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You are here: Home / Open Threads / If they say why why

If they say why why

by DougJ|  March 4, 20125:58 pm| 93 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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A lot of people have been asking why Republicans want to fight against access to contraception, given that it clearly isn’t in their political interests to do so. Others have asked the same thing about brown-baiting and auto bailout-bashing (this last one may cost them the state of Ohio, which probably means the election).

I said it once before but it bears repeating now: the answer to all these sort of questions is in the following fable.

Scorpion wants to cross a river, but he can’t swim. Goes to the frog, who can, and asks for a ride. Frog says, ‘If I give you a ride on my back, you’ll go and sting me.’ Scorpion replies, ‘It would not be in my interest to sting you since as I’ll be on your back we both would drown.’ Frog thinks about this logic for a while and accepts the deal. Takes the scorpion on his back. Braves the waters. Halfway over feels a burning spear in his side and realizes the scorpion has stung him after all. And as they both sink beneath the waves the frog cries out, ‘Why did you sting me, Mr. Scorpion, for now we both will drown?’ Scorpion replies, ‘I can’t help it, it’s in my nature.’

Republicans hate on women and immigrants (and auto workers and so on) because it’s in their nature. They can’t help it.

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Reader Interactions

93Comments

  1. 1.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    March 4, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    And there are some people (mostly Catholics) who think you’ll really go to hell for using birth control. For them, it really is a matter of their eternal soul.

  2. 2.

    DougJarvus Green-Ellis

    March 4, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    @Amanda in the South Bay:

    98% of Catholics use birth control is the figure I’ve heard.

  3. 3.

    cathyx

    March 4, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    Why are people bigots?

  4. 4.

    Martin

    March 4, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    Always, always, always look at who has power and who threatens that power. Wherever you see people afraid of losing power – you’ll find Republicans. Wherever you see people trying to gain power – you’ll find Democrats.

    The Republican’s job is to protect those in power and preserve their power. Women, gays, minorities, immigrants, poor people – they’re all out of power and they need to stay that way. That’s the GOP way.

  5. 5.

    Martin

    March 4, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    @cathyx: Because they can afford to be.

  6. 6.

    c u n d gulag

    March 4, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    The Conservatives sure picked a strange time to let their inner demons out of the bottle.

    A few months ago, it felt as if they had the potential to be THIS close to winning the Presidency, the House, and the Senate in November.

    But, like you said, they just can’t help themselves.

    The closer they appear to be to the victory they want, the more their hubris takes over.

    And, after living in the Echo Chamber of their own making for the last decade plus, they have deluded themselves into thinking the rest of the country wants to march right back to 1860 with them.

    If you had asked me what my dream scenario would be for Obama to be reelected, and for the Democrats to keep, and maybe increase, their majority in the Senate, and regain the House, I couldn’t in my wildest dreams have imagined that Republicans would decide to not just alienate, but piss-off, over 50% of the voters in the US.
    Blacks, Hispanics, gays – yes.
    Orientals – yes.
    Left-handed people – yes.
    Muslims – without a doubt.
    Women? NO!
    I never saw them as that suicidal until just recently.

    All I can say is – Thank You!

    I wish the election was in April.
    The American voter, on top of being stupid, ignorant, lazy, half-illiterate, and un/under/mis-informed, also has the distinction of having the attention span of an ADD May Fly.

    And that maybe what the Republicans are counting on.

    Not be be sexist – but women have a lot longer memory than men.
    So, they may have reckoned wrong. Let’s hope so!

  7. 7.

    Cat Lady

    March 4, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    Another question is whether the Villagers will drown with them while screaming “both sides! both sides! both si… gurgle glub

  8. 8.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    March 4, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    @DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
    Well, the minority of traddies and conservatives like Santorum, the family with 12 kids that drives two hours to attend a Latin Mass, etc.

  9. 9.

    BO_Bill

    March 4, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    Ummm, Martin, uhhhh, the central power in America today is the Goldman Sachs’ of the world, and these people are all rabid Democrats.

  10. 10.

    BGinCHI

    March 4, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    So scorpions are dicks.

    Interesting.

  11. 11.

    anonymoose

    March 4, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    You know….I had never heard about the fable about the scorpion and frog (and other variations) until about a month ago.

    Now I see it everywhere and cant avoid it. I think it is time for a new fable/meme.

  12. 12.

    samara morgan

    March 4, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    @DougJarvus Green-Ellis: dude, its biology.

    don’t be thick. sooner and Cole graduated from cudlip to sentient human today, you can do eet too.

  13. 13.

    MeDrewNotYou

    March 4, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    I don’t find this explanation very satisfying. The GOP is usually so much better at either disguising their BS or putting a pretty face on it. With contraception, though, they keep screwing up incredibly badly, and in ways that, IMO, aren’t characteristic of the usually politically astute Republicans.

