Last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett offered a solution for women who were going to be forced by the government to undergo a completely unnecessary ultrasound against their wills: "You can't make anybody watch, okay? Because you just have to close your eyes." The governor's suggestion would be almost comical, if it weren't for the tragic fact that forcing women to watch was the whole point of the legislation Corbett supported.
But it seems that Corbett's suggestion doesn't just apply to women seeking abortions in the Keystone state. It is, in essence, what the GOP is telling to every woman turned off by the party's attacks on reproductive rights, equal pay and domestic violence protections: "You just have to close your eyes."
Mitt Romney's campaign is banking on the fact that voters of both genders are concerned about the economy in these uncertain times. Polls show that they're right. But just because you're concerned with the economy doesn't mean you ignore it when a group of people are systematically taking away your rights for their own short-term political gain.
Sadly, this is the new normal. The Tea Party's success has been based on this "just close your eyes" formula. Swept into power on a wave of economic dissatisfaction, Tea Party legislators in Washington and the states asked the country to "close its eyes" as it did everything but fix the economy. "Pay no attention while we roll back decades of progress everything else you care about. Just close your eyes while we bash immigrants, cut essential services, make it very hard to vote, and take away collective bargaining rights". Many minorities have been affected, particularly in the last two years, but arguably and amazingly, no group has been under attack more than the American majority -- women.
A new report from People For the American Way investigates the new landscape that the Tea Party is creating for American women. Mississippi is set to become the only state in the country without a legal abortion clinic. Texas is on the path to denying reproductive health care to 130,000 low-income women. Wisconsin repealed its enforcement mechanism for equal pay lawsuits. Senate Republicans are fighting to stop the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Following an all-male panel speaking on women's health, a woman who dares speak in front of Congress about the importance of affordable contraception is called a "slut."
Even with closed eyes, these things are very hard to miss.
The Romney campaign has attempted to distract voters from this train wreck of anti-woman policies by claiming that a second Obama administration will hurt women economically. Last week, they hammered hard on the claim that women have accounted for 92 percent of job losses under President Obama -- a mangled statistic that ignores, among other factors, that many of those losses were the result of Republican-led layoffs of teachers and other government employees. Then they decided to accuse Democrats of waging a "War on Moms" -- forgetting, perhaps, the candidate's history of aggressively pushing low-income women to work outside of the home when their children are very young.
Women haven't bought it. In polls, Romney still trails Obama among women voters by double digits. And in an under-reported fact, among women ages 18 to 29, he's losing by an astounding 45 points. You don't need a political science degree that know that that spells disaster.
Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans seem to think they can get away with almost anything because, in the end, their Election Day hopes will be saved by a bad economy. The problem is, the people they attack on a regular basis -- women, gays, Latinos, Muslims, you name it -- know the Tea Party's record on the economy and its history of cynical, culture-war attacks that deeply affect the lives of real people. We have our eyes wide open.
Follow Michael B. Keegan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peoplefor
Sen. Amy Klobuchar: Why We Must Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act Now
Sally Steenland: Faith Leaders Support Reproductive Justice
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
now the GOP has brought in a headhunter.. A PROFESSIONAL WHO MADE HIS MILLIONS FIRING HARD WORKING PEOPLE. What do you think they have in mind for the MIDDLE CLASS after November? Time and again they say we have to give more relief to the rich.. while they prepare their assault on those that are not rich.
BEAT THE GOP AT THEIR OWN GAME... FIRE THEM.. VOTE THEM OUT LOCALLY AND FEDERALLY IN NOVEMBER. SEND THEM HOME AND GIVE THEM THEIR PINK SLIPS.. JOIN THE PINK SLIP MOVEMENT... your rights and lively hood depend on it.
It is a simple matter.
If women and Hispanics have been maligned by the GOP, vote against them this November.
Come November, will women forget the state GOP jihads against their ability to make their own decisions on their health care and reproductive rights?
Will forced vaginal probes, compelled by some GOP legislatures, matter this November?
Come November, will women forget the House GOP assault on Planned Parenthood, or the GOP House and Senate GOP embrace of the Blunt Amendment(allowing employers of women to interject their personal notions of morality on what medical coverages are available to women)?
Come November, will women and Hispanics remember the GOP embrace of the Ryan Plan, which guts Medicaid, foodstamps, Pell grants(which women, Hispanics, and blacks access at even greater rates than other demographic groups)....money taken from these programs by Ryan and given in the form of tax breaks to the uber-rich?
Or the GOP endorsement of the Personhood Amendment, which makes a zygote a human...which could outlaw many types of birth control, including the pill?
Basically, will women, Hispanics, blacks, and all Americans of modest means, allow the GOP to paint over all these radical and nutty ideas, as if they never existed?
Will they forget by Nov.?
If so, they deserve their fate.
The Republicans stink.
The definition of our Republic is its Constitution; all other definitions are wrong or incomplete. Defining our Republic as "our democracy" is wrong.
Good luck and God Bless every one of you.
Marvin E. Fox
Replacing amendments with Bible verses is apparently a fear of yours, not a hope of mine.
Respectfully, Marvin E. Fox
Hey Michael -- the policies you support have led to the deaths of over 160 million women worldwide. That's right... 160 million. We know where the real war on women is happening. You have completely missed it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576361691165631366.html
You can't escape reality. Just close your eyes...
And yes, parents do select for sex, and have done so for millenia (e.g. by killing unwanted daughters). I'm not defending the practice, just agreeing that it exists and has existed since the start of recorded history. And yes, that causes imbalances in sexual demographics, and yes, in some places those imbalances are growing, and yes, there are a lot of problems with this whole practice.
But look a little deeper, and think it through a bit more. What's the world's population now? Is the world population stable, or is it still growing? OK, how about just in America - is the population stable, or is it growing?
Now imagine that you people succeed in stripping women's rights to birth control and abortions from them. What will happen to the population then? What resources will be needed, to provide food and clothing and shelter to all these new people?
I'll give you a hint, since this all seems new to you: a lot of problems will arise as population keeps growing.
Your idealism is blinding you to basic principles.
BTW those things mentioned have happened long before abortion was legal in the USA even before the USA existed. China specifically has always had that issue even prior to abortion being practiced medically. Their solution was infanticide.
Abortion is not the problem, its their solution (albeit a bad one) to what is a cultural problem in the mid east and far east of their preference for male offspring
Marvin E. Fox
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress
So when someone tries to blame Bush...
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007.... THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"
Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 &2011.
In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.
For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budgets.
Right?
Thats like saying he somewhat belated got tough on terr orism