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Republicans ignore women as usual

Editor, Index-Tribune:

 

In video and print we learn that Republicans acknowledge they lost the 2012 presidential race partly because they failed to get the Hispanic vote. I have not heard any Republican acknowledge that they failed to get support from a majority of women. I’d sure like to see a Republican come out and say why they failed, and promise to do something about it.

To me, it is typical of the Republican Party that they don’t give any importance to women and women’s issues, nor do they care about us. I’m guessing that they have given this so little consideration that they don’t know why they were/are out of favor with women.

If Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan had been elected, we would have been led by two men who grew up in cultures in which women are not equal to men. Women cannot be elders in the Mormon Church, just as women cannot be priests. Ryan’s ultra-conservative brand of Catholicism led to my favorite slogan of 2012: “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries.”

Here’s an example, from an article in Mother Jones magazine, of the Republican stance on a woman’s issue.

“The Violence against Women Act (VAWA), which first passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized twice since then, increased federal penalties for domestic violence and provided funding for groups and services that aid victims of domestic abuse. The bill hit the bipartisan sweet spot of being both tough on crime and oriented toward women’s rights. Usually it’s reauthorized without much fanfare. This time around, however, several Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are putting up a fight. Despite the fact that the bill has several Republican sponsors, all eight GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee voted against the bill when the committee considered it last month.”

Way to go Republicans! Alienate women, the GLBT community and immigrants all at once.

The VAWA eventually passed in spite of attempts by Republicans to block it.

Kassandra Miller

Sonoma