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    March 4, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    DougJ @ Top:

    Republicans hate on women and immigrants (and auto workers and so on) because it’s in their nature. They can’t help it.

    More specifically, Republicans made a conscious decision to more actively appeal to: the extreme conservative fringe in the early 1960’s via Goldwater; to Southern racists with Nixon and the Southern Strategy in 1968; and to religious conservatives, fundamentalists, and evangelicals with Reagan’s courting of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority circa 1978-1980.

    Now those recruits form the majority of the GOP — extremists, conspiracy theorists, racists, and religious fundamentalists & literalists.

    .

  15. 15.

    DougJarvus Green-Ellis

    March 4, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    @MeDrewNotYou:

    There’s no good way to oppose access to contraception. Once the trap was set, it was inevitable that they’d go here. I don’t know if Democrats got lucky or if there was a real case of 11-dimensionsal chess.

  16. 16.

    Cat Lady

    March 4, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    Another question is whether the Villagers will figure this out before going down with them screaming “both sides! both sides! both si… gurgle glurble glub”

  17. 17.

    paradox

    March 4, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    Now those recruits form the majority of the GOP — extremists, conspiracy theorists, racists, and religious fundamentalists and literalists.

    Yes.

  18. 18.

    JGabriel

    March 4, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    @cathyx:

    Why are people bigots?

    Upbringing, advantage, cynicism, genetics … all play various roles.

    .

  19. 19.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    March 4, 2012 at 6:15 pm

    @DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
    I am firmly of the belief that NOTHING POTUS does is by accident.

  20. 20.

    Maude

    March 4, 2012 at 6:19 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    He took the stand on womens health issues and look at all that has happened. Calling Ms. Fluke was brilliant.

  21. 21.

    BC

    March 4, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    I didn’t understand the Schiavo mess, thought the Republicans were just committing hari kari with their laws telling judges to rehear the case and forget all the case law that came before. I didn’t understand the SGK v PP, either – just seemed another overreach on the anti-women brigade. Soon after, the contraception issue came up – the original Obama mandate was the same as what 28 states had, RCC was okay in those 28 states. But the conservatives saw a chance to re-ignite culture war and off they marched. I think these bozos just have the Pavlov tendency to march in the culture wars, even when they know the country isn’t with them. In a world with a functioning press, the contraceptive issue would put the cannon ball in the coffin, hammer the last nail, and throw the coffin into the Marianas Trench.

  22. 22.

    Wag

    March 4, 2012 at 6:22 pm

    I agree. Obama is a chest master.

  23. 23.

    AxelFoley

    March 4, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    If they say why why

    Tell them that it’s human nature–oops, got carried away a bit.

  24. 24.

    cathyx

    March 4, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    @JGabriel: No, it has to be more than that. Why does anyone need to feel better than other people, which is basically what makes a person a bigot? Insecurity.

  25. 25.

    scav

    March 4, 2012 at 6:25 pm

    @MeDrewNotYou: But, doubling down on things and overcoming impossible odds is exactly how it works in the movies and on TV (other media are available too). Not Compromise, Pragmatism, Give ‘n’ Take and Longterm Planning. Idealism! Ride into the Sunset Flags and Guns blazing, Close your eyes, Trust the Force and down goes the Staypuff Marshmellow Vampire Empire!

    Odds started to look difficult and then impossiblish. I’m not sure it’s the smartest play in the book they could have reached for but it’s an emotionally comforting one.

  26. 26.

    lamh35

    March 4, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    “Tell ’em that it’s Human Nature“…ONE.OF.MY.FAV.MJ.SONGS.EVAH!!! DougJ…
    ”
    Looking out
    Across the nighttime
    The city winks a sleepless eye
    Hear her voice
    Shake my window
    Sweet seducing sighs

    Get me out
    Into the nighttime
    Four walls won’t hold me tonight
    If this town
    Is just an apple
    Then let me take a bite

    If they say,
    Why, why, tell ’em that it’s human nature…”

    Damn you Doug!!!

    now back to the more serious subject at hand.

  27. 27.

    Wag

    March 4, 2012 at 6:27 pm

    Sometimes I hate my iPhone. Damned autocorrect makes me sound like a fool. And then WP edit fail to top it off.

    Chess master. Not chest master.

  28. 28.

    Jennifer

    March 4, 2012 at 6:27 pm

    @anonymoose: It’s an old old fable, maybe going back all the way to Aesop. There’s a similar one about a woman and a snake…it’s getting cold and the snake asks the woman to take him into the house so he won’t freeze. The woman hesitates, knowing that snakes can kill with their bite, but the snake promises not to bite her. So she takes him in, and he bites her. She asks him “why did you bite me after I showed you kindness and took you in from the cold?” The snake replies, “you knew what I was when you took me in.”

