Donald Trump's Spousal Rape Disaster and the GOP War on Women

The Donald and ex-wife Ivana

Donald Trump continues to rile the GOP presidential candidate clown car but not in the way that The Donald may have envisioned.  Now, Trump finds himself akin to the insane GOP senate candidate who brought the term "legitimate rape" to the political discourse.   With the Daily Beast having issued a timely reminder that Ivana Trump accused her ex-husband of raping her in 1989 during her divorce deposition, Trump has unleashed debate on whether one can rape one's spouse.  Trump, of course, says that marital rape is an impossibility.   Talking Points Memo looks at the new attention being brought to the GOP view of women and their subordination to me.  Here are excerpts:

The Donald Trump news cycle is not ready to burn out yet, not while his lawyer, in a very Trump-like show of belligerence, told a reporter that spousal rape is legal when it most certainly is not. This week, the Daily Beast issued a timely reminder that Ivana Trump accused her ex-husband of raping her in 1989 during her divorce deposition. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen denied this by arguing “she felt raped emotionally” but not criminally, whatever that means.

“You cannot rape your spouse,” and adding, in direct opposition to reality, “There’s very clear case law.”

Thankfully, the response so far to this story is public outrage—causing Trump’s lawyer to quasi-apologize—because most of us easily grasp that there is nothing even remotely okay about throwing your spouse down and forcing yourself on them, as Trump was alleged to have done. There’s even been some stunned disbelief that it took until 1993 for all 50 states to ban raping your spouse. But we shouldn’t be so surprised, as there are more than a few people out there who continue to argue that it still should be legal to rape your spouse. 

As Irin Carmon at msnbc.com writes, “There is a long history of conservative opposition to the very concept of marital rape, which is a fairly recent concept in law.” She cites conservative pundit Phyllis Schlafly, Virginia legislator Richard Black, and the infamous Missouri congressman Todd Akin, all criticizing bans on spousal rape. In most cases, they claim that they worry about the poor hypothetical husbands falsely accused by vindictive women during divorce proceedings.

But the fact that this attitude has a home in conservative circles shouldn’t really be a surprise. After all, resistance to the idea that all forced sex is rape is hardly limited to the question of spousal rape. Public discourse about sexual assault has been on the rise for years now, and the conservative punditry is still a reliable source of people spouting ignorance about rape that sounds more at home in some misogynist Internet forum than in supposedly mainstream media.

Like James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal playing the “rape is just drunk girls expressing regret” card. . . . . . Or George Will suggesting that a clear-cut case of rape can’t count because the victim willingly dated the rapist in the past.
While rape is on the extreme end of the spectrum, women’s basic right to bodily autonomy continues to be hotly controversial, with conservative forces mounting daily assaults on it. Giving women the right to say no to pregnancy is treated, in right wing circles, like it’s the harbinger of the apocalypse. 

The common theme here is that women’s bodies don’t belong to themselves. The red state abortion assaults conducted under the banner of “states rights” imply that women’s bodies belong to those states. The attacks on contraception coverage in your insurance suggest that women’s bodies belong to their employers. Hell, there’s even one Republican suing to strip his own daughters of birth control coverage, with the legal arguments unsubtly suggesting that those bodies belong not to them but Daddy. The grotesque rape apologist arguments made by conservatives range from suggesting that your date has a right to override your “no” to the idea that, if you drink or wear a short skirt, you have somehow become public property, for any rando to do with what he wishes. 

Trump’s role in the campaign is to take every gross conservative prejudice like this, and present it in its unvarnished, most grotesque form. It shouldn’t be a surprise that his team would pull the same stunt when it comes to communicating conservative hostility to female autonomy. 

