In the Lewinsky Redux, a Religious Message
My theory is a bit different, and, like Kilgore’s, requires forgetting for a moment that Rand Paul’s favorite new-old thing is to go after the Clintons. That’s so horse race! Think instead about the GOP’s strategy to portray its own elected women as virtuous patriots who put family and Christianity first—making them not just better exemplars of biblical womanhood, but better exemplars of political leadership.
The Republicans don’t have a lot of women to work with for this rebranding campaign (there are only 23 Republican women in the House and Senate combined), but they’re deploying what they’ve got in the anti-war-on-women effort. First came Cathy McMorris Rodgers, with her faith in God, family, and a fundamentalist education. Another example is South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem, whose 2013 interview700 Club is being replayed on the network’s The Brody File.
“Even though ‘Kristi the congresswoman’ pushes for conservative policy,” host David Brody tells us, “as a believer in Jesus Christ, she’s got something even bigger on her mind.”