The Fall of the GOP: Silence is Stupid

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by: jeantinley

(Another take on the topic of the day. – promoted by ProgressiveCowgirl)

I recently posted this tweet on Twitter: “Memo to 2014 Dem candidates: Ask your GOP opponent his/her opinion on rape and forced birth. Your win will be assured.” It was retweeted quite a few times. And I honestly think it is a great idea. Look what happened to Akin, Mourdock, and Roger “some girls rape so easy” Rivard.

There is a recurring theme among the GOP, from Ann Coulter to Jane Norton and, most recently, Mario Nicolais (in a Lynn Bartels article) that “nobody wants to talk about social issues. They’re not important. The economy is important.” This election proved them wrong. More than 7 million women voted than in 2008. This was due in a large part to Planned Parenthood’s “Women Are Watching” campaign, and organizations such as Emily’s List. And, especially, an incumbent President who supported both reproductive freedom and equal pay for women.

The GOP’s harsh party platform and the unprecedented amount of anti-women legislation both proposed and passed in 2011 and 2012 was unacceptable to many, many people. The GOP simply refuses to admit that reproductive freedom IS a “pocketbook issue.” Deciding when, if, and how many children to have is an economic issue. To pretend otherwise is foolish beyond belief. And yet the GOP persists in trying to restrict abortion and contraceptive access.

For young women in particular, an unplanned pregnancy can derail, or even end, educational and career plans. Young women need to decide what is right for them. Some old dinosaur of a legislator has no right to force HIS decision upon her. The GOP just doesn’t GET that.

Married women, too, like to plan their families. The GOP has NO business interfering with the relationships between doctors and patients, or with employers and employees regarding contraceptive coverage. Who really cares about their employer’s “moral conscience”? Not I. And if it would interfere with my personal family planning decisions, I would be nothing short of outraged.

So the GOP “doesn’t like to talk about these things”? Maybe it’s time to examine why, and admit that these policies, created to pander to a small but noisy extremist fringe, have failed. The GOP needs to understand that the US is not, never will be, and was never intended to be a “Christian Nation.” There is much more diversity. The views of the Christian Right have no place in politics. Separation of Church and State, remember?

The GOP can hardly expect to continue sneakily trying to pass garbage, like Chris Holbert’s insane attempt to attach an anti-abortion measure to the bi-partisan budget, and not get soundly smacked for it. Women ARE watching, and we DID “Remember in November.” So did the men who love and respect us. And we will again, in 2014 and 2016, until the anti-choice dinosaurs are gone.

And good luck pandering to Latinos and LGBT people. I was utterly revolted by Frank McNulty’s shenanigans over civil unions last year, and am beyond thrilled that Mark Ferrandino is the new Speaker. He will be excellent 🙂 The Latino vote pushed Colorado blue 🙂 Why? The harsh GOP rhetoric. In closing, I leave you with this: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

11 thoughts on “The Fall of the GOP: Silence is Stupid”

Mario_Nicolais says:

November 9, 2012 at 11:00 pm

I don’t usually comment here, but thought I’d just clarify. What I said to the Denver Post is actually the exact opposite – not only do Republicans need to be prepared to discuss social issues, but they should expect it.

Maybe you just saw the first part of the quote where I am para-phrasing what I have heard from many people. My view is expressed in the second part of the quote, the part about compassion.

That, and after last session I don’t believe anyone could accuse me personally of running and hiding from social issues. 😉

Here is the actual full quote I gave:

“I know that there are a lot of Republicans who have said, ‘Look, why do we even have to talk about this? Can’t we just talk about jobs and the economy? That’s the important part,’ ” Nicolais said.

“But when people don’t trust you to be compassionate about the people they love and the people they want to spend their lives with, they’re certainly not going to trust you to be compassionate about jobs and the economy.”

Read more: Colorado Republicans examine what went wrong, what needs to change – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/poli…

Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/term…

Anyway, no harm, no foul. Just want to be clear where I stand.

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1. jeantinley says:
  
  November 10, 2012 at 12:27 am
  
  I did read the whole quote, but only used the first part because many Republicans have claimed that social issues weren’t relevant. I am a life-long Republican, and very unhappy with the party. My choices now are to either help reform, or turn my back and register as a Dem. Or stay and vote Dem.
  
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  1. Mario_Nicolais says:
    
    November 10, 2012 at 1:14 am
    
    Trust me, I’ve learned to grow a very thick skin. But I didn’t believe you had any malicious motive in any event.
    
    Also, I think you’re original post could actually be taken to mean exactly what I had said, it just seemed a bit ambiguous – as though I may have been one of the GOP trying to avoid these questions. Hence the “clarification.” 🙂
    
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    1. jeantinley says:
      
      November 10, 2012 at 5:57 am
      
      I read the article this morning, after reading about Ann Coulter (with whom I was friends in the 1990’s, in NYC. We’ve lost touch, and she’s lost her mind) ranting about how people don’t want to talk (or think? can’t remember exactly) about social issues, and Akin and Mourdock had to shoot off their mouths about rape, and blew two winnable seats. The problem wasn’t them shooting their mouths off, the problem is that their views were representative of the party, but not the electorate.
      
