Republican politicians don't get it. This current clump of mostly pasty-white rich men still believe we're living in the dark ages of the American Experiment, when minorities and women had no rights and no voice in Congress. Despite the last election and umpteen polls that indicate that -- surprise! -- women vote, they still continue to marginalize half the US population, attempt to exert control over the female body and ignore the same rights and protections they receive under the law.
As a comedian recently quipped, "You know it's a bad time for your political party when somebody says: 'Hey, that rape guy lost the election' and you have to ask: 'which one?'"
The latest misogynistic affront comes in the refusal of the House of Representatives to vote on the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed by the Senate last year. Seems the (mostly) white male Neocons didn't appreciate the fact that the law would apply to undocumented immigrants, Native Americans, and LGBT victims. So ... let me get this straight, so to speak. If a blue-eyed blonde heterosexual native-born female citizen is beaten to a pulp by her significant other, it's a crime. But if the same violence is applied to, say, a Hispanic gay woman by her partner, that's okie dokie with these Wonder Bread wackos?
"The House leadership would not bring it up, just like they wouldn't bring up funding for Sandy [hurricane damage] last night," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a key backer of the Senate version of the bill, in an interview with HuffPost. "I think they are still so kowtowing to the extreme on the right that they're not even listening to the moderates, and particularly the women, in their caucus who are saying they support this."
Wow. Just wow. Forget for a moment that this is a massive insult to 50% of the population whose only crime is the lack of a penis and the ability to lactate. Do these creaky Caucasian dinosaurs not realize they are legislating their way into extinction? Are they so old they've forgotten the 19th Amendment, or do they think women are so stupid they won't realize how they're being marginalized -- again -- by the GOP?
"In April, the Senate with bipartisan support passed a version of VAWA that extended protections to three groups of domestic violence victims who had not been covered by the original law, but House Republicans refused to support the legislation with those provisions, saying the measures were politically driven. Instead, they passed their own VAWA bill without the additional protections."
Should we see it as an improvement, Truthseekers, that the men of the House at least recognize that white heterosexual women deserve equal protection under the law? They're more likely to vote, obviously, than undocumented immigrants. Some rape victims are more deserving than others, is that the message? There is a hierarchy and priority of assault victims, with white hetero women at the top of the list?
According to a national survey conducted by the CDC:
"Nearly one in five women has been raped or has experienced an attempted rape. The results also found that one in six women has been stalked, and one in four have been reported being beaten by their intimate partner. The majority of victims encountered rape and sexual assault for the first time in their youth. Of rape victims, 80 percent reported being raped before 25 and nearly half of female victims said they were raped before they turned 18."
The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network estimates that someone is assaulted every two minutes in the U.S. (although that's probably an under-estimation, since more than 50 percent of sexual assaults still go unreported). We know this is the most "do-nothing" Congress in history. In this case, their callous disdain may soon be measured in the traumatized and disfigured bodies of our mothers, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, aunts, grandmothers, sisters and friends.
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