It’s a Pattern: the GOP’s rape comments represent all of their candidates
Posted: October 26, 2012 Filed under: abortion rights, Voter Ignorance, War on Women, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: Women enabling slavery of women 75 Comments
The one thing that is really making me mad about all the media and GOP establishment pearl-clutching about the comments about rape and abortion from GOP candidates is that they act like these comments are weirdish outliers. Nothing is farther from the truth. Haven’t they been paying attention to the last two years?
The Republican party’s platform, its actions in state legislatures and in the US House of representatives, and the selection of right wing extremist Paul Ryan for its top ticket show that the party is lock, stock and barrel in the hands of radical right religious extremists as bad as the Taliban. No self respecting woman could possibly justify in any intellectual way voting for candidates that believe in sending all US women in to a state of involuntary servitude and property-of-the state status. The GOP’s ongoing comments on rape clearly show their support for enslaving women and their view that women are basically property and vessels.
Here’s a Brit journalist Jill Filipovic—writing for The Guardian–who is upfront about how forcing women back into state property status is the party’s REAL agenda. She is right and we should be reading articles like this the US press.
What this umpteenth rape comment tells us isn’t that the Republican party has a handful of unhinged members who sometimes flub their talking points. It reveals the real agendas and beliefs of the GOP as a whole.
These incidents aren’t isolated , and they aren’t rare. Sharron Angle, who ran for a US Senate seat out of Nevada, said she would tell a young girl wanting an abortion after being raped and impregnated by her father that “two wrongs don’t make a right” and that she should make a ” lemon situation into lemonade“. Todd Akin said victims of ” legitimate rape ” don’t get pregnant – an especially confusing talking point, if God is giving rape victims the gift of pregnancy. Maybe God only gives that gift to victims of illegitimate rape?
Wisconsin state representative Roger Rivard asserted:
Douglas Henry, a Tennessee state senator, told his colleagues:
“Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what rape was. Rape, when I was learning these things, was the violation of a chaste woman, against her will, by some party not her spouse.”
Republican activist Phyllis Schlafly declared that marital rape doesn’t exist, because when you get married you sign up to be sexually available to your husband at all times. And when asked a few years back about what kind of rape victim should be allowed to have an abortion, South Dakota Republican Bill Napoli answered:
“A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.”
Rape lemonade. Legitimate rape. The sodomized virgin exception . A rape gift from God.
Mitt Romney cannot walk away from these folks–no matter how much he is trying–because he is on record supporting extreme legislation, he has told a woman whose life was threatened by a pregnancy that she should not ‘get off that easy’ and told her to not terminate the life-threatening pregnancy, and he’s embraced Paul Ryan as a Vice President. Paul Ryan has been hand-in-hand with Akin and others in passing the most extreme anti-woman bills ever to hit the congressional floor.
1) Romney supported the Blunt amendment. The Blunt Amendment would allow employers to deny contraception to their female employees because of religious objections. That means any woman working for an employer who didn’t support contraception would be denied the right to have her birth control costs covered. When asked if he supported the amendment, Romney said, “Of course.”
2) Romney wants to defund Planned Parenthood.Seventy six percent of the patients who go to Planned Parenthood are seeking affordable contraception options. Low-income women, particularly, rely on the organization to get family planning options that might otherwise be out of their price range. Because the organization uses a sliding scale pay system (PDF), it allows the poorest women to get the most affordable care.
3) Romney would restore co-pays for birth control. By repealing the Affordable Care Act, Romney would get rid of the requirement that insurance companies offer women a variety of birth control options without a co-pay attached. That makes it harder for women to get contraception, especially the most effective kinds, which tend to have the highest up-front costs.
4) Romney supports a ‘personhood amendment.’ Romney once told reporters that be would “absolutely” support a state constitutional amendment defining a fertilized egg as a person. Had it passed, that law would have outlawed some forms of contraception — as well as all abortions and in vitro fertilization.
5) Romney promised to reinstate the “global gag rule.” Romney could cut off family planning services that the United States currently offers to women abroad by using an executive order to reinstate the “global gag rule,” denying funding for any international organization that discusses abortion or provides abortion referrals for their clients. In an op-ed, he promised to do just that.
Paul Ryan doesn’t think the “method of conception” makes any difference. He would support any legislation that would basically force innocent women and girls into state-forced servitude as an incubator to rape and incest pregnancies. How any woman can look in the eyes of her daughters, her mother, her sisters, and her friends and vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket is behind my comprehension. You’re voting for your own enslavement.
