The Republicans are losing the war on caterpillars women.
The chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) on Wednesday refused to “walk back” claims that the Republican “war on women” was as fictional as a “war on caterpillars.”
[…]
“I’m not going to walk back,” the RNC chairman insisted. “I’ll double down on it. This war on women is a fiction that the Democrats have created. And the real war on women is the war that this president has put forward on the American people by not following through on his promises, by having women disproportionately effected by the Obama economy.”
[…]
“You can’t discount the fact that we almost took the government to the brink of closing Planned Parenthood,” Thomas pressed.
“The world will continue,” the RNC chairman quipped. “I don’t buy your argument. I happen to believe that you can be pro-women and pro-life. You don’t. That’s the problem, Thomas.”
Seriously? ABL counts the ways the war has been waged.
And with that final statement, Priebus lays bare his and the GOP’s utter mendacity. Most assuredly, you can be pro-women and pro-life. You cannot, however, imprison women for decisions they make about their own bodies and call yourself pro-women. You cannot restrict access to life-saving healthcare for women and call yourself pro-women. You cannot repeal equal pay laws and call yourself pro-women. You cannot redefine rape and call yourself pro-women. You cannot call women sluts and prostitutes and call yourself pro-women. You cannot mandate that women undergo medically unnecessary vaginal probes and call yourself pro-women. You cannot strip women of the right to bodily autonomy by claiming that women consented “to be vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant” and call yourself pro-women. And you sure as hell cannot compare women to pigs and cows and call yourself pro-women.
No, Mr. Priebus. When you are the chair of the political party attempting to submit women, women’s health, and women’s bodies to tyrannical rule by the state (small government!), you’re not being pro-women—you’re waging a war on women. Period.
Here’s some advice for the Republicans, offered with the assurance of knowing they won’t take it. The way to overcome this problem, and maybe even pick up some yardage, is to do what every self-help program tells you is the first step: admit you have a problem. Then stop blaming the problem on someone else. Then try to fix it. Those would be the adult things to do. It would stanch the hemorrhaging of voters — men and women — who pay attention to how a political party treats women and don’t like what they see coming out of the mouths of the white privileged men that run the GOP. Using the infantile diversions of Neener Neener back talk that brings back harrowing memories of schoolyard spats not only does not further the discussion, it only infuriates the people who could do you the most good.
Yes, there are plenty of “pro-life” women. Yes, there are plenty of women who are happy to be the stay-at-home mom and raise the kids while dad goes off to work. And yes, there are plenty of women who view birth control and contraception as something they want no part of. But I’d be very surprised if any of them agreed with the patronizing and objectifying attitude put forth by Mr. Priebus. And calling the war they started a “fiction” only insults their intelligence.
War is Hell, and Hell hath no fury, indeed.
