Republican Misogyny Helps Obama

With their radical campaign, Republicans have thrown away their chances with today’s female voters. Now they’re backpedaling – apparently in vain.

Sages from both parties predicted that the 2012 election would be dominated by the economic crisis. Report cards for Barack Obama and the Democrats would turn out to be a referendum on healthcare reform, unemployment, the national debt and a choice between more government or more marketplace.

As it turned out, everybody was wrong. The Republicans, inspired by the tea party movement’s ideological purity laws, saw it differently. In Congress and in state houses, just as in their primary elections to pick a presidential candidate, the Republicans armed themselves to fight a religiously inspired cultural war, a war that had already been fought and decided decades ago.

As in ages past, politicians and bishops alike were to sit in judgment over a woman’s personal decision in matters of conscience concerning abortion and even birth control methods. Democrats are outraged over what they see as a “war against women” and happily mobilize women voters against such an imposition.

In return, Republicans accuse President Obama of waging a “war against religious liberty,” follow the dictates of the evangelicals and are also surprised by accusations of misogyny reflected in opinion polls. Women voters put Obama in the White House and between 1992 and 2008, Democrats have built on this majority. Republicans were unable to break that majority until the 2010 congressional elections when Sarah Palin’s conservative feminists (the “mama grizzlies”) gained power.

Contraception Forbidden Even for Married Couples

That exhilirating electoral victory may have encouraged Republicans to re-engage in battles they had lost in the 1960s with revisionist vigor. In some states, more than 80 laws restricting the national right to abortion were passed in 2011.

But organized resistance by women didn’t really get going until presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a strict Catholic, came out in opposition to birth control even for married couples and, along with the U.S. Bishops Conference, branded a paragraph in the healthcare reform act an attack on religious liberty.

Right wing radio host Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to speak out on behalf of independent and even moderate Republican women. That resulted in their forming an informal alliance against misogyny. Limbaugh, who publicly refers to Hillary Clinton using the title “Sexretary,” ranted against a young female law student testifying before Congress in favor of health insurance coverage for contraceptives, calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

Cowardice on Behalf of Their Friend

Virtually overnight, the powerful Republican godfather became a pariah and dozens of his talk show sponsors abandoned him. It was a moment when leading Republicans were forced to take the side of the aggrieved woman, if for no other reason than to avoid becoming collateral damage on election day.

But neither Mitt Romney nor Rick Santorum availed themselves of that opportunity. When asked about Limbaugh’s tirade, Romney muttered something about not using those terms had it been him instead of Limbaugh. Santorum maintained Limbaugh was absurd, but he was an entertainer and entertainers were allowed to be absurd.

It was cowardice on behalf of a friend: They dared not risk alienating Limbaugh and his millions of radio fans. Clinton, addressing an international conference on women’s rights in New York, reluctantly admitted, “Yes, it is hard to believe that even here at home, we have to stand up for women’s rights and reject efforts to marginalize any one of us.” Meanwhile, the pendulum has begun swinging against the Republicans. Recent polls have Obama leading Romney by 18 percentage points among women voters. Among male voters, Obama trails Romney by 6 points.

Pendulum Swings Against Republicans

What possesses America’s conservatives to want to settle debts that were paid years ago? Over 90 percent of American women, Catholics included, practice birth control in defiance of Catholic church doctrine. As one female columnist wrote, women refuse to be driven back to wearing chastity belts also noting that contraception prevents abortion.

Contraception gave American women the freedom to decide for themselves when they wanted children. Women make up more than half of college and university students; 40 percent of them earn more than their husbands and the trend is rising. It may be appropriate to consider the old cultural battle as a rear guard action being fought by emasculated males.

Santorum, the father of seven and more inspired than a priest, comes on the scene with his stale message of church, kitchen and kids that appeals to women of his era. That won’t be sufficient to swing a presidential election. Even the more cautious Romney claims he will reduce the U.S. debt significantly by cutting funding to Planned Parenthood. Nonsense.

Good Ammunition for Democrats

The withdrawal of $360 million could bankrupt an 80-year-old organization that millions of poor women depend upon for contraception, cancer screening and abortion (3 percent of their services). Significant budget savings by way of punishing Planned Parenthood would be a bad joke. But it would be great ammunition for Democrats who know precisely how to sell Romney’s priorities.

The supposed war against women is as much a chimera as is the war against religious liberty. Such a frivolous use of the term in a nation where its soldiers are dying in real wars doesn’t reflect well on the nation’s political culture. March 23 will mark the two-year anniversary of the signing of Obama’s healthcare reform package. Republicans will again damn Obamacare as ruinous, socialist and freedom-robbing.

That sells well to their base even though many of those poor souls may be threatened with bankruptcy by medical bills and would stand to benefit most from Obamacare. Obama will try, in many cases vainly, to convince those people how they stand to benefit by supporting his initiative.

He might do better among women who voted against him in 2008 and had intended to do so again – up to a few weeks ago when the party that had always protected the free market from government intervention began attacking women’s consciences by allowing the government into their bedrooms. Republicans have desperately wanted to find a winning political theme for some time now. America’s women will ultimately decide whether or not this is it.