West Virginia Republican says Rape can be "Beautiful"

GOP's Brian Kurcaba

I never cease to be amazed by the batshitery that comes from the mouths of today's Republicans.  It's little wonder that so many of us Republicans of yesteryear have fled the GOP as it has become one big insane asylum.  The key ingredient to the party's descent into insanity?  The rise of the Christofascists within the party.  What began as a slow grow cancer has now metastasized.  How else to explain the statement by West Virginia Republican Delegate Brian Kurcaba who says rape is "beautiful" when it results in a child.  Perhaps in the crazy world view of the likes of Tony Perkins, Pat Robertson, Victoria Cobb, and Tim Wildmon, but not for those of us who live in touch with objective reality.  The Raw Story looks at this batshitery which increasingly is the norm for Republicans who see women as some sort of chattel property of men:

Republican state lawmaker in West Virginia said on Thursday that while rape is horrible, it’s “beautiful” that a child could be produced in the attack.

According to Huffington Post, Charleston Gazette reporter David Gutman was on the scene when Delegate Brian Kurcaba (R) said, “Obviously rape is awful,” but “What is beautiful is the child that could come from this.”

Kurcaba made the remarks during a House of Delegates discussion of a law outlawing all abortions in the state after 20 weeks’ gestation. At 20 weeks, anti-choice activists and lawmakers allege, a fetus can feel pain and is therefore too viable to abort.

The bill was passed by West Virginia Republicans in 2014, but vetoed by Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. Now the state GOP has revived the bill and voted to remove an exception for victims of rape and incest.

Kurcaba’s remarks echo a string of embarrassing statements by Republicans regarding rape and women’s bodies. 

In 2012, Missouri’s Rep. Todd Akin said that pregnancy can’t result from rape because “If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that while sexual assaults are unfortunate, the resulting pregnancy is a “gift from God.”

Republican leaders convened an emergency meeting in 2013 urging the rank and file to stop talking about rape altogether lest it further alienate women voters, who have been abandoning the Republican Party in droves.

Nonetheless, Kurcaba — a financial advisor who was elected in 2014 — appears eager to bring discussions of rape back into the dialogue about women’s access to reproductive health care.

Here in Virginia, Republicans are seeking to pass a similar law with no exception for instances of rape. 

The GOP Meltdown On Abortion And Rape

Since the 2014 midterm elections we've heard constant blather about the GOP being focused on proving that it can govern responsibly.  So what do Congressional Republicans do?  Try to pass abortion legislation.  Forget about the economy, forget about job creation, it's ALL about pleasing the Christofascists in the party base.  The move proved even more disastrous because disagreement broke out amongst the ranks and the bill had to be pulled.  Talking Points Memo looks at the GOP three ring circus.  Here are highlights:

Tens of thousands of Americans descended on Washington for the annual March For Life on Thursday only to see House Republicans melt down over their signature issue: abortion.

A symbolic messaging bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy threw the party into disarray and was abruptly pulled at the last minute after a group of GOP women and swing-district lawmakers raised hackles over a rape-exception provision that required victims of sexual assault to report the crime to authorities before they could get an abortion.

The rebellion was lit in recent days by women in the conference, primarily Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), as well as more centrist members including a sizable faction of freshmen in swing districts. Republican leaders and conservatives were blindsided — after all, they had comfortably passed similar legislation in the last Congress with the same rape clause.

Center-right Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) strongly criticized the abortion bill, suggesting that it passed with the rape clause in 2013 only because most members hadn't read it closely.

"The less we engage on this issue [of rape] legislatively, the better off we are as a party," he said. "What kind of message are we sending?"

In the end, Republican leaders pulled the bill and took a bullet for their objecting members, who were facing the wrath of anti-abortion advocates. Opponents admitted it likely would have passed despite their objections, but the drama over the rape clause would have put moderates in a bind and threatened to damage the party's brand.

"I would prefer that our party spend less time focusing on these very contentious social issues because that distracts us from broader economic messages," Dent said. "This was a messaging bill that was going nowhere in the Senate."

One of the rebelling freshman, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), called the rape provision in the abortion bill that was shelved a "mistake." He said it caused "a level of discomfort, especially with the females in our conference."

"I'm pro-life but I had concerns about the bill — the rape requirement. I think that was something that was dividing our conference," he told reporters. "We have to have absolute sympathy and solidarity with any woman who was raped."

For Dent, it has been a depressing start to the new Congress.

