Republicans restart the 'War on Women'
- By Mitchell Blatt
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, February 13, 2015
The most important poll, however, is the one on Election Day. No matter what people say to pollsters, the way they vote is influenced by messaging and other factors that don't always line up with their responses to survey questions. To that end, the Democrats' campaign from 2010 onward has mostly been electorally successful. In 2014, Republican candidates finally changed course, stating that they supported allowing abortion in cases of rape, and they mostly disavowed support for "personhood" measures that would ban abortion. If Corey Gardner, the Colorado Senate candidate, hadn't done so, he probably would have lost.
Putting abortion on the front burner after getting elected might not be the best strategy for the party. Haven't they learned?
Maybe not. With the 2016 presidential election coming up, some of the major Republican candidates have supported abortion bans. Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz have all expressed their support for federal abortion bans, which would ban abortion from day one with no exceptions. Paul even sponsored a bill to do so. Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, has expressed support for a ban on the state level.
Mike Huckabee has also gone on a media tour making sexist comments. In his book released this year, "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy," Huckabee compared the singer Beyonce to a prostitute because of her dancing and lyrical content. However, sexually-related lyrical content has long been a staple of American popular music for male as well as female musicians. Even the lyrics of some of Huckabee's favorite musicians like Ted Nugent make reference to the female genitalia. So it is strange that he should make an attack on America's most popular R&B star, who is favored to win another Grammy for best album, a focus of his campaign. It is just an out-of-touch attack on female sexuality.
When questioned, Huckabee didn't back down from the content of his book. In fact, he went further. He also attacked women who curse and smoke. "For a woman to say that in a professional setting, we would only assume that this is a very - as we would say in the south, that's just trashy," he said.
As Megyn Kelly, a Fox News anchor, said to Huckabee, "We [women] are not only swearing, we're drinking, we're smoking, we're having pre-marital sex with birth control before we go to work, and sometimes boss around a bunch of men."
And sometimes women defeat men in arguments on cable news.
Last January Huckabee said, "I think it's time Republicans no longer accept listening to the Democrats talk about a 'war on women.'" Now he begins the new year by amping up the "war on women."
Of course there are a lot of other presidential candidates already running for the Republican nomination and more soon to be running, and many don't share Huckabee's obsession with irrelevant cultural issues. Even among Republican voters, Huckabee's positions are unpopular. Sixty-one percent of likely Republican caucus-goers in Iowa, the first state to hold caucuses and a conservative state at that, said Huckabee was wrong to criticize President Obama for letting his children listen to Beyonce.
Among conservative pundits, Noah Rothman of HotAir.com wrote, "These are serious times and they call for a serious president." (Not Huckabee.) Charles Cooke, for National Review, wrote, "Surely, it is possible for a southerner to run for high office without dressing up as Forrest Gump?"
Just as long as Huckabee keeps making these comments, however, they may provide fodder for Democrats attacking the Republican Party, as does abortion. For Republicans to win in 2016, they need to remember the lesson of 2014 - don't reengage in the "war on women."
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)