Women

8 Reasons to Oppose John McCain #2

The Republican Party does not, as a rule, think very much of women. They do not believe that women should be allowed to make choices about their own bodies. They do not believe that women should receive the same pay for equal work. You wonder if they don't still believe that women are inferior to men and should be denied the right to vote.

Despite his carefully crafted moderate image (you know, the one that has fallen apart over the course of this campaign, but the image that he still seems to believe is true), John McCain is no better than the rest of his party on women's issues. He threw women under the bus, along with his dignity and self respect, when he knew he had to in order to win the Republican nomination for the Presidency.

In 1999, the moderate version of John McCain was riding high. Seeking to appeal to voters in the middle, he abandoned his own party when he told the San Francisco Chronicle:

(I)n the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade ...

There are still some women who refuse to accept that John McCain is anti-choice. Proof?

• From his own web site: "John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned ..."
• At Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, John McCain adopted that typically cynical Republican view of "life" when he said that it begins "At the moment of conception."
• McCain has promised to nominate judges along the lines of Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito to the bench. They are both well known for their opposition to a women's right to choose.
• For his running mate, he chose a woman who is "opposed to abortion in almost all cases, including rape and incest."

As for the issue of pay equality, McCain claims to support the concept, he just isn't willing to support legislation that would enforce it. I can only assume he would like to go to all of the discriminatory companies and say "Pretty please." Here, he is clearly playing both sides of the debate so that he won't piss off either women or the religious base of the Republican party. Ultimately, he just looks like a coward because he isn't willing to vote for a concept that he claims to believe.

Finally, his most prominent slap in the face of American women is his nomination of Sarah Palin as his running mate. There are a number of women in the Republican Party who have long, distinguished careers in public service. (Kay Bailey Hutchinson? Condi Rice? Sure, they'd suck on the issues but at least they wouldn't inspire abject terror at the thought of them being in office.) They have thought about the big issues. They have studied them. They would have made serious candidates. Instead, he chose Sarah Palin not because he thought she would make a good President, but because he cynically thought any woman would do. Wow.