Aborting the Republican Party

Our guest-essayist (and fellow Virginian) Egghead has some observations about the Republican Party in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

Aborting the Republican Party
by Egghead

In a past election year, an elected local government official invited me to join a new local women’s Republican group in a suburban Virginia town. Upon attending the meeting with great hope that the local Republican women would provide a forum for me to hear and discuss substantive issues affecting the United States of America, I was shocked to realize that the only issue that was relevant to the Republican club members was eliminating abortion.

Indeed, upon a vote of which Republican candidates were to be supported by this club, the women — along with a few men — looked only at the issue of abortion. Where more than one candidate was against abortion, the club members voted to support the candidate who would be stricter against abortion. I came away from the meeting thinking that the club should be named as an anti-abortion club rather than a Republican club. It also crossed my mind that it appeared that the club members would have voted to support any candidate with any political, economic, and religious platform if that candidate promised to act against abortion.

After my visit, I sent the club roster a thoughtful email about the dangers of Islam. The club president immediately contacted me and essentially forbade me to ever contact the members again via email. I mentioned that Islam is a huge problem facing the United States of America and that I was willing to try to arrange for James Lafferty of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force (VAST) to address the club. As I expected, years later, I am still waiting for that call to come.

Fast forward to this election. A highly educated upper middle class white female relative — near and dear to me — informed me that she had voted for Obama via absentee ballot. With dismay, I asked her why she had voted for Obama. Among her various reasons, the first reason that she cited was that Romney is an “as***le.”

“Yes, but what do you mean,” I asked.

“Well,” she replied, “Romney plans to take away women’s right to choose.”

“OK, what else?”

“Ann Romney is just a shadow of Romney and has no life.”

“Anything else?”

“Romney was born rich and has always been rich and does NOT understand the middle class. At least, Obama understands the desperation of the middle class. Michelle Obama remembers how horrible it was to go to public school.”

Much respectful conversation ensued where I tried to address her misconceptions about both Romney and Obama. Her initial defense was blaming me. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“I did tell you, but you told me to stop emailing you information because you had a stressful job and you did not want to be depressed.”

Her secondary defense was saying that her vote didn’t count anyway. “I doubt that the entire election hinges on my vote.”

Ominously, her final defense was abortion. “Well, if the Muslims take over here, then I refuse to live that way. I will make sure that my children and I will pass peacefully.”