imageThat, at least, seems to be the GOP's take towards women and Sarah Palin.


It seems counterproductive to approach all women as if they're either going to vote their ovaries, or their cold, hateful hearts, but there you have it. Rick Davis and James Dobson explain "liberal feminist" opposition to Sarah Palin, which appears to explain the psychology of women on the same level a group of thirteen year old boys explain sex to each other - poorly and with a desperate fervor that maybe one day they'll get to touch a real something or other.

The aftermath of this election may be transformative in more ways than one. Since the era of Reagan, conservatives have taken continual comfort in the idea that they can play on any number of cultural touchpoints using codewords from "states' rights" to "Dred Scott" to "yes, I'm fully heterosexual" without having to actually touch on the actual issues at hand - race, abortion, the sweet, shuddering love half the GOP caucus must deny - and as such, rile up a bigoted base while still playing to a middle uneasy with the overt rabble-rousing necessary to get a conservative base out to vote.

With Obama, the GOP's been playing a very touchy game - Obama is, in so many ways, the embodiment of the GOP nightmare. He's an educated, somewhat liberal black man who's managed to succeed in life despite having contacts with the unsavory elements among us like communities and other black people. He's got a weird background, a strange name, a close enough relationship to the Most Evil Religion On Earth for use in e-mail forwards, and people actually like him. One of the ways the conservative movement have chosen to respond is by assailing the people who support Obama, and make them as much terrorists and enemies as the man himself.

With regards to women (who dislike Palin immensely), the id of anti-woman bigotry is coming out and will continue to blossom. They gave you a set of ovaries and a pretty face to smile for, and you're so crazy and irrational that you can't accept the gift of a token all gift-wrapped and pretty for you. At the end of this, what we'll find is a GOP that's motivated by an even grander sense of resentment and entitlement than the one we have now, and isn't afraid to say so. The blacks and the women and the Jews and the Hispanics and every other identifiable and blameworthy group will be called out and held responsible for the awful, terrible things that they refused to prevent when they were given the chance to vote for the lackluster white guy and the pretty white lady.

Prepare, all ye non-white males. (And ye white males who are otherwise occupied with not being resentful assholes.)