  29. 29.

    cmorenc

    March 4, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    @Martin:

    Always, always, always look at who has power and who threatens that power. Wherever you see people afraid of losing power – you’ll find Republicans. Wherever you see people trying to gain power – you’ll find Democrats.

    Actually, that’s not quite how the rank-and-file wingnut GOOPer see themselves; it’s an inaccurate over-simplification. They see themselves as having ALREADY lost power for far too long a time, as people trying to regain it from arrogant, power-hungry elites who have too long irresponsibly abused them and taken away their liberties. They see themselves as an insurgent force trying to win power back. Even during the periods when the GOP WAS in complete control of government (e.g. the Bush years), they still see themselves as being victimized by a corrupt old-line establishment within their party that has to an unacceptably frequent extent, behaved in a manner egregiously apostate from true conservative principles. They view the Reagan years through rose-colored glasses as a golden age, conveniently ignoring that Reagan today would himself be viewed as an unacceptably corrupted apostate for many of the policies and compromises he made while in office.

    Yes, it’s bullshit, but they firmly, unshakably believe in it.

  30. 30.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 4, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    @DougJarvus Green-Ellis:

    There’s no good way to oppose access to contraception. Once the trap was set, it was inevitable that they’d go here. I don’t know if Democrats got lucky or if there was a real case of 11-dimensionsal chess.

    I don’t think that the Democrats planned for the Republicans to come out against access to contraception. I mean, we all know that Republicans are smarter than that. Don’t we? I think the Democrats are just capitalizing on the opportunity this argument gives them.

    I really don’t know how the Republicans got into this mess with the women in this country. Every time they turn around, they make it worse. I don’t know what’s going on.

  31. 31.

    sloan

    March 4, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    @Wag: LOL I liked chest master better.

  32. 32.

    bin Lurkin'

    March 4, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    @anonymoose:

    I think it is time for a new fable/meme.

    Here you go..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNC4pm5cnaQ

  33. 33.

    Jeff Boatright

    March 4, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    You guys have forgotten how fast this will all be forgotten once the R’s have a nominee. You won’t hear about any of this crap until after November, win or lose. You sure as shinola won’t be reminded by the MSM. Independents will do their lazy-brain thing, and come October we’ll be back to a horse race, waiting for the “surprise”.

    I hope I am wrong.

  34. 34.

    David Koch

    March 4, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    In the fall of 2006, the GOP were on track to lose the House and Senate over Iraq and instead of doing the right thing, politically, and distancing themselves from Bush and Iraq, they decided to embraced it and go down with the ship.

    And then, after they got their ass kicked, they doubled down and embraced the “surge”.

    This is what they are. It’s a mistake to assume they’re rational actors who act in their best interests.

    All that bull shit they peddle about the invisible hand is just that – bull shit.

    Like rotten trust fund kids, they’re self-destructive.

    Also too, living in the self reinforcing echo chamber of Fixxed news and Hate Radio, means there’s no one to perform an intervention.

  35. 35.

    General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)

    March 4, 2012 at 6:34 pm

    It is about getting and keeping power, in the end. It is the aphrodisiac for the weak minded to assemble under the banner of republican. Some of them hate women, some hate people of color, some hate everyone not white, but republicans have had the economy of a predator that usually doesn’t waste energy on what matters least to their aims.

    And for right wingers, that is power. The full frontal assault on women’s health issues is not economical, and the lizard has gone mad for lack of prey. Because of forces out of its control. So it is stupid assaults on various voting blocks to please other voting blocks. But women make up 52% of the electorate, way more than the religionists that want to control sex for some bizarre allegiance to God.

    All of this, at least the all out nature of it, is a sideways attempt to get votes. But the ratio of alienated voters from their actions, almost certainly will far outstrip any gains they may make with other voters.

    They can’t stop the numbers increasing for those who vote, and won’t vote for them, at least without fully breaching the constitution, and they can’t change who they are, at least enough or fast enough, so we get self destructive malicious attacks, lashing out to regain control of single issues, like birth control, which is surrogate for attempts at wielding religion as a weapon beyond the constitutional firewall in our system of government, another road fraught with treasonous implication.

    When all the spiteful fury is spent for desperate attempts at keeping power, and after they have lost those ill advised assaults, like on women’s health, I honestly don’t know what they will do. It will be a point of reckoning for us all.

  36. 36.

    Suffern ACE

    March 4, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    This is the point in the cycle where John Fund writes the article asserting that technically Shirley Sherrod is a liar because her father was only killed by a few men, but not enough men to be considered a “lynching” under the laws of Georgia at the time of his death. I look forward to the deep scholarship that we’ll be getting this time.

  37. 37.

