Here’s the problem with our media in politics. Nate Silver’s analysis of the polls shows a near record national gender gap:
The biggest gender gap to date in the exit polls came in 2000, when Al Gore won by 11 points among women, but George W. Bush won by 9 points among men — a 20-point difference. The numbers this year look very close to that.
Since the first presidential debate in Denver, there have been 10 high-quality national polls that reported a breakout of results between men and women. (I define a “high-quality” poll as one that used live telephone interviews, and which called both landlines and cellphones. These polls will collect the most representative samples and should provide for the most reliable benchmarks of demographic trends.)
The results in the polls were varied, with the gender gap ranging from 33 points (in a Zogby telephone poll for the Washington Times) to just 8 (in polls by Pew Research and by The Washington Post). On average, however, there was an 18-point gender gap, with Mr. Obama leading by an average of 9 points among women but trailing by 9 points among men.
The Associated Press on the same day immediately dismisses the polls in favor of finding a couple of women who don’t like Obama in Virginia.
Then suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, Obama’s edge with women began to melt away. More than any other group, women have accounted for Romney’s surge in the polls, which has now given him a slim lead in the national popular vote and in some calculations of the electoral college. Women, it appeared, were not as firmly ensconced in Obama’s camp as they had seemed. Indeed, they were abandoning the president en masse.
The evidence that Obama finds himself bleeding women’s votes can be seen in how aggressively his campaign has sought to steer the conversation back to women’s issues. Campaigning a few miles from here on Friday, Obama stood at a podium flanked by “Women’s Health Security” banners; he was introduced by Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, and spoke against a backdrop of risers filled exclusively with women, holding turquoise “FORWARD.” signs.
So because President Obama is campaigning for women, the gender gap must be false and women hate him because Shut Up, Horse Race, The Election Has Been Tied All Year.
Unlike their more conservative cohorts, these women agreed that abortion is not any of the federal government’s business. But they also didn’t believe abortion rights were on the line in the coming election. “It has never changed,” Zebib said. “We’ve had pro-life presidents many times, and it didn’t change. It’s a bumper sticker. They try to divert our attention.”
Eileen touched her friend’s arm. “Most women I know, whether they’re for Obama or Romney, they feel the same thing,” she said. “It’s a distraction. That whole Gloria Steinem thing is old.”
Given the makeup of the Supreme Court and the likelihood that liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the next to retire, it’s possible, even probable, that a Romney presidency would lead to a new court majority hostile to Roe. But with abortion legal for nearly 40 years, these women can’t imagine it being any other way.
There is no war on women, there is no gender gap, there is no reason to seriously believe that Romney is really going to do any of that anti-women stuff. Not to these women. Those laws won’t apply to me, they say. Just those people.
Your uterus is a distraction.
Cassidy
It’s been a little over a week, so I’m going to do some light spamming again. On Feb 2, 2013 I’ll be taking part in the Fight for Air Climb in Jacksonville, FL. My Firefighting class is required by our Chief to do a community service project to remind and reinforce the idea that Firefighters are public servants and role models; personally, I agree with that sentiment. I don’t have a eprsonal connection to lung cancer, or any cancer really, either than my continual struggle to quit smoking.
So, your donation, if you’re willing, either contributes money to that particular cause or buys you a small piece of my misery. I’ll be climbing 42 stories up in full bunker gear and air pack (roughly 30lbs). If you can or feel like it, please donate. I’ve already met my goal thanks to two very generous individuals. At this point it’s become a bit of a competition between classmates (I’m 3rd place) and to see if we can get our team into 1st (currently 2nd).
schrodinger's cat
According to our media the only votes that matter, are those that are cast for Republicans especially the ones cast by white males.
Butch
OK, so we’re talking print in this post, but I’m at the point where I would pay $5,000 a month for a cable service that ran absolutely no political ads and that provided some news coverage that wasn’t pure horse race and anecdote. “Touched her friend’s arm?” What’s that supposed to convey?
