It's that time of the year again. It's always fun to see what's going on in the minds of the GOP, like Mitt Romney's 47% statements from a few years back, and this time the fix is coming from a report by 8 GOP focus groups entitled "Republicans and Women Voters: Huge Challenges, Real Opportunities".
Let's break down their 3 main methods to attract women voters shall we? An analysis from the Daily Banter handily summates their plans.
First, they suggest the GOP “neutralize the Democrats” attack that Republicans don’t support fairness for women. They suggest Republican lawmakers criticize Democrats for “growing government programs that encourage dependency rather than opportunities to get ahead.” That message tested better than explaining that the GOP supports a number of policies that could help fairness for women.
All in all, the plan is "let's try to skew the fact that the Democrats are right when it comes to subject matters like abortion, contraception, and pretty much every other social issue and instead make tenuous links between their policies and talking terms like 'dependency' while supporting some ambiguous programs that are more fair".
Second, the groups suggest Republicans “deal honestly with any disagreement on abortion, then move to other issues.”
The next step is "let's continue to firmly push the fact that we're anti-abortion and restricting the right to do something that personally doesn't affect us in any way beyond the morality we hide behind to support our policies".
And third, “pursue policy innovations that inspire women voters to give the GOP a ‘fresh look.’” The report suggests lawmakers and candidates inject “unexpected” GOP policy proposals into the debate as a way to sway female voters. Suggestions include ways to improve job-training programs, “strengthening enforcement against gender bias in the workplace” and “expanding home health care services by allowing more health care professionals to be paid by Medicare for home health services.”
Essentially, "let's advocate policies that Democrats have been pushing for women for decades that we've been staunchly opposing and unveil new policy for women under the thinly-blanked purpose of using them to revitalize how our party looks rather than actually benefiting their condition."
Even as a guy, I'm frankly insulted by the ways Republicans are trying to use to pander to women. But maybe that's because I'm in a minority group and fear how they will choose to "win over" my demographic next. I can hardly wait.