After several months of political misogyny, capped off by two weeks of continued verbal attacks by the nominal head of the regressive wing of the Republican Party, we had to shake our heads yesterday when even more extremist Republican state legislators across the country decided to go after women again.
We think it's important to note - there is a massive and growing number of sane, moderate Republicans in America who simply can't understand what kind of crazy thoughts have been going through the minds of their so-called Republican leaders these days. We feel for them, as the political party they claim wants virtually nothing to do with them.
In Wisconsin - a state that's become known more for extremist Republican legislation than cheese or their NFL team - the Republican controlled state assembly passed an anti-women's bill EARLY on Wednesday morning (around 2 AM) that was at exact counter-purposes with its stated goal. The bill would limit insurance coverage for abortions - making it more likely that those wanting abortions would be forced to go to disreputable providers, like the old pre-Roe vs. Wade back alley butchers who killed or maimed so many women. At the same time the Wisconsin bill mandated that schools teach abstinence-only in sex-education classes - which, it's statistically proven, is an almost certain way to increase, not decrease, the number of unwanted teen pregnancies.
Arizona's insane Republicans didn't want to be outdone, however. So on Wednesday, Arizona legislators in the Arizona Senate judiciary committee endorsed a bill that would require a woman to get an affidavit that she takes birth control pills to treat medical conditions, if she wants it covered by her insurance. The bill also makes it so that an employer can fire a woman for using birth control to prevent pregnancy, if the woman has no other medical reason to take the medication, and the employer decides they have a "moral issue" with the employee taking birth control to prevent pregnancy.
The depth of regressive Republican depravity and disrespect goes farther than just toward women, though. As former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich noted Tuesday, the breakdown in public morality for those who carry the Republican label has extended far beyond women, deep into Wall Street, and even throughout the daily business of our government - even at the highest levels.
On Wednesday, in order to be able to bring up a small business jobs bill that was buried on the Senate docket, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid had to threaten to force a series of cloture votes on approving seventeen judicial nominees chosen by President Obama. Republicans had already admitted they had no problems with the nominees - yet they were still going to block the appointments anyway, and continue stalling the debate on the small business jobs bill. After Reid appeared to be going through with the threat, Republican Mitch McConnell finally caved, and agreed to work out a compromise with Senate Democrats, so that both sides could get to work on the latest jobs bill.
We don't recommend that Reid trust McConnell too deeply, however.
In the same hour we got word of Senate Republicans agreeing to compromise with Senate Democrats, House Republicans announced they were going back on the hard-won agreement Republican extremists were forced into making on the budget with House Democrats last summer.
Yes, that's right; House Republicans are threatening to shut down the government again, in the middle of an election year, unless they get their way - on another topic that was already litigated, where they lost.
For a long time now, we've wondered if the only way to get through the thick skulls of the extremist regressive Republicans who've hijacked their political party, was to beat on their heads with stacks of facts, while angry constituents beat on their doors. However, after observing the recent conduct of these so-called conservatives, we think that maybe the best method of reaching these folks might be to take a page from their own textbook, and reach out to them through men's health issues.
We think starting by mandating digital prostate exams, conducted by angry female doctors wearing chain-mail gloves, might finally get their attention, and help them understand how disrespectful and stupid their actions have become.
