Republicans Double (Triple?) Down On Rancid Misogyny
The GOP is betting heavily on angry men. Good luck with that?
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While the Republicans on the Supreme Court do not seem particularly eager to ban abortion pills1, the Republican Party as an institution can’t seem to stop viciously attacking women.
After two years of crushing defeats at the ballot box stemming directly from the GOP’s misogyny, you’d think they’d ease up a bit. Instead, Republicans are kicking their war on women into high gear and flooring the gas pedal. As an electoral strategy, it appears suicidal. But they really do believe this will work in their favor in the long run.
Will it, though? I have doubts.
Girls to the Left, Boys to the Right
If it feels like women have become more liberal and men have become more knuckle-dragging assholes, well, you’re not entirely wrong. Jill Filipovic digs into this:
It has long been the case that American women are generally more liberal than American men. But among young Americans, this gender gap has widened into an enormous rift: According to recent Gallup polling, there is a 30-point difference between the number of women age 18–30 who self-identify as liberal and the number of men in that demographic who do the same.
That’s largely because young women have gotten much more liberal, while young men have stayed ideologically more consistent—or, according to other analyses, become more conservative and anti-feminist.
What’s driving this divergence? Several factors, most of which reflect very poorly on men. On a less dramatic level, more women have been attending and graduating college. This is a trend that has been building for over 40 years and has hit a new peak with women currently outnumbering men on campus roughly 3-2.
So what happens when women are professionals with degrees and men…aren’t? Women are not interested. Shocking, I know:
Marriage is declining in the U.S. in part, at least anecdotally, because women, who can now ably provide for themselves, are refusing to pair up with misogynistic men who bring little to the table.
The press has been crying huge sobby tears over the future of America now that women are over the bullshit. The prime example of this was the editorial board of the Washington Post, not even just a random right-wing columnist but the fucking editorial board, insisting that women have to settle down with trash for the good of the nation. At no point did these wise and learned opinionists say, “Hey, maybe men can get their shit together and offer more than ‘I have a penis.’”
But we don’t like to make men “uncomfortable.” Jesus fucking Christ, the whining over women saying, “Please stop raping us,” alone, was enough to snuff out the sun. Male fragility is a very real thing and it’s embarrassing to watch.
So women have become increasingly radicalized over the last few decades. “Radicalized” in this context means, “Refusing to play along.” They don’t want to settle for less pay. They don’t want to be a replacement mother for a grown-ass man. They don’t want to be your therapist. They don’t want to be sexually harassed or sexually assaulted or raped. They definitely don’t want to be murdered by an angry partner with access to a gun.
Predictably, all this “radical feminism”2 has enraged men. This has given rise to “the Manosphere.” A constellation of groups in which men rage against all things female while pretending to be “pro-male.” I say “pretending” because they never seem to want to solve any of the problems facing men but rather blame everything on women. And also advocate for legalizing rape and pedophilia. No, I am not making that up.
The internet has enabled misogyny to take root like never before. Predators like Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and other pseudo-intellectuals and grifters tell men that they are oppressed, that they are the victims of a grand conspiracy by women to emasculate them. Hate sells. Hate always sells.
This, in turn, pushes women even further away. What self-respecting3 woman wants to date, much less marry, a man who only sees her as a domestic servant/sex slave?
So how are Republicans hoping to capitalize on the increasing rage of poor, oppressed men who still have most of the power, wealth, and cultural clout?
Going all in on misogyny as a strategy
Over half a century ago, Republicans implemented “The Southern Strategy.” It was a deeply cynical ploy to lure white voters to the party by appealing directly, and loudly, to their racism. It worked for decades and Republicans paid very little price for peddling bigotry because the press, as always, refused to acknowledge what they were doing.
The problem with this strategy is that it inevitably leads to where we are now. The Republican Party has turned its base into a pack of white nationalist fascists in a country with a rapidly dwindling white majority. In just 20 years, white people will comprise less than 50% of the population. Considering that roughly half of white people are not Republicans, this represents the end of a party based entirely on white rage.
