What Women Want, Huckabee Edition (Spoiler: It's Big Strong Republican Men)
Mike Huckabee, referring to the nation's women as "them," told the Republican National Committee's winter meeting on Thursday that the GOP needs to emphasize that it's warring for, not on, women. Republicans are uniquely positioned to "empower them to be something other than victims of their gender," Huckabee said, adding that he believes Democrats leave women unable to "control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government.” Also: Mike Huckabee might run for president in 2016.
Here's more of that quote, referring to how he thinks Democrats treat women:
“They are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government.”
Huckabee previously used the "Uncle Sugar" nickname at the 2012 RNC, apparently to refer to President Obama.
Although we shouldn't have to point it out, women don't actually use birth control like the Victorians used hysterectomies. Hormonal birth control pills are taken daily, whether women are sexually active or not, for a myriad of reasons pertaining to women's health. But as Dave Weigel pointed out at Slate, Huckabee's bizarre dystopian vision of passive women hysterically grabbing at birth control because they just can't seem to control themselves is not a new refrain from the former Arkansas governor. He said something similar on his Fox News show last Sunday:
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For Democrats to reduce women to beggars for cheap government funded birth control is demeaning to the women that I know who are far more complicated than their libido and the management of their reproductive system.
Women I know also have brains and they use them creatively and effectively and they can manage everything from a business to a household.
He had more advice for how women should be, encouraging women to use "their unique and noble abilities as women." He added, "they understand that real power for a woman is to give life, not to take it." But ladies, watch out: Huckabee has a long history of giving great advice to women. For instance, don't speak too loudly, like Debbie Wasserman Schultz! Here's what Huckabee said about her in 2012 during the RNC:
The only hitch in an otherwise perfect week was the awful noise coming from the hotel room next door to mine. Turns out it was just Debbie Wasserman Schultz practicing her speech for the DNC in Charlotte next week. Bless her heart.
And definitely don't try to do complicated things during your period. Huckabee, jumping on a dubious conclusion from a study that seemed to suggest women vote differently while ovulating, wrote on Facebook that "men are actually better at" multitasking, because "researchers believe high estrogen levels interfere with women’s spatial abilities." The jokester also provided some super hilarious advice for men dealing with their hormone containers-slash-wives: "If you men plan to tell your wives that you’re better at multitasking than they are because they don’t think as clearly during certain times of the month, you’d probably better do it while simultaneously shielding your head and running for the door." LOL!
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/01/what-women-want-huckabee-edition-spoiler-big-strong-republican-men/357319/
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