The Lie: Republican Party leaders want less government because they agree with the Tea Party and Libertarian Party that taxes are too high, social programs are some form of "socialism" and/or "communism," and people should be able to stand on their own two feet and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, like they did.
The Truth: Republican leaders want less government interference in their profit-making enterprises, for sure.
But they want MORE government interference in women's health and economic issues.
*[If these names don't ring a bell, they should: Todd Akin ("legitimate rape" never ends in pregnancy), Richard Mourdock ("if rape leads to pregnancy it's something god intended"), Paul Ryan ("forcible rape" and "rape is just another method of conception"), Roger Rivard ("some girls rape easy"), Bob McDonnell (Virginia's ultrasound governor), and Rick Santorum ("rape victims should make the best of a bad situation").]
Please note: Madame L opposes abortion except when a woman and her doctor decide it is necessary, for whatever reason. In other words, Madame L believes it's not her place to decide what is best for any other woman's health. Nor is it the place of any male politician.
They don't want to pay tax dollars for pre-natal care or help for mothers with small children, they don't want to share the cost of medical expenses for poor people, and they want to stop welfare-to-work programs. But they DO want to restrict women's access to birth control (while paying for men's sexual-performance enhancing drugs) and to prohibit women whose health is in danger or who have been raped or otherwise assaulted from making decisions about their own bodies and health.
Is Madame L the only person who sees the hypocrisy of this? No, she is not, of course.
Any woman should see that, even if she will never get pregnant, never be raped, never need birth control, never be the victim of an incestuous abuser, never have a boss who thinks he (yes, "he") can decide she doesn't need full health insurance coverage because of her "pre-existing condition" of being a woman---any woman should see that as long as even one woman is treated shamefully by the system, it reflects on all women. And all men.
Madame L wonders why more people haven't commented on the Catch-22 the Republicans are creating for the rest of the country: No birth control, no remedy for rape, no medical care for women, no social programs for the children born to women who can't receive medical care, and no medical or social programs for anybody as they grow older, no matter what contributions they have made to our society.
If they really want less government, why not less government for pregnant women?
No woman should vote for Mitt Romney, even if she thinks he's a nice guy and believes that he himself believes in women's ability to make their own decisions for their own lives, because his campaign is based on the Republican Party's platform and his running mate's strong belief that women cannot and should not be able to control their own bodies.
Vote, and vote against this kind of government intrusion into your private life and body!
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