In fact, while some Republican candidates, including Mitt Romney, have beat a hasty and expedient retreat from Mourdock’s statement, though not from Mourdock himself, many Republicans are in complete agreement with him on the issue. Most notably, Amy points out, Paul Ryan is opposed to abortion in cases of rape. “Rarely does anyone bother to offer an explanation for why he holds that position,” she adds, but “I’m not sure what justifications people had imagined for opposing a rape exception that would be more acceptable than Mourdock’s.”
So how are Mourdock and Ryan different on the issue of abortion? One possibility is that, unlike Mourdock, Ryan believes elected officials should not impose their religious convictions on those who don’t share them. That was Joe Biden’s response in the final moments of the vice presidential debate, when asked if his Catholicism conflicted with his pro-choice views on abortion. And Ryan, after all, has already subordinated his views to Romney’s. (Romney says he opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest or dire threat to the mother. This is consistent with the preaching of the Mormon faith – though not consistent with Romney’s previous pro-choice views. Rigorous consistency is not among Romney’s flaws.)
When Ryan was asked the Catholic/abortion question in that debate, he answered that “people through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination.” That sounded vaguely Biden-like, suggesting Ryan feels no imperative to impose his moral convictions on those who disagree. Don’t be fooled. Since Ryan has consistently voted for rolling back abortion rights, I read his answer as an artful sidestep. An honest answer would have been, “I will do everything in my power to end abortion, but first I have to get elected, and to get elected I have to be careful what I say.” In other words, the only difference between Mourdock and Ryan is that Ryan knows how to keep his opinions to himself when they could cause him political grief.
We’ve spent two years watching the Republicans do absolutely nothing about the economy and absolutely everything to take down women’s constitutional rights to abortion, birth control, and personal religious freedom. Again, I return to the analysis by Filipovic.
Some Republicans, like Mitt Romney , have tried to distance themselves from their party’s rhetorical obsession with sexual violation. What they’re hoping we won’t notice is the fact that their party is politically committed to sexual violation.
Opposition to abortion in all cases – rape, incest, even to save the pregnant woman’s life or health – is written into the Republican party platform. Realizing they can’t make abortion illegal overnight, conservatives instead rally around smaller initiatives like mandatory waiting periods, transvaginal ultrasounds and mandated lectures about “life” to make abortion as expensive, difficult and humiliating as possible.
Republicans bow to the demands of “pro-life” organizations, not a single one of which supports even birth control, and the GOP now routinely opposes any effort to make birth control or sexual education available and accessible. They propose laws that would require women to tell their employers what they’re using birth control for, so that employers could determine which women don’t deserve coverage (the slutty ones who use birth control to avoid unwanted pregnancy) and which women do (the OK ones who use it for other medical reasons).
Mainstream GOP leaders, including Mitt Romney, campaign with conservative activists who lament the fact that women today no longer fully submit to the authority of their husbands and fathers, mourn a better time when you could legally beat your wife, and celebrate the laws of places like Saudi Arabia where men are properly in charge. Senate Republicans, including Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan and “legitimate rape” Todd Akin, blocked the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. And Ryan and Akin joined forces again to propose ” personhood” legislation in Washington, DC that would define a fertilized egg as a person from the moment sperm meets egg, outlawing abortion in all cases and many forms of contraception, and raising some serious questions about how, exactly, such a law would be enforced.
Underlying the Republican rape comments and actual Republican political goals are a few fundamental convictions: first, women are vessels for childbearing and care-taking; second, women cannot be trusted; and third, women are the property of men.
Over and over we hear Republicans say things that prove not one of them thinks that women are autonomous beings. They believe women are not autonomous human beings. This is the attitude that should be absolutely clear to any one following Republicans the last two years. It’s also why I positively absolutely refuse to deal with any woman EVER again–no matter what her relationship to me in the past–who would vote for Mitt Romney.
I do not consider a woman that would vote for slavery for me, my daughters, and for herself and her daughters to be anything but a tool for the oppressor. You and your like are slave trappers and slave merchants. No, ifs, ands or buts! Believe me, if they start getting these horrendous rape bills and reproductive oppression bills through, you might as well pick your ass up, put on head-to-toe Burkha and move in with the Taliban in Afghanistan because that is exactly what you’re bringing to the women in this country. You are the enemy and you are a sex slave trafficker. You represent everything Hillary Clinton has ever stood against.
You don’t own us Republicans!!