Mark S.
These stupid ladies should read some books about the recent Supreme Court: Roe almost got overturned in Casey and Webster. Then again, these ladies hardly have to worry; they’re rich enough to send their daughters to Sweden if need be.
Bulworth
And when abortion is criminalized and contraception is deemed to be “icky” it will somehow still be the Democrat’s fault.
Short Bus Bully
They want Democrat policies and the affiliation with their tribe to have pulled the lever for a republican.
Nom de Plume
Our media, summed up entirely and succinctly.
The Moar You Know
And it won’t be different for them, because they have money.
Mark S.
@Butch:
The deep bond that the 1% has about keeping the Bush tax cuts.
It’s something us peasants just don’t understand.
Cassidy
Is it bad that all I hear from these chattering idiots is “Oooh, Oooh, line me up against the wall next!”? These dumbasses, men and women, would do themselves some good to go read a history book or two.
shortstop
I think a decent case can be made for past “pro-life” efforts having been more smoke and mirrors than seriousness. Anti-choice fundraising (the real object) has always been most effective when the prize stays just out of reach of the rubes. So my attitude has always been to be watchful, speak out, verbally and financially support Planned Parenthood, and actively campaign against anti-choice candidates and presidents who can appoint anti-choice justices — but not to lose a great deal of sleep over the issue.
However, I don’t know how any woman looks at the totality of proposed legislation/commentary/policymaking from the right in the last couple of years and manages to deny that there’s currently a concerted effort to take women backward. It’s not just anti-abortion, Eileen and Zebib — have you noticed it’s anti-workplace equality, anti-contraception, anti-women’s leadership, anti-women?
c u n d gulag
To any women out there who think Mitt’s just fooling when he says he’s pro-life, and that Ryan is too, and that they wouldn’t dare overturn Roe, are fools.
They DO mean to take away choice.
And, if they can, limit contraceptives.
They want to overturn both Roe AND Griswold.
Liberals look at “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and see a work of fiction about a dystopian future.
Religious Conservatives look at it as a “How To…” manual.
Oh, and they’d love to repeal the 19th Amendment – and that’s almost 100 years old!
peorgietirebiter
Tell me this isn’t straight out of Dancin’ Dave’s Big Book of “some of Democtractic are saying” quotes. The “touched her arm” is added to sell the gag.
Bex
@Mark S.: You beat me to it. Women who live in the money bubble never have to worry about not having access to abortion. Those who are not financially well-endowed, and think they don’t have to worry about it, don’t think at all.
NotMax
*cough*Patriarchy 2.0*cough*
Romney endorser Bryan Fischer, he of the American Family Association and the airwaves (and who crowed about his ‘win’ in having an openly gay adviser to Romney booted*):
*one among a plethora of jaw-dropping pronouncements, such as “advocating the kidnapping of children from same-sex households and smuggling them to what he calls ‘normal’ homes” (Citation.
Zandar
@peorgietirebiter: Sorely tempted to add this to categories/taglines.
slag
Eileen and her foolish friend should get out more:
SatanicPanic
@Mark S.: Oh god, these people are so out of it. I couldn’t make a better case for punitively high tax rates for high income learners:
Stop writing those checks then, stupid. The world would be a better place.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Mark S.:
When I was in HS, in pre-Roe days, Mexico was where the girls from wealthy families took their sudden vacations.
quannlace
Some more advice for the Media, especially MSNBC. Can we please get rid of that stupid Debate Countdown clock? Remind viewers that the debate starts at 9PM isn’t enough? You really think people are glued to their sets thinking, ‘OMiGod. Only 8 hours, 32 minutes and 47 seconds to go! Oh wait, now it’s 46 seconds!”
***********
And please stop all the gleefull envisaging of what would happen if the election was a tie.
Violet
@Cassidy:
Right there with you, buddy.
MattM
Cokie must’ve read that AP piece before she went on Morning Edition pitching a variation on the same theme this morning.
