also Ed.
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Should help in the recall effort.
Yet another great post, Barbara. I hope many read it, going to share from FB.
Dear Republicans,
51% (50.8, to be exact) of the American population isn’t an “interest group” – it’s a majority.
An “interest group” might be something like – Mid-westerners of German descent, who are left-handed, avid knitters, and play the zither. But anything over 50% is clearly a majority of people.
Now, not all of the women will agree with Liberals and Democrats.
But then, neither do all 49.2% of the males agree with Republicans.
Women are also more likely to vote than men, putting you, potentially, even further behind the 8-ball.
And we’ll also see how many of the women these Conservatives are related to, or friends with, vote in November.
Sure, your wife, Mom, or sister, might agree with you clowns in public, or to keep the family peace, but maybe, just maybe, before you started down ‘Political Suicide Lane,” thinking they’re all in this with you, you should have figured out a way to stop women from voting, or, if not that, at least make it that their hubbies vote as their proxy.
You might be more than surprised at the results in November if you count on all of the Conservative women to vote with you assclowns.
‘How did we lose by THAT much if the polls showed Conservative/Republican women were WITH us?!?! How many of them turned on us?”
“Jeez, Honey, I don’t know. I’m (crossing fingers behind her back) sure there weren’t that many of us… er, them – THEM!”
But, it’s your funeral.
So, go ahead, and dig your own graves.
Hey! Here’s a new shovel – you missed a spot!
I don’t think they’re tone-deaf at all. First, they just don’t care what women think, because they consider women lower life forms. But more importantly, they’re passing laws making it harder for women to do things like be politically active, donate money to women’s rights organizations, and yes, even vote. Not much different than what they’re trying to do to any other “minority” group. The more a member of any historically repressed group has to struggle just to survive, the less money, time, and motivation they have to engage in public discourse and fight for their rights.
pattyp — so you don’t think comparing women to caterpillars wasn’t tone deaf? Of course they don’t care what we think, and of course they want to marginalize us as voters. It’s the clumsiness and bad timing that I find remarkable.
That comment from Rush made me start to worry what the backlash will be like against people who don’t fall into line and vote Republican. It’s beyond imagining that the GOP might take a hint and decide they lost because their message needs to change. No, I predict that it will be taken as a sign of the stupidity and unworthiness of the electorate, particularly those parts of it they already dismiss, like women. They will want revenge for their loss at the hands of these inferiors. How DARE they believe all those ‘liberal lies’ (that they saw with their own two eyes)? How DARE women reject the “freedom” offered them by the GOP and vote for that Kenyan?!
You thought Rush was a hateful, misogynistic SOB already? Watch out. He and his dittoheads have only begun.
That comment from Rush made me start to worry what the backlash will be like against people who don’t fall into line and vote Republican…
Bullies only stop when somebody effectively pushes back. In their self-absorbed stupor they literally do not know what they are doing, until they meet something that makes them scream “OWWW!”
Maha,
Keep it up. Keep pointing out how tone deaf they are. Next thing we’ll find out it they have created a chastity belt with a digital lock. That will lose them more votes.
But then we’ll be down to the “true believers” on their side.
Interesting time if you’re a Republican woman. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska): “It makes no sense to make this attack on women”
Does anybody see a similarity in spirit between Walker’s latest actions in Wisconsin and Saddam Hussein’s ordering the blowing up of oil wells when he was driven out of Kuwait during the Gulf War? Sorta like he knows he’s been defeated but is determined to cause as much damage as he can in the time he has left.
I am not sure if this will make it through the spam filter; but, I have a quote from a blog I like very much. It is called News for Real and the url is:
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
“The bottom line is that the War on Women is a war being fought largely by pricks…. a pun heartily intended.”
We need more women in Congress. My state already has two women senators. Working on my local Rep who is man right now; but, hope he will be voted out come November.
Bonnie ….Shouldn’t that be “real” women. The GOP has managed to enlist some pretty nasty specimens of the female form who have no affinity to their gender, or humanity for that matter. Like Mean Jean who packs heat, and who labels compassion and reason as cowardice toward any one who might think killing is wrong.
Even Murkowsky who voted for the Blunt Amendment, but miraculously got in touch with her feminine allegiances after the fact.
Swami, I was wondering the same thing. If it wasn’t the last minute, get it all in before the recalls. Maybe just in case. It will take years, maybe even decades, to undo all of the harm this man, and his complicit comrads have done to this state.
And like many things i say about the excesses of the Repugs; WHERE ARE THE MODERATE REPUBLICAN WOMEN? Why are they not standing up, even symbolically, like Murkowski (who I would not classify as a moderate, but maybe being a woman means being a moderate in repug circles these days), and say that enough is enough.
Good question – ‘Where are the moderate R women?’
The ones in politics may have been told to sit down and stfu, and let the men handle this, or else they’ll lose party funding. And some of them may actually agree, since it won’t affect them and theirs.
But where are the others?
Do they agree, or are they too intimidated to say something, and are holding back until Election Day, when the can cast ballots for D’s behind their husbands backs?
Where do you stand, R Women, and why won’t you say anything?
Say something, even if it’s to agree! At least then, we’ll know where you stand. Or does your present state of silence mean approval.
SAY SOMETHING, R WOMEN!!!