GOP candidate blames lack of female support on single moms

[TomCADem]

Source: NBC

If New Jersey Senate candidate Jeff Bell was struggling with female voters before, his latest comments on the matter will only make things worse.

Speaking with the Asbury Park Press Thursday, the Republican attributed his 20-plus percentage point deficit among women voters to declining marriage rates and single women’s dependency on government benefits, something that “weds them to the Democratic Party.” Bell trails incumbent Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat, by 23 points among women in the latest Monmouth University Poll, contributing to Booker’s overall 15-point lead among likely voters.

“I’ve done a lot of thinking about this and looked at a lot of different polls, I think it has more to do with the rise in single women,” Bell told the Asbury Park Press. “Single mothers particularly are automatically Democratic because of the benefits. They need benefits to survive, and so that kind of weds them to the Democratic Party.”

* * *
“Single women who have never married and don’t have children are also that way,” he continued. “If you take married women, they aren’t that different from married men. So it’s really a problem with the decline in marriage rates. The Democrats do benefit from that.”

Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-candidate-blames-lack-female-support-single-moms

[shenmue]

1. I hate this prejudice against single people

[Warpy]

8. This is probably from a guy who would die in his own filth

if he didn't have a woman to clean up after him.

[yardwork]

33. That is patriarchy in action.

All people must be married, according to the patriarchal code. If people are allowed to survive and even thrive on their own, how in the world can men be kings of their castles????!

Next we'll have single women earning their own livings!!!!! They won't listen to their fathers and husbands!!!! It's unbiblical!!!!!!!

[valerief]

2. Assholes say assholey things. nt

[samsingh]

31. and he's an asshole

[KT2000]

3. what an idiot

he just needs to keep it up until the election.

[merrily]

4. On the bright side, he apparently gets that "welfare queens" is not politically advantageous.

as to his comment having a bright side, but not as to what Republicans mean when they say "single women."

It's all tied to the meme that Mitt was putting forward in that video, to the meme that cons love to put forward: The "takers" of government money vote Democratic, the producers of American wealth vote Republican.

[mpcamb]

30. Or maybe he's making a bid for the Deadbeat Dad vote

Could be a major bloc that supports his ideas.

[Skittles]

5. "that way"

see, us single gals must be supported by the government or by husbands....what an idiot

[littlemissmartypants]

15. Indeed. eom

[CTyankee]

22. this is so over the top it's kinda funny...gives a whole new meaning to "tone deaf."

Let me be the first to say that it seems these Republicans are the ones that are all "that way."

[Cali_Democrat]

6. WOW

He isn't even trying to win the election. He's just going on a tirade.

[Kath1]

7. I was a single mom and I supported Democratic candidates.

Not because of the benefits (I didn't receive any) but because, in general, Democratic candidates advance policies which are much more supportive of single mothers. And the younger single women without kids don't like all their talk about limiting access to contraception and abortion. Issues like equal pay and gay rights, among many others, play into it, also.

[dballance]

9. Perhaps if Women bread-winners were paid the same men bread-winners...

He kind of makes the case that paying women less for the same work as men causes many of those women to seek assistance.

If we paid women head of households the same way we pay men head of households then perhaps many of those single women wouldn't have to seek any assistance.

Perhaps if we paid care-givers, nurses, house-keepers and other female-dominated positions a living wage they wouldn't have to seek assistance.

[littlemissmartypants]

16. And having child care would be nice.

All of your points are intensely important.

~ Lmsp 🙌

[riversedge]

18. Bingo

[laundry_queen]

25. +1000 nt

[SoapBox]

10. What a maroon.

Poster child representing the PukeBagger War on Women.

[JDPriestly]

11. "Single women who have never married and don’t have children are also that way?"

I beg to differ. A lot of single women who have never married and don't have children are very well educated, professionals, who earn more than the average guy in their age group. They don't need government hand-outs, but they do want to live in a compassionate society. I know several younger women who are like that.

What a poor excuse for losing the election.

This is not a guy you want in politics. He clearly does not collect evidence before making his decision.

And by the way, if the single mothers refuse to vote for him, what about the fathers of the children of the single mothers?

For every child has two parents. If the mother is single, then somewhere their is a father who should be helping to support the divided family -- at the very least with child support. Are the dads supporting this creep of a candidate?

What a sorry excuse for not appealing to voters.

This candidate does not belong in politics.

[Kath1]

21. Exactly!

"They don't need government hand-outs, but they do want to live in a compassionate society."

Yes. MILLIONS of us feel that way!

[freshwest]

12. Single women and moms blame GOP men for being too creepy to wed. Take that!

VAFFANCULO REPUBBLICANI !!!

~ Tx4obama

[littlemissmartypants]

17. ...slowly exits...

