One of the mysteries of life is how intelligent men who claim to love their mothers can be mean and disrespectful to other women. A greater mystery is how otherwise intelligent white men who profess love for their mothers, wives, and daughters can vote for conservative Republicans who consistently propose policies and engage in harsh and idiotic rhetoric that is nothing less than an assault on women's reproductive rights and on the sanity of the women and families these husbands, sons, and fathers claim they love and should never stop trying to protect.
Why do otherwise intelligent men do it? For some, the explanation is clear. Any man who feel morally right to deny women control of their bodies, control over their sexual health care, and protection from abusive and predatory men do so because they think the horrors that require some poor and middle class women to take drastic measures for their sanity and for their survival can never happen to their own women. But think about it.
Would you want your daughter to marry a man who promises to physically assault her and psychologically abuse her after they are married? Some men don't love their daughters enough to be outraged at the thought. Some men actually believe that their daughters "may need a little 'man handling' every once in a while". Most intelligent men, however, will say no. And yet some of those same otherwise intelligent men are adamant in their support of Republican candidates for president, vice-president, and congress who are active participants in the war on women.
Conservative Republicans and Evangelicals on the Christian right have repeatedly told poor, working class, and middle class white men that if your wives or your daughters are raped by anyone, including some vile disgusting stranger, your wife and daughter must carry the fetus conceived by rape to term. They will force your wife and daughter to give birth to the rapist's child. Many reigning Republican members of congress and Republican candidates for congress support this assault on women and on women's reproductive rights. It is an assault on the sanity, sensibilities, and psychological well being of your mothers, wives, daughters, lovers, and sisters.
Do you think the same rules will apply to the mothers, sisters, wives and daughters of rich Republican conservatives? Will any of them be required to carry the fetus conceived by rape to term? Or will the trusted family doctor privately perform the necessary medical procedure to see that it doesn't happen? Rich families don't need Clinics and Planned Parenthood. That's why predatory conservative Republican will get rid of Planned Parenthood.
The Republican Assault on Women doesn't begin and end with banning Planned Parenthood and banning abortion for any reason, including rape and incest. The Republican war on women raises its sinister head in many other form--all of which are detrimental to working class and middle class women, their sons, husbands, boyfriends, and their families.
If you don't think that it acceptable for your sister, mother, or daughter to be physically abused without repercussion for their abuser, remember that 31 Republican Senators voted against the violence Against Women Act. And don't forget that it is Republican controlled state legislatures that require vaginal probes for women needing abortions.
Republicans in mass voted against the equal pay for women who perform the same jobs as men. What would this additional income do for your family, your daughter's family, or your sister's family if women received the same pay as men for the same work?
The Republican Platform came out against the U.N. Convention on Women's Rights, suggesting that it would undermine the American Family. Really?
It is time for poor, working class, and middle class white men to wake up and start supporting and protecting the poor, working class, and middle class women in their lives. Don't be a slave to vile conservative rhetoric and a corrupt allegiance to a false morality. Be a man. And be smart. Vaginal Probes? Really? Protect women's rights and the sanity of all middle class women. Stop supporting the Republican assault on women, including their assault against your own women.