New GOP Idea That Can Close the Gender Gap: Bring Policy “Down to a Woman’s Level”

[DonViejo]

By David Weigel

Ashe Schow is out with an intriguing story from a panel that no other reporter scored a ticket for. It was a Friday panel put on by the Republican Study Committee, the House's conservative caucus; it was low-key enough to avoid mention on the RSC's website, or be turned into an RSC video. So the only report from the RSC's first event since Georgia Rep. Rob Woodall (July 9) took over is Schow's.

She doesn't sound impressed. The RSC, like the larger GOP, is on a messaging-to-women binge. North Carolina Rep. Renee Ellmers, a leadership favorite who's often put forward when the party wants a female messenger on health care or jobs, explained that men failed to bring policy "down to a woman's level" and thus lost votes.

Men do tend to talk about things on a much higher level. Many of my male colleagues, when they go to the House floor, you know, they’ve got some pie chart or graph behind them and they’re talking about trillions of dollars and how, you know, the debt is awful and, you know, we all agree with that ... we need our male colleagues to understand that if you can bring it down to a woman's level and what everything that she is balancing in her life — that’s the way to go.

Reading that, I thought of this week's Republican message, read by Senate candidate Joni Ernst (linked above), and how she focused on the promise of the Balanced Budget Amendment (a dead idea that polls well) because government should run its affairs like "you" run the household. No pesky charts there! And I remembered the RNC's messaging push of late June, when RNC vice chair Sharon Day argued that women were "not single issue voters" but human beings whose "priorities are the economy, government spending, education, and healthcare." There's a little bit of fantasy here, similar to what Democrats engage in when they ask why poor working class whites don't vote en masse for them. They're allowed to consider other factors when they vote.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/07/15/new_gop_idea_that_can_close_the_gender_gap_bring_politics_down_to_a_woman.html?

[Warpy]

1. Do they honestly think patting us on the head and handing us a lollipop

is going to make up for not giving us appropriate health care on the insurance policies we pay for?

Keep talking, boys. You're digging a deep grave with those mouths.

[valerief]

2. Oy vey!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. Also, say it veeeeery sloooooowly. So that lady folk can keep up with them words and all. nt

[gwheezie]

4. Fuck ém

let them keep talking, the deranged loons are going to wonder why they got an ass kicking again.

[Takket]

5. WTF is that suppsoed to mean?

Are they going to use actual pies to make the pie charts? Surely a woman can understand baked foods!

Here is the response to anything the right says about relating to women: HOBBY LOBBY.

[TwilightGardener]

6. "Down to a woman's level". This statement was made by an

actual Congresswoman... in 2014. It's rare to hear such blatantly open sexism and condescension, even among Repubs. But then, I'm sure Renee thinks she's one of the exceptions, one of the few SMART women who can converse on a level with men, and it's just all the other dumb bunnies (the rest of us gals) among her constituents that's she's worried about.

[Arugula Latte]

9. Stockholm Syndrome?

[redqueen]

11. Internalized misogyny.

We all grow up with it to some extent. Hers is an extreme case, not uncommon among right wing and some religious women.

[pleinair]

31. Internalized misogyny - rightly said

The self-denigration that serves as a defense against the external aggression

[TwilightGardener]

13. No, just a typical Republican--they think most women are really like children, who need

special guidance, explanations, and controls on their behavior to enforce morality.

[MANative]

7. Having worked for over 30 years in corporate offices of some of the largest companies in the country

With both men and women in the highest C-level positions, I'd argue the opposite. Maybe I was lucky, but the women I worked with were FAR more capable and "higher-thinking" than the men. More visionary, more creative, and more articulate, too. Most controlled businesses with revenues in excess of $2bn per year.

[Rex]

8. John Beohner, Michele Bachmann and Ted Cruz are walking through the forest...

Come on DU women say it with me, "Power point, pie charts and graphs...OH MY!"


"Power point, pie charts and graphs...OH MY!"
"Power point, pie charts and graphs...OH MY!"
"Power point, pie charts and graphs...OH MY!"

[1StrongBlackMan]

15. LOL ...

[herding cats]

18. Excellent!

[Arugula Latte]

10. But, like, oh my gawd you guys,

[0rganism]

12. translation: they think you're stupid

not restricted to women -- their contempt for the intelligence of 99% of the American population is palpable, and, sadly, not entirely unfounded.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. I sincerely hope that Rep. Ellmers doesn't have any daughters to infect with that

ignorant attitude. For that matter, I hope she doesn't have any sons for the same reason.

[notadmblnd]

16. I swear, women are their own worst enemies

SMH

[redqueen]

17. Considering the rate at which women are raped, besten, and murdered by men...

I really do take issue with the idea that we are our own worst enemies

[notadmblnd]

21. I'm sorry that thinking about those things seem to be the center of your life

I really don't understand what the OP had to do with being rapped, beaten and murdered by men?

I was responding to a woman stating publicly that we needed to be talked down to in order to win our support. You don't think that statements like that coming from women, hurt women? Because I do.

[redqueen]

23. It's not the center of my life.

My loved ones are.

Sigh

Moving on... the only reason I thought about the issue of the pandemic of violence against women was because of your response to this story. Which for some reason was to paint women as the worst enemy of women.

Yes, sexist comments hurt women. No matter if a woman or a man says them.

And it is sad that a lot of the reactions to this story are sexist in and of themselves, even here, and that is an indicator of how very very far we have to go (not saying yours was, but there are some, yes even here).

[notadmblnd]

24. In many cases women do promote and perpetuate men's attitudes towards women

as the women in OP's article did. No, these particular women weren't perpetuating the violent attitudes, but there are those that do. Yes, women can be and are often their own worst enemies. Perhaps I should have qualified that in my first response, but as a woman and a mother of a member of the male gender, I stand by what I said.

[MoonchildCA]

25. Well, certainly not the majority...

They don't vote for these guys.

[meow2u3]

19. I have an even better idea, Elmers

STOP. PATRONIZING. WOMEN.

[Quantess]

20. I indirectly (yes very indirectly) called that woman the B word

and summarily got my post hidden. For Shame!!!

OH MY GAWD, THAT WOMAN IS AN ASSHOLE!!!!

[LynneSin]

22. Don't they mean up to a woman's level

I mean when it's a bunch of GOP men discussing policy I figured that bar is set pretty damn low!

[MoonchildCA]

26. That's great!

I say, let them use that strategy.

That ought to turn out at least a few more women voters... to our side.

[tanyev]

27. It's so confusing when Louie Gohmert uses all those big words!

[Benton D Struckcheon]

28. Down. That's the problem right there. Yeesh. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

29. This is not meant to denigrate women.

For any Tea Party women reading this, "denigrate" means "belittle." For any male tea partiers reading this, "belittle" means to make someone feel less important or valuable.

[Gothmog]

30. Someone flunk the course on how to talk to women

Ellmers is an idiot but this is really stupid