Cacti
If there has to be a gender gap, I’d rather Obama be down 9 with men than down 9 with women.
More women vote.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@quannlace:
40-something 1%er private Christian-school parents. Clearly a swing-voter demographic if ever I saw one.
Next up: why neo-nazi skinheads who voted for Obama in 2008 are all for Romney this year, and why this means Obama is losing the youth vote en-masse!
The Other Bob
Maybe this is a silly question, but shouldn’t there be a stronger effort from Dems perspective to also reach out to men who demonstrate a pro R gender gap? I am not sure how to do this, but it seems like there must be some issue moving the men.
Maybe Dems need to ask men if they want the government to pass a law requiring their wives and daughters to be penetrated by an ultrasound if they are in the middle of bleeding to death and need an abortion.
NotMax
@https://balloon-juice.com/2012/10/22/mind-the-gap-ladies/#comment-3864800Higgs Boson’s Mate
Cue Bain/Romney yammering about the benefits of offshoring/outsourcing.
Violet
These women remind me of the “We’re VIP!” and “My nail lady doesn’t understand election issues” woman. They’re so insulated, they seriously have no idea.
I wish someone would take away their cars, cell phones, access to their bank accounts, and give them $50 bucks and throw them in the middle of a poor part of town and tell them they have to survive for a week. Oh, maybe give them the address of the local homeless shelter, since we’re feeling generous and all.
shortstop
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Funny!
Robin G.
Maybe it comes from growing up with a fiercely feminist father (even more so than my mother!), but it boggles me that an apparently significant majority of men don’t consider “women’s” rights to be a voting issue. How do you wind up thinking abortion doesn’t affect you? Or contraception? Or equal pay, when that means your wife has a bigger paycheck and your household income goes up?
These men are shooting themselves in the foot. It boggles me.
aimai
Oh fuck me, I heard Cokie Roberts or someone like LInda Wertheimer peddling this shit this morning on NPR. It was ridiculous, according to her, for Obama to be “scaring” women with all this women’s stuff because “abortion” is “settled law.” OK, maybe this contraception stuff and shutting down Planned Parenthood might jiggle a few female pendulums but hardly enough to move the race.
aimai
Cacti
@The Other Bob:
Most of the male gender gap comes from white men.
I’ll let you use your imagination for why that might be.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
You know who else took a hasty family vacation to Mexico?
aimai
@MattM:
Oops, Matt beat me to it. Should read comments first before posting.
tom
I think a better label for the “gender gap” would be the “Weisswurst Gap.”
It’s kind of a twofer.
Zifnab25
@NotMax: Extra hilarious, because abortion is illegal in 18 of 31 Mexican states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Mexico
I’m a little surprised pro-choice politicians don’t play the “Countries where abortion is illegal” card as much as they could. If nothing else, it would be a chilling reminder to the upper-class rich white ladies that the infant-tada can come for them, too.
Mike Goetz
Obama is winning Virginia, so all these people can go jump in a lake.
Robin G.
Side note: I still think Democrats are missing the mark by not talking about married women with regards to the contraception debate. “If a married woman doesn’t want to have twelve children, her only other option will be to stop sleeping with her husband. Maybe this doesn’t bother Senator X, but it would certainly bother me.”
Seems like there’s a few votes to be had in that line of argument.
Zifnab25
@Violet:
Isn’t that just Covenant Marriage aka the southern “My Husband Owns Me” law they were pushing in Fly-over Country a half-decade back?
quannlace
Ha. It would be like that scene in ‘Hairspray’ where Mrs. Pingleton is looking for Penny in the ‘dark’ part of town.
Violet
@Robin G.:
Maybe low info men think if women’s pay goes up, men’s pay goes down.
Cacti
@Mike Goetz:
And he’s +5 in Ohio in the latest Quinnipiac poll.
Linda Featheringill
@The Other Bob:
Outreach to men:
Good question. I don’t know the answer.
