Would You Say That About Your Mamma ?

war on women There is often  talk about the “Republican War On Women”.  Normally this is in reference to a Republican stance on abortion, or how women are treated in the workplace.       You will usually find me defending against such claims, that the idea that the GOP would wage war on such a large number of potential voters would be idiotic.

However, the things I have witnessed, and heard for myself in the past week or so, leads me to believe, while there may not be an out and out war on women by the Republican Party in general, there is definitely an eighteenth century attitude coming from many of the men involved with the party.

mygen kelly   Of course we all have heard by now the treatment Megyn Kelly has had to endure following the Republican debate hosted by Fox News. The controversy comes from something that Donald trump said about “blood coming out of her, whatever”. Now who really knows what Trump meant by this, who knows what Trump mean whenever he talks, but some took it to mean he was talking about Ms. Kelly’s  menstruation cycle, and that it was the reason she, in his words, attacked him while moderating the debate.

First of all, if that had been Mike Wallace asking the same questions, Trump most likely would never have said he had been treated unfairly, after all, men like Trump respect strong  men. But because it came from a woman, Trump surely felt she was just being a “bitch”.

On the other side, in all fairness, if Trump had said about a male moderator, that he was being an “SOB”, I doubt anyone would have cared.

This has made for talk radio fodder here locally, all of the local host have touched on it to some degree.  For the most part it has been handled with tact, and in a respectful manner. But of course there are always exceptions to the rule, in this case, that exception would be Duke Brooks of WGMD.

It seems that every time this topic came up on his show, it led to hour-long monologues about women and there monthly cycles, and how they are weaker than men, and how it is “scientifically” proven.

Now this whole thing about Megyn Kelly happened to coincided with the campaign for the Chair of the Sussex County GOP Executive Committee. The two candidates were Billy Carroll, and Mary Spicer. I am not sure if it was the blood in the water from the Kelly controversy, pardon the pun, or simply that there are men in this area that feel  women should be seen and not heard.

This was Mary Spicer’s second attempt for this position, but this time it took on a new feel. Mary Spicer received strong support from the Sussex County Republican Women’s Club. Not simply because she was a women, but because she was extremely qualified based on her many years of working within the committee and on campaigns. But why would we not expect women to support a qualified woman?

The SCRWC took an active role in mailing out campaign literature supporting Mary Spicer, and this is where many of the men within the Sussex GOP Committee took action to discredit Mary and her supporters, not mind you, based on her qualifications for the job, but based on her gender.

Let me say, that Billy Carroll won the election, 59-44, this is not about the election, or Billy Carroll, so much as it is about the attitude of many of the men within the GOP Committee. Leading up to the election I remained silent because I felt Mary Spicer was the best person for the job. But I had no real problem with Mr. Carroll because he was and is a blank slate, he is new to Sussex politics, though he claims to have the most campaign experience in the room. (More about that later.)  However, on the last Friday,before the election Monday night, so-called talk show host Duke Brooks decided to have Billy Carroll on as a guest. In fairness, Mr. Brooks had made the offer to Ms. Spicer as well, who declined.

I should point out that Duke Brooks is a member of the Sussex GOP Committee, an EDC, 1st of the 14th.

The very first caller to the show was from Bruce Fitzgerald, Mr. Fitzgerald is also an EDC, 7th of the 39th. Mr. Fitzgerald has quite the colorful past within the GOP Committee. Some may remember from other post here at Delaware Right, that it was Bruce Fitzgerald who called the police on me for not signing in, he was also accused of intimidation tactics against the Secretary of the Committee, Vicki Carmean. It would seem that Mr. Fitzgerald has anger issues.

He chose to use his time on air, not to build up his candidate Billy Carroll, but instead launched into a tirade about the Women’s Club support of Ms. Spicer. He called it sexist, and made demands that the state GOP “rein” them in, and called for one member, Paula Manolakos to be fired from a position she holds with the party. You know because the women had shown the nerve to actually speak without being spoken to.

That call was followed by Tom Jordan, another EDC 6th of the 20th, also the husband of Nelly Jordan, former Vice-Chair of the Delaware GOP. While his call was not as angry as Mr. Fitzgerald’s, it was dismissive of Mary Spicer’s years of service and critical of the SCRWC support for her.

Let me be clear, these people are free to support whomever they choose, they are free to speak publicly in support. The problem here is that they chose to make it about gender, rather than qualifications.

