Remember, 2016 GOP presidential contenders, you’re anti-woman if you’re not in lockstep with liberal orthodoxy — and they won’t let you forget it.
Liberal pro-choice group EMILY’s List is helping Democrats get a head start on furthering the “war on women” narrative that worked so well in 2012 but failed badly in 2014. The group plans to document when a Republican candidate “ignores, insults or offends” American women, according to the strategy shared with RealClearPolitics.
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“Women and families need leaders who understand the challenges they face and take them seriously. They deserve better than the disrespectful words and harmful actions of the current Republican 2016 field,” EMILY’s List communications director Jess McIntosh said.
Some of the beefs EMILY’s List will have with Republicans will be unsurprising, like constantly pointing out that the candidate wants to limit abortion access. But that line of attack is rarely defined. Will the group attack any Republican who is only against partial-birth or late-term abortions? What about Republicans who want to ban abortions beyond 20 weeks but would include exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother? The group did not respond to a Washington Examiner inquiry.
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The attacks will also, predictably, include anything a Republican does that happens to be directed toward a woman. The group mentioned Sen. Rand Paul’s “shushing” of a female CNBC interview as an example — even though there’s no indication that Paul, known for his eccentric ways, wouldn’t have done the same thing to a male host.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, currently a top contender for the 2016 GOP nomination, was singled out as a target for EMILY’s List. The group doesn’t like his stance on abortion, naturally, but also doesn’t like that Walker signed a bill in 2012 that repealed a law that allowed employees to file pay discrimination claims in state court, even though a state law prohibiting pay discrimination was untouched.
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It appears anything, even something as minute as the bill Walker signed, will be used to attack Republicans. You can bet the headlines on the attack pieces won’t include accurate descriptions of what the candidate did, but rather click-bait descriptions like “[Candidate] repeals equal pay law.”
EMILY’s List also mentioned New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of a bill that would require state employee wages to be public. Christie vetoed this law because it was duplicative, but that kind of nuance will be ignored by EMILY’s List.
It’s going to be a long 2016, people.
