Assailed by charges that he is waging class warfare, President Obama engaged has taken the battle elsewhere. His new fight is a war of the sexes — a sustained effort to convince women that Republicans want to diminish their place in society.
In casting the American Jobs Act as a women’s rights issue, Obama levelled an unmistakable charge of sexism at Republicans. “Lifting women up lifts up our economy and lifts up our country,” he said yesterday in a speech at the National Women’s Law Center. “Now, unfortunately, not everybody in Washington seems to feel the same way. In recent weeks, Republicans in the Senate have come together three times to block jobs bills that independent economists say would boost our economy and put millions back to work –– including women.”
To continue in that vein, the president observed that Republicans “said no to putting hundreds of thousands of teachers –– three-quarters of them women –– back in front of the classroom where they belong.” He added that they also opposed “funding a special program that gets more women involved in the construction industry.”
Obama pulled the same trick when discussing Republican opposition to Obamacare. He explained that, “instead of making life easier for women in this country, they want to let insurance companies go back to charging higher prices just because you’re a woman.” Obama added that Republicans are “out there spending time trying to defund Planned Parenthood and prevent millions of women from getting basic health care that they desperately need –– pap smears and breast exams.”
Obama made no mention of the heavily subsidized organization’s status as the nation’s leading abortion provider.
In the course of finding a new way of dividing Americans, Obama accused Republicans of “spending their time trying to divide this country against itself rather than coming together to lift up our country.”
