The Republican Party as a whole is demonstrating in actions and words that they just don’t give a damn about the needs of women - particularly when it comes to health and reproductive rights. For instance, on the campaign stump in Illinois this week, when asked by crowd attendees where the millions of women who rely on the myriad of services provided for by Planned Parenthood are supposed to go if that organization is shut down, Romney literally said, “They can go where ever they’d like to go, this is a free society”.
Notice the use of ‘they’. Now read this next sentence, again a direct quote from Willard Romney, “The federal government should not tax these people to pay for planned parenthood”. There it is – the They vs. These position, pitting Americans against each other.
This excerpt from Alternet hits a point that I blurt out every time I hear this issue coined as an entitlement program.
3. Never say Employer Paid Health Insurance.
–Instead, say Employee Earned Health Insurance.
When we say “employer paid,” we immediately think of it as something that’s given to the employee by their employer. But as I pointed out in my blog post, “It’s Not About Who Writes The Check—Stop The Republican Lie About Who Pays For Contraceptives,” all employee health insurance is earned by virtue of the employee’s labor. That makes it “paid for” by the employee, even if they aren’t the ones writing the checks to the insurance companies themselves. Employee health insurance is just one of several forms of compensation in exchange for labor, that include cash, retirement funds, long- and short-term disability coverage, etc.
Employee health insurance is not a “gift,” it is compensation in exchange for labor. Cease the labor and the compensation ceases right along with it. Employees earn their insurance. Say that. ~ By jillwklausen | Sourced from Daily Kos
Exactly! This is not about *free* – it is about an expectation to have full coverage that is paid for by each and every one of us, whether through our taxes in the form of subsidizing organizations like Planned Parenthood; or through our payroll deductions for health coverage at our jobs; or through our private insurance premiums that we pay directly.
Ignorant remarks like Romney’s, Santorum’s, Newt’s and a whole host of other pre-enlightenment brain repositories breed deeper resentment. It encourages those who do not value preventative health care and reproductive freedoms for women to think that it is their tax dollars, and theirs only, paying for all those “theys” out there looking for something *free*. How about the costs for services that I may find extraneous and unnecessary? Are we heading in a direction that opens the door for us all to become armchair medical experts?
We are not Stepford wives. Feminism is not destroying America (as your clergy leaders are telling you). Women do not use abortion for birth control. Contraception does not lead to higher promiscuity. Sex education does not encourage children to become sexually active. The highest teen pregnancies are in the bible-belt. The highest unwed pregnancies are in the bible-belt. You can say no, even to your husband. These are just a few items that are getting distorted and demonized by an ever-evolving Christianized Republican Party who are self-appointing themselves as our moral superiors and proposing laws that would force us to live in accordance with their beliefs.
Women’s rights are being trampled in one form or another across America. This is outrageous – and any woman who votes for any one of these men on the GOP 2012 ticket running for President; or the men AND women who voted for the Blunt Amendment in Congress; or any republican who votes with their caucus in the state bodies – is complicit in turning back the enormous efforts gained for women since the 1950s.
Consider yourselves Stepford wives in the flesh. Wake up! These same men (and the few women that are their colleagues) scream about the dangers and threats of Shariah Law coming to this country to rapture and oppress America’s women – and yet their proposals against women in this country get more egregious and hateful with every passing day.
What is happening in the conservative politics with the transition of the Republican Party has been coming for a long time and we are seeing the full-Monty unfolding before us in 2012. They are becoming the ReBiblican Party and god only knows where they are going next after they are done taking Dominion over our uteruses.
As I repeat often – this is no longer simple Party politics of Democrats vs. Republicans – it is seriously – Freedom vs. Theocracy.
It is important to remember that not all of these players are Dominionist and many have no allegiance to a particular religious faith. What these factions share in common is power. They are well-funded, well-organized and driven. Privatization serves the needs of the religious and non-religious goals of these people. It is a co-mingling of Dominionists, Secessionists, Corporatists, and a plethora of extremists.
Walkaway, I understand the distorted reality. However Paxson, Friess & others could not have gained their wealth & grown their business empires without common sense and an ability to identify competent individuals.
However, maybe common sense in one area does not carry over to others.
Yes, people can retain competency in one area while being out of touch in others. That’s common. Another common thing is rich dominionists being crooks and scam artists. There seems to be a connection there (but I do think they believe the stuff they preach and support).
Another good post, and one that describes well one aspect of the fight.
It’s just as bad for the poor and (racial/ethnic) minorities. They’ve got this mythical “Leave it to Beaver” idea of the 50s (and earlier) and that is their goal… where everyone is like them and fits this nice stereotype (and like most stereotypes, false). If you don’t fit – you can just leave (the country or life itself).
There is no room in their world for illness, or poverty, or rights. If you’re ill, you’ve sinned and are being punished. If you’re poor, you’ve sinned and are being punished. Rights? Forget about them, your “Right” is to obey their preachers and be a “good” Christian. Women being people and not this nice “thing” to admire, to lust after, and which must be subservient… it doesn’t even compute to them. (“Women are free” as long as they’re in their place and “under authority” (submission).)
In other words, all surface and no depth.
Something that has been on my mind a lot lately… how the “Good Christians” (as compared to REAL Christians) think that everyone is evil at heart and must be made to be good. I hear and see evidence of this all the time, but it ignores reality – that many people are good at heart and only fail in that goodness now and then (which, by the way, is actually more accurate in a scriptural sense). They’ve bought into many different aspects of the old Calvinist thinking – total depravity of man (maybe we could use that to say that women aren’t depraved), God punishes sin with suffering and rewards obedience with good things, the world (physical) is evil, and so on. All false and if you REALLY have studied the scriptures (as in trying to do true Biblical scholarship), you know that these ideas also are anti-Christian and go against what Jesus taught and against the prophets and sages of the OT.
This is their worldview and they make their choices based on that worldview.
As far as the candidates and the rich b*st*rds behind them, well, they’re only parroting what they believe. They’re motivated by religious ideology and not by reality. To those folks, they’re in a struggle for God, and they HAVE to make this world obey or God will smite them. Intelligence has little to do with it… they’re being motivated by emotions, and that is how they operate. People expect them to be rational and logical, but while emotions DO have a logic behind them and once understood can generally be considered rational… it’s not the same sort of thinking as with intelligence and I guess you could say “Common Sense”.
That is why people think the dominionists are ignorant and stupid, or are confused by their words, choices, and actions. They are coming from a really distorted perspective on reality – one purely shaped by their ideology.
Thank you for another great post!
I’ve been pondering this issue for awhile. Is this whole birth control/women’s rights issue designed to keep religious right wing folks from focusing on an improving economy? Or is it a smokescreen to distract women & liberals from something else?
Is the clown car of candidates (Bachmann, Palin, Perry, Cain, Santorum) meant to be serious? If the billionaires like Friess, Paxon, Prince are so smart and savvy, why are they bringing forward such abysmal candidates?
It all makes me shake my head.
Thank you again.