After the 2012 election, Republicans announced that they would be changing their ways. Call it outreach, sensitivity training, whatever, they knew they had female problems. They also have minority problems, immigration problems, LGBT problems, 47% problems, but I’m going to focus on their female problems for this post. Let’s start with their latest example. Mike Huckabee.
“If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government then so be it! Let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee argued that Democrats “think that women are nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have the government provide for them birth control medication.”
Huckabee also argued that his party is not waging a war on women.
“The fact is the Republicans don’t have a war on women, they have a war for women, to empower them to be something other than victims of their gender,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee’s comments would be shocking if he were an outlier in the Republican party, but he’s not, so they aren’t. These are the views of the base of the Republican party – you know, the group that will decide who will win GOP primaries.
Take a good look at what Huckabee is saying. Love the Uncle Sugar term. It seems he’s comparing purchasing birth control to scoring heroin. Uncle Sugar is the pusher, getting unsuspecting women hooked. And, in my opinion, Uncle Sugar was a carefully placed term, designed to call forth the stereotypical image of a Hollywood drug dealer. Just like the word “thug” is being used today.
The controlling their libido line is Republican gospel. Good girls control their libido by not having sex, bad girls don’t. What is it with Republicans and the Madonna/whore references? They love dividing women into two groups – those that have and enjoy sex and… those that don’t? Is this based on their own sexual experience? And I’m not even trying to be snarky with this question. I simply don’t understand how a person who has any interaction with women could express these views.
The controlling their libidos line is the equivalent of the “hold an aspirin between their knees” comment, and just as offensive. Why do Republicans always focus on women’s libidos when it comes to sex? It takes two, don’tchaknow. Most men have a vested interest in their partners’ birth control. But in GOP land sex and birth control discussions only seem to focus on those slutty women. And when you add Huckabee’s (and others) past comments about how wives should “graciously submit to their husband’s sacrificial leadership” it all makes sense. Men should have control over women’s sexuality. Men should decide when a woman has sex and when she becomes pregnant. Basically, men who support contraception aren’t really men – they are either using woman for sexy time or weak for allowing the women in their lives to call the shots. What’s always missing from Republican discussions on sex is a healthy, functioning relationship. It always seems to be boys will be boys, men only want women for sex and women are in charge of civilizing men… until they get that ring on their finger, then they must relinquish control and submit.
The reverse psychology bit at the end of Huckabee’s statement is priceless. Huckabee claims that Democrats are the ones who “think that women are nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have the government provide for them birth control medication.” Really? This coming from the party that supports waiting periods before an abortion because women have to be told to go home and think about their decision, because abortion is an… impulse buy? Like shoes? This is a party that supports invasive, and completely unnecessary, medical procedures before an abortion because women are… “helpless and hopeless creatures” who don’t understand what they’re doing? It boggles the mind.
He goes on to say, “The fact is the Republicans don’t have a war on women, they have a war for women, to empower them to be something other than victims of their gender.” Again, really? This from a party whose latest cry against the ACA is to not only stop contraceptive coverage, but to charge women more than men because women have babies. Another thing that takes two, and one (baby machine coverage) that you’d think “pro-lifers” would support.
Pay attention when Republicans talk about sex, birth control and pregnancy. Notice how men are always missing from the conversation? Me, too.
Keep in mind that Huckabee also supported Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments. Madonna/whore all over again. It’s what they really, really believe. They really believe there’s rape and legitimate rape. The GOP would just prefer their candidates kept that opinion to themselves, or if women would only take rape lemons and make lemonade.
And no matter how many sensitivity courses the GOP holds, this nonsense isn’t going away. I doubt they’ll even be able to tone it down. It’s who the GOP has become, and, truthfully, social issues are all they have left to run on. Lord knows, they have no interest in fixing the economy. Don’t believe me? Go check out the bills they spend their time on.
Rick Santorum ripped the lid off the Republican agenda in October 2011 (not 1911, 2011) when he said:
“One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.” And also, “Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
That was the opening shot toward a subject that wasn’t even controversial – contraception. I’ve included this because Republicans like to pretend the birth control wars were started by Democrats making it up. Not true. The GOP owns the War on Women. 100%.
Santorum, the one who uttered the word “Blah” not black, defended Huckabee.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) said Mike Huckabee would probably phrase his “libido” comment about birth control differently if he had a do-over.
How would one rephrase cannot control their libido? Slave to their sexy-time urges? Good girls just say No? Can someone help me out here?
Now, before reading Santorum’s next whopper, scroll up and reread his “sexual realm” comment. Okay… ready? Here’s Santorum today:
“That’s one of the things that’s most frustrating is there isn’t a lot of disagreement on access to contraception,” he said. “Whether the government should pay for it, there is a disagreement.”
That is what’s called lying. He, and many other Republicans, have a huge issue with access to contraception. They love lying about it.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Friday repeated the misguided conservative talking point that the birth control coverage rule included in Obamacare forces employers to cover abortion-inducing pills.
This, of course, is false.
Many conservatives, including former presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, have claimed that emergency contraception causes abortions by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting into the uterus. They argue that a fertilized egg is essentially a person, the same logic that is used to lobby for fetal personhood laws.
But scientists and medical experts have debunked the claim that the morning-after pill causes abortions. The New York Times wrote in June 2012 that “the politically charged debate over morning-after pills and abortion…is probably rooted in outdated or incorrect scientific guesses about how the pills work.”
The contraception fight is on the table. Republicans have put it there by allowing their true beliefs to take center stage – and they aren’t above lying about how birth control pills and Plan B works to “shut the whole thing down.” (That phrase never gets old. It also will never go away!)
So, my prediction is that Mike Huckabee won’t be the only Republican failing the GOP’s sensitivity training course – which only consists of one lesson: Stop saying what you really believe. Good luck with that.