...have all been targets of sexist remarks by Republicans.
First, after a wedding photographer by the name of Lori Compas managed to gather enough signatures to force Wisconsin State Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald into a recall election in his home district, Fitzgerald suggested that Compas's husband was the driving force behind the recall movement against him, stating, "I don't believe for one minute she is the organizing force behind this whole thing." Needless to say, Compas viewed Fitzgerald's remarks as sexist, and even created this now-famous YouTube video in response. Fitzgerald somehow managed to convince 58% of voters in Wisconsin's 13th State Senate District to vote him back into office.
Next, during debate of proposed legislation that would enact numerous restrictions on abortions in Michigan, two duly-elected members of the Michigan House of Representatives, Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum, both Democrats, were banned from speaking on the floor of the Michigan House by Republican leadership, led by Speaker Jase Bogler, after Byrum used the word "vasectomy" and Brown used the word "vagina" in floor speeches. Both "vasectomy" and "vagina" are medically-appropriate words, however, Republican leadership of the Michigan House didn't see it that way, and banned two duly-elected members for having the courage to speak out against them.
However, nobody has ever treated an opposing candidate for public office as horribly as U.S. Representative Joe Walsh (R-IL-8). At least twice, Walsh has made disparaging comments that were not only perceived as sexist toward his Democratic opponent, Tammy Duckworth, they were regarded as being completely dismissive of her military record!
In the first incident, Walsh said this about Duckworth:
"I have so much respect for what she did in the fact that she sacrificed her body for this country. Ehhh. Now let’s move on. What else has she done? Female, wounded veteran…ehhh. She is nothing more than a handpicked Washington bureaucrat. David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel just picked her up and dropped her into this district.”
In the second incident, Walsh said this about Duckworth:
"Understand something about John McCain. His political advisers, day after day, had to take him and almost throw him against a wall and hit him against the head and say, “Senator, you have to let people know you served! You have to talk about what you did!” He didn’t want to do it, wouldn’t do it. Day after day they had to convince him. Finally, he talked a little bit about it, but it was very uncomfortable for him. That’s what’s so noble about our heroes. Now I’m running against a woman who, my God, that’s all she talks about. Our true heroes, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about. That’s why we’re so indebted and in awe of what they’ve done."
Walsh created a political firestorm with his first wave of disparaging comments about Duckworth, but he created an even bigger political firestorm with his second wave of disparaging comments, to the point that many veterans, many of whom self-identify as conservative Republicans,
flooded Walsh's Facebook page with comments criticizing Walsh for disparaging Duckworth, and Vote Vets, a political action committee, called for Walsh's resignation!
Lori Compas, Lisa Brown, Barb Byrum, and Tammy Duckworth have all been targets of sexist remarks by Republicans. I may be a 22-year-old white male from Downstate Illinois, but I have come to believe that the Republican Party is a sexist organization that has no regard for women.