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What Women Want
The Washington Examiner ^ | October 20, 2014 | Mona Charen

Posted on 10/20/2014 2:36:23 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin

The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is ‘What does a woman want?’ – Sigmund Freud

Though the mystery of feminine wants has stumped poets, philosophers, and the father of psychoanalysis, today’s Democratic politicians think they’ve found the key — at least to the political desires of most women: a single-minded focus on the gynecological.

Republicans, whipsawed by the results of 2012 races that featured large gender gaps, particularly among single women, and aware that women have trended Democrat for decades, seem bewildered. A Karl Rove-commissioned study found that women voters consider the Republican Party “intolerant” and “lacking in compassion.” Consultants, gnawing nervously on polling and demographic data, implore Republican candidates to emphasize economic questions and soft-pedal the social issues. The candidates themselves, uncomfortable with the whole subject and wondering why they can’t just discuss the capital gains tax, mumble about how much they love their wives and eye the exits.

Democrats are running against monsters. They are running to protect American women from the hostile, patriarchal, domineering men of the Republican Party. (Chivalry is not dead!) In the Democrats’ ghoulish caricature, Republicans are not just wrong on the issues that women care about, but are barely above criminals. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, used rhetoric only slightly more florid than the Democratic norm when she said of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, “What Republican Tea Party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back.”

Republicans who think they can avoid women’s issues, or blunt their power by talk of entrepreneurship or free markets, are rewarding the Democrats’ tactics. Silence gives consent. Moreover, they are conveying their fear that the Democrats’ interpretation of women’s wants is correct. They may even believe it more sincerely than Democrats themselves.

Democrats claim to believe that most women want what liberal Democrats want — taxpayer-funded abortion for any reason, free contraceptives, and so forth. “Issues like access to birth control and abortion will get voters to the polls this November,” predicted Dawn Laguens of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. But Democratic campaign commercials reveal something else: They dare not present Republican positions accurately. The “Republicans want to outlaw abortion and contraception” lie has arguably replaced the “Republicans want to take away your Medicare” as the chief scare tactic in the dishonest Democratic arsenal.

A number of Democrats are running ads this month claiming that Republicans seek to “ban all abortions even in cases of rape and incest.” Democrat John Foust in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District is airing a commercial that features a sweater-clad, thirtysomething woman telling the camera that Republican Barbara Comstock opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest. “That’s all I need to know,” the appalled sweater lady announces as she turns to leave. In fact, Comstock, who is pro-life, is on record supporting exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

FactCheck.org, noting that similar false claims were made about Mitt Romney in 2012, sums up the tactic: “In race after race, Democratic ads are misrepresenting, distorting and exaggerating their Republican opponents’ position on abortion to make them seem more strict (and therefore less popular) than they really are.”

Meanwhile, two Democratic Senate campaigns — Sen. Mark Udall’s in Colorado and Rep. Bruce Braley’s in Iowa — are peddling howling distortions of their opponents’ views on contraception. Udall’s ads accuse Rep. Cory Gardner of conducting an “8-year crusade to outlaw birth control.” In Iowa, Rep. Bruce Braley is running spots suggesting that Republican Joni Ernst would “outlaw most common forms of birth control.” Other campaigns are following the same script.

In truth, no Republican candidate favors outlawing or even limiting the availability of birth control. The Democrats’ case goes like this: Some Republicans have supported so-called “personhood” amendments — most did so to confirm their pro-life beliefs — and if you stretch the concept in a particular direction, and you presume certain implementing legislation, and you posit that the law would survive a court challenge, then such initiatives could possibly result in some forms of birth control such as the IUD (but not the pill, which is frequently flashed on screen during political ads) being considered abortifacients and outlawed. But as FactCheck.org and others agree, this interpretation requires more assumptions and speculation than can withstand reasonable scrutiny, and it flies in the face of explicit statements to the contrary by Republican candidates.

