The Huffington Post reported on March 22, 2012 that Richard Hanna (NY-24CD) the only Republican at a rally for the Equal Rights Amendment, “gave women an unexpected piece of advice: Give your money to Democrats.” I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems.“” This theme and associated comments was picked up by various news sites. http://news.google.com/news/more?q=Rep+Richard+Hanna+republicans+against+women’s+rights&hl=en&biw=1067&bih=478&prmd

A Stephen D. Foster Jr. writing for www.addictinginfo.org/author/stephen-foster/ Stated, “The Republican Party is waging a total war against women and their rights.” This kind of message bodes no good for the Republican Party and its hopes in the November election. Furthermore, if true, it is a harbinger of worse to come. The Republican Party has failed to encourage any female to really get involved in this campaign. The withdrawal of Ed Rollins and the feeble efforts of Keith Nahigian lead me to the logical conclusion that the Republican Party leadership has no desire to see a woman in any power position.

On numerous occasions, I have written to the Chairman of the RNC, the Concerned Women for America and the National Federation of Republican Women expressing my desire to see a woman, preferably two women a the top of the Republican Ticket in November. The reception to that notion has been less than warm; it has been downright cold.

Are the Republicans conceding the election to the Democrats without a fight? It certainly looks that way. If Congressman Hanna’s “advice” to women goes unchallenged and unreprimanded as in expulsion from the House for his calumny, and minus an all-out effort to stop the negative effect of his remarks and those of the gleeful leftist media. Women will most certainly execute a sharp left turn,

Simple denial is not likely to be enough. Deeds will go a long way to effecting image repair and keeping women and their cheering squad in the fold. I feel it is necessary to remind you of a small piece of American History; a piece that extends from 1608 through March 26, 2012;

Just in case you have forgotten or think it is of no importance, let me make one telling point. These women to whom you and the ‘feminist’ movement have and are giving the short end of the dirty stick are the very same who gave you life, nourished you, dried your tears, wiped your little butts, kissed your scrapes and bruises and listened to all your tales of woe and mistreatment by this cruel world. They bore your children, cared for them when they cried at night, listened to their pain and aspirations; taught them about a loving God and about this great nation. Most of the male population had no hand in these vital chores. Mother did it all.

Our first Charter of Governance, The Mayflower compact was written and signed by 61 Puritan/Pilgrims not one of whom was a woman. The Declaration of Independence was drawn up and signed by men as was the United States Constitution. Women were so aggrieved that on July 19-20, 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York a women’s rights convention was held to set the strategy to follow to gain equal rights for women. Lucretia Mott and a freed slave, one Frederick Douglas spoke brilliantly to the crowd of some three hundred.

And to do a most grievous injustice, women were not given the right to vote before Freed Male Slaves under terms of the Fifteenth Amendment which was ratified on February 3, 1870. It was a noble gesture but done with malice aforethought to get the freed men to vote as the Southern Democrats desired.

In 1885, Alice Paul was born. She ended up never marrying but serving America’s womanhood her entire life. Born and raised a Quaker in and around Mount Holly, New Jersey, Alice was from her earliest years raised in the Quaker tradition that men and women were gender equal. However, when she got out into the real world, she learned very quickly that gender equality was not universal. Alice’s mother Tacie , attended meetings of the North American Woman Suffrage Association often accompanied by young Alice.

The Paul home was known as Paulsdale and it was here that Alice remembers learning about the suffrage movement. At some pointing her life, Alice was asked by a Newsweek interviewer why she had devoted her entire life to women’s equality she answered with an adage learned from her mother, “When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row.” I will not attempt to relate the entire suffrage movement, but I will note that Alice Paul continued her education and ultimately was awarded a BA, an MA, a PHD and three law degrees. http://www.alicepaul.org/alicepaul.htm

Once the Nineteenth Amendment was passed and women had the vote, the suffrage movement all but disappeared. Alice Paul was of the opinion that the battle for equality had just begun. In 1923 on the 75th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, Alice announced she would be preparing a Constitutional Amendment. She wrote the Lucretia Mott amendment. The amendment, better known as the Equal Rights Amendment or ERA, was introduced in every session of Congress from 1923 until it finally passed in 1972. The law was rewritten in 1943 and named the Alice Paul Amendment. Ratification fell three votes short in 1982, five years after the death of its champion, Alice Paul in 1977.

Who has the temerity to deny to American womanhood full and equal rights? There is absolutely no doubt women have capabilities and talents equal to men but men and not a few women have stood in the path of real equality. Most notably Eleanor Roosevelt and the new dealers, the Northern Democrats, aligned with the anti-ERA labor unions that feared the provisions of the attached Hayden rider which stated, “The provisions of this article shall not be construed to impair any rights, benefits, or exemptions now or hereafter conferred by law upon persons of the female sex.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment

The most formidable and successful opponent of the ERA was Phyllis Schlafly an attorney, mother of six who claimed that the ERA was too indefinite for the courts to interpret.

There you have it, over four hundred years of servitude, motherhood and denial. The Democrats who are as guilty of oppression of American womanhood are using a perceived injustice to women by the Republican Party as a political weapon and a useful one. It is to me, readily apparent that no political party is guilty of all the blame; it has been the macho attitude of the Democratic Party and its macho backers, the labor unions.

At the risk of being redundant, I suggest that the Republican Party Leadership, both Male and 
Female, aided and abetted by the Tea Party Organization, engage in a frontal assault on the Democrats. Call them out on their absurd charges, encourage Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin to step back into contention. The campaign thus far has been a fiasco. No clear frontrunner appears to be getting clear of the pack of four. A clear and believable effort to propel a woman into the fray will do wonders to the image of Republicans and their strongest element Conservatism. It is today or never, Chairman Priebus, and Madam President Chornenky.