A plea
Donald Pridemore, Wisconsin Legislator, Says Single Parenting Leads To Abuse
I am starting to lie when people ask me where I grew up because of shit like this. If you aren’t aware, Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grotham, along with Wisconsin State Representative Donald Pridemore, both Republicans, sponsored a bill in the Wisconsin Legislature that would mandate the state Child Abuse Prevention Board conduct public awareness campaigns emphasizing that single parenthood is a leading cause of child abuse.
This bill now has a new component to it. The bill says a child being raised by a single mother could be considered living in an abusive situation and because of that, a woman should not jump into a divorce, but rather look at alternatives.
Please, rational American conservative folk on here, please, tell your conservative friends not to vote for these guys anymore.
They aren’t conservative; they are hateful, prideful, misogynistic (even the women, if that’s even possible), and they are not advocating for you, your family, or your community. They don’t represent you. They are playing by a playbook that you funded with your political donations, had no part in making, that you can’t do anything about, and whose endgame benefits the few, not the many.
Please, rise up, and tell your conservative lawmakers that enough is enough, and if they don’t listen to you, they will listen when you don’t give them a campaign donation. They will listen when you don’t door knock for them or phone bank for them. They will listen when you don’t vote for them.
Some of you don’t believe this is going on, some of you may think this is okay, and some of you think cooler heads will prevail. Look around at what is happening around the country, in Arizona, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida – the cooler heads are not prevailing. Believe it or not, the laws that are being enacted are real and have real and drastic consequences for women, minorities, middle class, impoverished people, and children.
For those of you who think that this is okay, then I have nothing but pity for you, because to paraphrase what Niemoeller said, at the end of the day, they will come for you and there will be no one left to stand up for you.
Tam,
You are a tireless and fearless voice of sanity who is committed to truth and justice, and who does not falter in the face of seemingly overwhelming ignorance. Thank you. You and your family truly rock. See you in the maternity ward…
They think The Handmaid’s Tale is some kind of handbook.
Dear half-baked Wisconsin legislators:
Correlation is not causation..
Cry me a fucking river again about how we need *less* guvmint interference in our lives…
It’s total b.s. My older sisters fought this battle 40 years ago, for crying out loud. Time to move on! It’s the 21st century, time for these loser misogynists to get with the program. The Republican party train has totally ridden off the rails in my opinion. It’s like they’re doing their best to drive away women, with all this kind of outdated crap, like put an aspirin between your knees and stay in abusive relationships.
This is code for “she needs to have a man in the home.”
I’m not too bothered. Declaring war on half of your constituents is never a good idea.
It’s definitely worthwhile to remind voters about this stuff come election time though.
This is the republican version of “focusing like a lazer” on jobs.
What a passel of douchebaggery.
Rougement, I just hope that you’re right, cause I’m starting to get a little worried that there are women out there who believe this horseshit, too.
Rock on, Tam. Proud of you.
They’re digging a hole here. I’m happy to watch and hope it’s one so deep they won’t be able to crawl back out of it. I’ll even lend a shovel.
Women haven’t organized for their rights for decades on a national scale, most thought that battle had been won. They may have to win it all over again but they’ll win. Way more men find this stuff repugnant then they did in the 1960s too.
There will be the odd victory here and there for the old, rich, white guys but those will only serve to make their opponents mad as hell. I think maybe these politicians had thought their time had come and are making a power grab based on the assumption that the economy is in the toilet and Obama isn’t doing a great job. Looks like they may just be wrong.
It’s easy to look at this and gawk at the stupidity, but part of me has a hard time believing that all of this isn’t carefully researched and planned as part of a larger scheme.
Two options:
1. Leaders are actually this stupid.
2. Leaders are manipulating the public toward some unspecified end.
So I have been in the parenting and fatherhood field for about 15 years. People like this set back attitudes about those of us doing research based best-practice oriented fatherhood and family work about 20 years. Misquoting and twisting old research is not civil service, it’s UNcivilized.
I am already on record opposing this. I could go on at length about how misguided and counter productive and just f**king loony this proposal is, but I’ll spare you. These guys are no friend to fatherhood, families and their work making healthy single parent families targets for sanction would flood the child protection system with even more nonsense leaving our kids even more vulnerable to actual threats to their safety.
Great post, Tamara, thank you. And TimK, I have thought the same thing.
NYT coverage of Republican women and proposals:
Centrist Women Tell of Disenchantment With Republicans
Women Figure Anew in Senate’s Latest Battle
What Barrett said. And also what Rougement said. I recently said that I never identified myself as a feminist, because I didn’t think I had to. (I’m 34.) I thought we had moved on to other things, that everyone had figured this one out. But I’m scared.
I asked Tamara this same question privately, but I ask: what do we do? I’m not in Texas. I’m not in Virginia. I’m not even in Wisconsin, though it pains me greatly to see what my formerly great state is turning into. How do we make a difference?
What do you do?
Vote. Make sure everyone you know if informed about what’s at stake here.
There are a lot of people who call themselves Republicans who want nothing to do with this shit so spread the word and let these guys dig their hole.
That’s right, Rougement. I recently read a biography of 1970s Republicanism, and I would say that I, and our current President, would be considered moderate Republicans. Not anymore. Vote, for whatever it’s worth.