Perhaps the republicans don’t think any Log Cabin Republicans would ever beat their spouses up on occasion.

Some say that women shouldn’t be voting anyway. Who? Well, Ann Coulter, for one. Since they are too dim, or something.

Here’s what a REAL advantage would consist of: arguing persuasively and eloquently for what’s right on ALL the issues–starting with repping poor and middle class people–rather than poll-testing and triangulating as the gifted but venal Clinton and Obama have done, selling out the party and emptying liberalism of what little content remained to it in the process.

With 80% of liberals supporting Obama’s dronebomb-brown-people policy, I think we can conclude that liberalism breathed its last gasp, declaring complete moral vacancy, in the first months of 2012 under his administration.

Did you even read the post? Because it sure seems like you’re commenting about something else.

They just can’t help themselves. It’s like the scorpion and the wolf parable. There was a scorpion standing at a river bank wondering how he was going to get across when along came a wolf. The scorpion asked the wolf if he could ride on his back as the wolf swam across. The wolf said, “If I do that, what’s to prevent you from stinging me?” The scorpion answered, “If I sting you, we’ll both drown so why would I sting you?” That sounded reasonable to the wolf so he agreed to carry the scorpion across. But halfway across, the scorpion stung the wolf right in the neck. As they went under the water, the wolf asked, “Why did you sting me? Now we’ll both drown.”. The scorpion said, “Because it’s in my nature”. Similarly, the Republicans are capable of reading polling, (Matthew Detroit’s scorn for it aside), and they can wrap their heads around the fact that this crusade against women isn’t helping their chances in 2012. They just can’t stop themselves because it’s in their nature to hate and fear who/what they are not and who/what they cannot control.

How can we best press this advantage and focus on information? I guess this started with the wand-examination and got going with the Rush outrage. Though those things are so far out it’s hard to even think they should be part of the arguement (Just goes to show you). But how to keep the information flowing & maintain the high ground in the debate….Let’s watch the Rs (Yes, Coulter) self-destruct.

I think the first issue should be raising people’s awareness of WHAT the Violence Against Women Act is. Break it down for people and make the information available to people in a variety f media (include short youtube clips with reasonable production quality). The GOP keeps pumping misinformation, and voters in general are under-educated about the details of government.

Glad,I’m not a woman in 2012..

It wasn’t easy back in the 40s and 50s but never have I seen the sort of disrespect that I have seen hurled at women today. It’s shocking and somewhat scary.

Yeah, they are so far off the rails it’s getting really scary.

Two evils make patty cake?

Does anyone have a broad grasp of just where these vicious attacks on the rights of women are coming from. I think we all have recognized the pervasive misogyny in the GOP but this is really a coordinated attack. As one who tends to watch these trends fairly closely, I am mystified by this one.

I can’t grasp this either. I went all the way through college and working years and never heard a word of disrespect. I don’t think I ever heard a man tell an off-color joke until I was in my 30s. I can’t fathom what’s going on at all and it gets more shrill every day. But I think they’ve gone too far now and women aren’t going to sit quietly by and take it.

Ain’t Karma a B*tch…? The ‘scorched earth’ tactics of the Goopers bring about their own demise…! Their sheer hatred truly knows no bounds…! 8-(

It really bothers me that somebody would use these attacks on women to climb up on his soapbox to give us all a speech about how badly Democrats suck. In fact, the more I think about it, the more wrong it seems to me.

Ask the Catholics. It seems like their hand is in everything these days and Catholics have long deplored women as anything but breeding machines and chattel property.

Why do you think so much women focus? Finally the reality of women as agents, power, accomplished, a force? Some of the vehemence seems to have sprung full blown from no where…after years of “you’ve come a long way, baby.” Like a switch was flipped.

Maybe that is part of the answer to my #17 question…Certainly a context.

This should not be surprising. Most conservatives think the women who are abused get beaten because they don’t know how to keep their mouths shut.

…Like a switch was flipped…

I agree, it really is insane how fast(and ferocious)the onslaught occurred, but, it was also a full frontal assault on all our Constitutional ‘rights’ too, serious over-reach by both sides of the ‘Aisle’…! 8-(

Yep, Rev, spot on. I think this is part and parcel of an unholy, (literally), alliance between the Catholic church and the right wingnuts. Like I said, they seem to be a driving force behind everything these days, including Komen’s recent jumping of the shark. This is, I think, a concerted, last ditch, all in effort coordinated by the right wing and the Catholic church who both recognize that they are obsolete and doomed. Rather than changing to suit the new paradigm, they choose instead to re-establish control of “lesser” people.

And we saw how Komen worked out….Where is Betty Friedan? What’s interesting is that today’s women, either the young or the middle age, are not the women of the 40s, 50s, and early 60s….Bring it on, as they say.

I was biting my fingers in disgust with his comment also. I could only come up with something inane. :-)

Betty Friedan is/was my hero. Her book should be required reading for every female over the age of 15. Could make a lot of difference in their lives.

Bring it on, as they say.

They’ve brought it….Now they are going to learn to regret that.

That’s exactly my feeling. I find myself frightened with the viciousness of it also. I hope somebody with the knowledge will come up with a good diary on it.

Now they are going to learn to regret that.

*heh* Let me reiterate… “Ain’t Karma…” ;-)

I think what is rather amazingly naive is that Rush picked a very bright Law Student….She was just trying to be a good citizen….Warms my heart…

Yep, and the story of so many women who have been influenced: Start with Hillary or Ann Richards and the list goes on….

Yes, I did. I’m commenting on the fact that the author is considering the issue from the standpoint of electoral strategy–”pressing an advantage”–rather than of doing what’s right, forcefully. That’s playing the narrow game of American politics, as defined for us by ruling class elites and the MSM, rather than the precious and even desperate business of fighting for our lives, what we needed to start doing long ago.

