Hating On Women

The republican leadership is never seen in mixed company when it comes to making decisions that impact the nation and yet, they have no qualms about intruding in personal and private matters that affect women. The attacks on Planned Parenthood across the nation are a perfect example of that.   They could care less if these women die of ovarian or breast cancer.  It must be a small price to pay if they can be denied low-cost birth control pills. (keep them pregnant and then eliminate funding to health care and nutrition for the infants they bring into the world)

The republican leadership has repeatedly insisted that government is bad for us because it intrudes into our lives with unwanted regulations, such as the EPA.

Photo by Marcus J. Ranum

When it comes to personal intrusion and regulations, all bets are off.  They want government to regulate women in every aspect of their lives.

No one does this better than republican leadership.  In fact, they get downright personal and make no mistake, it is a form of slavery and oppression that should not be tolerated in this day and age.

Women's uterus should only be discussed with a doctor by the women seeking health care.  But the leadership is establishing legislation around the country in which doctors are told what to do and say to women who want or need to terminate a pregnancy.  They also want to eliminate women's access to contraceptives.  Contraception is something only a woman and her mate should be discussing and the rest of us have no business intruding upon.  

The government has never intruded in a woman's decisions to health care and reproductive rights, except to make it available and affordable.  One would say this is not an intrusion but a matter that has achieved the kind of attention as requested and fought for women who came before us.  The republican leadership and religious extremist, expect women to be beautiful, subservient and malleable.  The picture above is a good example of a fantasy about women that "real women" have fought an uphill battle for decades to get rid of.

Enter Michelle Bachmann into the political arena and we have the perfect blend of what the religious right and the republican leadership consider "perfect women"  These women are more deserving of our pity than our dislike, and yet, we can't, as "normal" or "real" women help ourselves; We loathe them. (Palin is included in this category of unrealistic perfection)

Almost every woman can categorically state: "I am NOTHING like her." and yet, they want us to think, talk and be just like them because dealing with real women is too hard.  We should just know our place and shut up. (Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz knows all about this)

Michelle Bachmann has several things going against her:

1. She hears the voice of God in her head and acts upon it. (her career choices, whom to marry, how many children to have and foster, running for office... you name it, even when to stop eating and fasting is ordained by the God voice in her head)
2. She hates gays, but the "talk on the street" is that her husband is in the closet and she claims to be "very proud" of the clinic her husband runs to "cure the gay." through prayer and techniques that have been proven to be psychologically detrimental to conflicted individuals and young adults.  Her husband has called gays: "Barbarians"
3. She suffers from debilitating migraine headaches that force her to take several days a month off from work.

Enter Mr. Pawlenty who could not waste a second after hearing the news about Mrs. Bachman's headaches to trash her as incapable of holding high office because the job requires the president to not take a day off.  Really? she is that weak? These are the standards we now have for her?  In that case, since her headaches are so debilitating, she should be unfit for her current position as well.

President Bush took almost 1/3 of his presidency as vacation time and members of Congress only work six months a year thanks to House Speaker John Boehner who instituted one week of work with one week off.  What is their excuse for goofing off in these times of economic turmoil? When it comes to Michelle Bachman, she is not fit for leadership because she takes time off? 


UNFIT

Perhaps we can all agree she is not fit for a leadership position, but can we say that it has nothing to do with her headaches? But her delusions? Her dismal understanding of history? (Our Founding Fathers abolished slavery, for instance) and her persistence in putting her whacked religious mantra ahead of governance?  This is what should be the topic of conversation, not her headaches which may be very well triggered by stress and neurological conditions.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz is now insulted and degraded for being a strong representative for the people in her district and standing up to the GOP/Tea Party agenda to end Medicare and Social Security.

This is what a REAL woman in politics doing her job sounds like, and most of all, she is coherent, on point and factual.

For her courageous stand against killing Medicare and Social Security, Allen West made the following statements to her via e-mail:

"Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up."

 And: 

"that you are not a Lady" and "shall not be afforded due respect from me!" He said he was alerting House leaders to her "heinous characterless behavior."

While it falls to the pundits on the left to mock and point out how ridiculous Bachman and Palin are, it is appalling that the GOP will finance and promote the Michelle Bachmann's of this world as representatives of their ideals.  Women, to these folks are a mockery, and as a spokesperson for  Debbie Wasserman Schultz stated on the response to Allen West:

"... the truth hurts."and the GOP has been hurting women from day one.


Image: Marcus J. Ranum CC BY-SA 3.0