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Brava!
Hell, yeah!
I try to stay out of your elections, but I think You have it nailed. Who was it who said that a mind was a terrible thing to waste? (I’m paraphrasing, but I’m too lazy to google today). Groupmind is a terrible thing to develop, and that is what you are seeing – groupmind. Kind of like what Gene Roddenberry was warning about when he imagined the Borg. What you are seeing is the naiscence of the Borg. Brava.
HT,
Personally, I don’t want you to say out of our elections! And that was Dan Quayle who said a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Who was it who said that a mind was a terrible thing to waste?
That has been the slogan of the United Negro College fund since 1972. Dan Quayle famously butchered it in a speech to some of their members. This incident was largely responsible for his reputation as one of our stupidest high office holders ever.
Amazing, wonderful, incredible post. Count me in on everything you said, kat. I’m thinking we should all get our burkas now as a sign of protest against the Xtian Taliban. We can tell people, when they ask us why we’re wearing a burka, that this is what every woman will be wearing when they vote Republican.
Me too. Anyone, man or woman who supports Mitt Romney and/or votes for him is dead to me. I love this post!
“…he’s embraced Paul Ryan as a Vice President. ”
Really, what else is there to say? We have no idea where Mitt stands from his words, which change every five minutes. It is his actions which tell the tale. When throwing in his lot with Ryan, Romney lost all independent/moderate cred he could have claimed.
He has basically said, “I’m one of you woman-hating Neanderthals now. Vote for me! And hey ladies, go ahead and ‘work,’ but make sure to get home in time to prepare dinner for your husband and your 18 children.”
Great piece, dak. Our media is such a travesty for not reporting the true agenda of the Republican Party.
Hi! Good to see you! You write so rarely any more!
I know, I barely visit my own blog. I’m still loving all you Sky Dancing ladies, though, and hope that with the final closing of this project, I’ll have more time to stop by.
I will put this link here since it deals with a girl, who only wanted to go to school…Malala Yousafzai ‘is everybody’s daughter’, says father | World news | The Guardian
h/t to janicen, who posted the link in this morning’s thread.
What is it with men and size?
Sarah Reese Jones @srjones66
Romney Campaign Exaggerates Size Of Nevada Event With Altered Image http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-campaign-appears-to-exaggerate-size-of-neva … via @buzzfeedpol /FAIL more fake Romentum
Must be compensating for something which is small.
Evidently they photoshopped more people showing up to that nonevent.
everything now must be about Ro-mentum 🙂
His pea-brain? I doubt if he even uses the other thing. Mormons have to do it with their magic underwear on, you know.
Dunham’s ad for Obama has conservative men pearl clutching about virgins!!!
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/lena-dunham-first-time-ronald-reagan.php
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/41098_New_Obama_Web_Ad_feat._Lena_Dunham_Sends_Right_Wing_into_Fainting_Couch_Frenzy
Erick Son of Erick–the reason I never watch CNN any more–tweeted some whoppers! Go look!
They think it’s a rip of of a Putin add and as TPM says, Ronnie Raygun did it first!!!
I think that ad is just really cute and don’t see a damned thing offensive about it.
More video that I like: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at 3rd debate
Charles Pierce: Noted Racial Theorist John Sununu Flees in Terror from Puppet Dog, Blogger
That was so funny and it made my day!!! So funny!!!
Thanks Ralph I need that, I just sent it to my sisters!
I don’t think I can stand this Bullshit anymore! Maybe it’s because I live in a state that has lost it’s mind. I lived thru 2000, 2004. If you could see the constitutional amendments on our ballot and they way they are written, this state is going the way of Texas. If they pass these amendments, with a governor who is a Tea party nut, this state will not be taking in anymore revenue. Scott has refused ANY federal money except stimulus which the people who got it do not know where it came from. And HOW could old ass people not know what a voucher system of Medicare means. I’m pissed. It’s funny Scott has #’s in the 30″s, they get what his plan is and reject it, but not that he is the poster child of the republicans. I just don’t get it.
If there are Florida voter here I would like to here what you say.
http://www.thefloridavoter.org/resources/issues/2012-constitutional-amendments
WTF is up with trying to put all those tax issues in the state constitution? That seems like it should be a non-starter. Pass all those and I predict you’ll pass Texas in the race to the bottom.
I’m a Texas voter but still …
The people here are SO stupid, that I know this shit will pass. And our fun last night on going to that island, I my really ready now. With or without gas.
