"The GOP's Politics of Subtraction"

[applegrove]

The GOP's Politics of Subtraction

by Jan Schakowsky at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jan-schakowsky/the-gops-politics-of-subt_b_3737288.html

"SNIP................................


The conventional wisdom is that the Republicans made themselves safe districts, ones made up of homogeneous conservative constituents who appreciate their uncompromising and dismissive attitude toward those who disagree. I have to wonder about that.

So far they have managed to be equal opportunity offenders, turning off voters in all walks of life, regardless of age, religion, race or sexual orientation. Many of those voters surely live in their districts. They include:

WOMEN: Women are not only the majority of the population, but the majority of voters in most jurisdictions. Just about all of us heard about Todd "Women's bodies have a way of discerning legitimate rape" Akin and Richard "Pregnancy from rape is God's will" Mourdock. Women and plenty of men too punished them and they lost their elections. But far worse than stupid remarks are the laws passed, particularly at the state level, by Republicans that defund Planned Parenthood, restrict access to contraceptives (birth control, for God's sake!), make abortions illegal after 6 weeks before a woman even knows she's pregnant, force women to have invasive procedures that are unnecessary and possibly harmful, allow doctors to lie to their patients about fetal abnormalities, make criminals out of doctors, put arbitrary requirements on clinics in order to force them to close, and on and on. During the first six months of this year alone, more than two dozen anti-choice bills have become law in 15 states. These laws say to women, we don't trust you to make your own decisions. Women really hate being talked down to.

But it's not just women's bodies that the Republicans don't understand or care about. It's our economic well-being. They don't support equal pay for equal work, or increasing access to quality child care, or expanding the child tax credit, or ending discrimination against pregnant workers, to name a few. It's no wonder there is a gender gap on election day. As far as I know, redistricting didn't eliminate fed up women.


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