Former State Republican Chair: Dismayed by Trump's Convention And How My Party Treats Women

Former state Republican chair: Dismayed by Trump's convention and how my party treats women

I have faced the humiliating sexism of our party a dozen times over. I'm one of those suburban women any candidate needs to win, and I've had enough.

Jennifer Horn

Opinion contributor

President Donald Trump's four-day convention was one of dangerous division, sneaky sexism, blatant bigotry and exclusion. The contrast with the uplifting and unifying message of last week’s Democratic convention was stark.

This Republican convention was an opportunity for the president to reach out to the people — to all Americans — and invite them to come together as one. It was an opportunity for him to reset the tone of his campaign, make amends for his failures, and light a new path forward for our nation. Instead, he spent 70 minutes on an ugly tirade of lies and petty complaints. His acceptance speech was filled with racist dog whistles and ‘us vs them-ism” intended to frighten Americans and instill suspicion within us about all those “others” out there who aren’t like us.

And, in typical Trump fashion, he lied. He lied about signing the Veteran’s Choice initiative into law, when it was President Barack Obama who did so. He lied about prescription prices, which have risen during his presidency. He lied about “the wall,” when, in fact, he has built only five miles of a new wall.

The worst lie of all, however, was when he congratulated himself on his own response to the COVID pandemic and ignored the fact that over 180,000 American lives have been tragically lost as a direct result of his decisions as president.

RNC left me overwhelmed with dismay

As a lifelong Republican, I admit this was the first time I paid this much attention to the Democratic convention. But it is also the first time that watching my own party’s quadrennial celebration left me so overwhelmed with dismay.  With few exceptions, the Republican convention was four days of lies, distortions and basic corruption, mixed with an uncomfortable, almost cult-like reverence and loyalty to a leader who has lied, cheated, and been impeached.

"The Excuse Tour"  

Jennifer Horn

Tomorrow, a Pepto Bismol-colored bus emblazoned with the words “Women For Trump 2020” will make its way through the state of New Hampshire, led by Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and staffed with women who have long been voices in the conservative movement.

These women, and others within the state, will spend much of their day advocating on behalf of the most openly misogynistic president in the history of the United States.

In typical Donald Trump fashion, the “Women’s” tour was announced by a former male staffer, Corey Lewandowski, who has been caught on security video manhandling a female reporter. In March of 2016 Lewandowski roughly grabbed and yanked that female reporter working for a conservative news outlet.

The president of the United States is a man who believes it is acceptable to publicly demean and humiliate women as an execution of his power over them. It would be easy to fill an entire newspaper page with caught-on-tape moments of Trump himself debasing women. From giving himself permission to grab them by the “p****” to calling them fat pigs, slobs, dogs, and horse face to the countless acts of derision directed toward women who have the nerve to stand up to him, he is a weak man who needs women to be subservient in order for him to feel masculine.

Donald Trump is a caricature of virility, a cartoon character of masculinity that emphasizes how soft and weak he really is.

As offensive as his misogyny is, these women on the Pepto-Bismol bus have obviously decided that they are willing to abandon certain principles in exchange for …. what, exactly? This is what I don’t understand.

Trump’s greatest indignities lie not in his abusive treatment of women, but in the inhumane manner in which he treats nearly every person who is not willing to subject themselves to his indignities.

He has ordered the cramming of immigrant children into cages, separated from their families, for no fault of their own, where many remain today. Women For Trump will defend this abhorrent behavior as being “the same as what Obama did.” That is false.

Trump has fought all the way to the Supreme Court to deny equal housing and employment protections under the law for LGBTQ Americans. Thankfully, he lost in what can only be considered a SCOTUS landslide. Women For Trump will defend him all the same. I remember when Republicans believed that constitutional rights belonged to all Americans.

Trump has openly stoked racial divisions, used racist slurs, declared white nationalists to be “good people,” was sued by the Department of Justice for housing discrimination against African Americans, told congresswomen of color to go back where they came from, and built an entire presidential campaign based on anti-Hispanic and Islamophobic bigotry. Women For Trump will tell you he’s not racist, he’s just politically incorrect. They are wrong. He is racist.

Donald Trump is directly responsible for the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of Americans to the coronavirus and the loss of millions of jobs. He failed on identifying threat, failed on closing our borders, failed on ventilators, failed on testing, failed on opening in the country’s economy in a responsible manner. Women for Trump will tell you the virus is an evil plot by Democrats to undermine the president. The truth is that Donald Trump makes everything — even a deadly global pandemic — about him, his ego, his reelection. As a result, millions of Americans continue to struggle to put food on the table and, even worse, are mourning loved ones lost to his selfish incompetence.

Perhaps worst of all, Donald Trump has betrayed our country and those who serve and sacrifice in her defense. We now know that the president was informed over a year ago that Vladimir Putin has been paying bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers on the battlefield. All so he can buddy up to one of freedom’s greatest enemies. Women For Trump will ignore this extraordinary act and try to deflect your attention to something they think they can you convince is more important than protecting our sons and daughters in battle.

Women For Trump are coming to New Hampshire because Donald Trump’s indecent, inhuman, destructive presidency has left him limping toward the general election, particularly with women voters. Every poll shows a widening gap among nearly every demographic, with the loss of support among women posing the greatest danger to the president. Women For Trump will tell that the polls — every single one — is part of some nefarious conspiracy against his reelection.

Women For Trump are going to drive their Pepto Bismol bus around New Hampshire and shamelessly excuse the sickening behavior of this racist, misogynistic, dangerous man.

The question is, will you?

Former state Republican Party chair Jennifer Horn is a founding member of The Lincoln Project.