{"id":20385,"date":"2012-08-23T15:05:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T19:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=20385"},"modified":"2013-04-03T23:37:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T03:37:24","slug":"democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats playing with fire in “War on Women” smear campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"\"Clare McCaskill wanted<\/a> Todd Akin to be her Republican opponent in Missouri, and now Democrats think his \u201clegitimate rape<\/a>\u201d fiasco will yield returns beyond their wildest hopes.<\/p>\n

McCaskill is currently going easy<\/a> on Akin and criticizing<\/a> the calls for him to drop out. Markos Moulitsas, founder of the radically left-wing Daily Kos, advises<\/a> his party to soft-pedal their attacks on Akin until it\u2019s clear he won\u2019t be replaced, then move in for the kill. And the Democrats have added<\/a> a handful of far-left female speakers to their national convention, including noted narcissist<\/a> Sandra Fluke (who is also doing Obama fundraising letters<\/a> tying Akin to Mitt Romney), Wisconsin Congresswoman and Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin, and Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards.<\/p>\n

The strategy is clear: crank the \u201cWar on Women\u201d demagoguery up to eleven and hope female voters are left with the fear that the GOP\u2019s pro-life principles<\/a> are rooted in sexism. We got an early taste of just how vile this could get earlier this week, when anti-life fundamentalist<\/a> Sen. Barbara Boxer speculated<\/a> of Republicans, \u201cMaybe they don\u2019t like their moms or their first wives; I don\u2019t know what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will it work? Unless the Republicans find an alternative to Akin<\/a>, Missouri is probably lost<\/a>. But as far as the rest of the country is concerned, Democrats are in for disappointment.<\/p>\n

First, as I documented on Tuesday<\/a>, the left has its own history of insensitivity to rape and misogyny, including turning a blind eye to Planned Parenthood\u2019s crimes, liberal personalities wishing rape on conservatives, and overlooking Democrats who\u2019ve committed rape. Informed voters aren\u2019t likely to take too kindly to this sort of thing.<\/p>\n

We can add to that distinguished list the late serial womanizer Sen. Ted Kennedy, who infamously left<\/a> Mary Jo Kopechne to drown in his car (a scandal which had virtually no impact on his reputation in the Democrat Party or the press); Sen. Al Franken joking<\/a> about raping CBS reporter Lesley Stahl; California Gov. Jerry Brown endorsing<\/a> an aide\u2019s reference to opponent Meg Whitman as a \u201cwhore\u201d; former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who defended<\/a> the Occupy Wall Street movement from rape accusations by misrepresenting various facts and arguing that one particular case wasn\u2019t really<\/em> rape because the 14-year-old girl consented to be with the 23-year-old man; pseudo-documentarian Michael Moore, who pledged<\/a> $20,000 toward bail for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks head accused of sexual assault in Sweden; feminist icon Naomi Wolf, who even Amanda Marcotte attacked<\/a> for denigrating Assange\u2019s accusers; and Wonkette<\/em> columnist Jack Stuef, who joked<\/a> that maybe Sarah Palin\u2019s husband Todd impregnated their daughter, Bristol.<\/p>\n

Second, moral indignation has weight only to the extent that it\u2019s true, and falsely exploiting rape for partisan gain is about as repulsive as politics can get – see, for instance, Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s outrageous accusation<\/a> that failing to pass Barack Obama\u2019s jobs bill would lead to more rapes, the Democrats\u2019 and media\u2019s false claim<\/a> that the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act would have somehow redefined rape, and MSNBC\u2019s Chris Matthews suggesting<\/a> that the GOP is \u201cso far to the right that they have a problem with a woman saying she was raped.\u201d By pushing their luck, Democrats risk being characterized not as women\u2019s defenders, but as opportunists of the most shameful variety.<\/p>\n

Third, the emotional appeal of asking if rape victims should be forced to endure nine months of pregnancy is undeniably powerful, but the flip-side of that question is at least as compelling. Fetuses conceived through rape aren\u2019t abstract \u201cchoices\u201d or \u201cproducts\u201d or \u201cexceptions\u201d\u2026they\u2019re people, like Kristi Hofferber<\/a>, Rebecca Kiessling<\/a>, Ryan Bomberger<\/a>, and Jenni Maas<\/a>. You can bet Team Obama would rethink this line of attack after a few TV spots of such individuals asking, \u201cMr. President, why should I be dead right now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, to the extent that there\u2019s a \u201cgender gap\u201d in the polls, abortion has little to do with it. In analyzing Gallup\u2019s numbers, Ramesh Ponnuru finds<\/a> that women are more likely to be pro-life on some aspects of the abortion debate and more likely to be pro-choice on others, but in no area is the gap drastic. Daniel Allot identifies<\/a> several other polls finding women to be somewhat more pro-life than men as well.<\/p>\n

The reason why should be obvious: for all their repetition and hyperventilating, liberals can\u2019t convince America of any solemn link between abortion and the sanctity of womanhood because it just doesn\u2019t exist. Abortion isn\u2019t a right, it\u2019s not good for women, and ultimately, all the euphemisms in the world can\u2019t change the fact that it\u2019s the murder of an innocent child. The real heroes of the American feminist movement understood this<\/a>, and pro-abortion efforts to overturn their principles in feminism\u2019s name will be about as successful as forcing a square peg into a round hole: the only way to make it fit is to damage the original beyond recognition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eventually, you have to clearly define what exactly the left is supporting here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":20386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDemocrats playing with fire in "War on Women" smear campaign - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democrats playing with fire in "War on Women" smear campaign - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eventually, you have to clearly define what exactly the left is supporting here.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-23T19:05:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-04T03:37:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/bodybattleground.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"381\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Calvin Freiburger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb2bf94c8064b71953ba137bf413c4d\"},\"headline\":\"Democrats playing with fire in “War on Women” smear campaign\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-23T19:05:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-04T03:37:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/\"},\"wordCount\":851,\"commentCount\":24,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/democrats-playing-with-fire-with-war-on-women-smear-campaign\/\",\"name\":\"Democrats playing with fire in \\\"War on Women\\\" smear campaign - 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Calvin is an editor and administrator for TheFederalistPapers.org, and his work has appeared on NewsRealBlog.com, PatriotUpdate.com, LifeNews.com, LifeSiteNews.com, RightWisconsin.com, AmericanThinker.com, Stream.org, AmericanClarion.org, and more. Please check out his official website, ConservativeStandards.com. 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