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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumMisogyny will cost the GOP
Loose talk on women's issues like abortion and birth control isn't helping Republicans -- especially in the Senate
BY IRIN CARMON
What if misogyny ends up costing Republicans the Senate? Judging by the polls in the final days before the election, this is not a crazy proposition especially if gaffes on abortion, rape and contraception are equated by the electorate with extremism, repelling even ideologically sympathetic voters.
Just look at Indiana, a state that is choosing between two pro-life candidates, one of whom is a Democrat who has voted for House Republicans most restrictive legislation on reproductive rights. Still, Joe Donnelly managed to avoid doing what Richard Mourdock did getting famous for talking insensitively about rape. Theyve been tied or within inches of each other for weeks, but as of today, the first post-rape-comment poll, Mourdock is down 11 points. Meanwhile, Mourdocks rape-talking fellow traveler in Missouri, Senate candidate Todd Akin, is locked in a race that was never supposed to be competitive, and a cash infusion may come too late to save him. And in Connecticut and Massachusetts, both abortion and contraception have been used to pummel relatively moderate Republicans with the ever-rightward agenda of the national party, and for that reason and more, its looking like Democrats will prevail.
This is about more than the so-called gender gap, though women do tend to vote disproportionately to our share in the population and historically favor Democrats. And its about more than pro-life and pro-choice, where, at least as far as those fuzzy words go, the former has a slight edge in polling. When abortion conversations turn to rape, exceptions for which are broadly, if inconsistently, supported by voters, they also suddenly become about a broader callousness and indifference to suffering, one that jibes with messaging about slashing Medicare and Medicaid. Voters drifting away from Mourdock would probably never use the word misogyny, but as Ive said, as the Republican agenda on sex and reproduction gets explained in full, were hearing very little about compassion for fetal life and a lot about women having sex.
Pro-choice activists have been saying this for years, but didnt get much credence until elected Republicans gave a larger platform for marginal and largely discredited views rape victims cant get pregnant (Akin); exceptions to save a womans life are never needed (Rep. Joe Walsh); consensual sex, and getting pregnant from it, is as shameful as rape (GOP Senate candidate Tom Smith, who hasnt been able to close the deal in Pennsylvania). The same goes for defunding Planned Parenthood and repealing Obamacare, or at the very least getting rid of the birth control coverage in it these days, virtually uncontested across Republicans in office or running for it. That may work well in a House race, but its proving a tougher sell statewide and, judging by Romneys ads soft-pedaling his stances on abortion and contraception, nationally as well.
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http://www.salon.com/2012/11/03/will_stances_on_women_cost_gop_the_senate/
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Misogyny will cost the GOP (Original Post)
DonViejo
Nov 2012
OP
fugop
(1,828 posts)1. It should!
I do get a little bummed at some natl polls that show a tighter margin between Obama and Romney with women. It just floors me that any women could vote the R ticket.