What do women want Part XXX
by digby
CNN has posted an article about the Democrats’ appeal to women on the issue of equal pay. Apparently, the Republicans are searching for a good way to counter them. I’m not sure this is going to work:
Katie Packer Gage, a former Romney campaign adviser who co-founded Burning Glass Consulting, a firm that advises Republicans on how to appeal to women voters, said Democrats are using equal pay “to distract women from real issues.”
I wonder what the “real” issues women care about are? It can’t be education because the Republicans think early childhood education is a big waste of time, even though the latest studies show it creates remarkable benefits for both individuals and society. (Also too, they want to privatize public education.) It can’t be health care because they are having a full-fledged meltdown over the tepid Obamacare health care reform and apparently think that the main thing that needs to be done to “fix” the current system is tort reform and coercing people in California to buy phony insurance plans that are only legal in Mississippi. It certainly can’t be ensuring that people have food or shelter or good roads or safe bridges or public services like fire fighters and police after the years and years of budget cutting they’ve endorsed at all levels of government.
But I suppose if what most American women care about is “sending messages” to foreign countries, empowering the clandestine government agencies to do anything they want without accountability or spending billions on unnecessary military hardware then sure, any discussion of equal pay is a “distraction.” If these women think that the government’s sole role is to find wars to fight and enable billionaires to plunder the treasury and destroy the land, then Republicans have their fingers on the pulse of American womanhood and it should be smooth sailing in November. If not, I’d have to say that the Republicans aren’t making a whole lot of sense.
In fairness, the campaign adviser I quoted above did go on to say that she thinks the Republicans should point out to women who are concerned about pay fairness that there have been laws on the books for years requiring equal pay. Which means that it must be fair that women still only make about 75 cents on the dollar. See how easy that is?
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