Crossposted on DemocraticDiva.com
By now you’ve probably seen the NRCC attack ad against Ann Kirkpatrick in which she is portrayed as a pair of legs in high heels dragging a roll-around suitcase. Because she has “baggage”, get it? Just like your crazy ex, amirite fellas?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYPfxz0UfV4
The sexist cheap shots at Ann Kirkpatrick (of which this ad is not the first), like many of the recent jibes at Hillary Clinton (such as Rand Paul blaming her for her husband’s affair with Monica Lewinsky), seem stupidly counterproductive. Older white women are one of the last groups of women consistently supporting Republicans so why do they appear to be actively trying to alienate those women? My guess is they just can’t help themselves, since rank misogyny is an integral part of the GOP ethos, like racism, fetishizing guns, and worshiping rich people. But the constant stream of misogynistic vitriol from their angry mob, coupled with GOP leadership repeatedly making it clear that they will never respect women under any circumstances is not terribly conducive to that whole outreach effort we keep hearing so much about.
One of the lessons my parents taught me while I was growing up was never to lump a group of people together and assign stereotypes to that group. Such stereotyping was not only unfair to the group of people you lumped together, it was probably wrong. Further, it made you look small minded and ignorant. I have found those lessons to be invaluable as I made my way through life.
Apparently not everyone was taught those in life. On this Blog, Republicans are lumped into one group and all Republicans suffer from “rank misogyny, like racism, fetishize guns, and worship rich people” among many other undesirable traits. I am a Republican and I find women delightful, I despise racism, I enjoy guns, and I worship God.
I guess, though, that looking close at Republicans and acknowledging that we are individual human beings with varying opinions would weaken the vitriol of your message, hmm? That’s too bad because we might have been friends if you could know the real me. Instead you see me as stereotypical Republican.
Well, you may not be racist misogynist gun fetishist, Steve, but you vote with them. And for them. They’re your peeps. Your homies. Own it. Also, you worshiping God is irrelevant to me. I’ve never found a correlation between religiosity and decency.
You missed my point. When you hear the word Republican, you automatically lump that person into the ranks of people about which you said “rank misogyny is an integral part of the GOP ethos, like racism, fetishizing guns, and worshiping rich people”. My point was that you will never know that, or anything else, about any individual as long as you hold that bias against Republicans. Some may fit it precisely, but most don’t.
Unless, of course, you are trying to generate hatred towards Republicans. That is an old but effective propaganda technique for organizing people through focusing their hatred on another group. If that is what you are doing, then you are doing a darned fine job. I just hope that somewhere inside of you your concience reminds you that it is wrong to do that.
I never cease to be fascinated at how some Republicans are more offended by having it pointed out to them that their party is swarming with nasty bigots than they are about the actual fact that their party is full of nasty bigots.
The vast majority of Republicans no more meet your hysterical description than the vast majority of Democrats meet the stereotype of being emotion driven, unthinking, tax crazy, spendthrifts with unbridled generosity with other peoples money, who hate the wealthy and who believe only government has the answers and they therefore seek to create a cradle-to-grave “nanny state” by stripping citizens of their Constitutional rights. At least that is what I believe.