“Happy Monday, America! The voice of your vag, here, reminding you to let those fingers do the walking! Today we are encouraging women (all women, no matter your current uterine condition) to call both Trump HQ at 646-736-1779 AND the Republican National Convention at 216-263-2016. Do your civic duty! Does your vagina feel anxious? Depressed? Did it have a good weekend? Or maybe you are crampy, bloated, or just craving the hell out of a Kit kat. THEY NEED TO KNOW IT ALL! Report back and let us know how it goes. Happy calling!”
When Donald Trump nominated Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his Vice Presidential candidate, he sent a clear but unmistakable message to women and others who believe in the free exercise of conscience, free will, and personal control of their bodies. If Pence came down any further right, he’d fall off the ideological spectrum. If there’s a personal liberty that the American Taliban wants restricted (or eliminated altogether), Pence has probably signed legislation intended to satisfy those urges.
Yo, Governor…how’s that small government thing working out for you? And how does that mesh with the classical Conservative belief that government governs best which governs least?
No worries; I’ll wait if you want to give that some thought.
Trump has claimed repeatedly that he’d be “better for women” than Hillary Clinton could ever hope to be. Picking Mike Pence is conclusive proof that he’s talking through his backside.
If Trump was hoping to lock up the women’s vote, he certainly has a counterintuitive way of going about it. Is it any wonder some women have decided enough is enough?
The original protest began in response to Pence’s signing of Indiana House Enrolled Act 1337, a piece of omnibus antiabortion legislation that is vague enough that women could be jailed for having difficulties with their pregnancies. The law also forbids parents from choosing abortion if a fetus is revealed to have Down’s Syndrome.
The woman who began #periods4pence felt that women had no input into the law, and that Governor Pence had set the government of Indiana up as the medical authority on women’s bodies. The governor’s signing of the law evinced his interest in the working of women’s reproductive cycles, and thus the idea was born that women should “check in” with Governor Pence with their medical questions about reproductive health and also to let him know the general state of a woman’s vagina or uterus on a daily basis.
Gov. Pence represents a segment of the GOP- the American Taliban- which, though they’ll never state it explicitly, believes women to be the property of men- specifically, Conservative White Christian men. They don’t believe women should be allowed to make decisions for themselves, or that women deserves rights equal to those of men.
Nor does the American Taliban believe in religious freedom…except for their own, of course. To their way of thinking, “freedom OF religion” doesn’t mean “freedom FROM (their) religion.” Those of us who are good without God are considered by this “God Squad” to be “less than” and unworthy of full participation in public life.
Republicans can’t claim surprise at the way some women are reacting to Trump selecting Pence as his VP. I suspect that on a personal level, the governor is a prince of a guy…but he represents a political movement all and only about exercising absolute political and social control.
Yeah, about what that whole “small government” thing….