Trying to walk across the Med would be about as much fun as staying here.
http://www.theonion.com/video/the-onion-voters-guide-to-mitt-romney,29764/
FL voter here. The League of Women Voters announced a couple of weeks ago to vote NO on all of the amendments. Even without their advice, knowing that ALL of the amendments came from our Repugnant Legislature, I would have voted NO on all anyway. And the ballot is extra, extra long because they’ve put the full language of each amendment on the ballot. That shit is difficult for attorneys to understand, let alone under-educated voters. The Repugnants title these things with innocuous sounding names, simply to confuse people. And trust me, I’m at least as pissed as you are pd.
Orange County, where I live, was “considering” putting a citizen amendment on our ballot to make businesses provide basic sick time off to all employees (full time/or 25 hours or more, I believe). Not all PAID sick time off, depending on the size of the company. The county commissioners, including the Mayor Teresa Jacobs (R) were found to have texted, emailed or tweeted the business owners before voting on their decision – which, of course was a resounding NO. I heard both men who are running for commissioner in my district, 1 Repug (whom I know personally when he worked for county government) & the other a Dem. Both opposed the amendment, but did think it should have been put on the ballot. Both said they would have campaigned against the bill.
I think I’m in a constant state of Pissed, even when I’m sleeping.
And Rick Scott should be in prison for defrauding Medicare.
One last thing: today on NPR, Here & Now had a segment on Greg Abbott, Texas’ AG. He’s threatening the UN poll observers, but of course, not True the Vote. They also said he may be Romney’s choice for the Director of the EPA. I nearly blew a fuse when I heard that.
Great response. ecocatwoman, I agree with everything you said, but i believe you and i are the only two people in Florida who know it.
I personally know 6 others. I’m holding out hope there are others out there.
Abbott is a pathetic wingnut. No redeeming value at all!
Here’s something to cheer you up.
How the GOP’s voter suppression laws may have inadvertently cost them Florida: http://slate.me/SeuDit
Dak, Let us Pray, 🙂
The Onion: Trump Announces He’s A Very Sad Man
This is a great post Dak, and I love the video.
I can’t believe so many former dem, faux feminists are whining about this. Somebody call a Whambulance
Jeff Weiner @JeffWeinerOS
#GeorgeZimmerman hearing is over. No ruling on gag order. Stand your ground hearing set for April
Rene Stutzman @renestutzman
Hearing over. Gag order due Monday. #Trayvon, #Zimmerman
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/26/lena-dunham-tina-fey-election-2012
BREAKING NEWS
Senator Harry Reid hospitalized after crash in Las Vegas
His injuries are unknown at this point.
http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/176020591.html?lc=Smart
REPORT: Harry Reid hospitalized after car accident http://tpm.ly/U2JGIL
OMG!
From TPM:
Darren Hutchinson @dissentingj
A vote for Romney is a vote against civil rights for ALL OF US. He will stack the court with social conservatives… http://fb.me/1koWaJSAL
You may remember Darren and his blog Dissenting Justice from 2008!!!
Status Update
By Dissenting Justice
FOR ALL OF YOU REPUBLICANS OR REPUBLICAN-VOTERS WHO SAY YOU ARE SOCIALLY LIBERAL, LISTEN UP: Voting for Romney is the exact opposite of being socially liberal. He says he would appoint justices like Scalia to the Supreme Court. If you think you can support gay rights, women’s equality and diversity but vote for a Romney Supreme Court, you are kidding yourselves. For some of us, these issues are life and death.
I have responded 2 times to you Dak, but the power has gone off from high wind 4 times. Lost in the tubes!
Oh wow … are you getting some of the Sandy stuff?
Yes, for 2 days, I can’t imagine what it will be when it comes closer to the coast in the north. It is off the coast here. I live right on the beach.
So sorry you are getting the winds. We had some relatively strong gusts throughout the day & we’re in the smack dab middle of the state. With those I can imagine how bad it must be where you are. Hopefully Sandy will move on & defy the prognosticators & head east & out to sea.
