By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZMcALLEN, Texas |...There is a wide gap between them. Women are readily welcomed and gladly accepted in the Democratic Party. They are used and abused in the Republican Party. It's all out there for review, so open and clear. You see Vice-President Kamala Harris out there pretty much every day. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, too.
Republicans have never had a female vice-president, nor a female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Never, as in not through our national history. Women have braved wars and even started them in ancient times.
Here in our inclusive political arena, Republican women have risen only so much. We have a few in the U.S. Senate, a few more in the House and a gaggle of state governors.
Never a Republican vice-president or Speaker of the House, again we note.
And these days, it is issues important to women - abortion and IVF - that seem to be manipulated by Republican men. They are after an all-out, everywhere ban on abortion and are now pushing an effort to outlaw IVF treatments. So much for the party of family. They are hellbent, eyes wide-open, feelings at their ankles, mouths in an animalistic frothing.
Why do women stay with the ever-hateful Republican Party?
Is it all about Us vs. Them on important societal issues - just another sport? Fight the transgenders, tease a Social Security trimming that will hurt seniors, ban books, screw with voting rights, gerrymander to hold power, abuse a homely southern senator into giving the worst State of The Union response on record (a housewife kin the kitchen).
You can list your own, as I am sure there are more examples. The current Republican Party is nothing if not a raging work-in-progress on open racism, bigotry and all-around hate. We stopped reeling long ago. The script is in place and being acted upon. This is the party of Donald J. Trump, American Nazi.
Once, hope had it that women might gain stature within the GOP. It once fronted a woman for president (Elizabeth Dole, wife of U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, an admirable gent back in the day). Once, it posted one for Veep (Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin) and once it had actually leadership in the House.
Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican U.S. Senator from Maine, ran for president in 1964.
Yes, names and dates are out there for history buffs and political junkies.
But we write about today, about today's Republican Party. It is a doozie of a gang of self-serving politicians who long-ago (2016?) dropped all pretense and went anti-America bonkers. It found an audience, yes.
It delivered New Republican Women like Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado's Lauren Boebert in the House (see photo below). They arrived fresh off a racist Romper Room, or something like it. Their legislative input has been a Big Zero, neither offering signature proposals or winning Bills. But they are the blouse & skirt Face of The GOP these days.
Taylor Greene has earned the job of official batshit screamer at the State of The Union addresses by the president; sexy, playful Boebert is apparently fond of fondling in public theater settings (a Beetlejuice performance in Denver). Not quite the stage mom offered by TV back in the day, when June Cleaver of Leave It To Beaver wouldn't even wink sexually at TV husband Ward Cleaver.
But that was TV, something for the American Living Room.
Hollywood was a bit more serious, attune with reality in offering The Stepford Wives and Diary of A Mad Housewife. You can smile and laugh about these characterizations, but they do offer a looksee into our moving times.
Are Democrats better at accepting women as equals.
Yes, far better.
Any 1st Year political science student could point to this and that female Democrat public servant and likely not be able to match her with a Republican counterpart. Our own state, Texas, is top-heavy with males in the State Legislature, currently led by the Republican majority.
A strong Republican governor from the weaker sex? Maybe Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, although she's not in a prime-time sort of state. Sanders is a tough broad rough on a man's eyes, but she seems to be running her state like Republican Greg Abbott lashes Texas. Once, she was being talked about roundly as a potential vice-presidential running mate for the reputed misogynist Trump.
Take this is a brief looksee into the Republican outhouse and not as any sort of White Paper on the topic. We could write books - books! - about the state of our national politics, as many journalists are doing.
Our bent here is to simply shine the discount flashlight on a sliver of what's going on.
The Republican Party is likely keeping loads of shrinks in business, is what we would add...
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