Liz Cheney appeared on Fox News yesterday, and said she's "fed up" and "at the end of [her] rope" when it comes to Democratic talk of a Republican "war on women."
"It's completely condescending and really offensive as a woman," Liz Cheney said. "The Democrats are sort of sidelining women on to these issues. Frankly, we've worked for decades and decades to become equal, it looks to me like the Democratic Party, frankly, is the party trying to take us backwards."
I've read that quote a few times, trying to make sense of it. I seem to have misplaced my far-right decoder ring again, so I'm afraid Cheney's complaints seem a little incoherent.
Consider the proposals we've seen from Republican officials this year: restricting contraception; cutting off Planned Parenthood; requiring state-mandated, medically-unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds; forcing physicians to lie to patients about abortion and breast cancer; fighting equal-pay laws; and delaying the Violence Against Women Act. When it came time for House Republicans to pay for lower student loan interest rates, GOP officials decided to get the funding by cutting access to breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings.
The Republican Party's 2012 platform calls for a constitution amendment that would ban all abortions. A Republican congressman recently compared access to birth control to 9/11 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Republican Party's vice presidential nominee co-sponsored a bill to redefine "rape."
The Republican Party's U.S. Senate nominee in Missouri believes a woman cut "shut that whole thing down" if impregnated through a "legitimate rape," while Republican Party's U.S. Senate nominee in Pennsylvania believes a rape pregnancy and out-of-wedlock pregnancy are "similar."
But in Liz Cheney's mind, it's Democrats who are being "condescending" and "offensive" towards women, and it's Democrats who are "trying to take us backwards."
If there's a reasonable explanation for this line of thought, I'm eager to hear it.