    Jay C

    March 4, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    @MeDrewNotYou:

    What I’ve been thinking, too: up til now, the Republicans have always been fairly adept at harnessing the primal rage of the yahoo/Teabagger/27%-crazy fringe to their own political ends, while remaining, for the most part, the actual Party Of The One Percent.
    It’s “What’s The Matter With Kansas” on a national scale: quick to sneer at the “librulz” who don’t “get” the “fundamental[ist] moral understandings of Real America”, while enacting an agenda of economic royalism to benefit their real base: Big Money.
    This year, though: for whatever reason, the fringe has gotten away from them, and they’ve lost the spin: the frog has felt the sting in one leg, right after getting in the water: and hopefully, he’ll dump the goddam scorpion in the river and paddle like hell to get back on shore.

  38. 38.

    Frank

    March 4, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    @Jeff Boatright:

    You are not wrong. The GOP will also have all these billionaires funding Republican Super PACS. We saw how easily they swayed voters in Florida. They can easily do it again come October/November.

    And knowing that the average voter has the attention span of a gnat, this episode will most likely be forgotten in a few months and not mean a heck of a lot.

  39. 39.

    GregB

    March 4, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    Conservatives will always support the powerful over the weak, the rich over the poor.

    Always, always, always.

  40. 40.

    The Dangerman

    March 4, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    Republicans hate on women and immigrants (and auto workers and so on) because it’s in their nature.

    Not quite; they’ve lost the culture war and they’re about to lose an election they’ve been told they had already won. Their collective freakout has just begun; we’ll be lucky to get through this election without bloodshed (I live in a very Red part of Blue California; no way I’m self-identifying as a Lefty for this election with bumper stickers, etc).

  41. 41.

    Cain

    March 4, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    @Frank:

    And knowing that the average voter has the attention span of a gnat, this episode will most likely be forgotten in a few months and not mean a heck of a lot.

    Don’t bet on it. The Republicans will bring it up themselves and double down on the stupid. Never mind, the stuff going on in Wisconsin and Ohio will continue to bleed into our national dialogue.

  42. 42.

    lamh35

    March 4, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    @DougJarvus Green-Ellis: 98% of Catholics who are “sexually active” is the whole statistic I think. So if 50% of Catholics are sexually active then 98% of them use contraceptives.

  43. 43.

    Brian R.

    March 4, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    @Wag:

    I agree. Obama is a chest master.

    Really? I’m more of a leg man, myself.

  44. 44.

    MeDrewNotYou

    March 4, 2012 at 6:50 pm

    @Jay C:

    This year, though: for whatever reason, the fringe has gotten away from them, and they’ve lost the spin

    That, along with DougJ’s “no good way to attack contraception” seems most likely. In the midst of a never-ending GOP primary with candidates they hate, they see the economy gradually recover and the President’s chances keep looking better. They’re flailing about for anything to hit him with and this seemed ideal: Weaken Obamacare, rev up the base, AND they get to use “religious freedom” as a cover. Unfortunately for them, they were greedy and doubled down after the initial compromise and let the truth slip.

  45. 45.

    harlana

    March 4, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    this is why i feel the American psyche is on life support now. or perhaps that just my perception at this point.

  46. 46.

    FuriousPhil

    March 4, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Man, I feel your pain. I live in rural Michigan, and I catch flak for having an ’08 Obama sticker on my car. I’m having serious doubts about sending a pro-liberal letter to the local paper because it might have a negative impact on my business.

    I’m going to send it anyways. I’ve been reading the same redneck garbage for years in my Sunday paper and I’m sick of it. Besides, hard line conservatives are lousy customers anyways.

  47. 47.

    Jay C

    March 4, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    @Frank:

    And knowing that the average voter has the attention span of a gnat, this episode will most likely be forgotten in a few months and not mean a heck of a lot.

    Beg to differ: even though the Obama/Democratic wing of America has, so far, been sort of amused observers at the meltdown to starboard, it’s not likely that all the recent Republican hoo-ha has gone completely unnoticed by its political opposite-numbers. Who, as we will surely find out in the not-too-distant-future, have a fairly sophisticated (and well-financed) political/media operation of their own which they will be able to deploy.

    Just a probable scenario for the Presidential debates in the Fall: President Barack (“The Only Adult In The Room”) Obama vs. W. Mitt (“I Was For/Against Everything Before I Was Against/For It) Romney. Defending policies regarding birth control.

    Yeah, Win/Win for the Republicans….

  48. 48.

    danimal

    March 4, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    Why contraceptives? Because it’s the issue they really care about. Abortion has been a stalking horse for them, but the real issue for the right wing has always been the sexual revolution. The pill is much more of an issue for social conservatives.

    All the talk about “the sanctity of life” has always been bs. When have you seen a protest at an in vitro fertilization facility?