Continues...for many more paragraphs. ;)


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS:
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Lengthy, but good read. I always enjoy Mona Charen.
1 posted on 10/20/2014 2:36:23 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
For many women abortion is just a metaphor for freedom.

It's not child-rearing they wish to be free of, but a man.

That's their great fear...to be dependent on a man.

Ironically, 99% are dependent on a man.

2 posted on 10/20/2014 2:43:32 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
It's really a shame that Harry Blackmun was so hard of hearing. They were asking for a woman's right to shoes.
3 posted on 10/20/2014 2:45:12 PM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Dunno about conservative women. Lib women however have one desire. To make me a sammich. Well that and abortion, bull dyke lesbianism, suborning themselves to liberal men in power and a billion other destructive things.

So I figure they can at least make me a sammich.


4 posted on 10/20/2014 2:47:28 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart ("Refusing to vote against unprincipled people made Obama President. " - agere_contra)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Women want a lot of things. Most of them the same as men. The real problem lies in the fact that “what women want” changes all the time. Men try but it is truly impossible to anticipate and be prepared for those changes.


5 posted on 10/20/2014 2:49:45 PM PDT by raybbr (Obamacare needs a death panel.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

My two daughters are libs——and you’d make your own sammich,and one for them. :-)

.


6 posted on 10/20/2014 2:52:17 PM PDT by Mears
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
According to Chaucer's The Wife of Bath tale, women want dominance over men. I don't see that has changed any.
7 posted on 10/20/2014 2:54:32 PM PDT by Nachoman (libertyarmstx.com is now open!)
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To: raybbr

The only thing that changes about men is that their toys get more expensive...


8 posted on 10/20/2014 2:55:23 PM PDT by Delta Dawn (Fluent in two languages: English and cursive.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

They want a FReeper.


9 posted on 10/20/2014 2:56:06 PM PDT by VRW Conspirator (There will be another crusade in our lifetime.)
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To: Mears

Fix them. For their own sake. And I don’t mean sammiches.


10 posted on 10/20/2014 2:56:33 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart ("Refusing to vote against unprincipled people made Obama President. " - agere_contra)
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To: Norm Lenhart
Dunno about conservative women.

Comfort, kindness and the occasional oh-oh-OOO!

11 posted on 10/20/2014 2:58:24 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Fightin Whitey

No sammiches? ;)

CuZ I haZ to believe there should be sammiches...


12 posted on 10/20/2014 2:59:28 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart ("Refusing to vote against unprincipled people made Obama President. " - agere_contra)
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To: Mears

>>>My two daughters are libs——and you’d make your own sammich,and one for them. :-)<<<

Have you guys heard of the MGTOW movement? I wonder if it is just a fringe element or the start of something big. (Men Going Their Own Way).


13 posted on 10/20/2014 3:02:07 PM PDT by BJ1
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To: Diana in Wisconsin; Cincinatus' Wife

Ok, on a serious note:

Affection, Conversation, Honesty, Financial Support, Family

Am I missing something?


14 posted on 10/20/2014 3:02:17 PM PDT by VRW Conspirator (There will be another crusade in our lifetime.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Perhaps it is time that conservative women stop writing this kind of article.


15 posted on 10/20/2014 3:02:30 PM PDT by independentmind
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To: VRW Conspirator
They want discipline with a smile and the direction to correct existence, with monetary help, and someone who says “Shadd up, bitch.” I polled my girl friends (and my wife)./s
16 posted on 10/20/2014 3:02:42 PM PDT by Safetgiver ( Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Cars and money.


17 posted on 10/20/2014 3:04:54 PM PDT by yarddog (G)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Bookmarking


18 posted on 10/20/2014 3:07:49 PM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: VRW Conspirator
Affection, Conversation, Honesty, Financial Support, Family Am I missing something?

They want the freedom to do as they please, but with Daddy obliged to come over and fix any messes they get into.

Freedom without accountability or consequences. Look at the Welfare system.

19 posted on 10/20/2014 3:12:50 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Judging by my daughter, they want guns and fast cars.


20 posted on 10/20/2014 3:15:06 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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