Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Republicans' Long Range War On Women

As the gentle reader already knows, Scott Walker and his Republican cronies in the legislature have been waging a War on Women since they took office two years ago.  They have systematically and maliciously started in whittling away women's rights since day one of their reign of maleficence.

However, they have now heaped insult upon further injury to the women of Wisconsin.

Lisa Mux at Waukesha Wonk has outlined a flurry of bills that will push our once great state closer to a theocracy.

One of the bills, AB 216, was written by Wisconsin Right to Life and sponsored by Representative Andre Jacque (R-Old Country Buffet).  As one might imagine by the bill's author, it is a zealous, discriminatory and unfair anti-choice bill.

Even though it was introduced only days ago, the public hearing for it was scheduled for today.  But because the Republicans aren't even pretending to listen to the people anymore as they follow the orders of their campaign contributors, this hearing was one of nine public hearings scheduled today.

And the results of such overbooking was predictable, as pointed out in a press release issued by NARAL:
ARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin today issued the following statements after waiting two hours to testify before the Assembly Committee on Health. While all pro-choice members of the Committee on Health were present along with Chair Severson and Representatives Stone and Sanfelippo, four members of the committee failed to make any appearance at all during the first two hours.

“In order for a public hearing to happen, there has to be someone on the other side of the table listening and hearing the concerns of Wisconsin citizens. If it wasn’t clear from their rush to schedule these bills for a public hearing less than a week after introduction and while Joint Finance was considering the budget, it is abundantly clear form their failure to schedule them at a time when representatives could actually attend and listen,” said Jenni Dye executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin.

“I intended to offer testimony on behalf of NARAL and our nearly 15,000 members across the state,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin board member, Analiese Eicher. “When it became clear that the members of the committee that need to be educated about why these bills are bad for Wisconsinites were not going to be in attendance, I chose to leave and submit written testimony in the hopes that it will actually reach the legislators who couldn’t take the time to be there today."

“I am deeply disappointed that legislators couldn’t take the time to be there today and I hope they will take the time to read the comments we submit. When legislators are willing to listen, we are ready to talk about how to end these unnecessary, divisive attacks on women,” added Eicher.
How can the Republicans even begin to say that they are doing the will of the people when they won't show up for their own hearings is beyond me. Needless to say, they don't really want to hear from the people, hence scheduling nine hearings on the same day.  If the Republicans can't make it to the hearings, they figure the people won't be able to either. This only makes it even more painfully obvious that the Republicans are just going through the motions at this point.

For the record, all four Democrats - Representatives Pasch, Taylor, Kolste and Riemer were in attendance.  Republican Representatives Severson, Stone and Sanfelippo were present.  Absent from their own hearing were Republican Representatives Strachota, August, Kapenga and Peterson.

Severson, chair of the Assembly Health Committee stated that the reason for the absences was indeed the fact that they had scheduled so many hearings today.

Perhaps the most egregious is the fact that bills' sponsor, Jacque, fled the scene of the crime after the first speaker.  Maybe he felt he had to go wage war on the groundhogs or something.

It is sad and disgusting that the Republicans not only want to treat women like second-class citizens, but have such a misogynistic view of them that they can't even bother to show up and face them before taking away their rights.

Well, to be fair, calling the Republicans misogynists is not fair or accurate.

The truth is that they are cowardly misogynists.

1 comment:

  1. What are the odds that much of the misogyny we are seeing is due to the fact that many of these men have been rejected by women? I mean seriously, Vos, Grothman, and Andre Jacque all seem like they've had their share of rejection from women. I think it's more about "getting back at them" than it is about ideology.

    But then again...

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