    They care about keeping sex confined to marriage and they care about making sure their is a cost (pregnancy) for those who stray. Period. It’s about sex, and patriarchy, and traditional values. IOW, social conservatives couldn’t avoid this fight, it’s who they are. Which is what DougJ said at the beginning.

  49. 49.

    scav

    March 4, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    I’ve also wondered if any other of the teeming legions of NotMitts had been trending up when the Beanied Bishops jumped into the debate, would certain elements of the Repubs have chimed in so quickly and full-throatedly? Catholic was the trending poll flavor of the minute so yee-haw! They usually tend toward the religious evangelical end of the spectrum, yes, but they’re not usually so ham-fisted about it. If the Mittster had been solid, I doubt it would have gotten quite the octane it has, nor with Cain or Paul, and while Gingrich is of their ilk, it’s not the main string to his bow. Again, Wondering aloud here.

  50. 50.

    Tom Q

    March 4, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    @c u n d gulag: I have to disagree with your opening premise: that the GOP was ever on the edge of taking full control of the government — anymore than Dems were in mid-1983, when Reagan’s approval numbers hovered in the low 40s because of HIS lingering recession.

    Obama, like Reagan, has always been a president likely to be re-elected: a personally popular, charismatic president who effected major change, had a significant foreign policy achievement and no major failures, avoided scandal and intra-party challenge. The persistence of the recession (largely due now to GOP state cuts, the Japanese triple disaster and the debt ceiling standoff) was literally the only thing that stood between Barack and sweeping re-election…as we’re seeing today, with the economy improving and his match-up numbers showing lots of daylight. The fact that the GOP has decided to commit existential suicide along with this helps — might well improve Congressional margins, something Reagan’s landslide failed to do. But it’s demeaning to Barack’s substantively successful first term to chalk up this Fall’s result simply to GOP failure.

  51. 51.

    Groucho48

    March 4, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    What in the world ever became of Repubs? They’ve lost their sparkle you know it isn’t the same. Hatin’ on sex, actual science and brown folks, all a Dem can say is ain’t it a shame.

  52. 52.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 4, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    @danimal: Agreed! I think the same goes for immigration, what they are against is legal immigration too (especially if the said immigrants are not white), illegal immigration is just a low hanging fruit. I saw some ads against legal immigration playing in some of the primary states. When did GOP become a party of nativist bigots?

  53. 53.

    debbie

    March 4, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    Whoever wrote it, the Scorpion and the Tortoise is one of my favorite fables. David Rakoff wrote a brilliant rhyming version of it and read it on This American Life. There’s a link to the audio here:

    http://brightgreeneyeliner.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/a-poem-by-david-rakoff/

  54. 54.

    john f

    March 4, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    Conservatism is all about conserving the status quo, which in their minds is the natural order of things of how it’s always been or destined to be.If things change too much it can only lead to social disorder and chaos. During the Iraq War, suggesting that we reorient our foreign policy away from a Cold War/American Century stance brought derision from conservatives that one was unpatriotic.Even veterans were made the object of scorn. It is the natural order of the world that America remains a nation set apart from others.

    In the aftermath of Katrina, conservatives argued that liberals and their gov’t programs destroyed people’s natural desire for self preservation, henceforth the cavalier attitude towards the victims of Katrina. They brought it on themselves . The system didn’t fail, they failed the system. Liberals made those people worthless.

    Same thing with the Global Financial Crisis, don’t bailout anyone and let the invisible hand of the Free Market sort it out. No bailouts, no loans to the auto industry and certainly no UI and mortgage assistance for the middle-age class. The invisible hand is part of the natural order so don’t interfere.

    Now with women using contraception on their own terms to regulate their fertility this changes the natural order of men as head of the household and family, civilization will come apart. This is bigger than electoral politics for many conservatives.

  55. 55.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 4, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    Speaking of scorpions does anybody remember Star Trek Voyager’s Scorpion. When Voyager makes a temporary alliance with the Borg?

  56. 56.

    MikeJ

    March 4, 2012 at 7:09 pm

    @Frank:

    But, doubling down on things and overcoming impossible odds is exactly how it works in the movies and on TV (other media are available too).

    Romney outspent everyone 4-1. Obama’s authorized committee already has more money than all of the republican campaigns put together and his superpac didn’t even start fundraising until last month.

    Obama will easily spend in excess of $750 million, plus he has access to a huge blue airplane that is a free commercial every time it flies over. The republicans simply don’t have the resources to carpet bomb him.

  57. 57.

    MikeJ

    March 4, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    @MikeJ: Grrr. I started to reply to one, changed my mind and then deicded to reply to a different comment. The reply to and block quote should have been:

    @Frank:

    The GOP will also have all these billionaires funding Republican Super PACS. We saw how easily they swayed voters in Florida. They can easily do it again come October/November.