Violet
@Zifnab25: Sorry, I don’t know what you are talking about. My goal is to strip them of access to money and status and throw them into a situation where they have to have skills to live, with the idea that maybe if they lived it for awhile they’d be a bit more sympathetic.
I know, I know, I’m in fantasy land.
SenyorDave
@The Other Bob: As a man, I can say it: When it comes to voting, men (on average) are simply more stupid than women. When I say to some of my male co-workers that I think contraception is part of basic helath care for women many think that is a ridiculous concept. I think Limbaugh’s stupid remarks about Fluke had some traction because some men actually think that way. Not too many women outside of the lunatic fringe think that way.
mdblanche
Wait, I thought I heard someone scream the other day that all the polls were showing that there was no gender gap anymore. Are you saying someone was wrong on the internet?
@schrodinger’s cat:
Fixed. Where else would they get the idea that Andrew Sullivan and Chris Matthews are Democratic opinion leaders?
Cacti
@Violet:
More likely male ego. As the “man of the house” I SHOULD make more than my wife.
Zifnab25
@Violet: :-p Not twenty years back, there was a serious debate in this country about even letting women into the workplace to begin with. I think Republicans – men and women alike – are still trapped in that mindset.
If they saw a woman with $50 to her name sitting on a street corner trying to figure out how to make ends meet, the first response out of their mouths would be “Why don’t you go talk to your husband?”
NotMax
@Senyordave
How quickly their convictions would crumble if there were a mandatory trans-urethral probe required to get a prescription for V*agra.
Violet
@The Other Bob:
Maybe wives need to say, “No more sex if Romney is elected.” Lysistrata FTW.
Cacti
@mdblanche:
In a rational world, the media would be pointing out that but for white men, Romney would be screwed six ways to Sunday.
But since white males are the default frame of reference for everything in this country, the question is “why does Obama struggle with white men?”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Violet:
I’m afraid that for a fair number of men, their self-esteem within a relationship suffers if their wives/girlfriends make more money than they do. You’d think that in practice the tangible benefit of a larger paycheck stub would speak louder than very abstract ideas regarding gender roles, but apparently not. The breadwinner archetype is still a powerful part of the male myth.
Robin G.
@Cacti: I suspect there’s a lot of this, but even to low-info voters, $1+.77=$1.77 should not compare favorably to $1+$1=$2. Who wouldn’t rather have $2?
I know, I know, expecting math out of these voters is really asking too much. But still.
Violet
@NotMax:
Even a mandatory prostate check would wake up quite a few men. I wish some enterprising female legislators would add this sort of thing to bills all across the states. Maybe a campaign to get it in every state so lone female legislators wouldn’t feel so exposed.
maurinsky
I was thinking about how to appeal to men on the issues that directly affect women this morning. My first thought was that we should point out that the direct affect on women could have a secondary impact on men, i.e., if women don’t have access to birth control, men and women are going to have to have less sex.
Southern Beale
Also, “both sides do it” because the DNC wouldn’t allow a pro-life Democrat to speak at their convention. Too.
Sez the wingnuts at my blog.
aimai
@Robin G.:
I think that married women who use contraception are well aware of this. Most abortions and D and C’s happen to women who already have children or will go on to have children in another relationship. Its a total right wing story that this only affects unmarried sluts. Any woman who has been pregnant knows how close she came to having an ectopic pregnancy or needing a D and C for a miscarriage. However (some) married women don’t understand/know why they are told to “wait at home” for the dead fetus to “pass naturally” while other women in other states get given a safe D and C right away. The fact that you don’t have a single, federal, standard of care for miscarriage and abortion and fertility is completely opaque to people who may have lived their entire lives in a small state with a small circle of acquaintances. Those are the easy targets for Fox News. They simply don’t know that the reason they are getting substandard care is tha tthe only hospital is a Catholic Hospital.
aimai
aimai
@Violet:
There were several such attempts but they were shut down instantly and, in fact, two female legislators were fined for talking to directly about laws relating to women’s vaginas. There is an unbelievable amount of hostility adn pushback against women and men who take this shit up to the legislature and try to do to men what men routinely do to women.
aimai
Southern Beale
@Violet:
They have, and not just female legislators, male pro-choice legislators have as well. Usually they get withdrawn right away after “making their point” though.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Robin G.:
Just had this image of the low-info Republican voter as that stubborn baby in the Jimmy Fallon commercial.