"Week one, we had a Speaker election that didn't go as well as a lot of us would have liked. Week two, we spent a lot of time talking about deporting children, a conversation a lot of us didn't want to have. Week three, we're debating reportable rape and incest — again, not an issue a lot of us wanted to have a conversation about," the Republican congressman said. "I just can't wait for week four."

Sadly, much of the GOP base believes that any woman who is raped must have been asking for it or is a slut who is trying to use a claim of rape to cover her own promiscuity.  Such is the base of today's GOP.  Expect more batshitery and focus on social issues and immigrant bashing since these issues fire up the lunatic party base.

GOP Lawmaker: Women Need Man’s Permission for Abortion Absent "Legitimate Rape"

GOP State Representative Rick Brattin

Despite constant Republican Party claims that there is no GOP war on women, actions speak much louder than words and demonstrate that there is indeed a GOP war on women.  How else to explain Missouri Republican Rick Brattin's new bill which states that “[n]o abortion shall be performed or induced unless and until the father of the unborn child provides written, notarized consent to the abortion.” It's legislation right out of the wet dreams of Victoria Cobb and her fellow Christofascists at The Family Foundation (will Del. Bob Marshall introduce a similar bill here in Virginia?).  The GOP has seemly learned nothing from the Todd Akin debacle.  The Raw Story looks at this mindset that views women as chattel property of men.  Here are highlights:

Republican lawmaker in Missouri is introducing a bill that will require women to receive consent from the man who impregnated them before getting an abortion, Mother Jones‘s Molly Redden reports.

State Representative Rick Brattin filed the bill, which states that “[n]o abortion shall be performed or induced unless and until the father of the unborn child provides written, notarized consent to the abortion.”

The two exceptions to the requirement are “in cases where the woman upon whom the abortion is to be performed or induced was the victim of rape or incest,” or if the woman has “a notarized affidavit attesting to the fact” that the man who impregnated her is deceased.

Brattin told Mother Jones that while the bill allows for an exception in the case of rape, the woman seeking an abortion will have to prove that she has been raped.

“Just like any rape, you have to report it, and you have to prove it,” he said. “So you couldn’t just go and say, ‘Oh yeah, I was raped,’ and get an abortion. It has to be a legitimate rape.”

He insisted that he was using the phrase “legitimate rape” differently from former Missouri representative Todd Akin, who claimed that women cannot become pregnant from a “legitimate rape” because her body will “shut the whole thing down.”

“I’m just saying if there was a legitimate rape, you’re going to make a police report, just as if you were robbed,” he said by way of clarification. “That’s just common sense.”

 Common sense anywhere except in the sane, non-Christofascist world.

Todd Akin Isn't Sorry - Takes Back Apology to Women

Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin

As if there isn't already enough proof that the GOP has become the party of knuckle dragging Neanderthals and spittle flecked religious fanatics, now Todd Akin is bursting back on the scene and in a new book withdrawing his apology for his insane, ugly comment about rape and women.   In withdrawing the apology, Akin says he “was validating the willful misinterpretation of what I had said.”  For anyone who heard his statement, there was no misinterpreting what he said.  It was all too clear.   Politico looks at this craziness from Akin who no doubt is a darling of the Christofascists at The Family Foundation here in Virginia.  Here are highlights:

Two years after the Missouri Republican’s comments on rape, pregnancy and abortion doomed his campaign and fueled a “war on women” message that carried Democrats to victory in the Senate, one of the few regrets he mentions in a new book is the decision to air a campaign ad apologizing for his remarks.

“By asking the public at large for forgiveness,” Akin writes, “I was validating the willful misinterpretation of what I had said.”

And when it comes to his infamous line about rape and pregnancy, that “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” he writes defiantly: “My comment about a woman’s body shutting the pregnancy down was directed to the impact of stress of fertilization.

“Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom” hits bookshelves July 15. An advance copy was provided to POLITICO by a source involved with the book.

Akin argues that he could have defeated Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri, despite his comments, if it weren’t for the piling on from both liberals and conservatives. He compares his situation sympathetically to that of George Allen, who lost a Senate race in Virginia after calling a liberal tracker a racial slur. And he accuses liberals of hypocrisy for asking Bill Clinton to headline the Democratic National Convention.

