QOTD: “Crying Squirrel”
by digby
I wrote about this bizarre Republican assertion that the issue of equal pay is nothing but a distraction the other day, but I hadn’t realized it was an established talking point for GOP women:
“Republicans recognize that [equal pay] is also the Democratic party’s latest attempt to cry ‘squirrel!’ so women in this country, who control two out of every three health care dollars that are spent and are disproportionately health care consumers and providers… divert their attention from the unspooling of Obamacare.”
It’s obvious that this is coming from polling done last winter that showed white women were souring on Obamacare. (Of course, as with so many of these polls, they fail to differentiate between those who think the law is too liberal and those who think it isn’t liberal enough.) In recent polls, more women still support the law than men although it may very well be that a majority of white women are hostile to it.
Still, this strikes me as an awkward way to appeal to women: “those Democrats are trying to distract you by pointing out that you’re getting screwed in the workplace. You should be upset about Obamacare instead.” I suppose some people might think that makes sense, but I suspect they are all hardcore partisans who will vote for the GOP anyway. It certainly isn’t going to persuade anyone that the GOP is looking out for women’s interests.
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