“It’s MORE MONEY!”
“NO!” (Throws popcorn at Obama).
Liberty60
This is what I am hearing from Respectable Republican friends on Facebook- They smugly dismiss the Teatards, assured in the conviction that the crazy fringers won’t really destroy Medicare or Social Security. They will only cut off the welfare checks for the 47%.
Who of course, are Other People.
Southern Beale
By the way, saw on Facebook a woman post that she never votes because ever since the 2000 election and Gore v Bush she learned that “it’s all rigged, anyway.”
I mean, my God. What do you say to that?
Violet
@aimai: I’m aware of the isolated attempts. Has there been a concerted national effort? I think something like that could get attention and provide cover for women legislators–safety in numbers and all.
I don’t know if it would work–maybe it would backfire. I do wish there had been a coordinated attempt, even if only to raise awareness that the trans-vaginal ultrasound was completely unnecessary and the equivalent of the prostate exam/urethral catheter in terms of relevance to the medical procedure/medication.
Violet
@Southern Beale: “You’re stupid.” Seems like an appropriate response.
YoohooCthulhu
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I would go so far as to say that a lot of men, if placed in a situation where their salary didn’t change and they got to choose between their wives making more and their wives making less than them…would choose their wives making less, even though it’s less household income.
In other news, comments like this are probably what makes my girlfriend say I’m more feminist than her.
Cassidy
If you wimmenz would just cede the decisions of your lady parts to us all knowing white males, we wouldn’t have any problems.
Cassidy
@Violet: Concise, to the point. I like it.
Robin G.
@Southern Beale: I felt that way for a long time. I was 17 at Bush v. Gore (I’ll never understand why it wasn’t Bush v. Florida) and it was the first political event that I fully understood from an adult perspective. When your formative experience tells you that votes don’t really count… it’s hard to shake. Mind you, she still DOES need to shake it, because the only way to avoid future Bush v. Gores is to win by more than 500 votes. But it’s rough.
NotMax
@Southern Beale
Personally, I would (sarcastically) congratulate her for obviously also not seeing movies, watching television, attending theater or reading books, as the outcome is pre-determined.
And then promptly announce a pox on her house by practicing discommendation upon her.
YMMV.
ThresherK
“Turquoise” signs? Really, AP?
Is it a telling point that the AP can’t be bothered to report accurately a Democrat’s blue-sign-carrying supporters?
It’s a good thing Obama’s signs aren’t any closer to tan or brown, because we all know (snicker) what that means.
Joey Giraud
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
The breadwinner archetype is still a powerful part of the male myth.
It’s not a myth, and it’s not social. It’s human evolution.
scav
@Southern Beale: Ask if she plans never to lock her car doors , house doors and walk down dark alleys alone because burglers, muggers and rapists are just so cunning and stronger than her in any case? Lie back and enjoy it seems to be her motto.
Poopyman
I’m betting these ladies are about as real as Tommy Friedman’s cab drivers.
Brachiator
@Butch:
Lesbians.
@c u n d gulag:
Probably true, but as a number of states are showing, you don’t have to overturn Roe in order to severely restrict abortion. There is no doubt that Romney would applaud these efforts, and do nothing to counter them.
It really chaps my hide when these women, or pundits, talk about Roe being “settled law,” ignoring all the current attempts to restrict abortion or access to contraception as though this were nothing but a minor side show.
@Cacti:
A very good question. Odd that no reporters seem interested in investigating it.
catclub
@Liberty60: Wasn’t there some famous quote about not standing up and objecting when they came for some other group? I do not think it ended well.