The forward is written by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, but few other conservatives are likely to cheer Akin’s return to the national stage in the final months of a campaign season Republicans vowed would not be shaped by the mistakes of 2012, when comments about rape and women’s issues derailed their hopes of retaking the Senate.

Akin isn’t concerned. Here are some key takeaways from his book:

Defends comments on rape

Akin offers no apologies for his “legitimate rape” comment and blames liberal news media for how it was received. The liberal opposition research super PAC American Bridge dug up the video and sent it to Talking Points Memo, described as one of the “well-funded, left-leaning blogs.” Talking Points Memo posted the footage and started a firestorm.

Akin systematically defends every phrase in his response to whether abortion in the case of rape should be legal. “Taking my comments in order: When a woman claims to have been raped, the police determine if the evidence supports the legal definition of ‘rape.’ Is it a legitimate claim of rape or an excuse to avoid an unwanted pregnancy?”

Contempt for GOP Establishment

The former lawmaker spends a fair amount of time cataloging who wronged him. Karl Rove gets plenty of ink for his comments at the Republican National Convention, where he joked to donors that “If [Akin’s] found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts!” Akin also dings former National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Jesmer in the book for allegedly pressuring a supporter to try and “persuade as many pastors as possible to sign a letter asking me to step down.”

Akin singles out Rove, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Cornyn, GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Roy Blunt of Missouri, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and House Speaker John Boehner as the group of Beltway RINOs whose decisions are closely tied to which candidates are supported by Republican super PACs. Akin later calls McCain’s 2008 presidential bid a “futile effort” and describes the senator as “old, brittle, and internally angry.”

 

There's more, but what is truly frightening is that much of the GOP base will likely embrace Akin.  As I said in the last post, the cancer that afflicts the GOP cannot be cured.  The patient must die to be cured.

More Fury Over Latest GOP Rape Remarks

Some in the GOP - i.e., the non-Christofascists - are livid that another Republican member of Congress (pictured above) has reignited controversy by saying that Todd Akin "was partially right" in his remarks about rape and abortion that likely guaranteed Akin's defeat on November 2012 in the Senatorial contest in Missouri.    Indeed, the increasingly rare sane members of the GOP are desperately looking for ways to stop the insane rape comments.  The problem the face is that their political party has been taken over by the knuckle dragging, Bible toting Christofascists who just cannot comprehend that a majority of Americans find their beliefs and statements reprehensible.  Politico looks at this latest firestorm over Christianist batshitery.  Here are excerpts:

Rep. Phil Gingrey’s attempts to explain Todd Akin’s rape remarks are leaving many Republicans beyond frustrated that a few in their party can’t help but insert rape into the already contentious abortion debate.

“This is actually pretty simple. If you’re about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop,” said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who was a senior adviser in Mitt Romney’s campaign.

On Thursday, the Georgia Republican didn’t heed that advice, telling a local Chamber of Commerce breakfast that Akin was “partially right” when he said last year that a woman can stop herself from getting pregnant.

“We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate,’” Gingrey said.

He also said that Akin’s definition of a “non-legitimate rape” could be “a scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents.”

But Gingrey’s lengthy explanation of what Akin meant was quickly circulated by Democrats, repudiated by medical groups, and had some Republicans smacking their heads in frustration.

And it may have added new urgency to a training program that’s already being launched by an anti-abortion group — the Susan B. Anthony list — to keep candidates and lawmakers from continually making the same kinds of comments that may have helped ruin Republicans’ chances of winning the Senate.

Former Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) questioned why Gingrey was talking about the months-old comment in the first place.  “There’s no way to defend what Todd Akin said,” Bono Mack said. “You just can’t do it and you shouldn’t try to put it into a scientific context. It was a bad statement. And to try to defend it or explain someone else’s poor choice of words, it would be a fool’s errand.”

Training is not the solution to the GOP's problem.  The only real solution is to expel the religious extremists from the party and to cease pandering to them in any way.  Will the GOP do this?  I doubt it.

