"Soft" Rhetoric, Hard Reali-TEA

On Monday, we discussed the "helpful advice" Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey (R-Reno) was offering his Republican Party in "how to talk to women". He said his party needs to "show empathy" and "know why they feel the way they do". Apparently, it's also important to show some condescension along with that "empathy".

Yet as Hickey and a crew of national Republicans are trying hard to spin their "kinder, gentler, woman friendly Republican Party" into a "softer light", the usual G-O-TEA suspects refuse to give up their hard "TEA". Case in point: Greg Brannon. He's running for US Senate in North Carolina. And he recently said this.



Once again, G-O-TEA politicians are spreading misinformation about Planned Parenthood. And once again, G-O-TEA politicians are resorting to slut shaming. And it's not just Greg Brannon stooping to the bottom of the barrel for more ammunition to use on the ongoing G-O-TEA War on Women.

In recent weeks, "Uncle Sugar" Mike Huckabee has become a top general in the G-O-TEA's War on Women. And he doesn't seem to want to relinquish this role any time soon. Even as he's called women "a special treasure", he's nonetheless endorsed looting that treasure (by stripping women of their civil rights) as "how we win elections".

And it doesn't even stop there. Even as some G-O-TEA leaders call for "softer" rhetoric, none of them are backing away from their extreme ideology. Rather, they keep doubling down on it!

Contrary to what Pat Hickey and national Republican "leaders" want us to think, there's no such thing as a "kinder, gentler" war. There's still violence. There's still bloodshed. And in this case, America's women realize their health care and civil rights are still under attack. No amount of "softer" rhetoric can change this hard reality.

Double Down?

Last week, it was thrust back into the spotlight. A state and a hospital were refusing to grant a woman her last wish. A former Governor declared that women must do better at "controlling their libidos". And a number of G-O-TEA pundits (including a couple former Members of Congress) have resorted to blaming women for everything from extramarital affairs to "bad parenting" (for daring to work outside the home).



Oh, yes. That's right. The G-O-TEA War on Women rages on, and it shows no signs of letting up any time soon.

Not only have they been sinking to new lows to attack progressives who dare to challenge their assertion that "family values" require devaluing women, but they're even resorting to attacking their own. Why? Even when they claim the War on Women is over, they keep fighting. Why is that? Why are they so determined to insult American women again and again and again and again?



Is this what we're to expect from the Republican Party going forward? Is this the inevitable conclusion of their "rebranding campaign"?

But on the self-pitying right, you can never lose by blaming the media for coddling awful Democrats. [Senator Rand] Paul’s [R-Kentucky] brilliant declaration about women winning the war on women was likewise fact-challenged and paranoid. “I don’t see so much that women are downtrodden. I see women rising up and doing great things,” he told David Gregory. “In fact, I worry about our young men sometimes because I think the women are out-competing the men in our world.”

Never mind that women still make less than men and are more likely to live in poverty. Even more cruelly, the man who opposes legal abortion and the contraception-coverage mandate also suggested last Thursday that women who have “too many” children should lose welfare support. “Maybe we have to say, ‘Enough’s enough, you shouldn’t be having kids after a certain amount,’” Paul said Thursday. He backed off a bit on CNN Sunday morning, telling Candy Crowley: “I mused about how you’d have a government policy, but I actually came down saying it would be very difficult to have a government policy,” Paul said.

Only last week reasonably smart people declared that Paul was the beneficiary of Chris Christie’s implosion. The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart called him the new “front-runner,” and Andrew Sullivan endorsed Beinart’s piece, tweeting, “Those who dismiss Rand Paul’s chances are missing something, I think — a revival of true small-gov’t conservatism.”

Believe it or not, Rand Paul now stands a real chance at becoming Republicans' 2016 Presidential Nominee. It remains to be seen whether his recent War on Women remarks will make more Republicans uncomfortable with his likely candidcacy... Or if this will only strengthen his appeal with the 21st Century Know Nothings who comprise the base of today's Republican Party.

And it remains to be seen how much longer these G-O-TEA politicians will continue their War on Women. Will they ever realize the folly of antagonizing over 50% of the nation? Or will they try doubling down (yet again) all the way to Las Vegas in 2016?

Let It Go.

How would you feel if your last wishes were not granted... Or even considered? How would you feel if your family members had to go to court and beg a judge to let them grant your last wishes? How would you feel if you were left to become a national laughingstock, and you couldn't even utter a single word in your own defense?

Believe it or not, this garish nightmare has become reality for the family of Marlise Munoz.

Erick and Marlise Munoz were both paramedics, and had discussed her wishes that she not be on "life-sustaining" measures if she were to become brain dead.

John Peter Smith Hospital says that they are just trying to follow Texas law that states Texas law that says "you cannot withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment for a pregnant patient."

Mr. Munoz has filed an emergency motion with the court, and a complaint against John Peter Smith Hospital that he hopes will allow him to have the hospital disconnect the machines "so that her family can take her body and give her a proper burial."

"Marlise Munoz is legally dead, and to further conduct surgical procedures on a deceased body is nothing short of outrageous," her husband says in the motion.

Marlise Munoz has been legally dead since November 26, yet a hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, is keeping her corpse "alive" against the wishes of Munoz and her family. Why? The hospital claims it's obeying Texas law.

Never mind that the fetus has been described as "severely abnormal" and has no guarantee of surviving childhood. And never mind that this fetus is inside a legally dead body. Apparently, this Fort Worth hospital and the State of Texas are more interested in playing Frankenstein games than respecting the family's wishes (as well as those of Marlise Munoz herself).

When did this ever become acceptable behavior? When did it become acceptable to deny a dying woman her final wish to rest in peace? And when did a party supposedly espousing values of "freedom, personal responsibility, and individual liberty" become the party of forced birth under any & all circumstances... Even dead ones?

Perhaps Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) can clue us in?

"If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government then so be it! Let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be," Huckabee said.

Huckabee argued that Democrats "think that women are nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have the government provide for them birth control medication."

No, Huckster. You got it completely wrong. You and your fellow G-O-TEA politicians continue insulting the women of America by declaring that you have complete control over all American women's bodies and health care decisions. Seriously, who decided to make you the judge, jury, executioner, doctor, pharmacist, and deity (all rolled into one sleazy politician) ruling over all American women?

Sadly, Mike Huckabee, some Texas G-O-TEA yahoos, and the Washoe County Republican Party are not alone in their desire to escalate the G-O-TEA's War on Women. This weekend, the Republican National Committee (RNC) looks set to double down (again) on its extreme anti-choice agenda. And that's coming on the heels of Rep. Steve Pearce (R-New Mexico) "enlightening America" with his thoughts on marriage. And of course, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Yep, Texas) sharing his thoughts on women and "servitude". And then, we can't forget their House G-O-TEA colleagues' proposed bill to force the IRS to audit rape victims.

And they wonder why their party has trouble connecting with American women? Have they tried refraining from constant threats to take away their civil rights?

This brings us back to Fort Worth, Texas, and the horrifying case of Marlise Munoz. It's saddening enough for her family that they had to find her unconscious on the kitchen floor. It's even worse to see her declared legally dead. And it's downright cruel and unusual punishment to force this family through such a disgusting legal clusterfuck, just so some G-O-TEA politicians can strut their stuff in front of their extreme(ly deranged) base.

And to think, some G-O-TEA players want to put their party's latest & greatest Culture Warriors on full display here in Nevada in 2016? Can Las Vegas truly handle that? Perhaps we should just let that one go.