Misogynistic Hypocrisy!

Leave it to Rush Limbaugh. The most cogent argument for providing affordable birth control is that some of the forms of birth control are used as a treatment for health problems. That is in fact what Sandra Fluke described so well. In ignoring her argument and launching his crude attack on her Mr. Limbaugh was not merely playing the part of a vulgar entertainer. Instead, he was trying to redefine the issue. He was saying in the crudest possible way that women should not have control over their own reproductive systems. Does this mean he thinks that sanctimonious men like Rick Santorum should be able to inflict on all of us an extreme moral code we rejected long ago? Does Mr. Limbaugh think women should be kept barefoot and pregnant? Does he expect couples to have nine kids when providing for two or three children is so difficult? It is Rush Limbaugh’s inability to see or admit the consequences of what he is advocating that makes him so dangerous. He is perfectly happy to apply the double standard by saying that single women should put an aspirin between their knees, the implication being that women who have premarital sex deserve whatever happens to them. He does not give a damn about the damage caused by such an attitude. Stirring up the right wing idiots that listen to his show is good for his ratings, and he is all about the ratings.

The problem is that Mr. Limbaugh’s listeners comprise such a large part of the Republican base that he is considered the unofficial spokesman for the Republican Party. His comments would be disturbing under any circumstances, but they are downright frightening when placed in the context of the radical social agenda the Republicans are pursuing. In states where the Republicans control the government they are passing punitive laws that punish women who seek abortions regardless of the reason for the abortion. They are doing this by requiring unnecessary ultrasounds. In some states, such as Virginia, they are trying to make the ultrasound as invasive and demeaning as possible by requiring the kind that involves a vaginal probe. In many states the Republicans are also proposing personhood laws that would outlaw the very birth control methods most frequently used to treat health problems. On the federal level the Republican controlled House of Representatives de-funded Planned Parenthood, which provides the only health care available to a large number of women. The Republicans have also joined with some Catholic Bishops to oppose the birth control provisions in what the GOP calls Obama care. The Republicans argue that an employer should be able to deny insurance coverage for anything he or she finds morally objectionable. The Republicans claim they are defending religious freedom, but Rush Limbaugh showed what this is really about when he threw that argument into the gutter. By calling Ms. Fluke a slut and a prostitute he ripped the mask off the sanctimony to reveal the misogynistic hypocrisy behind the Republican Party’s attacks on women’s rights.

This is not an issue of religious freedom. This is about the separation of church and state, the availability of health care and contraception, and the freedom to plan families and careers. This is about the Republicans trying to create a government that is far more intrusive than the big government they say they are trying to keep out of our lives. Women are as moral and smart as men are. They do not need the government or an employer to protect them from themselves. They do not need a state government forcing them to undergo unnecessary ultrasounds in order to make informed decisions about something as traumatic as an abortion. They do not need an employer depriving them of affordable birth control. I know the argument I am presenting here is not the strongest political argument, but I am not going to play the game of saying that health care is the only reason to provide affordable birth control coverage. Freedom is far too important to restrict the argument in such a manner. Religious conservatives can preach and moralize as much as they want; that is their right, and I will defend it. Like most men, I will also fight to prevent those, so called, conservatives from depriving women of the rights they have struggled so hard to obtain. This is not strictly a gender issue. This is a quality of life issue for all people. Both women and men have a lot to lose if the Republicans get their way. I am confident that the people of this nation will reject the big, intrusive government the Republicans are trying to impose upon us. Most of us thought this issue had been decided thirty or forty years ago. That we should have to fight this battle again shows just how extreme and dangerous the Republican Party has become.