  58. 58.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 4, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    On GOS, there’s a diary written by a mother whose daughter has been bullied by students following Limbaugh’s lead.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/04/1070800/-I-ve-spent-the-past-2-days-trying-to-convince-my-16-y-o-she-is-not-a-slut-?via=siderec

    [The name of the diary is: I’ve spent the past 2 days trying to convince my 16 y/o she is not a “slut”]

    The whole thing is sad. Poor girl.

  59. 59.

    scav

    March 4, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    @MikeJ: I was wondering about that!

    ETA: How bad a mauling did I escape?

  60. 60.

    MeDrewNotYou

    March 4, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    @scav: That’s an interesting thought. I can see the GOP being dumb enough to see the new media flavor-of-the-month and try to capitalize on it, but totally misunderstanding the majority position.

  61. 61.

    priscianusjr

    March 4, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    @MeDrewNotYou:

    I don’t find this explanation very satisfying. The GOP is usually so much better at either disguising their BS or putting a pretty face on it. With contraception, though, they keep screwing up incredibly badly, and in ways that, IMO, aren’t characteristic of the usually politically astute Republicans.

    It’s because the Republican Party is no longer under the control of the usually politically astute Republicans.

  62. 62.

    different-church-lady

    March 4, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    Actually it’s the same reason a spouse cheats on a partner even though they know it will be nothing but a mess: they cannot resist the immediate thrill.

    The better question is, why do they get a thrill out of it while everyone else recoils?

  63. 63.

    Ben Franklin

    March 4, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    @General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):

    They can’t stop the numbers increasing for those who vote, and won’t vote for them, at least without fully breaching the constitution, and they can’t change who they are, at least enough or fast enough, so we get self destructive malicious attacks, lashing out to regain control of single issues, like birth control, which is surrogate for attempts at wielding religion as a weapon beyond the constitutional firewall in our system of government, another road fraught with treasonous implication.

    Yup. Since women have acquired property rights and the vote, they have the
    electorate they can go to war with. The Constitution is less of an obstacle, than is their own devolution, so they have that going for them.

  64. 64.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    March 4, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: I remember a scene in Natural Born Kilers where Russell Means tells the same story except it was an old woman and a cold starving snake.

  65. 65.

    PurpleGirl

    March 4, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    @DougJarvus Green-Ellis: If you start to research where that number comes from you find that the media and a lot of other peoples misunderstood the results of a Guttmacher Institute study. The 98% goes for sexually women between the ages of 15 and 44. There’s to it than I can encapsulate here. Look at this article for a fuller explanation:

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unequallyyoked/2012/02/parsing-that-98-of-catholics-use-contraception-figure.html

    However there is still a significant number of Roman Catholic women who do use some form of contraception.

  66. 66.

    different-church-lady

    March 4, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    @Jay C: One word: Palin. Instead of trying to harness the energy of crazy safely down in the sub-basement, she invited it into the mainstream. Once the monster got out of the lab there was no getting it back in. Basically standard issue horror movie plot.

  67. 67.

    Cassidy

    March 4, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    @cathyx: We’re pack animals. There has to be a hierarchy. no matter what.

  68. 68.

    Jay C

    March 4, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    So again, what’s needed is a mob of peasants with torches and pitchforks?

    Works for me…

  69. 69.

    mk3872

    March 4, 2012 at 7:32 pm

    Looking for a political scientist’s explanation for today’s GOP political decisions is fruitless.

    They have become the product of their base’s favorite AM radio shows, Fox News and Drudge.

    Their statements and actions are really just simply a reflection of those attitudes and paranoia that are expressed on those shows.

  70. 70.

    PurpleGirl

    March 4, 2012 at 7:36 pm

    One of the reasons they are now going after birth control is that Griswold was decided as PRIVACY case, and abortion rights are dependent on PRIVACY as defined in Griswold. Griswold involved the right of married couples to use contraceptive methods within the context of the marriage and privacy. Yes there are overtones of disapproval of the sexual revolution but Griswold stands for privacy rights.

  71. 71.

    MikeJ

    March 4, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    @PurpleGirl: That’s a pretty lousy breakdown of the stats at that site. She makes an immediate leap from “sexually active” to “sexually active outside of marriage”.

    While only 70% of Catholic women are sexually active outside of marriage (or willing to admit it to a pollster anyway), I’d guess for the marrieds it’s about 99.9999999%, and there’s nothing in the original study that differentiates married from unmarried.

    Leah’s argument is, “of course 98% of the catholic women asked use birth control, they only asked sluts!”

