Republicans have been trying desperately to reframe the GOP’s relentless assault on women’s rights as a war being waged on women by Democrats.
Last week’s shenanigans with PRENDA (the “don’t abort all the girls” bill) was a perfect example. The wingnuts claim that President Obama and the Democrats blocked PRENDA (Pregnancy Non-Discrimination Act) which proves that it’s really Democrats who hate women because shut up that’s why. (Of course, this is nonsense. As I wrote last week, PRENDA is about further divesting women of their right to make decisions about their own bodies, and as asiangrrlMN wrote last week, PRENDA employs vicious stereotypes about Asian-American women to do so.)
Such claims about a war on women being waged by Democrats don’t pass the smell test, but that hasn’t stopped the Romney-led Republicans from trotting out their finest women to convince Americans that the “War on Women” is like the “War on Caterpillars” — a figment of Democrats’ imagination. They have called upon Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley (again!), Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and even Campbell Brown to make the case that the war on women is fake, even as Republicans float the idea of criminal charges for women who terminate pregnancies.
So here’s the deal: Tomorrow’s Senate vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act offers the GOP to put its money where its collective mouth is when it comes to equal rights for women. From Zerlina Maxwell at Ebony:
[read the rest at TRS-ABLC]
Lolis
The Yahoo News headline is Obama Proposes Fair Pay to Woo Voters. I hate our media.
Baud
@Lolis: I saw that headline too (I think it’s an AP article) and had the same reaction.
On the other hand, you have to give them props for putting so many levels of offensiveness in so few words. It’s impressively efficient.
joes527
Have I just not been paying attention, or is this using the front page as a teaser for another blog a new trick?
RalfW
I suspect it will go kinda like the GOP’s chance this year to show the gheys that it is about religious marriage and not gay-hating. Yep, about like that.
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow had a funny segment about this tonight….how hard it is to get a response from Willard’s team, and that they simply won’t answer the basic question:
does Willard support the fair pay act or not?
simple question
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@rikyrah: She actually sent a multiple choice query the last time out, and true to form, Multiple Mitt couldn’t answer. Perfect.
Person of Choler
If women always make less money than men doing the same job and do the jobs as well as men do, why does anyone hire men at all?
gaz
@Person of Choler:
Men represent at least half of the labor force. SATSQ
And that’s not even bringing up privilege.
ABL 2.0
@joes527: Since I started at TRS, yes. Cole-approved.
Kane
Do you think equal pay for women might ensure that fewer children in America go to bed hungry?
Do you think ensuring women receive equal pay as men might lower the abortion rate?
Do you think equal pay for women might lower the number of working women and families requesting food stamps and other forms of aid?
Do you think equal pay for women might help more working poor enter into the middle class?
Do you think ensuring women receive equal pay might increase their ability to further their education as well as the education of their children?
Do you think equal pay for women might allow more families to afford adequate childcare and healthcare?
Do you think equal pay for women might allow more people to purchase a home of their own?
Do you think equal pay for women might stimulate the economy?
Do you think equal pay for women might encourage more entrepreneurship, investments in the market, and a growth in small business?
Do you think ensuring women receive equal pay might strengthen the middle class and allow more people to achieve their American Dream?
The list could go on and on. There are countless reasons to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, but I’ve yet to hear a viable reason not to.
gaz
@Kane: If you consider women and children to be lazy moochers?
Just positing a guess.
FTR, I absolutely agree with you, and I like your comment.
gene108
Maybe they should pass a law, like they have in India, where you cannot know the gender of the child based on the ultrasound?
That’s one way to scale back gender based abortions.
After clicking on a few links in the story above and using my Google-fu, I still have no fucking clue how PRENDA would’ve limited sex-selective abortions. I doubt it’d go the Indian route and ban couples knowing the gender of the baby based on the ultrasound because that’s popular and taken for granted now.
kc
Nikki Haley, funny. She’s always quick to cry sexism when the state lege doesn’t do what she wants.