GOP Initiative: Women Are Just Wives/Daughters

The GOP just gets women. It is a party full of men (and women) who are remarkably in touch with feminism, females, and all things feminine. This was recently evidenced by Republican darling Phyllis Schlafly's statement that increasing the gender pay-gap is A-OK, since it will probably help win us women a husband. After all, what is life without a husband? And their latest move, the Republican 14 in '14 initiative, proves that women are best utilized when presented as wives and daughters. Yes, the GOP is indeed, the women's party.

We're kidding. The GOP doesn't get women. In fact, the GOP doesn't get women, and it doesn't get women's votes. But considering that the 2016 presidential election will very likely feature a Democratic woman (hey, Hillary!), the GOP is becoming acutely aware of just how disadvantaged it is when it comes to the female vote. In the face of the upcoming midterm elections, Republicans are launching a new initiative: "14 in '14."

As the Associated Press reports, the program will "recruit and train women under age 40 to help spread the party's message in the final 14 weeks of the campaign." This couldn't possibly be so bad, right?

So, so wrong. A major facet of the "14 in '14" campaign relies on male candidates' inclusion of their female wives and daughters. This, the GOP believes, will show just how much Republicans care about women — not as individuals, but as spouses and offspring. Because women, according to the GOP, are most accurately represented not as independent beings, but rather as part of a larger entity — the family. Women cannot stand on their own, so don't appeal to the individual woman. Appeal to the woman in the family!

Ugh. To be fair, can we really be so surprised that this is what women's outreach means to Republicans? After all, this is the party of Rush Limbaugh, who once advised men to "...Walk up to [a] woman and say, 'Will you please ask your breasts to stop staring at my eyes?'" Dear ol' Rush has also called malls museums for women, and, when he came under attack for the comment, he defended himself by saying, "Hey, I could have said brothel, but I didn't." Well done, Rush.

And of course, who can forget Republicans' sensitivity regarding rape? 2012 was a great year for the GOP foot-in-mouth situations, with Roger Rivard (R-WI) saying, "Some girls rape easy." There were also comments from Richard Mourdock (R-IN), who said: ”I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen,” and Todd Akin (R-MO), who claimed that in instances of "legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down."

These men made it painfully apparent that they knew anything about sexual assault, basic human sensitivity, or women in general.

So really, all things considered, how surprised can we be that Republicans believe that featuring wives and daughters in campaigns will magically win over women in America? A word to the wise, GOP: your plan won't work.