Here are the latest polls from the battleground states:
Colorado: Obama 48%, Romney 45% (OnSight Public Affairs)
Colorado: Obama 47%, Romney 46% (Purple Strategies)
Florida: Romney 51%, Obama 46% (Sunshine State News)
Florida: Romney 50%, Obama 48% (Rasmussen)
Iowa: Obama 50%, Romney 46% (Gravis)
Nevada: Obama 50%, Romney 49% (Gravis)
New Hampshire: Obama 49%, Romney 46% (New England College)
North Carolina: Romney 53%, Obama 45% (Gravis)
North Carolina: Romney 48%, Obama 47% (Civitas)
Ohio: Obama 49%, Romney 47% (American Research Group)
Ohio: Obama 46%, Romney 44% (Purple Strategies)
Ohio: Obama 50%, Romney 46% (CNN/ORC)
Virginia: Obama 47%, Romney 47% (Purple Strategies)
Virginia: Obama 48%, Romney 48% (Newsmax/Zogby)
Wisconsin: Obama 49%, Romney 49% (Rasmussen)
CNN: Harry Reid hospitalized after car crash, in good condition
thank goodness! I hate to see any one hurt in any kind of accident!
sounds minor, but you never know about delayed pain.
Pat Dolan @Red_Sox_Fan777
WHAT GOV. ROMNEY DID TO MY STATE: Jobs: 47th job creation Taxes/Fees: Increased > $750 million per year Debt Increase > $2.6 billion
Sam Stein @samsteinhp
Ad buy source: Obama has placed $511k on broadcast in Minneapolis for 12 days. Romney has placed $30k for 3 days
The Minneapolis stations cover a lot of the western part of Wisconsin.
WTF is wrong with people? Is this really the right way to express political dissent?
Secret Service Visits Man Who Hung Obama Effigy From Tree As ‘Spooky’ Halloween Decoration http://huff.to/QIHM0Q
WATCH: A National Weather Service meteorologist describes the anticipated impact of Hurricane #Sandy: http://apne.ws/SezGPV
NPR Politics @nprpolitics
Gay Marriage On Ballot In Four States; Obama Endorses Measures http://n.pr/UO0Mzr
POLITICO @politico
Obama talks same-sex marriage, music on MTV: http://politi.co/TL1xmU
Obama is everywhere in Romney is some place where there’s a Rose Garden evidently.
It is Mittens strategy, He can’t make a mistake, right?
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/obama-weighs-in-on-sununus-powell-comments?ref=fpb
Powell was a hero until he endorsed Obama. He’s been a pariah ever since. Big Tent? Unfortunately there’s only room for just crazy ass White People and a few token & loyal African Americans (Condi) & Latinos (Rubio & Cruz).
Today McCain really embarrassed himself saying Powell “lied us into war”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/26/john-mccain-colin-powell_n_2024574.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012
forgot the link
Well, Powell did lie. And so did plenty of others, including the POTUS at that time. So what’s McCain going to do about a former SoS who lied during his term?
More Hate on Parade:http://www.gaypolitics.com/2012/10/26/lesbian-candidate-called-ugly-dyke-in-n-c-house-race/
Tbogg has something to say
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/10/26/unskewed-studmuffin-dean-chambers-does-not-care-for-nate-silvers-dickless-polling/
SheSheGo @SheSheGo
Republican Birth Control: Donald Trump, John #Sununu, Ted Nugent and Meat Loaf.
Retweeted by Lije
Ha! 🙂
About time someone noticed that out loud 🙂
LOL, on Meatloaf, “I would do anything, but I won’t do that”!
Thirty one states allow Rapists to have custody/visitation
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/08/31-states-grant-rapists-custody-and-visitation-rights/56118/
That is unbelievable.
i only wish it was unbelievable. There is NO difference between these kinds of laws and people and the Taliban.
When I was 16-17 years old my neighbor asked me to be trained as a rape crisis counselor on a junior league volunteer rape crisis line. I worked that line for several years and when I got to college I worked hard to pass new rape and violence against women laws in Nebraska in 1974-1975 and I continued as a rape crisis counsellor. I had to take women to the property crimes division to report their rapes. We had to work to get women police officers to the positions to take the complaints. NO married women could be raped. You needed TWO witnesses to be ‘raped’. I thought all this shit was over 40 years ago. I can’t believe how far backward we’re going. The personal questions asked of victims were unbelievable and all based on the assumption that where she was, what she was doing, what she looked like was the reason she was assaulted.
You have no idea what it was like back then unless you worked in that system.
This is what is so upsetting to me. That these laws are being passed. My husband gave me the old, it will never happen remark and I told him it already has. Ugh.
The CNN article that is linked to is one I remember from back when Akin made his first comment…bout women’s bodies shutting down. I didn’t realize there were 31 states that allow it. I wonder what those states are.
Here are the states: Why Do Rapists Have Custody & Visitation Rights in These 31 States? | The Stir