The Republican Stance on Rape

I remain dumb struck by women who say they plan on voting Republican in less than 2 weeks.  Have they been living under rocks, had their heads stuck in the sand or what?  The chart above(click on it to enlarge it)  reminds of the GOP view or rape -  something that many in the GOP apparently believe only happens to sluts who deserve it.  Here in Hampton Roads, 2nd District GOP candidate Scott Rigell backed the "forcible rape" bill that was in Congress.  Somehow that little tidbit doesn't show up in Rigell's ads or the Virginian Pilot endorsement of Rigell - an endorsement perhaps stemming from Frank Batten, Jr.s' long standing support for far right Christian groups and extremists like Rigell.

Todd Akin: The Real Face of the GOP

While many Republicans have tried to distance themselves from Congressman Todd Akin's "legitimate rape"comment, the reality is that when one looks at the GOP Party Platform, Akin is the real face of today's GOP regardless of the pretense that he's not by other Republicans.  Yes, Akin is an extremist and nutcase, but then so is the Party Platform, portions of which were drafted by extremist such as Tony Perkins of FRC and his cohorts.  It doesn't get any more extreme than that.   Hence why Democrats across the country are holding up Akin as an example of what the Republican Party - including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan - really stands for nowadays.  An article in Politico looks at the phenomenon.  Here are excerpts:

Democrats are running hard against Todd Akin in Missouri — and in Washington state, New York, Arizona and California.   The Republican Senate candidate whose comments about “legitimate rape” caused a stir in August has become Democrats’ favorite opponent, even in places where he’s not on the ticket.

Women’s issues were already central to the campaign when Democrats seized on Akin’s comments, taking the fight over contraception and abortion onto much more uncomfortable ground for Republicans — rape.

In some races, Akin is featured by name in attack ads.

Former Rep. Dan Maffei is airing an ad in New York that features a photo of his opponent Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle next to Akin.  The ad references a bill Buerkle cosponsored with Akin that would have banned funds for abortions except for in instances of “forcible rape,” The word “forcible” was later removed from the bill.  “For Ann Marie Buerkle, women who were drugged or even minors who were victims of statutory rape would not be classified rape victims,” a woman’s voice says in the ad.  “That’s just too extreme.”  The ad has struck a nerve with the Buerkle campaign.

While establishment Republicans initially turned on Akin in August, some have come to his aid in recent weeks. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Sens. Tom Coburn and James Inhofe of Oklahoma held a fundraiser for Akin last week. Former presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have endorsed him.

Akin has also cropped up in California, where Democrat Ami Bera is challenging Rep. Dan Lungren. Lungren was forced to back away from the same bill as Buerkle, saying in a recent debate that he “would not support” the measure without the word “forcible” removed.  Bera’s campaign is also holding women-to-women phone banks, where the campaign says Akin’s “forcible rape” bill is one of the top issues that female voters are talking about.

“[Akin] is the Republican who says what the others are thinking,” Jess McIntosh of EMILY’s List said. “His comments did not come out of nowhere. People weren’t blindsided with the idea that Republicans think some rapes are more important or worse than others.”  Planned Parenthood’s Dawn Laguens agreed.

“Todd Akin is just the impolite expression of an array of policies that a Republican platform and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan support and are pretty unpopular and try to avoid talking about,” Laguens said. “It’s like letting the crazy relative out of the back room and into the party. It just shown a light for most people are appalled by the ignorance of these politicians when it comes to women’s lives and to their health and to their reproductive systems.”

In the weeks following Akin’s comments, Planned Parenthood Action Fund produced a web ad hitting GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan highlighting the similarities Ryan and Akin have on women’s health care. The ad got 3,000 views on YouTube and had more than 1,000 likes on Facebook. The group also created a graphic linking Ryan to Akin on health care that got nearly 17,000 Facebook shares and has three mail pieces in Iowa hitting Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for his comments to targeted women voters.

The GOP can try to pretend that Akin doesn't represent the Party's true views, but just like so much of what Mitt Romney said during last week's debate, it's a lie.  Akin IS the face of today's GOP.  It's extreme and it's ugly.