Sen. Bernie Sanders: United Against the War on Women.
The history of American democracy, to say the least, has been checkered. Our nation was founded at a time when people of African descent were held in bondage. After slavery was abolished, they were forced to endure legal discrimination for another 100 years.
When our country was formed, women were not just second-class citizens. They were third- or fourth-class citizens. Women couldn't vote or play a significant role in the political life of the nation. Women, in many cases, couldn't own property and were legally regarded as subservient in marriage. The educational and economic opportunities open to women were extremely limited. And, of course, women were unable to have control over their own bodies.
In the last 50 years, as the result of an enormous amount of effort on the part of the women's movement and its male allies, we as a nation have made significant progress in the fight for gender equality. Clearly, much, much more needs to be done, but few would deny that our country has come a very long way in this struggle. In Vermont, Governor Madeleine Kunin has given years of service to our state after becoming the state's first female governor in 1985. She is an inspiration to girls throughout Vermont and the country in allowing them to know that the opportunities they have are unlimited.
At rallies in Vermont and across the country this weekend, our message was clear. We are not going back. Not only are we not going to retreat on women's rights, we are going to expand them. We are going forward, not backward.
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Finally, let understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win. When straight and gay people stand together for justice, we win. When young and old stand together for justice, we win. When working families stand together, we win.
Vermont is a national leader in the fight for a new health care system, for the transformation of our energy system, and in support of family farming and organic agriculture. We were the first state in the country to pass a civil union law and the first state to pass gay marriage legislation without a court order.
Now, we must continue and expand our efforts to be national leaders in the fight for gender equality.
I have seven beautiful grandchildren, four of whom are girls. Let us all work together in making sure that those four girls, and every girl in our state and country, has the same opportunity as anyone else to fulfill their dreams and live their lives without gender discrimination of any kind.
full article at link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/united-against-the-war-on_b_1464730.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Usually by the time I get my facts and links ready to post someone else already beat me to it.
If he doesn't make it a priority in his campaign, you can't fault people for wondering if it's a priority.
His Wisconsin appearance last week would have been an awesome time to talk about reproductive rights. Either he didn't, or the speech I saw was clipped to focus on economics only. 
We are not going back to the days when women could not have full access to birth control. Incredibly, here in the year 2012, that is exactly what the Blunt Amendment, which we defeated last month in the Senate, was all about. The Blunt Amendment would have allowed any employer who provided health insurance, or any insurance company, the right to deny coverage for contraception or any other kind of procedure if the employer had a "moral" objection to it. While I am glad that we defeated this horrendous amendment, it certainly was a sad day in our country when every Republican, save one, voted for it.
We are not going back to the days of wide-scale domestic violence, even if 31 Republican men in the Senate recently voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because it expanded coverage to the gay community and Native Americans.
But as long as we are going there. I think the anti capitalist thing and oligarchy are going to alienate a lot of people- and I agree with him on those. But some here are throwing around capitalist like it's known as a horrible thing- and I don't think it is with the average voter.
I hate to underestimate people, but you know- history.
and words used -- I think it is important that the message is clear.
On capitalism I actually prefer a mixed economy (Keynesian) rather than a free market, laissez-faire, "tickle-down" economy. I think most Americans agree with that approach but "income redistribution" turns into "class warfare". Think need to be clear on what it is we oppose but few people are fans of the oligarchy.
Based on this you have 54% that favor "income redistribution"
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http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/there-are-few-libertarians-but-many-americans-have-libertarian-views/
A thing like "war on woman" isn't specific to what they're referring to. Unfortunately those with anti-choice views are more likely to be a single-issue voter than one who is pro-choice so it is a little tricky how much on the forefront you'd want though it is important to 45% of voters. Then a situations with say a low-information voters hears "war on woman" around a co-worker or something where a partisan woman Republican (like a Laura Inghram) who Democrats have just about 55%-60% advantage -- I don't know what she would say but it would be like a confirmation bias.
I do think it is important to take stances on the issues and highlight the opponent's differences in a way that is clear. Saying "war" could distract from that. In any case, I found some polling though not clear if they asked "War on woman" just seems the poll asked if they believed there was a "wide-scale effort to limit women's reproductive choices"
https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/8315-f.pdf