[vlyons]

13. Did you notice that it's always someone else's fault?

There's nothing wrong with his campaign or his policy positions. It's all the fault of those sinful single women. This man is so ignorant it's pathetic.

[ZombieHorde]

40. I like your observation, and would like to extend it to

those who blame liberal purists when Democrats lose elections.

[Chemisse]

14. The GOP sure knows how to alienate women.

Comments like this just add to it.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. OMG I looked this guy up and

as much as Peggy Noonan's name has been thrown around with respect to Raygun speech-writing, THIS is the guy who really did all the speech damage on behalf of Raygun (and goes all the way back to Nixon).

Thank goodness he is toast.

[MFM008]

20. no

I I would never vote for them if I was single or married or anything else ever.

[jwirr]

23. If Rs were for equal wages, and left our uterus alone they might have something to say to women.

[EEO]

24. Oh, the irony.

[karynnj]

26. This right wing nut case has lost several elections before

I am sure the NJ Republicans were not happy when he won the primary, but it may be that they saw anyone running as a sacrificial lamb destined to lose. I remember him running against Bradley and later against Millicent Fenwick in the Republican primary.

Not sure if anyone ever polled it, but he might deserve credit for Bradley's career. Bradley lived in Morris county, one of the most Republican areas in NJ. The first office he ran for was the Senate seat and some local Democrats have said it was because he saw a state wide run more likely than a local Morris County Congressional run. Bell, unexpectedly defeated a respected 4 term liberal Republican, Clifford Case. You could say it was one of the earliest tea party primaries. I would assume that Case vs Bradley could well have ended with a Case win.

[Eugene]

27. Wow! Jeff Bell just can't help himself.

His comments won't help him with male voters either.

[surrealAmerican]

29. Is this an admission that he favors policies that would threaten the survival of single women?

Does he really think that people who he would like to die would vote for him?

[yurbud]

32. Republicans should start their campaign ads with, "First, I would like to say 'Fuck you to...

the following people: blacks, women, gays, muslims, Latinos, atheists, non-fundamentalist Christians, the handicapped, non-racist whites, poor whites who don't think they're about to win the lottery, and seventeen other groups to be named at a later date."

[SunSeeker]

34. Keep talking Jeff Bell, you douchebag. Keep talking.

[NastyRiffraff]

35. Like Bill Maher said

New Rule: Anyone posting something sarcastic must label it as such, since it's getting almost impossible to tell.

We do it on DU; over and over again you see "Not The Onion" followed by something completely ridiculous some GOP idiot has said.

The funniest part of this is “I’ve done a lot of thinking about this" Really? Really Jeff? You've thought and thought and this is what you came up with?

[tclambert]

36. Oops, Republicans are gonna need another Outreach to Women seminar.

Better throw in a couple of seminars about minorities, too, 'cause you know he's just one question away from explaining "the problem with the negro."

[Jack Rabbit]

37. Mr. Bell understands his problem, but is stuck on Republican solutions that aren't solutions

Until a light goes on over his head and he can "aha!" and other Republicans come to the same epiphany, the GOP is going to have this problem with single mothers, especially single mothers who are more at risk at falling into abject poverty with their children.

It isn't a matter of whether they've never been married or have been married and the marriage didn't work out. They're single, they're on their own with their children in tow. An economically unstable ex-husband is little more likely to provide financial support than economically unstable husband or boyfriend living in the house. Mr. Bell should realize that to a person trying to survive, that person will do what is necessary, including selling drugs or prostitution. Public assistance beats that, if one can survive on it. A mother with small children will be just that much more desperate to survive and to survive with her children.

What have Republicans -- or third-way Democrats, for that matter -- done for these mothers and their children? Well, they reformed welfare, but it was reform aimed at appealing to white racist voters by punishing poor people for being poor and putting more pressure on them to climb out of poverty with no help from society. The politicians, such as Newt Gingrich, who passed that legislation didn't care about poor people and would just as well have them starve on the streets. Otherwise all they do is slut shame single mothers for not being married, then complain that they vote for Democrats (if they vote at all). Well, Mr. Bell, they're not going to vote for you as long as you're singing from the Ronald Reagan songbook.

[The Wizard]

38. They had a candidate in NJ

a few years ago. He was accused of trying to jam his tongue down a female staffer's throat. He settled out of court and left the political arena. Some people nicknamed him Chuck "The Tongue" Haytaian.

[mackerel]

39. Jeff Bell's seems to indirectly blame the decline in marriage on the democrats.

[daleo]

41. I imagine he regrets women being allowed to vote at all

[redruddyred]

42. whenever I cut the cheese at a family gathering

I blame it on the pooch.

after all, he can't defend himself.

[wildeyed]

43. Wrong, asshole.

It's because you want to take our birth control away.