NotMax
@ c u n d gulag
While not a women’s issue, per se, add in jettisoning Marbury v. Madison.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Joey Giraud:
Some evolved more than others, apparently.
danimal
OK, I’m going to make a report from the realm of the blingingly obvious.
There is still a gender gap.
The election is close, but there is a steady lead for Obama.
The post-convention bounce for Obama and the post-1st debate bounce for Romney created a lot of drama, over-enthusiasm and despair that distracted everyone from the basic truth: There is a steady lead for Obama.
The national press is always going to guide coverage to accentuate bounces, because otherwise the story is boring and obvious; there is a steady lead for Obama.
This fcuking happens every single election, yet people are always surprised at the polling and press through the election cycle. Look to the fundamentals, people will organize themselves around them accordingly. Carry on.
RaflW
Perhaps the country really did not learn its lesson and has to suffer another GOP disaster presidency before voters get that *what the GOP says they’ll do during the primary is what they’ll do in office*?
I dearly wish that we won’t have to go there, but way too many morans seem to be buying the Moderate Mitt fantasy. Good lard, its not like the compassionate conservative ruse wasn’t just exposed in recent memory. Blerhg!
NotMax
@danimal
Also too:
1) Turnout
2) See #1
Brachiator
@Joey Giraud:
RE: The breadwinner archetype is still a powerful part of the male myth.
HAhahahahahahaha! Good one.
@maurinsky:
Not necessarily true. There would likely be more pregnancies, but that’s about all you could say for sure. The odd thing is that, “more pregnancies or less sex” would be equally pleasing to some religious zealots.
Anya
I am not sure if Nate mentioned this but the male gender gap for the president is mostly due to white racist southerners.
Clockwork
The media has basically turned on Obama en masse one month before the election, surreal. I firmly believe that MSNBC was a bulwark against the Republican framed mainstream media, but they essientially gave the media a green light to go after Obama after their “analysis” of the first debate.
Never have these type of institutional forces been aligned against an incumbent President before.
Clockwork
The media has basically turned on Obama en masse one month before the election, surreal. I firmly believe that MSNBC was a bulwark against the Republican framed mainstream media, but they essientially gave the media a green light to go after Obama after their “analysis” of the first debate.
Never have these type of institutional forces been aligned against an incumbent President before.
danimal
@Brachiator: In my experience, more pregnancy most definitely equalled less sex. YMMV.
WereBear
@Joey Giraud: Rude noise.
We’ve only had “bread” for 12,000 years. Either get a grip on the slippery concepts of evolutionary psychology or get a steel codpiece, because you are sounding misogynistic.
AA+ Bonds
Pretty much all the English-language papers did away with their foreign correspondents too so we now have the cafe-huddled expat idiots of the AP writing all our Russia news
We’re fucked, because those folks don’t even speak Russian, and our President appointed Michael McFaul as ambassador which effectively says to Russia, “fuck you”
Persia
@The Other Bob: At this point I am honestly wondering if Romney’s doing better among men because Obama’s so popular with women. And I’m really not sure what you can do about that aside from changing culture.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Joey Giraud:
I take it that you’re not very familiar with the anthropological and archaeological literature regarding how food production in hunter-gatherer societies works, then?
ericblair
@AA+ Bonds:
Mind explaining the problem with McFaul? He certainly speaks Russian, and the flap in Russia is that he’s been meeting with green and human rights activists.
Hill Dweller
@Clockwork: MSNBC is every bit as bad as the other networks during the day. Moreover, NBC news, especially Todd and Gregory, are blatant Willard cheerleaders.
Willard has some very powerful people backing him. I think they are putting a massive amount of pressure on the media, whose default position is already “balance”, to give Willard good coverage.
The coverage of Willard’s touch football game yesterday was one of the more ridiculous things I’ve seen.
The Obama campaign seem to recognize the Village’s sudden Willard love, because they’ve got the President(and First Lady) doing a lot of non-traditional media.