The third caller was Lawrene Nixon Anfinson, she identified herself as the niece of Richard Nixon, this is important because in campaign literature that Mr. Carroll distributed, he claimed to have worked in a high-profile role in the Nixon Campaign. Mrs. Anfinson also claimed to know Mr. Carroll personally from an organization locally, she then began asking him specific questions about his time with the Nixon Campaign, all of which he failed to answer.

This is where the host Duke Brooks chose to step in and save Mr. Carroll, he did so by making accusations about Mrs. Anfinson’s affiliation with the SCRWC, which she said she had none, he then accused her of being “an agent provocateur”.  Duke Brooks then started insinuating that she wasn’t even who she said she was, Billy Carroll did speak up at this point and confirmed that she was indeed who she said she was. During this exchange Duke Brooks was rude and dismissive of her claims.

Now rude and dismissive is really not what you might call a “war on women”, I know. That brings us to Monday afternoon prior to the election. Brooks is on from three until six. During that time he spent the first two hours again talking about the Megyn Kelly story. This included his regular callers calling in to say what a great guy Trump was for putting Ms. Kelly in “her place”, and making any number of derogatory remarks about women in general. Duke Brooks, member of the Sussex GOP Committee, sat there and participated, facilitated, and encouraged the slander of a complete gender, with jokes and laughs, and never once to he call into question anything anyone said.

I have also been told that the current Vice- Chair of the Sussex GOP Committee, Fred Silva also called in to join in on the fun, and made some off-color remark about men and where all their blood goes. There was remarks from Brooks such as, “I don’t care for Megyn Kelly, though she is nice to look at”, then his caller remarked, “yeah but I prefer Kimberly Guilfoyle, so I guess to objectify, and rate women, is what passes for intelligent discourse with Duke Brooks.

The real question is, is this the image that we as Republicans want presented to the public? To have all of these members of the Committee, the very face of the party, calling in to talk radio and behaving like teenage pubescent boys is embarrassing.  But it gets worse.

Following this two hours of degrading of women, of humiliating the gender, two hours in which even one woman called in and played along, following this, Duke Brooks then chose to talk about the GOP election in which a women was running against a man.

Was this by chance? I think not. I think Brooks chose to set the table for two hours, and then served up Mary Spicer. After the frenzy of chauvinistic feeding, how could anyone think a women had a right to run for, let alone be elected to be the leader of the Committee?

The Republican Committee in Sussex is full of old white men, I know, how cliché? Many of them identify themselves as “patriots”, they live in a fantasy world where they believe they are on equal footing with our Founders. I think many of them have taken this one step further, I think they believe that like the women of the 1700s, the world today would be a better place if the women would just stay home have babies, and cook dinner.

This may be their ideal women.

housewife

I think it is disgraceful how these men spoke about women, simply because one chose to step up and try to make a difference, and because others chose to support her.

I find it more disgraceful that the state party Chairman, Charlie Copeland, remains silent on this issue. He has heard the complaints in the past about the intimidation of women within the committee by men in the committee. He chooses to look the other way. One might say that this is just a family feud, and why should the state get involved? Well because, the Sussex Committee is a part of the state party, and if the men down here are going to be allowed to treat women this way, well why wouldn’t people think it is okay with the party in general?

Republican women, and their organizations, are most likely the most influential groups affiliated with the state GOP. Maybe it is time these organizations pull their resources from a party that turns a blind eye towards how the party’s female members are treated and talked about.

Finally, I was voted out of this committee for being critical of the actions of the committee, for speaking publicly, in a manner that they said had a negative affect on the Sussex GOP. So I ask, will they now vote out the very man who brought that motion to remove me, Duke Brooks? Or any of the others who have made statements publicly that clearly cast a negative light upon all Republicans.

 

21 Comments on "Would You Say That About Your Mamma ?"

  1. delacrat says:

    Frank,

    The Sussex County Republican Women’s Club exists because the boys who run the Sussex County Republican Party don’t want women running things.

  2. fightingbluehen says:

    In my opinion, The Quadrennial War on Woman associated with Presidential elections is something that is ginned up by the Democrats. That being said,there are some places that still treat woman as sort of second class citizens, and I believe that Delaware, particularly below the canal, is one of those places.

    Generally speaking, the northern most tip of the “Bible Belt” is in southern Delaware.
    There is a large section of the population down here that hold the Bible close, and take literally it’s word when it comes to women and their place in society. Unfortunately this means that women are going to get the short end of the stick for the time being .

  3. Fish Bites says:

    “There is a large section of the population down here that hold the Bible close, and take literally it’s word…”

    Would you care to provide an index of which parts of the Bible are true, and which parts are not true?

