Considering that there is a sexual-assaulter-in-chief sitting in the White House, it’s hardly surprising that the Republican Party isn’t having the kind of success they’d hoped for in increasing the number of women in their congressional caucuses.
Republicans were successful in recruiting a record-breaking number of women to run for seats across the country, an effort meant to reshape a GOP conference that now includes just 23 women out of 236 members.
However, given the political headwinds facing the GOP in this year’s midterm elections, it appears the party will be fortunate to get voters to back even that many of its female candidates. And in a worst-case scenario, the party could end up having 10 fewer GOP women in the 116th Congress.
“2018 is the year of the woman — except on the Republican side, where the ranks of GOP women are likely to shrink,” said David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report. “It’s a fairly dire situation for Republican women in the House.”
The Republicans have been lucky to win two out of the past five presidential elections despite losing the popular vote and every single ethnic, religious and sexual orientation group other than Mormons. They won’t be so fortunate if women come to see the Democratic Party as their natural home and the Republican Party as their implacable foes. But just as otherwise socially conservative Muslims are running away from the GOP, and just as potential supporters in the Asian and Latino communities are fleeing, this year is developing into an opportunity for the Democrats to make huge gains out of what is essentially a gift. The misogynistic white nationalist Grand Old Party is effectively excluding anyone who isn’t white, male, and at least fifty years old.
They’re doing this largely because they want things that way, even though it makes little medium-to-long term political sense.
William F. Buckley said, “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling ‘Stop.’” But time doesn’t stop. Heraclitus was right when he noted that you can never step into the same river twice. The 1950’s aren’t coming back, and women aren’t going to keep going back to a party that doesn’t recognize their advances since then.
I remember when Michele Bachmann ran for POTUS in 2012. Within the GOP, she had a passing possibility at getting the nod, albeit it wasn’t a strong possibility. But she ran after the “success” of the McCain/Palin ticket. To be fair, in 2008 Palin had a huge phalanx of worshipping (I mean that term) fans, including most of my rightwing fundie family members (they literally held a memorial with flowers when PALIN lost – not McCain, Palin – in 2008). So Bachmann had something to go on in terms of her campaign.
Yet and still the Dominionists in the GOP came out against Bachmann bc seriously Baby Jeebus wouldn’t like to have a Lady Parts as Head of the Nation and Commander in Chief. It would be just barely “ok” for a Lady Parts to be Vice POTUS but not the Top Dawg. That’s for XY chromosomes only.
I will never understand Republican women and why they put up with this crap, but they do. However, the Christiany women in my family are all totally into that “Man is the Head of the Household and Closer to g-d than a lowly female is” b.s.
So I dunno how popular female GOP candidates will be either with the male or female voters. It’s a Cult that doesn’t particularly truck with strong female leaders, except in very limited circumstances. Apparently it helps a lot of they’re kind of dumb, racist, nasty, white supremacist and pretty nutty. See also, Ward, Kelly.
Maybe there’s GOP women out there “fleeing” the GOP, but I’m not seeing a lot of them from where I sit. YMMV. My experience is anecdotal.
I still see a car regularly with a McCain/Palin 2008 bumper sticker with the ‘McCain’ neatly razored off.
implacable?
. . . current Banana Republicans would be difficult to conceptualize.
…and it’s been fixed.
In my county primaries every single female candidate on the ballot did better than her opponent(s)…except the lone Republican female candidate. It will be interesting to see if she, the incumbent, performs the same way in the general.
For the life of me, I’m never going to understand or forgive the women and people of color who voted for Trump, against their own interests. One look at his history showed his blatant misogyny and racism.
The “Christians”, too, shall forever be tainted for their hypocrisy in voting for this travesty. He represents just about every flaw and evil they supposedly pray against. Turns out that they are blind to evil as long as they get their Supremes and tax cuts.
It would be great if these voters swallowed their false pride and voted against the Republicans this time, but my guess is that they won’t.
Trump has had what used to be called a Come to Jesus conversion. This revokes all feelings of disgust because of he is now pure as driven snow. This will continue until he commits another grievous sin and has to forgiven again.
Alternatively, Trump has been anointed by God to start the End of Times. As such, he doesn’t NEED forgiveness because God can use even the Most Flawed in His Work. And Christians will bow to Trump or will burn in Hell forever.
I hope this helps you understand that Xtian Fundies will stay with him LITERALLY until Hell Freezes Over.
BTW, in case you decide that you doubt the conversion, I would remind you that it doesn’t matter what you think … only what the Xtian Fundies think. Same goes for the End of Times.
Interesting times, indeed.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Republican women fleeing the party? The party all those great accomplishments on behalf of women? The party that stands up so courageously to those who would take away their rights and send them back to the kitchen, to stand barefoot and pregnant?
Cyndi McCain’s name being put up as who the Gov should choose to replace John.
I’m saving my analysis for post-election
There’s no substitute for getting out the vote in November.
Evil never sleeps. The Republicans never give up, never, not even after they’age lost.
Nothing is settled law, no election goes uncontested,it’s never over even after the recount. They’ve lost the popular vote in 6/7 presidential elections and they are on the verge of a super majority on the Supreme Court with a completely unfit human being in the White House.
If Democratic base has learned any one thing, in the last 25 years,that has to be it. You have to outwork your opponent. And when your opponent believes they are in an existential fight with you, the you are in an existential fight with them.
Don’t be a patsy.
“The misogynistic white nationalist Grand Old Party is effectively excluding anyone who isn’t white, male, and at least fifty years old.”
Which makes manipulating the voting rolls even more critical.
The BBC recently ran this piece about the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention, which happened 50 years ago this week, with commentary by James Galbraith, son of economist J.K. Galbraith, to this effect:
“The Democrat[ic] party lost its working-class base…Today it appeals to two tails of the economy: well-off urban professionals and minorities, making it hard for the party to have a coherent message, which is what the Republicans have. The Democrat[ic] split deepened and led to Donald Trump today.”
True or not?
the first problem is that like most writers he says “working class” when what he means is specifically the white working class. The white working class haven’t been Democrats since Lyndon Johnson, that doesn’t mean civil rights are a bad idea.
don’t fucking tell me the Democrats created Trump, he’s Republican to the core and embodies the awfulness that Republicans have been working toward since Reagan. The Repubs do, certainly, have a coherent message, which is white supremacy.