General Discussion

Cali_Democrat

(30,439 posts) Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:42 PM Dec 2013

Republican Staffers And Candidates Are Taking Classes To Learn How Not To Offend Women

By Annie-Rose Strasser on December 5, 2013 at 9:48 am

The National Republican Congressional Committee is offering tutorials to staffers of men up for election next year on how not to offend women. Politico reports the sessions are meant specifically to assist Republican men in how to speak on the campaign trail when they are up against Democratic women.

The classes are surely a response to a gender voting gap that favors Democrats, one that has been bolstered in recent years as male candidates use certain wording and language that offends female constituents.

During the last election cycle, several male Republican candidates lost popular support after making flippant remarks about women. Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-MO), for example, stirred up controversy by suggesting that victims of “legitimate rape” can’t get pregnant because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” That comment was followed up just weeks later by another Senate candidate, Richard Mourdock, saying that pregnancies resulting from rape are a “gift from god.”

Presidential candidate Herman Cain (R) also asserted that “many men know more about” policy “than the general public,” while Republican nominee Mitt Romney assured voters that he had “binders full of women” he considered hiring for his administration as Governor of Massachusetts.

A GOP aide told Politico that Republicans have had “multiple sessions” ahead of the 2014 elections to try to teach candidates and their staff “messaging against women opponents.”

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/12/05/3024231/gop-classes-women/

They need classes.

13 replies

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Highlight:

Republican Staffers And Candidates Are Taking Classes To Learn How Not To Offend Women (Original Post) Cali_Democrat Dec 2013 OP

See? This is why DU is taken in by satire articles Pretzel_Warrior Dec 2013 #1

I read stuff like this and I can't tell if it's satire. MrScorpio Dec 2013 #2

+1 Jamaal510 Dec 2013 #6

Lesson One - Don't call your wife a c*nt in public. GreatCaesarsGhost Dec 2013 #3

Understatement of the week ... lpbk2713 Dec 2013 #4

We Should Have A Pool As To Which Repug Candidate Will Be The First To..... global1 Dec 2013 #5

IDK if this is a joke or for real, but Jamaal510 Dec 2013 #7

So they think their problem is what they say and not what they do? SomethingFishy Dec 2013 #8

Perhaps if they managed to speak to women as if they were real human beings.......... PDJane Dec 2013 #9

There Is Really A Loud Message Here ...... global1 Dec 2013 #10

Those who cannot learn from sensitivity training are doomed to repeat it JHB Dec 2013 #11

I think it's too late for Greg Abbott. ananda Dec 2013 #12

Good luck. As a woman, I am offended every time one of these republican Autumn Dec 2013 #13

Pretzel_Warrior

(8,361 posts)

1. See? This is why DU is taken in by satire articles

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:44 PM

Dec 2013

The truth is almost always as ridiculous as satire.

MrScorpio

(73,631 posts)

2. I read stuff like this and I can't tell if it's satire.

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:45 PM

Dec 2013

It's almost impossible to tell at times.

Jamaal510

(10,893 posts)

6. +1

Reply to MrScorpio (Reply #2)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:55 PM

Dec 2013

GreatCaesarsGhost

(8,584 posts)

3. Lesson One - Don't call your wife a c*nt in public.

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:48 PM

Dec 2013

From Professor John McCain.

lpbk2713

(42,757 posts)

4. Understatement of the week ...

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:51 PM

Dec 2013

House Speaker John Boehner offered some of his reasoning for why the training is taking place to reporters on Thursday. “Some of our members just aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be,” he said.

It's an exercise in futility. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it.

global1

(25,248 posts)

5. We Should Have A Pool As To Which Repug Candidate Will Be The First To.....

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:54 PM

Dec 2013

say something that is offensive to women.

Jamaal510

(10,893 posts)

7. IDK if this is a joke or for real, but

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 03:03 PM

Dec 2013

a good start would be to get away from the weirdo socially-conservative stuff. No more trying to ban contraceptives and various forms of birth control. Let women do what they want with their own bodies. By doing that, your party would stay true to its message of "freedom".
Secondly, cut it out with the "feminazi" crap (Rush Limbaugh). Recognize, analyze, and realize the fact that feminism is not about female supremacy, but instead is about women being treated the same as men. My rights as a man are not at jeopardy just because women gain their rights or receive respect.
All of this is elementary stuff that even I am aware of (and I'm not even an elected politician). Republicans are making it look more difficult than it actually is to not piss off women.

SomethingFishy

(4,876 posts)

8. So they think their problem is what they say and not what they do?

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 03:11 PM

Dec 2013

This ought to be good..

PDJane

(10,103 posts)

9. Perhaps if they managed to speak to women as if they were real human beings..........

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 03:38 PM

Dec 2013

Nah. They won't do that.

global1

(25,248 posts)

10. There Is Really A Loud Message Here ......

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 03:47 PM

Dec 2013

and that is that they actually have to take classes to learn how not to offend women.

So after these classes we're to believe it when they say something nice about women that they are sincere? That they are not just trying to be politically correct because that is what they learned in a class?

Come on. Really?

Most people learn things like this by the way they were raised and the environment that they are/were exposed to. If one has to go to a class to learn how not to offend women - there really is something seriously wrong with that picture.

I'm thinking that Hillary Clinton will be the Dem Candidate for the President in 2016. If I were her - I would really use the fact that the Repugs had to take a class on how not to offend women.

The Dems should really make an issue of this going forward. As it speaks volumes that a political party has to go to class to learn this.

I really don't understand how any woman can be proud to call themselves a Repug.