The answer, according to Republicans, is to branch out to male rage. A new spin on the Southern Strategy. Call it the Brethern Strategy:4
It’s almost as if Republicans don’t want female voters—or as if they believe that overt misogyny will better attract male ones. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida recently made that subtext text when he told Newsmax, “For every Karen we lose, … there’s a Julio and Jamal ready to sign up for the MAGA movement.” In other words, the unhinged machismo of the Republican Party is increasingly attracting Latino and Black men—and so it doesn’t need women.
I promise you, this is exactly what they think. Hate is fungible. White nationalists have been recruiting men from anti-feminist sites for years. Once you hate women, you can be taught to hate anyone: Undocumented migrants. Muslims. Jews. Trans people. Any and all of them are the real reason your life is terrible, not because you didn’t go to college or get a good job or refuse to shower more than once a week. No no no! It’s women and/or The Jews. They’re conspiring against you!
So, again, will this work? My general sense is: No. Filipovic has a data-driven reason to back this up:
Women have for decades now outnumbered men on college campuses, and college graduates are both more likely to vote and more likely to vote for Democrats specifically. Men without a college degree are some of the lowest-turnout voters in the country. Highly educated women—a group the GOP seems almost intent on alienating—are among the highest.
One thing that does seem to get men to the ballot box: being married. Among adult American men, husbands are the most likely voters; single men are the least likely. But the GOP’s current strategy may be an own goal here too: As fewer Americans are willing to marry across political lines, conservative men may have a harder and harder time finding spouses, and fewer married men may mean fewer Republican voters.
In other words, everything Republicans are doing to shape their base is designed to reduce their voter turnout. Not great, Bob!
My reasoning is less driven by data but I think you might see my point. The modern Republican Party is a party of white nationalist fascists. This is now an unalterable fact. The GOP cannot change tracks to become more inclusive. There will never be a “big tent” on the right that accepts men of all races, united in their goal of hating women (and Jews and LGBTQ and and and).
Oh, they might get along for a little while. The leader of the Proud Boys was Latino. One of the most prominent Nazi voices today, Nick Fuentes, is also Latino. Anti-LGBTQ Muslims in Michigan are cozying up with Republicans to ban books. Everyone is holding hands to hate on Jews, no, Israel, no, actually, they hate Jews. Let’s not be coy about it.
But such alliances are fleeting, at best. White nationalists will not tolerate being held as equals to Those People. They will, inevitably, insist that they, and only they, be in charge of everything. Because it’s their birthright, you see. And then we’re back to the Southern Strategy. It’s hard to convince millions of minorities to vote for you when your message is “I hate women! But also Blacks and Latinos and Asians and everyone that isn’t white like me!”
Can misogyny overcome that? Maybe. Maybe white nationalists will abandon their hatred of everyone not white to fight the real threat: Ovaries.
But honestly, No. The only thing that will happen is that Republicans are finishing the anti-GOP radicalization of a second generation of voters (first it was Millennials, now Zoomers) and starting the radicalization of a third (Alpha). These are teens and children who grew up/are growing up in a world where all Republicans do is spew hate at women and impose cruel and sadistic laws to hurt them. The GOP may not even last until 2045. Women voters may destroy the party long before then and Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves.
There are 221 days until the 2024 election. Vote blue like your life depends on it.
Is this a trend concerning SCOTUS and reproductive rights? Possibly…and something I have to dig into in a future article.
It’s weird how often asking for literally nothing more than equal rights and protections sends people into a foaming-at-the-mouth apoplectic fury.
What? Did you think the whole “trad-wife” thing was about women who desperately seek the bliss of subsuming their identity to please their husbands? No. It’s literal propaganda to make it “cool” to surrender all autonomy.
Eh. I’m workshopping it. The Penis Plot? The Scrotum Strategy? The Teste Tantrum? The Prostate Plan?
When I go to vote and I don’t recognize candidates (usually lower-visibility local elections), my defaults are:
1) Vote for the Democrat
2) Vote for the woman Democrat
And I’m a pasty white male.
It is almost a 100% sure bet that a woman will do a far better job representing our interests.
I’ve never understood how MAGA men think that dominating a woman is the way to her heart. Insecure men love to say “you’ll die alone” like that’s some kind of threat. We all die alone and I certainly don’t need anyone to tell me how to dress, how to act, but most importantly, how to think.