It Continues to Be a Real Mystery Why Republicans Aren't Connecting with a Majority of Female Voters

[Content Note: Misogyny; domestic abuse; racism; heterocentrism.]

In their continuing bid to win over female voters, the conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (of which the Koch Brothers are key funders) has put together a 60-second spot currently airing on cable news channels, designed to convince women to abandon the Democrats for Republicans by playing on one of the most loathsome stereotypes about female voters—that we vote for male politicians we want to fuck.

A young, thin, dark-haired, olive-complected woman, wearing a pink collared shirt (get it?) and a string of pearls, looks directly into the camera and says: "In 2008, I fell in love. His online profile made him seem so perfect—smart, handsome, charming, articulate, all the right values. I trusted him. But by 2012, our relationship was in trouble. But I stuck with him, because he promised he'd be better. He's great at promises. He told me we'd be safe. Have you looked at the news? He's in my emails and text messages, spying on me but ignoring real threats. He said that we'd finally get on our feet financially. I'll never pay down what he's spent. He thinks the only thing I care about is free birth control, but he won't even let me keep my own doctor. [cut to laptop screen, on which is a picture of President Barack Obama; the woman closes the laptop] I know I'm stuck with Barack for two more years; I get that. But I'm not stuck with his friends. I'm looking for someone who gets that this isn't about him; it's about us."

I feel reasonably confident asserting that the number of ways this ad is fucked up is significantly higher than the number of female voters who will be swayed by it.

This is what conservatives think of (straight/bi?) women: That we vote based on who we think is the cutest boy; that we view our (male) political representatives as our boyfriends; that we are not offended by categorizing disappointment in a politician as an abusive relationship; that we think it's totally appropriate to suggest the President is stalking us like an intimate partner; that we don't hear or care about racist dog whistles like referring to the black President as "articulate"; that we don't find it wildly disrespectful to refer to the President as "Barack," especially to maintain the reprehensible illusion that he's our mean boyfriend; that we think caring about free birth control is frivolous; that we are stupid. Very, very stupid.

Message received loud and clear, assholes.