  4. fightingbluehen says:

    That’s not my place to do so, Fish Bites. I’m just pointing out the reality of the situation.

  5. Frank Knotts says:

    See Delacrat, we go around long enough and we find something to agree on.

  6. Jack Black says:

    Let’s not blame the bible. There are also parts of the bible that talk about the love and care men must have for their wives (Ephesians 5:25 for example). Let’s keep the responsibility on the shoulders of those who exhibited the behaviors. When are we going to learn that you can’t blame outside sources? Every human being is responsible for their own dumb mouth. It’s called free will. God did not force this Duke guy to say that Freud was right and that women are envious of men. Duke must have been really “excited” (pardon the pun) in psychology class when he read Freud’s theory of “Penis Envy”. I wondered if he studied Freud to help him come up with some good pick-up lines? And do they work on Republican women? And what about the Oedipus complex? He may have some serious issues with his mommy.

  7. Jill Black says:

    I have 3 intelligent granddaughters who I attempt to be a role model too. With people like Duke Brooks representing the leadership of the GOP in Sussex County how do I justify being a Republican to my granddaughters? Why would they ever want to become politically active in this community? Why would I or any other woman be comfortable supporting the Sussex GOP?

  8. waterpirate says:

    Jill Black,

    Take them to the SCRWC with you, and stay away from the cheer center until the pendulum gets back to the sane center, not the angry, white, broke, hypocrite, hard right of Sussex.

  9. fightingbluehen says:

    “Let’s not blame the bible. There are also parts of the bible that talk about the love and care men must have for their wives”

    I don’t blame the Bible, I blame the throwbacks who think that the Bible gives them an excuse to leave women out of certain positions in society. BTW , I “love and care” for my pets, but I still treat them like pets.

  10. BondJamesBond says:

    So let me get this straight, a known Pot Head has a NY Transplant running for GOP county chair, whose GOP glory days were in his 20s (must be 50 years ago), on his radio show to trash a woman who has devoted her life and her money to the GOP and GOP candidates. Then a Crook, who can’t account for $1,000 in cash that he took from Republicans under false pretenses, calls in to make “blood” jokes and further trash women. Then a 6’5″ 350 pound THUG who, with the Crook, locked a different GOP woman in a room and tried to intimidate her into resigning her GOP post, calls in to cry like a baby about GOP women “intimidating” him with emails (because nothing intimidates a 6’5″ 350lb Thug like a couple of emails).

    Meanwhile, the Pot Head, the Crook, the Thug and the NY Transplant combined haven’t put in the time or the money that the first woman has into GOP politics in Delaware.

    The SCRWC should pull all funding from Republican candidates until the Pot Head, the Crook, the Thug and the NY Transplant are purged from leadership positions in the party.

  11. BondJamesBond says:

    Or, to put it more simply: A Pot Head, a Crook, a Thug and a NY Transplant walk into a Sussex GOP meeting and the SCRWC stops funding candidates until they are removed.

    That would be the best joke ever.

  12. mouse says:

    I was listening to the Duke Brooks show the other day. Endless anygry white men calling in about their resentments with women. True conservatives lol

  13. mouse says:

    Why are Republicans so obsessed with sexual issues? Are they not getting enough so they don’t want anyone else to get any lol?

  14. fightingbluehen says:

    Maybe this new New York guy can convince some of the arriving transplants from New York that they should vote Republican so that this place won’t end up resembling what they left behind.

    I’m telling you. These people coming here from New York, Chicago, DC, still vote Democrat. I see the bumper stickers on their cars. Even though they left their states because the Democrats have made it too expensive for them to live there, they still vote for the Democrat. WTF is up with that?

  15. delacrat says:

    FBH,

    I would anyone know if someone with a D bumper sticker came from “New York, Chicago, DC,”…

  16. fightingbluehen says:

    They usually keep their license plates when they first move here until someone tells them that the cops pull over out of state tags more often. I see it all the time in the developments that I work in . I work for some of these people.

  17. Dunleve says:

    Delacrat,

    Rather than commenting on a conservative site, you should be spending your time begging Howard Dean or Biden to jump in the race.

  18. delacrat says:

    Dunleve,

    If you’re so enamored of Howard Dean or Biden, rather commenting on a conservative website, you should be spending your time begging them to jump in the race.

  19. Dunleve says:

    Delacrat,

    Not enamoured, just amused that that is your best hope at this point for 2016.

  20. mouse says:

    Coming from a party where the only viable candidate is Donald Trump LOL

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