  72. 72.

    different-church-lady

    March 4, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    @Jay C: Well, sorta, except that (to munge up my own analogy) Palin is the monster and the tea party is the peasants, except that they’re fans of the monster. McCain was Dr. Frankenstein, the guy who thought he was going to keep the whole thing under control.

    It’s all rather complicated, really…

  73. 73.

    Felanius Kootea

    March 4, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    @AxelFoley: I was singing that too :).

  74. 74.

    Vor

    March 4, 2012 at 7:43 pm

    I think Obama is smart enough to see that this group will not take yes for an answer. Look at all the concessions offered and spurned during 2011 budget and deficit battles. So he gave them an easy yes with the contraception funding compromise knowing they would not accept it. And now the mask is slipping.

  75. 75.

    PurpleGirl

    March 4, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    @MikeJ: I only skimmed the article at Patheos; I was more interested in the connection of the statistic to the Guttmacher Institute study and the fact that a lot of people either didn’t read the Guttmacher study or didn’t understand it. So we have a number that isn’t really correct and it could come back to bite us. We need a better media.

  76. 76.

    wasabi gasp

    March 4, 2012 at 7:50 pm

    Frogs are some piggyback-giving freaks.

  77. 77.

    MikeJ

    March 4, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    @PurpleGirl: The number is close enough to correct to use. 98% of sexually active Catholic women use birth control, not counting those past the average age of menopause.

    That is, 98% of Catholic women who wish to control the number and timing of births they have, use birth control. Women who don’t wish to control their births, don’t.

  78. 78.

    Quincy

    March 4, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    For those arguing that the MSM will provide cover for the Repubs and the low-information independent voters and the general population as a whole will have forgotten about this by election time, I wonder about the possible effect of Facebook and other social media. People are no longer wholly reliant on the MSM for information. Even apolitical types have to have seen countless Facebook posts from friends about Republicans and birth control over the past month. Similar to the theory about ideas having a better chance at going viral if spread through trusted sources rather than a standard commercial message that people tune out. I suspect there are a large number of voters who tune out information from political news sources and both parties, but I at least hope that seeing the Republicans’ craziness splattered all over Facebook might leave a lasting impression.

  79. 79.

    Frank

    March 4, 2012 at 8:02 pm

    @MikeJ:

    Time will tell. Obama SUPERPAC raised $58k last month. The $750 million you talked about for the Obama campaign will easily be reached by the GOP Super PACs. Heck, as I recall Romney himself spent $40 million of his own money 4 years ago.

    By the way, when you say that Obama has more than the Republican campaigns together, we are comparing apples and oranges. The Republican money is for the most part only for the primaries, which cannot be spent on the general campaign. Once the GOP has a candidate, you can bet that the GOP fundraising will start in earnest. There is a reason Obama gave his approval for his super PAC to get funded. He knows that $750 million won’t be enough.

  80. 80.

    Equs_personus

    March 4, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    #29 Jennifer:
    “the Snake’
    by Al Wilson, sung by Oscar Brown sometime in the 60’s:

    THE SNAKE
    Written by Oscar Brown, Jr.
    As sung by Al Wilson

    On her way to work one morning, down the path alongside the lake,
    A tender-hearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake.
    His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew.
    “Poor thing!” she cried. “I’ll take you in and I’ll take care of you.”

    “Take me in, tender woman. Take me in, for heaven’s sake.
    Take me in, tender woman,” sighed the snake.

    She wrapped him all cozy in a comforter of silk,
    And laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk.
    She hurried home from work that night, and soon as she arrived,
    She found that pretty snake she’d taken in had been revived.

    “Take me in, tender woman. Take me in, for heaven’s sake.
    Take me in, tender woman,” sighed the snake.

    She clutched him to her bosom. “You’re so beautiful!” she cried.
    “But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died.”
    She stroked his pretty skin again and kissed and held him tight.
    Instead of saying thanks, the snake gave her a vicious bite.

    “Take me in, tender woman. Take me in, for heaven’s sake.
    Take me in, tender woman,” sighed the snake.

    “I saved you,” cried the woman, “And you’ve bitten me, but why?
    You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die.”
    “Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin.
    “You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in!”

    “Take me in, tender woman. Take me in, for heaven’s sake.
    Take me in, tender woman,” sighed the snake.

  81. 81.

    General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)

    March 4, 2012 at 8:11 pm

    @Quincy:

    by the time the election arrives, this will be but one layer of crazy covered over by many more layers of same, to come. And all Mitt, all the time trying to explain why he has no soul or convictions from a morally bankrupt campaign. I don’t think women, especially single women are going to forget this very easily. Whether that spurs more of them to go vote, remains to be seen. The GOP is out of control right now, and no one can do anything about it. What we will see, I think, is some of the ugliest campaigning in our lifetimes from the republicans and their candidate. And Obama will have to sort through all of that for what to defend and to counter attack.

