Women Will Save America From the Republican Party’s Attack On Equal Rights

Wars begin when an aggressor seeks to seize resources or impose an ideology on its victims, and in some cases, to squelch dissident voices if the conflict is internal to a country. Leaders in Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Egypt, and Libya claimed they were not waging war on their own citizens, but despite their claims, death and destruction from military bombardment cannot be misconstrued as anything but war, and the victims knew they were in a war. For an aggressor to attempt to convince their victims they were not waging war against them despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary is outrageous, but like leaders in Syria, Libya, and Egypt, Republicans followed the lead of Gaddafi, Assad, and Mubarak and claim they are not waging a war on women.

The Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, claimed the war on women was entirely baseless and that the “media was trumping up the fictional attacks on women’s rights.” Either Priebus is ignorance personified, in denial, or is attempting to cover up the Republicans’ drive to curtail women’s constitutionally guaranteed rights in Congress and dozens of states. For the past year, Republicans sought to redefine rape and limit women’s access to healthcare, and in the past week, repealed a law to protect gender equality in pay. Republicans cannot claim they are not waging war on women’s rights with any veracity because they have waged this war with extreme prejudice since January 2011 when they took control of the House and several state legislatures.