After a resounding defeat in Tuesday night's election, Republicans are licking their wounds and wondering where they went wrong.
They might want to start with women.
Republicans lost the votes of 55 percent of women this year. While that's actually a percentage point less than they lost four years ago, the Republican party cannot win national elections if they continue to lose the women's vote by such a large margin.
In 2008, 10 million more women voted than men, and this year, the gender gap widened to 18 points. With women making up 54 percent of the population, the math doesn't work for the Republicans.
But this campaign didn't make them look like they understood the statistics.
Congressional Republicans tried to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, in a move that would have ended pre-natal and primary care for millions of lower-income women, even those not seeking access to abortion.
Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California convened an all-male panel (many of whom were celibate priests!) to protest a provision in the Affordable Care Act requiring health care providers to cover birth control, just as they cover Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications for men.
When Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke attempted to speak out, Issa refused to hear her comments, or input from any woman, and conservative mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh vilified her on the air, calling her a "slut" and a "prostitute," remarks that few Republicans repudiated.
Virginia Republicans tried to pass a bill that would have required invasive "transvaginal" ultrasounds for any woman contemplating an abortion.
And two Republican Senate candidates destroyed their own campaigns with ill-thought and offensive comments about rape.
Todd Akin, who had an excellent chance of defeating Claire McCaskill in Missouri, dropped the infamous "legitimate rape" comment, demonstrating his lack of empathy and anatomical expertise to the voters in his district. He lost by 15 points on Tuesday.
And Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party-backed candidate who defeated long-time Republican Senator Dick Lugar in a primary battle in Indiana, announced during a debate with his Democratic opponent that conception resulting from rape is intended by God.
He also lost on Tuesday, and Republicans should be fuming at the anti-woman, anti-science, anti-child policies that have lost them the votes of the majority of women in this country.
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