The After-Party

It might come as a surprise to readers here to know that ​I think it is unfair for people to claim that the Republican Party has a “War on Women”.  People have been suggesting this about the GOP for years based on random stories.  And now with the far-right members of the Supreme Court, who were appointed by Republican presidents, apparently deciding to overturn a Constitutional right that protects women, people are once again pointing the finger at the entire Republican Party as a whole being anti-women.

How unjust are the slams?  The Onion has a satirical article with the headline that they think draws the “logical” conclusion for where the Republican Party is headed.  They joke, “Republican wins GOP nomination -- from jail as he awaits trial for murdering his wife:  report”.

Ha, ha, ha, very funny.  That’s what satirists define as “humor.”  If you can make it crass enou...

Oh, wait, sorry.  That wasn’t from The Onion. My mistake. That was from RawStory.  And the headline is real.  And the story is even worse than the headline.  (Yes, honest, it can get worse than that headline.)  That’s because the guy has confessed!!

No, really.  He confessed to murder.  And is in jail.  And...and...Republicans elected him to win their primary!

(I felt obligated to post a graphic because I figured otherwise you might not believe it no matter how many Bibles I swore on.)

The good news is that the job that Andrew Wilhoite is running for is not a major national or even state position, it’s for one of three spots on the Clinton Township Board in Indiana.  The bad news is that he’s in prison for murdering his wife, confessed and Republicans still voted for him and he won the primary.

Wilhoite told police, who found blood in the master bedroom and bathroom, that he threw a gallon-sized concrete pot at his wife, who had recently successfully undergone chemo treatment – and had filed for divorce a week earlier – and then dumped her body over the side of a bridge.

And Republicans voted for him.

When asked about the decidedly odd situation, Brad King, co-director of the Indiana Election Division, who had to feel a bit awkward about it all, explained that under Indiana law Wilhoite had every legal right to run.  Moreover, doing double-duty as a civics professor, he properly reminded reporters that “Under our legal system, every person is innocent until proven guilty.”

And that’s all true.  What’s also true is that Wilhoite confessed.  What isn’t clear from the story is whether he confessed to murder, or just throwing the pot that killed her.  Granted, the whole “filing for divorce a week earlier, blood in the master bedroom and bathroom, and taking the body to a bridge and throwing it over” muddle up the story.  But still, he had every right to run.

Of course, the issue isn’t that he had the right to run.  And it’s not that any Republicans voted for him.  Or that a lot did.  The point here is that enough Republicans voted for him in the primary that he won!!!!!

In fairness, as much as Republicans electing a man in jail awaiting trial after pleading guilty for killing his wife who had just filed for divorce and then threw her body over a bridge should not be seen as proof that the Republican Party has a War on Women.

Nor is it proof that far-right Supreme Court Justices removing a Constitutional right for women to get an abortion is proof that the Republican Party has a War on Women.

Nor going back through the years amid all the examples – let’s pause a moment in 2014 when a Virginia state representative, Rep. Steve Martin (yes, honest, that’s his name, don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor) referred to a pregnant woman as “the child’s host” – is proof that the Republican Party has a War on Women.

Or still going back to 2011, when House Republicans proposed changing the definition of “rape,” so that women would be prohibited from federally-funded, legal abortions when they were raped – only unless it was “forced raped”…as opposed, apparently, to the nicer, gentler kind of rape is proof that the Republican Party has a War on Women.

Or on and on and on, all the pounding examples over the years and decades, none of them individually or together are proof that Republicans have a War on Women.

And again, no, Republicans electing a man in jail awaiting trial after pleading guilty for killing his wife who had just filed for divorce and then threw her body over a bridge is not proof that the Republican Party has a War on Women.

It’s just incredibly symbolic.

But no, Republicans don’t have a War on Women.  Don't call it that.

It’s a Special Military Operation.