A record number of Women are pulling papers to run for the US House seats…! ;-)

I had not heard that…should be a pretty good year, doncha think?

If you haven’t read The Second Sex, it’s still eye-opening many decades after it was written. For Beauvoir it’s all about controlling production–forcing the dispossessed propertyless masses to use the one thing they do have, their productive and (in women’s case, even more important) reproductive capacity, in the service of capital. Long story short: controlling and disciplining labor.

At the risk of sounding stuck, I believe it must have something to do with this all out effort on a broad front of women’s issues. As pointed out by hpschd above, the subject of denying women the vote has been seriously broached. I just don’t see how they believe that right wing women will side with them on this? I mean yeah, there are always some people who will support their own enslavement but not half of a population, who have been taught for at least three generations that women can strive for and achieve whatever they want. And women have been receiving comparable education with males for much longer. There are very few women alive today who remember the suffrage struggle so almost all of the American females alive today have always known that we have a right to vote and will never tolerate being stripped of that. Even the vast majority of the most conservative women in our society would rise up.

And if you’ll read down further, you’ll see that I find your hijacking of this particular thread to climb up on your soapbox and speechify about your pet peeve offensive.

We are seeing what we predicted in 2008. The Thug Party is contracting to its Southern and High Plains + Utah base. That’s why the Big Money are giving to Obama. They used the Biblical Belters and are throwing them out like a used tampax. They bought the Democratic Party, and don’t need the Thugs any more. Poor bastards don’t know it yet, but they will find out in November.

What I like about this discussion is the hope and energy for something to counter what we have been seeing for years; this may be the real push back we’ve been looking for during this trying time…..Women are so undaunted. Thanks for a great thread….

I think it is just totally fucked up. To suppose it was a conspiracy is to suppose that the people involved really want to commit suicide (other than the End Days). The Thugs are going off the rails because they self-selected certifiable idiots over 30 years to grab the idiot vote. They never understood that over that period of time the idiots would take over the party. Why do you think Obama is running as a Democrat?

Well said Margaret. They have I think finally come to Waterloo. Lord I hope they have. I did live and try to get educated before discrimination became illegal. Not so much fun. It was fun to see the women stand up and all the evolution of the 50′s and 60′s. I was too busy trying to learn a trade at the time and couldn’t be too activist. It has alarmed me to see what has appeared to be a lot of apathy in the younger generations of women but now I think you are right. A line has been crossed.

And,Margaret, the TX Demo Party is using this same theme, particularly over the Planned Parenthood cuts. Can there be hope for the TX Dems? O My.

I do value Simone de Beauvoir and her work. And I see where you are coming from. I might frame it as the church being willing enablers of the elite moneyed classes but my question is why now.

As you can see, this assault has many fronts. In an effort to block funding for Planned Parenthood, Texas was today officially informed that it couldn’t restrict women from choosing any qualified provider. What was that we heard ad nauseum in the great health care cave from these same people? Something about the government choosing which doctor they could go to? Apparently that doesn’t apply to women’s choices, as we are after all, incapable of making up our female minds. The letter from CMS follows:

Texas has elected to move forward with a State rule that restricts freedom of choice of health care providers for women enrolled in WHP effective March 14, 2012 Consistent with longstanding statutory provisions that assure free choice of family planning providers, the Demonstration does not provide the State the authority to impose such a limitation, and we advised the State in our December 12, 2011 letter that we had concluded that such authority would not be granted. We very much regret the State’s decision to implement this rule, which will prevent women enrolled in the program from receiving services from the trusted health care providers they have chosen and relied upon for their care. Last year, nearly half of all the services under WHP were provided by clinics that are likely to be excluded from the program under the new rule.

In light of Texas’ actions, CMS is not in a position to extend or renew the current Demonstration, except for purpose of phasing out this Demonstration.

Say what you mean Knut :-) My favorite term, stolen from someone on FDL, is a batshit crazy temper tantrum..

When all else fails blame Mom.

It really is all Eve’s fault…We should have known;)

They are still following the old CW: Rahm Emanuel’s theory that if one behaves more like a Republican, one will get crossover votes. This in spite of the fact that the theory has been as thoroughly debunked as a flat Earth. That reason alone means they are unqualified to lead. I’m sure as hell not going to vote for anybody who spouts that kind of ideology, “lesser of two evils” or not.

I blame the snake….

LOL

That’s a whole other diary. Yes. Yes. I was going to say but held my tongue that if we had any decent traditional Democrats to vote for the time is over-ripe for a whole turnover to reasonable liberalism. Of course this is the why of my angst over the betrayal by Obama. Somewhat tangentially, this is also bringing up the profound flaws that we saw in the ACA based on employer provided insurance.

You know, ever since 9/11 changed everything here in the United States of Dumbfuckistan, I started to suspect that Republicans (and their enabling DLC/Third Way Hockacrats) have graduated to waterboarding their wives, children, and wage-slaves into submission instead of merely embracing their inner Jack Torrance and bashing their brains in.

Within this last year, they’ve removed all doubt …

I mentioned at the Diner that the bill with this name almost pushed Laura Ingraham into the land of the obsessed…she went nuts on her program this am….

Apparently Peter Thiel, Ron Paul’s biggest supporter, hates the idea of voting women as well. We destroyed the country, dontcha know?

In a recent article published in the libertarian Cato Unbound, Thiel came out against democracy and majority rule, and blamed women’s suffrage for ending “freedom”:

The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.

He is also against democracy. Check it out.

Um, also, the whole thing seems like “A Handmaid’s Tale” to me. It *is* frightening.