Two-Faced GOP: Abortion, Gay Rights, Women's Reproductive Care, and More

Three anti-social GOP Senators

Ron Johnson WI; Ted Cruz TX; Jerry Moran KS

The GOP hates marriage equality as this story from SALON.com with this headline shows:

“GOP stuck with Pandora's Box after Roe: Republicans run head first into the same-sex marriage trap”

Republicans still love to use their fav phrase “the radical left” when talking about this issue in which over 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage, and a number which includes 55% of Republicans. 

That apparent disconnect exists between where the voters stand and where the Republican political establishment stands, and that is understandably most puzzling.

So, why don't Republicans moderate their views to reflect where their voters are? Simple: Republicans are in an electoral double bind.

A few Republican senators have publicly indicated support, but many are being tight-lipped about where they stand. 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) who also is the first openly gay person to ever serve in the U.S. House and now the U.S. Senate, told reporters that she expects a vote on the bill during the week of September 19. But things took a dim turn this week, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), declared that he had no intention of voting for the bill.

He argued that the Supreme Court was wrong to legalize same-sex marriage in the first place. He was reportedly one of the senators who LGBTQ rights advocates had hoped to get on board.

Ironically, Johnson also is up for re-election in this swing state this year and he had previously been coy about his position, leaving hope that he would attempt to appeal to moderates by backing the bill. This loss is a bad blow for those hoping to pass the bill. 

His DEM opponent is Lt. Gov. Jesse Mandela Barnes who is leading him by a few points. The Republican opposition to abortion rights is hurting them in the polls already. 

Adding their opposition to same-sex marriage to the pile will reinforce the Democrats' message: “Republicans are right-wing radicals who are wildly out of step with the mainstream on social issues.” 

1. On one hand, their most dedicated and enthusiastic voters — the ones who show up for primaries, donate money, and volunteer — disproportionately come from a Christian nationalist base with radical right-wing views. They rigidly oppose not just abortion, but contraception, and they reject the constitutional separation between church and state. Those Christian conservatives vote in large numbers in primaries, but they have pushed the elected representatives far to the right.

2. On the other hand, the general election voters Republicans need to win office tend to be more moderate, especially on social issues like LGBTQ rights, and a woman’s reproductive rights, and birth control access. 

GOP’s Main Tactic: Republicans generally try to square this circle by passing draconian laws to please their Christian right base while attempting to obscure their views from the larger public.

This strategy is playing out dramatically this election cycle on the issue of abortion. After Roe was overturned, Republican state legislatures have been moving quickly to pass ever more punitive abortion bans, frequently rejecting moderating amendments allowing the procedure for rape and incest victims, or for patients who are in a dire medical crisis. 

But those same politicians then turn around and misrepresent their views to the public, running Ads and making statements meant to reassure voters they won't vote for the anti-choice policies they have (but almost certainly continue to vote for them). 

GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) understands intimately that it's easier to win elections if the voters are ignorant of how far-right the party's views really are. 

He's been blocking efforts by Republicans to release a party platform, precisely because he knows it would contain language on reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and other issues where the GOP opposes the majority. 

Plus, he's not happy with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) who went behind his back and released the 11-point platform hitting news cycles in which the actual views of Republicans, which most voters reject, were publicized. 

Related topic article here from Vox.com with this headline:

“The Republican revolt against democracy, explained in 13 charts”

The Trump years revealed a dark truth: The Republican Party is no longer committed to democracy. Those 13 charts tell the story.

My 2 Cents: It is not just the overturning of Roe v. Wade but now also birth control and contraception are starting to haunt the GOP.

Many are just saying “no” to birth control measures outlined in this Washington Post story.

It ties right into the whole GOP harsh resistance to a woman’s right to choose her own health care and family planning on top of the Roe disaster.

I hope all that nails this GOP in the midterms and further out. They deserve a harsh lesson in reality and I hope it will come from the ballot box; that is if our right to vote matters and our vote actually will counted fairly and count, but that’s whole other very big issue in light of all the GOP movement at states levels to ensure that their side never loses another election just as Trump and his sustained 2020 “Big Lie” claim about the election being “rigged” against him that still hangs over our safe and very secure electoral system wherein he lost over 60 court case challenge, he still complains, and I might add very effectively with and for his MAGA base.

Thanks for stopping by.