By Staff Writer Sawyer Pollitt.
“That’s OK. I know you’re not thinking. You never do,” was one of the latest lines spoken by our 45th president Donald John Trump to Cecilia Vega of ABC News.
While these kinds of remarks generate quick headlines, it reminds us all of the GOP and the president’s opinion toward 50.8% of American citizens.
Over the past few years there is almost no doubt that our beloved country has been listing to the political right.
One could compare our slide as a meteorite crashing to Earth at terminal velocity. It catches fire in the atmosphere and during its decent brings social programs, a viable middle class, and respect toward women and minority groups screaming down with it.
Among the dismissal and outright mocking of Dr. Cristine Blasey Ford’s recent testimony against Brett Kavanaugh, past comments made by Donald Trump focusing entirely on the sexual value of women, and efforts by the GOP to defund planned parenthood, the Republican party is looking like the party that blatantly disregards women.
More often than not, comments made by Republican senators and other leaders regarding women are derogatory. Statements like calling female senators “bimbos,” stating that the female reproductive system has ways of “shutting down’’ during rape, and the infamous “nasty woman” comment are becoming increasingly common.
The effects of words like these are already being seen in an energized population of female democrats, and especially young people all across the political spectrum.
Women between the ages of 18 and 44 are turning out in record numbers to vote blue and they don’t show any sign of stopping.
However, blanket statements like “The GOP hates women” really shouldn’t be made.
It’s unfair to say that every self-identifying Republican wants to take away the rights of all the women they encounter. It is more accurate to say that the GOP likes their women the same way they like their coffee, mild-mannered, agreeable, and preferably white.
They want to remove power from and delegitimatize the opinions of those with whom they disagree. It just so happens that a large portion of those who disagree with the GOP are women.
By making statements that make women look irrational, emotional, or just plain wrong, they are reinforcing the skewed views of their hardline republican voters—driving them more and more into the red.
And they do this by normalizing this sexist view of women. Every big name Republican seems to say the same things and dismiss the same women for the same reasons.
Comments that would have previously ended careers now go either completely unnoticed or spend a day or two on the nightly news before being swept under the rug for the next big thing.
A string of sexist one liners coming from the president can make people forget that a lot of what we’re hearing is totally unacceptable. Things that the common citizen would never think to utter are now spun as “confident” or “bold” when coming from a Republican figurehead.
It is a dangerous descent when statements that would have previously been unheard of coming from a politician let alone the sitting president of the United States become glossed over headlines for a day.
If one political party were to completely alienate one whole entire half of the voting body of a country, that would just be a bad move.
Though as the days go on, it seems more and more like that is exactly what’s happening.
Hopefully soon, the rampant sexism brilliantly showcased by one of the most powerful political organizations in the world will catch up to them, and come the November elections, they’ll realize the damage that
PHOTO COURTESY: NBC