Tom Q
@Clockwork: Well, according to history, they were pretty much the same against FDR in 1936. And the most prominent poll of the day told them Landon was going to win a landslide.
mds
Ya know, I’m pretty sure I read just this morning that Congressman Steve King (R-Dumbfuck) explicitly denounced Griswold v. Connecticut recently. A war on women? What an outrageous claim.
Brachiator
@danimal:
I was watching an episode of “Call the Midwife” last night. One segment featured a couple who were decidedly “frisky” during the wife’s pregnancy.
Mnemosyne
@Joey Giraud:
You might want to take a quick peek at societies outside of industrialized Europe and Asia before you go deciding that the current situation in those countries represents all of human evolution, everywhere, for all time.
It’s like the guy who looked at rape reports in specific urban neighborhoods in the modern United States and used that data to extrapolate that rape evolved naturally over hundreds of thousands of years to give men access to fertile women. Because, yanno, modern American society has always existed in its current form and so is an accurate window into the distant past, amirite?
Drew
Those people are delusional if they think a court majority hostile to Roe means nothing. Too man people these days conflate cynicism with intelligence. They’re wrong. Very wrong.
Ben Cisco
@NotMax:
Awesome.
sapient
@aimai: I heard Cokie too. Don’t know why I torture myself. But she’s been saying this for awhile – that “women don’t care about reproductive rights!” I saw her on some Sunday talk show weeks ago saying the same thing. In fact, it was right after the Democratic convention when she was showing her disgust that Democrats were pandering to women with these reproductive rights issues when, in fact, women don’t care a bit! And what about all of the pro-life Democrats that they’re alienating!
She’s a Republican clown. Her husband is a tedious Republican bore.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I remember one of those books, A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion, By Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer. They didn’t just base their work on urban neighborhoods in the modern US, but their work is nonetheless severely flawed (OK, totally full of shit), and has been deftly demolished by many other scientists.
greenergood
Have just quick scrolled through comments, so please forgive redundancy – but as a sophomore in college in 1976, I went to the infirmary and asked for the Pill, and lo, for $5 or so I was prescribed it. I had NO IDEA what my older counterparts had gone through to get that privilege. MANY women who did sit-ins and were arrested at my college’s infirmary to get contraception, and I just thought ‘Feh! of course I need the Pill and you’ll give it to me.’ I am ashamed at my ignorance, in awe of my elder-sisters, and yes you’re right, women just take this stuff for granted and in ‘liberal’ states will be gobsmacked when they find out the Supremes have gleefully cancelled women’s right to decide what happens to their own bodies, if we don’t get the non-Romney back into the White House.
SW
I warned you that the black guy was going to steal our women.
Splitting Image
In a sense, I actually agree with this. I don’t believe that any of the “pro-life” politicians are even vaguely concerned about banning abortion. Their collective sexual morality says otherwise.
On the other hand, they are acutely aware that abortion is the best means of splitting the vote on health care and getting millions of people who support (and depend on) hundreds of other forms of health care to vote against it. Once government funding for abortion became completely vilified, it became a hell of a lot easier to vilify government funding of health care of any kind.
In other words, the “pro-life” lobby is not pro-life, but it is determinedly anti-choice for anyone who can’t afford high-level private care. Once abortion is “banned”, Planned Parenthood is defunded, and Medicaid is abolished, abortion can be re-legalized by the Roberts court as a strictly private business transaction. After all, what right does the government have to regulate private industry?
High-income women keep the right to abortion, everyone else loses it. Win-win.
Brachiator
@Splitting Image:
The state of Mississippi disagrees with you.
fuckwit
These people are not “pro-life”, they are anti-sex.
That’s why they are trying to make birth control unavailable.
They don’t give a shit about life. They care about controlling who you fuck, when you fuck, why you fuck, and how to feel after you’ve fucked.
If you elect them, then, indeed, you’re fucked.