The Republican Party has become the party of Archie Bunker enablers, little men lacking courage and morality, appeasing the lowest functioning among us, who just so happens to be their President right now.
That is not a mistake.
Thursday morning, Donald Trump attacked MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, accusing her of bleeding from the face after a facelift.
This is the kind of attack women in the media are subjected to on a daily basis. It escalated during the election to defcon 1, with a rogue faction of Bernie supporters joining in.
Women are the safe punching bags. Not many will stand up against attacks on women, which are still considered to be “jokes”. Jokes that always involve using a woman’s sexuality as a weapon against her.
She is either too pretty to be smart or not pretty enough to have a political idea.
If she really makes a strong political point, rape threats will be issued against her.
This is no different than using someone’s religion, color of skin, or ethnicity against them.
President Trump might not like the things that Mika Brzezinski says. Maybe you or I don’t agree with her either. But that shouldn’t mean going to the racism, sexism, otherism pool of insults.
Not only is Donald Trump expected as the leader of the free world to be better than your average online troll, but this is not acceptable for anyone.
Donald Trump appears to have had at least one facelift, a mouth full of veneers, a bad fake tan, many attempts at fixing his hair problem, and he is obese. So it’s not a surprise that this little man attacks others over their appearance. (*I only note these appearance related issues because they are required to properly dissect Trump’s double standards.)
Trump’s Obama obsession comes from same deep rooted insecurity that drives his misogyny and racism. He can’t compete without the silver spoon he was born with, so he attributes that silver spoon to his own exceptionalism.
Charles Blow wrote so eloquently today in The New York Times, “Obama was a phenomenon. He was elegant and cerebral. He was devoid of personal scandal and drenched in personal erudition. He was a walking, talking rebuttal to white supremacy and the myths of black pathology and inferiority. He was the personification of the possible — a possible future in which legacy power and advantages are redistributed more broadly to all with the gift of talent and the discipline to excel.”
Racism and sexism come from the same place. They come from a belief in the over/under paradigm of power, and the further belief that skin color and gender give white straight men privilege. They are the deciders. They will tell you who has a political point and who does not.
The attacks on women for being “cheerleaders,” attacks on Melania Trump for her nude photos as proof of her bad character, attacks on Hillary Clinton for being “shrill”, attacks on woman journalists, reporters, anchors, and candidates for not being sexy enough or being too sexy – these attacks are no better than Donald Trump’s attack on Mika. They are gender oriented attacks.
If you hear yourself saying these things or laughing at them, and it is everywhere, you can be a part of the solution.
Insert race where for gender and see if it flies.
A woman’s physical appearance has zero to do with her political capabilities. Mika Brzezinski is of course a beautiful woman, something required of women political pundits on TV (and not of men), though one must not be “sexy” unless they are on Fox. Sexy is stupid to liberals and the mainstream press. Unless the person is a male, and then sexy is a bonus to smart.
Every day women journalists deal in some way with the same kind of attack as President Trump’s attack on Brzezinski. I often want to ask these low level idiots why their only political rebuttal is a juvenile attack on appearance.
This is the attack of someone who doesn’t have a political or factual rebuttal.
It’s an act of great cowardice. It’s pathetic and grotesque and stunning, coming from the President.
If you have had enough of these attacks on women, stand up for Mika today. You can bet that elected Republicans won’t be condemning their President’s second grade attack on Brzezinski. Instead of allowing him to drag us into the gutter with him, let’s use this as an opportunity to be better than Trump.
Let’s reach into our own closets where we keep the casually offensive words that have no place in adult dialogue. Let’s reject gendered attacks as a culture. President Trump can serve not just to incite horrific behavior, but as a guide for what not to do.
President Trump’s tweets are official statements, especially now that his own people refer to his tweets as his only comment on a subject. This means that elected Republicans need to be asked about Trump’s comments and they shouldn’t be allowed the coward’s way out of following Laura Ingraham’s advice:
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If elected Republicans can’t or won’t condemn this viciously immature attack, there is no way they are fit to legislate for women. It is this very cowardice that enabled Republicans in the Senate to craft a health care bill without one single woman at the table.
Enough.
The women of this country have been through enough.
Update 11:52 AM ET: Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) response this morning was as vague and failing to hold the President accountable as possible, “I don’t view that as an appropriate comment.” This is not a condemnation, let alone an understanding of how this kind of gendered attack is used to keep women from the table of politics.
Senator Ben Sasse managed a slightly better response but it still fails to condemn this treatment of women:
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