Gender Cop Out: The GOP doesn’t have a “women problem”

By SGP member Lucy

Yesterday, Politico blamed gender bias for why Dede Scozzafava was driven out of the NY-23 race. They inserted a completely unrelated issue into a subject with plenty valid turmoil already. 

After launching the “news article” with that arbitrary plug, the authors pepper Democrat talking points about Republican women throughout. For example, “Democrats have long maintained that the Republican Party is hostile to all but the most conservative women…” Untrue, considering that many of the Republican women in Congress actually serve more moderate districts. 

They report on Rep. Tom Price (GA), who “repeatedly cited parliamentary rules” to a Democrat Congresswomen. Politico assumes this must be because it was a woman talking about abortion. Never mind that Tom Price is a pro-life legislator who no doubt opposed what the woman was saying and noticed her not following the rules. 

The reporters cherry-picked episodes to fit an article clearly fastened together for lack of any real news. The “legitimacy” of the piece comes from former Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-OH), the moderate female Republican who became the Chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. Pryce is quoted throughout the piece bashing the Republican approach to moderate woman, yet she is a moderate Republican woman who excelled in a leadership position within the Party. So the system that made her into a well-known moderate Republican female leader within the House is unfriendly to moderate Republican women? This is hypocrisy at its best. 

Politico postures the opposition of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh to Scozzafava as gender related. Scozzafava was a liberal in Republican clothing. If gender had anything to do with conservative Republican opposition, it would have been LAST on the list. 

Making the Scozzafava controversy into a gender argument mocks the premise of the debacle in the first place. She was run out because she didn’t represent the conservative values that Republican voters want in their elected leaders. Same thing would have happened NY-23 was between Dan Scozzafava and Doug Hoffman. 

Next up in the piece? An easily hateful quote from Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who irrationally lambasts the entire Republican Party, saying they “don’t respect women” or think “women are equal to men.” Where does this woman live, — 1965?  Throwing out that kind of blanket statement demonstrates complete ignorance and lack of any kind of critical thinking on the subject. 

Politico then offers Republican Reps. Virginia Foxx (NC) and Michele Bachmann (MN) as examples of prominent women in the House. The piece casts them as right wing extremists – and therefore, unacceptable to prove Republicans support strong women to represent their Party. 

Politico failed to speak with current House Republican Conference Vice-Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), a great example of a strong female leader in the Party. They  “forgot” to mention the great work by freshman Member Rep. Cynthia Lummis (WY) and the beloved California Rep. Mary Bono Mack. How about Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), who became the first Hispanic woman and first Cuban-American elected to Congress in 1989? No mention of Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN), the first woman to represent Tennessee’s 23rd Senate District? 

There are proportionally less women in the Republican Party but more are welcomed, encouraged, supported and beloved as time goes on. Republicans don’t artificially catapult people to positions for the purpose of maintaining a status quo or fulfilling a diversity quota. There are no glass ceilings in this world, only the ones people create for themselves.  The GOP doesn’t have a problem with women, as Politico espouses. However, Democrats and the mainstream media seem think women can’t get elected without some kind encouragement soiree from their Party. 

I may run for office as a Republican one day and I won’t need a special note of achievement because I made it as a woman. I’ll just thank my parents for raising me to be a PERSON of moral character, principle and gratitude.

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