On Real Time with Bill Maher, comedian Larry Wilmore was criticizing the Republican Party for its long-standing opposition to women by avidly opposing abortion rights, when host Bill Maher (at 35:14 of the video, unfortunately now removed) contended "Yeah, but it's not because they hate women. It's because they think it's murder."
At least Larry Wilmore was there to inject some sense into the cacophony of testosterone flowing on the Overtime portion of Real Time with Bill Maher.
Keep that in mind when viewing the Overtime segment. Maher stated "brawn is not valued as much as" it once was. A United States Representative from Florida who recognizes an opportunity when he's handed one, Byron Donalds, remarked
I'm with you. Young boys, really, the last two decades in America. We got a real problem, masculinity is important. It's important not just (for) cultural reasons. It's important for your development from a boy to a man, to realize what is important, to realize that you have a responsibility to go out there and gather, and work hard, and earn and you know, you gotta have that grit and toughness to be a leader, to be a husband, to be a father, whether that's a decision you choose to make in your own personal life but those, those traits are important for masculinity and for men. To take them away rally hurts not just men, it hurts women as well.
Applause followed, suggesting Trump may have made a mistake in bypassing Donalds for J.D. Vance (probably not, though). The "to be a husband, to be a father, whether that's a decision to make in your own personal life" is first cousin to "must be a husband and a father" but at least a little more subtle than the then-Ohio senatorial candidate who in 2022
for a solid week in July kept using the term "childless" in an effort to insult his foes on the left.
"We're effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too," Vance told Tucker Carlson at the time.
I didn't see the interview and therefore cannot vouch for the response, though odds are prohibitive that there was no objection from Carlson, who spoke at the past week's convention.
If there had been a thoughtful woman on Maher's panel, perhaps she would have asked why women are not to "work hard, and earn." Better yet, arguably, would be to have asked Donalds what on God's earth a "responsibility to go out and gather" means. In Donald Trump's world, would that have been a reference to sultry women or to loyal subjects?
Representative Donalds, he of the masculinity, grit and toughness references, had not been prompted by a social science exchange about the difference between the sexes but in a discussion about the attempt on the life of Donald Trump.
Fortunately, though, Wilmore was there at the Overtime desk explaining to Donalds "Although, I don't think it's fair to put the shooter in that particular category because that thing has turned up many times in the past..." It's not as if Thomas Matthew Crooks had been a feminist wimp when he purchased a semi-automatic rifle, climbed onto a roof, and decided to incur his own violent death by shooting at a presidential candidate.
This (phony) projection of uber-masculinity has become a thing in the G.O.P.; witness the Hulk Hogan "speech," more a performance, in Milwaukee. We don't yet know whether Crooks was plagued by mental illness but Republican messaging may be gradually and subtly shifting from blaming craziness to blaming feminized society for high-profile shootings.
And yet Maher, in the main portion of Real Time and on an earlier date, had endorsed the idea that opposition to reproductive rights stemmed from a heartfelt belief that the procedure is killing/ murder. If it is, then surely pro-life states would punish not only the doctor performing an abortion but also the individual who has sought, requested, and paid for this horrific crime.
Surprise, not surprise. The forced-birth advocacy organization Charlotte Lozier Institute summarized the status of abortion law in each state and the District of Columbia and concluded "some states have no criminal abortion statues at all and among those that do, only tow (Nevada and Oklahoma) appear to have statutes allowing the prosecution of mothers."
Of course, most laws not only can be interpreted in more than one manner but also are written ostensibly to allow lawmakers on both sides of an issue to claim some vindication. And the Charlotte Lozier Institute is eager to persuade all parties that there is nothing for women to fear in current state law or proposed state law.
There is. Asked by MSNBC's Chris Matthews in March of 2016 whether he "believe(s) in punishment for abortion, yes, or no, as a principle," Donald Trump responded "the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment." When Matthews responded "for the woman.?" the presidential candidate replied "yes, there has to be some form."
The interview was taped hours before it was broadcast, and Trump's statement recanting the Kinsley Gaffe was released even before the interview was broadcast. Honesty is not the best policy, at least not when running for President.
Trump's cleanup on aisle 4 included the preposterous notion that when the procedure takes place, "the woman is a victim in this case." This mirrors what other conservatives have claimed over the years in the rare instances in which they've been asked the fundamental, and critical, question which Matthews posed. In the rationale of the forced-birth advocates, the woman acts with no agency; she is not a thinking, rational being but helpless and hopeless without a man's direction.
The official position of the unquestioned, heavyweight champion of the Republican Party is that a woman is an unshaped piece of clay, while two of his important subjects, Byron Donalds and J.D. Vance, are on that page, with barely concealed contempt for men who are childless and women who prefer to be childless. They, as well as the vast majority of pro-life advocates, will tell you that their opposition to abortion is rooted in abortion (allegedly) being murder. Nonetheless, there is something darker at play, one whose implications may be broad, deep, and destructive.
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