Kathleen Parker Just Can’t Take It Anymore
WASHINGTON – Starting off with a column titled “What the *#@% Is Wrong With Republicans?”, it’s going to be a very long week for Kathleen Parker.
It’s not just Akin. By pushing some of the most invasive state policies in modern history, the men of the GOP are driving their party off a cliff. – Kathleen Parker
She’s hardly alone. The lament from all quarters of the Republican Party as their convention gets underway would be sad if it weren’t completely self-inflicted.
It was proven again today, this time from a man named Tom Smith out of Pennsylvania, who’s running against Sen. Bob Casey. Smith said rape was as traumatic for the father as his daughter having “a baby out of wedlock.” I can only imagine what Parker said after she heard that one.
The setting for this unwinding was the Todd Akin catastrophe last week, which was made worse by Mike Huckabee and his merry men of zealots, which has highlighted the Republican Party’s war on women and magnified its power.
Republicans who are abortion rights opponents are entitled to their position, but the majority of Americans are against having these views enshrined in laws that subjugate women to state or federal laws that abridge their fundamental right to self-determination. Republicans will never win this argument, as I proved in a lengthy chapter in my book titled “Is Freedom Just For Men?”
The cumulative effect of these episodes, combined with Democrats’ carefully crafted GOP “war on women” narrative, have boxed Republicans into a corner of stubborn self-defeat. Hackneyed and contrived as this “war” is, there’s a reason it has gained traction. “Because it’s true,” says Margaret Hoover, a leading voice in the young conservative movement, CNN contributor, gay-marriage advocate, and author of American Individualism—a call to arms for her great-grandfather Herbert Hoover’s rugged individualism tempered with a community spirit suitable for the millennial generation.
Opting for a vernacular expression of her frustration, Hoover queries: “What the (*#@%) is wrong? What has happened within the party infrastructure that has malfunctioned so desperately, so that this minority of representatives are in such positions of power that are so out of step with the majority of Republicans?”
Republicans thinking they’re going to ever win over women with these cast of male candidates is what drove Kathleen Parker over the edge.
Taylor Marsh, a veteran political analyst and former Huffington Post contributor, is the author of The Hillary Effect, available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Her new-media blog www.taylormarsh.com covers national politics, women and power.
Paul Szep cartoon used by permission.
Share This
Related Posts
-
The White House Looks for Serious Cuts
Posted on Apr 10, 2013
-
Keep Porn Legal!
Posted on Apr 10, 2013
-
Perceptions of America’s Political Parties
Posted on Apr 9, 2013
-
The Politics behind the Killing of Americans
Posted on Apr 5, 2013
Oh Tom Smith,,keep digging that hole. Another scary comment from the Rep party.
I guess it won’t just be “the economy stupid” for these idiots. Taking a page from the Democrats they’re working on losing elections that should be locked up.
I wish these moderate republicans, drummed out of their party, would get together to form a true third party.
The only way a viable third party will form is if there’s a mass defection from one (or both) of the other two. It would have been perfect timing a few years ago, but now it’s too late. Most of the moderates have been disempowered and are now off the stage, or have sold their souls to the right-wing devil.
Can you imagine a walkout of the conventions by moderates in opposition to right-wing nastiness? Maybe the three remaining moderates would be willing to get tased so they can have 15 minutes of YouTube fame …
I am still hopeful that a third (Centrist) party will form. The biggest obstacle I can foresee is that they would have a really tough time trying to pin down any platform positions. Granted, that is part of the point of having such a party, but it becomes just as ineffectual as moderates in the Republican Party if it does not have any convictions.
In other words, the problem that Americans have with a third party is that we all want one, we just want it to agree with us…
I represent a segment of fiscally conservative but socially moderate Republicans who are hanging on to this party by a thread. Women especially are being made to feel that we will have to choose between the fiscal good of our country and our own personal rights. I’m selling my convictions that women should have a choice in contraception/ abortion/ marriage just to gain fiscal leadership that will provide jobs for my college-educated children. There are huge numbers of morally aware Christians who believe in helping the poor and needy and DO NOT idolize Ayn Rand (the atheist, immoral, self-absorbed lunatic). Sure we should value creativity and hard work and build in the incentives to do this–it creates jobs. But that’s where my agreement with Ms. Rand ends–but my political party has gone off the deep end. My question to them is this–If Jesus was sitting across from you, would you read Ayn Rand’s viewpoints on charity to Him? Moderate Republicans must have a voice, and I do think they are starting to at least speak. I will admit to being intimidated by the loud, passionate far-righters but I’m starting to speak up, Surprisingly–I am getting a lot of agreement. Republican Party—understand this. There are huge numbers of us who don’t give a shit about gay marriage, contraception, abortion rights. Who people love & marry is their business. Pretty soon, you will be telling us that you can’t marry someone 20 years older than you because of Medicare rules (I exaggerate but it’s the same line of thinking). The Bible tells us that we are all sinners and that no one sin is worse than another so your affairs (Newt Gingrich) or tax cheats or lies or lust are just as sinful as gay relationships (as far as Biblical writings go). It’s just that we see one and the others are hidden. Moderate Republicans–come out from under the rocks. We need you!