      And I thought, “There it is again.” The GOP seems to think that it’s necessary to legislate rape and abortion, but they don’t like to reveal how extremist their views really are. They say, let’s focus on jobs and the economy. And let’s make that our message. The social issues are not the focus. But…they are. No jobs bills. 135 anti-woman bills, if I remember correctly.
      
      The second half of your comment was very perceptive. People do not trust the GOP to be compassionate. The GOP does seem to think that women will vote the way their men tell them to, and that LGBT equality (and their votes) are of no account. This is an enormous, gigantic, huge mistake.
      
      I don’t know if you realize how truly angry women are with the GOP’s misogynistic “crusty old white men,” as Penry & Wittwer put it. Or how hateful and hurtful Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A day was to LGBT people. But I for one will do everything in my power to ensure that they are kicked out in large measure in 2014. And 2016. For my daughter’s sake.
      
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      1. harrydoby says:
        
        November 10, 2012 at 7:14 am
        
        Her friends had her convinced that he’d truly help small businesses like hers and her circle.
        
        But the thought that Romney would pick the next Supreme Court justice that would surely overturn Roe v. Wade and take us into the bad old days of coat hanger abortions convinced her that there are larger issues afoot. And the economy is actually doing better, with prospects improving no matter who is running the country.
        
        +1 for Obama
        
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        jeantinley says:
        
        November 10, 2012 at 7:26 am
        
        Obama did have 18 tax cuts for small businesses. A friend of mine was firmly in Romney’s camp (also a small business owner) until I told her that he would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions. She’s diabetic, her daughter has birth defects. Romney did say (once) that he wouldn’t eliminate the coverage, but of course his campaign walked it back the very next day. And they never did clarify exactly how he planned to “repeal and replace” ACA. He had to pander to too many masters.
        
        She’s also adamantly pro-choice. I emailed her the PP ads where Romney promised to overturn Roe v. Wade and defund Planned Parenthood.
        
        I’m very happy that your wife chose to vote for the President 🙂 Romney was a deeply flawed candidate.
        
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        harrydoby says:
        
        November 10, 2012 at 7:56 am
        
        From a deeply flawed party that has lost its way.
        
        There’s plenty of room for a small government, “just-get-out-of-my-way entrepreneurs” party. Heck, there’s a lot of Democrats that would agree.
        
        But when the “Do as I say, not as I do” religious zealots took over the GOP with the help of cynical power brokers doing the bidding of a few billionaires, inevitably, people caught on to the scam.
        
        Demographics is driving the change as well. Between disaffected former Republicans, and change occurring with every funeral (and each birth), “your father’s GOP” is headed into oblivion. Something else will surely take its place.
        
        The two party system will survive, but the one of them will be the Grand New Party.
        
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Lurker19 says:

November 10, 2012 at 12:00 am

to stop alienating minorities, because they lost so many minority votes.

But there is a far larger demographic, one that they lost by a 19% margin in the presidential vote that they are largely ignoring.

The only Repub I’ve heard mention the fact that her party should stop alienating women (at least so far as I know) is Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

When an elected GOP official has a hissy fit in public in the state house because someone said the word “vagina,” that tells me Repubs are terrified of women.

One way to control your fear is to demean and diminish the object of your fear.

Well, fellas, this old broad is here to let you know, I’m glad you seek to push women’s rights back into the 50s, because that helps my party.

Not just the Latino vote made Colorado true blue. Keep on trying to pass legislation to make women barefoot and pregnant. And women will keep voting against you.

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1. jeantinley says:
  
  November 10, 2012 at 6:20 am
  
  And yes, we will indeed. I’m looking forward to a rout in 2014. Ohio’s lame-duck session is trying to revive the “Heartbeat Bill,” to ban abortions after a heartbeat is detected, usually around 6 or 7 weeks. They’ve lost their minds if they think we’ll just sit idly by. Over a thousand of us in one FB group are furious, and I just tweeted about it. OH’s legislature is in for a surprise.
  
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GalapagoLarry says:

November 10, 2012 at 7:12 pm

I can add nothing. One of the best discussions I’ve read on the GOP’s cluelessness.

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fatboy says:

November 10, 2012 at 8:35 pm

have had long conversations on this issue. The youngest voting in her first election is as blue as they come. The oldest who’s first election was 08 and voted R then voted for the President this time. This issue was the tipping point for her. One of her comments was that she didn’t think they would say such stupid stuff if they were asked the question in the context of the woman being their wife or daughters. Abortion is the law of the land people just need to get over it. If they personally don’t want one fine. Don’t be trying to force another unwanted child into the world.

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