More misogyny on public display

Yesterday it was the Ohio House. Today it was the U.S. House of Representatives putting on a disgraceful spectacle attacking women’s access to contraception. Apparently, the economy is fixed, everyone has a job, and there’s no more poverty.

Unfortunately, this display comes courtesy of a Cleveland, Ohio-born and -raised congressman, Darrell Issa, a Neanderthal from southern California. Today Issa, chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, conducted “hearings” on access to contraception, cynically disguised as a forum on “religious freedom.” Freedom, that is, for conservative religious groups to discriminate against all women who work for an institution run by one of those groups.

Outrageously, if Issa had his way, this so-called “religious freedom” would be extended to ANY employer who claims to have moral or religious misgivings about ANY treatment. But they’re not talking about ANY treatment here: they’re talking about birth control. And that primarily impacts women.

As usual with hearings on such inflammatory topics (remember the hearings back in the ’80s and ’90s on rock and rap lyrics?), there’s nothing sincere or honest here. Issa’s goal was not to gather information and listen to diverse opinions, but rather to do some partisan posturing.

Doubt that? Go to his committee page and read the description of the hearing, cutely named “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?”

http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=...

How can this NOT be construed as using tax dollars to campaign?

Issa’s statement is a gem:

Let’s stop right there. No one is being forced to use birth control. Rather, we’re talking about allowing religious groups to persecute and harass those not of their own faith — especially women.

He goes on,

While some Americans may not feel that government mandates forcing them to pay for contraception are an infringement on their religious beliefs, others consider it to be an assault against their freedom of conscience. …They are concerned that government, under this Administration, is encroaching on their First Amendment rights.

Then they are as ignorant of the First Amendment as Darrell Issa apparently is (didn’t he take civics at Cleveland Heights High School or did that class come after he dropped out?) Again: no one is being forced to use contraception. No one. Zilch. It’s against your conscience, don’t do it.
But this isn’t really about that. It’s about an opportunity to campaign against President Obama. And it’s an opportunity to spew more venom and contempt toward women.
Now go look at the list of panelists Issa called to testify. It’s at the link above. What’s the common thread? Well, first, they are cherrypicked to represent primarily conservative religious institutions.
And this:

Yup, all men. Apparently a couple of women from evangelical colleges were being called later, but the morning hearing that got all the attention was all men, babbling about their supposed “religious freedom” to strip women of autonomy over their bodies and their lives. Freedom, apparently, is only for those of the male gender.

As nauseating as this spectacle is, I’ve got to think it’s going to backfire. In a matter of barely a month, the disguise has been ripped off the right’s War on Women, its previous intense escalation — in the form of radical anti-abortion legislation — veiled as concern for poor little “unborn children.”

The anti-contraception/anti-sex thing has always underpinned the anti-abortion movement, but squeamishness about killing a potential child sounded plausible enough on the surface. And surely some people do genuinely feel that way without being anti-sex. But they are not the ones driving the movement. Those with ears attuned to right-wing dog whistles — those messages that fly under the radar of those not part of the movement — always knew that hatred of women and the need to control and punish them were the true impetus for anti-abortion laws.

This is a good essay explaining exactly what those on the right have been up to:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/16/1065544/-The-death-of-the-GOP-d...

What we are seeing, as Kos says in that essay, is the death of the dog whistle. The right has become emboldened and either don’t see the political toxicity of their views or just don’t care. But it’s hard to believe people are going to be comfortable with their open hostility toward women, no matter how much they laughably insist it’s about “religious freedom.” A row of men talking about an issue that intimately impacts women’s bodies and their lives, headed by a Roman Catholic bishop, makes a powerful statement — one I think will turn most people off.