    The last resort for a scoundrel party with no ideas, nor restraint, will be to make us all so sick of politics, we won’t go vote. I don’t think it will work, and that there is a threshold point of depravity that could spark a huge backlash, where about everyone goes to vote, against the mad hatter republicans. We shall see.

  82. 82.

    AxelFoley

    March 4, 2012 at 8:12 pm

    @Quincy:

    People are no longer wholly reliant on the MSM for information.

    Bingo. That’s one reason the MSM hates President Obama–he goes around them and speaks directly to the masses. They hate how he can get his message past them unfiltered. It’s one of the big reasons why he won in ’08 and why he’s gonna win in ’12.

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 4, 2012 at 8:13 pm

    @cathyx:

    Why are people bigots?

    You’ve got to be taught
    To hate and fear,
    You’ve got to be taught
    From year to year.
    It’s got to be drummed
    In your dear little ear —
    You’ve got to be carefully taught.

    You’ve got to be taught
    Before it’s too late —
    Before you are six, or seven, or eight —
    To hate all the people your relatives hate.
    You’ve got to be carefully taught,
    You’ve got to be carefully taught.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 4, 2012 at 8:14 pm

    @cathyx:

    Why are people bigots?

    You’ve got to be taught
    To hate and fear,
    You’ve got to be taught
    From year to year.
    It’s got to be drummed
    In your dear little ear —
    You’ve got to be carefully taught.

    You’ve got to be taught
    Before it’s too late —
    Before you are six, or seven, or eight —
    To hate all the people your relatives hate.
    You’ve got to be carefully taught.
    You’ve got to be carefully taught.

  85. 85.

    Jenn

    March 4, 2012 at 8:14 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: Jesus. Those kids suck, their parents suck, and the oblivious Rush-loving teacher sucks. Hopefully the principal is a good one, and listens.
    __
    I am so grateful that I went to a school that didn’t pull this kind of crap.

  86. 86.

    Karen

    March 4, 2012 at 8:27 pm

    I think it’s because they finally realized that the mask didn’t matter anymore. They used to put on the mask of reasonableness and politeness and genteelness and we knew it wasn’t real and we knew it but as long as the mask was there they could pretend that they were the victims and the rest of the people ate it up. But when Obama got in, it became harder and harder for them to keep the mask on.

    By then it didn’t matter because when Obama got into the White House, a lot of the “reasonable” people suddenly had an excuse to be less reasonable. And that became the new normal so why did the mask need to be on now. They felt that they were the majority now because they WERE.

    So they had no reason to think this would be any different. But to be sure of that they had to ensure that none of the wrong people could vote because they were convinced that the wrong people put Obama in office. Of course WE were the wrong people and they couldn’t stop of all of us but they could stop poor people and students from voting by creating laws. Which of course is what they did.

    So the way I see it, they got tired of waiting for the right time. And figured they fixed things so they’d no longer have to.

    I think if someone called President Obama and his family the actual N word it would be a shock at first. But if you notice, the goal posts of what is racist and demeaning are going higher and higher. The only question will saying the actual N word instead of all the dogwhistles and code finally be too much? Or have we reached a point where because we have a black man in the White House, there is no “too much” anymore.

  87. 87.

    JPL

    March 4, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    @Karen: Or have we reached a point where because we have a black man in the White House, there is no “too much” anymore.

    Twenty-seven percent will always vote against those they seem inferior but hopefully the majority will rise above their biases.

  88. 88.

    Karen

    March 4, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    @JPL:

    I hope so. You have more faith than I do.

  89. 89.

    PurpleGirl

    March 4, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes, this is THE song about bigotry.

    Rogers and Hammerstein tended to put at least one of these songs in each of their shows.

  90. 90.

    Svensker

    March 4, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    @lamh35:

    It is a great song, isn’t it?

  91. 91.

    Chet

    March 5, 2012 at 7:04 am

    @danimal:

    They care about keeping sex confined to marriage and they care about making sure their is a cost (pregnancy) for those who stray.

    Well, and they also care about getting women out of the workplace and back into their Proper Place in the home like good little prairie muffins. And making sure those white Christian Realmerkin babies keep a-comin’ so they’re not outbred and displaced by blacks and browns and yellows and Muslims and other demographic undesirables.

  92. 92.

    Jimbo316

    March 5, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    @Amanda in the South Bay: Actually very few lay Catholics; this is mostly a clerical issue. The Vatican and the bishops have been alienating a lot of American and European Catholics for a long time. Santorum is mostly a freak among American Catholics.

  93. 93.

    Jimbo316

    March 5, 2012 at 11:13 pm

    @c u n d gulag: Okay I get that both Clinton and Obama are left-handed but what’s the larger population related point? Otherwise, good post.

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