After the 2010 "Republican wave" that swept many Republicans into both houses of Congress and state legislatures all over the country, many Republicans revealed their true colors by showing us how they disregard women.
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In Wisconsin, a wedding photographer by the name of Lori Compas rounded up a group of volunteers and gathered enough signatures to force Republican Wisconsin State Senator Scott Fitzgerald to run in a recall election. When nobody else wanted to run against Big Fitz, Compas herself stepped up to the plate and ran against Big Fitz. Big Fitz is regarded as a "stubborn conservative", and revealed his chauvinistic side when he falsely suggested that Compas's husband was behind her campaign!
Compas, as well as her husband, son, and daughter, produced this YouTube video in response to Big Fitz's sexist remarks:
While Compas lost to Big Fitz despite running a spirited campaign in a heavily-Republican state senate district in Wisconsin, she sure taught us how Republicans view women!
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Here in my home state of Illinois, Joe Walsh, a notorious right-wing loudmouth, narrowly won a seat in the U.S. House in the 8th Congressional District of Illinois in 2010. When Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs after a Black Hawk Helicopter she was piloting was shot down, ran against Walsh in the 2012 congressional elections, Walsh said that Duckworth was not a true hero! Here's the video of that:
Duckworth defeated Walsh in this year's 8th Congressional District of Illinois election. Walsh deserved to lose after he put Duckworth, who I regard as a true hero in more ways than one, down and disparaged her military service.
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Michigan State House Republicans had a problem with Democratic women saying the words "vagina" and "vasectomy" on the floor of the Michigan House after Michigan Republicans proposed an anti-abortion "superbill". Here's a video of Lisa Brown using the word "vagina" in a speech criticizing the proposed legislation:
Michigan Republicans responded by banning Brown, as well as Barb Byrum, who used the word "vasectomy" in a speech, from speaking on the Michigan House floor. That didn't stop Michigan State Senators Gretchen Whitmer and Rebekah Warren from producing this video blasting Michigan House Republicans from banning Brown and Byrum from speaking on the House floor:
Better yet, the Vagina Monologues were read on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, and here's the closing speech of that event:
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It's not just Democratic women who have been known to fight back against Republicans, the wives of Democratic men have even fought back against Republican attacks! Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown was attacked by Republican bloggers for embracing a woman by the name of Connie Schultz, a nationally syndicated columnist, and claiming that was proof that Brown was too close to the mainstream media, although they're probably jealous that Schultz is married to a Democratic U.S. Senator. Schultz fought back with this response:
Dear Mr. [Name Deleted]:
I am surprised you did not find a photo of me kissing U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown so hard he passes out from lack of oxygen. He’s really cute.
He’s also my husband.
You know that, right?
Connie Schultz.
Schultz made those right-wingers look like a bunch of fools! Schultz's husband, Sherrod Brown, defeated Republican challenger Josh Mandel in the 2010 Ohio U.S. Senate election.
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When Republicans talk about rape, they often make highly controversial remarks. The most notable example of this is Missouri Republican U.S. Senate candidate's Todd Akin's false claim that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant:
Akin lost the 2010 Missouri U.S. Senate election to Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill and caused a national political firestorm.
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Right after Democrat Tammy Baldwin was elected to the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin, Wisconsin's other senator, Republican Ron Johnson, put Baldwin down with these remarks:
Hopefully I can sit down and lay out for her my best understanding of the federal budget because they're simply the facts. Hopefully she'll agree with what the facts are and work toward common sense solutions.
However, Baldwin wasn't going to let Johnson put her down without making this response:
I was a double major in college in mathematics and political science, and I served for six years on the House Budget Committee in my first six years in the House, and I am very confident that when proposals come before the U.S. Senate, I will be able to evaluate them as to how they benefit or harm middle-class Wisconsinites. A yardstick of 'does it create jobs,' 'does it lower the deficit' and 'does it help grow the middle class' is an important one. I'm quite confident that I have those abilities.
Furthermore, Baldwin was backed up by Lisa Muxworthy,
a liberal political blogger from notoriously conservative Waukesha County, Wisconsin, who writes under the pen name Lisa Mux at Blogging Blue, gave this response to Johnson's put-down of Baldwin via Facebook:
Dear Senator Johnson,
Tammy Baldwin is not an idiot, and neither is the electorate.
Sincerely,
Lisa
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To all the Republican misogynists out there, I have something to say: Democratic women fight back!