Donald Trump’s views on women are not exactly enlightened. But to hear Fox & Friends guest, former pro-choice radical feminist now radical right-wing propagandist Tammy Bruce, you’d actually think that Trump is some kind of women’s champion. Who knew?!
On last Sunday’s Fox & Friends, cohost Rachel Campos-Duffy framed the propaganda by contrasting the decreasing number of Women’s March participants with an increasing number of anti-abortion marchers at the annual Washington, D.C. “March for Life.”
Bruce (a lesbian who has denigrated transgender children and defended Indiana’s anti-gay legislation) asserted that when Americans believe in something, they come together and the anti-abortion protesters “believe in something, they’ve come together for it, they have not come together based on lies or manipulation or being gaslit and the opposite is the case for the Women’s March.”
Bruce informed us that the reason behind the dwindling Women’s March numbers is because - wait for it – women are finally realizing the greatness of Donald J. Trump. After she claimed that women realize that “they were lied to and the president has been successful,” she listed all the “false” expectations of Trump which haven’t come to fruition. (No mention was made of the accurate prediction that he would seek to roll back abortion rights and defund Planned Parenthood.)
Bruce provided a litany of good economic numbers starting with how Trump lifted 600,000 women out of poverty, a stat touted by Trump supporting “Dr.” Gina Loudon and Breitbart, without sourcing. (But as these are, ahem, reliable sources, I’m sure that it’s correct, right?) No mention made of how Trump wants to shred the safety net for those poor folks still among us. Bruce continued her glowing report on Trump’s economy and proclaimed that women “have succeeded under this president and the American women know this.”
Rachel Campos-Duffy, a Fox News anti-abortion propagandist, enthused about how the anti-abortion marchers are younger and more optimistic than those in the Women’s Marches. Campos-Duffy described the latter as looking “very angry” and “a little menopausal.” (Chuckles heard in background.) She didn’t mention that a large contingent of the anti-abortion march participants are Christian/Catholic school students.
Bruce waxed poetic about how Trump inspires women in “looking forward to positive elements in the future” and that “we’re not inspired by hate.” She made the absurd claim that the Women’s March was “never about women’s issues,” but “remains about hating Trump, removing a duly elected president, condemning someone, being victims.” She scolded us about how we don’t need to base our votes on hate.
Former GOP Congressman Jason Chaffetz mentioned an “enthusiasm gap” between the left and the right. But Bruce, being a loyal Trump foot-soldier (or should I say handmaid), said that the number of people in the weekend march was less than the overflow numbers from a Trump rally. Naturally, she didn’t cite specific numbers. (Hearty laugh from Trump toady cohost Pete Hegseth at that remark.) Given that Trump’s rallies are full of hate and division, Bruce’s claim that he inspires positivity was truly laughable.
In true Fox News fashion, Bruce couldn’t resist taking a dig at President Obama. She added that, in contrast to Trump’s “successes” for women, Obama was successful in getting people on food stamps. This being Fox, she didn’t cite actual data. She claimed that Trump has grown manufacturing jobs when that, clearly, isn’t true. She actually said that today’s work climate, for women, is “such a paradise now.”
Pete Hegseth reiterated the “fantastic,” “joyful” qualities of Trump’s rallies.
Never mind alternate facts, try alternate reality – but that’s Fox News…
You can watch this alternate reality below, from the January 19, 2020 Fox & Friends.
It’s one moment of so much standard Fox & Fiends ridiculousness. You know it’s going to be total crap analysis when Tammy starts seemingly praising anyone who marches to ‘shape society’ accompanied by the standard boilerplate ‘agree or disagree on the issues’. However, she quickly devolves into the conservatives marchers all good, liberal marchers all evil partisan – ironically – hate (which she hypocritically only accuses the other side of).
Forgetting all the dubious factoids tossed about that sound like they came out of Trump’s lying mouth at one of his Nuremberg style rallies, this discussion at a high level reminds of a recent trap Bernie Sanders got mired into.
Progressive bristled when Sanders essentially said racism is less of a problem in good economic times. Here Tammy, et al are falling into the same trap claiming Trump’s debt-fueled economy is stifling women’s issues. This is false. Getting a job or a pay increase doesn’t end institutional discrimination.
An obvious example is if I, a guy, am getting paid 30% more than a woman in my office with all things being equal, the fact we each get a 4% raise doesn’t end income inequality. Even if that women feels a bit more comfortable in her living standards.
As for the “paradise” of the Pence White House and the current culture of outright hatred towards “uppity” women and anyone with the temerity to speak up, I suppose we should just ignore the fact that angry Right Wingers are pushing the criminalization of women’s reproductive choices. I suppose we should forget that the Supreme Court is on the verge of essentially overturning Roe v Wade within this calendar year with the Louisiana case. I suppose we should forget that we’re only two steps at the Supreme Court after that before things become decidedly more dire.
We could talk about the “paradise” of having a craven ideologue like Kavanaugh rammed onto the Supreme Court, and the upcoming possibility of having more gargoyles rammed on.
We could discuss how the annual March Against Women results in various abuses, including the disastrous spectacle of the Covington Catholic School men shouting taunts at a Native American elder and then being celebrated for it on Right Wing media.
Or we could just acknowledge that Tammy Bruce is not a reliable voice on what constitutes a “paradise” for anyone not on the Extreme Far Right.