GOP Rep Delivers a House Floor Speech Straight Out of 'The Handmaid's Tale'

[babylonsister]

GOP Rep Delivers a House Floor Speech Straight Out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
BLESSED BE THE FRUIT
In a speech before the House that seemed lifted right out of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian classic, Rep. Glenn Grothman said he wants the U.S. to go back to 1960.
Anna Conkling
Published Jul. 12, 2024 7:00AM EDT


Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) on Thursday accused “the angry feminist movement” of emasculating men and said the U.S. should “work our way back” to 1960 if former President Donald Trump wins in November.

In a House floor speech that could have been lifted from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Grothman went after supporters of government-funded childcare programs and said President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty “took the purpose out of the man’s life, because now you have a basket of goodies for the mom.” He added, “They’ve taken away the purpose of the man to be part of a family. And if we want to get America back to, say, 1960, where this was almost unheard of, we have to fundamentally change these programs.”

Grothman said “the breakdown of the family” was caused by the U.S. government in the 1960s and “people like Angela Davis, well-known communist, people like the feminists who were so important in the 1960s.”

“So I hope the press corps picks up on this, and I hope Republican and Democrat leadership put together some sort of plan for January, in which we work our way back to where America was in the 1960s,” he added.

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rep-glenn-grothman-delivers-speech-straight-out-of-the-handmaids-tale?ref=home?ref=home

[Walleye]

1. Poor wittle fella, are all those nasty feminists emasculating you?

So I guess he’s been emasculated since the 1960s. Is he going to be replaced by somebody darker skinned. These people are nuts.

[Liberal In Texas]

2. More like 1860.

These guys are Neanderthals. Apology to Neanderthals.

[GoCubsGo]

10. Take the "1" off that number, and you be even closer.

Back to the days when women were considered property...

[iscooterliberally]

65. With these guys you probably need to add "BCE" at the end too!

[machoneman]

3. Where in the effin' world do they find idiots like him? It's like they have a evil vending machine and by....

...pushing the buttons another Neanderthal, RW male pops out.

[Ford_Prefect]

36. Since 1973 The Heritage Foundation and other front groups like it have been grooming and financing whole generations

of them to take over local government, state and national legislatures, the GOP and the White House. He is not just one of a few organically stupid jerks in elected office. He is one of thousands of RW true believers you'll find on school boards, city and county commissions, in the many GOP controlled state legislatures and governorships. They are the 3rd generation of what became visible as Newt Gingrich's Party of NO, followed by the Tea Party, and now MAGA. As such they are a numerically significant part of American political life. They are also a cancer on the body politic in that their goal is to disable and consume democratic government at every level to the ultimate benefit of the Ultra Rich and the Christian Nationalists. While not all of them are as outspoken as the tool mentioned above they are all well vetted and enthusiastic members of the cult.

[flying_wahini]

72. It's almost like they seek out the meanest dumbest men to represent the GOP.

Don’t ch’know?

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Here ya go Grothman. Now suck on it.

[Hugin]

5. Still butt hurt over JFK winning an election...

Give it a rest.

[Hugin]

8. Good lord, the dude was five fricking years old in 1960.

Cognitive tests, all around.

[flying_wahini]

6. This is a very dangerous message and frightens me. These people are the set up for crushing women's rights.

Make no mistake, if these Bozos manage to make men think that women are the enemy then
things are gonna get ugly.
Their “message” is that women are are free to make decisions that don’t include them
they will pull ALL the rights that we have earned over the last 50 years.
When women can’t vote or buy homes, get credit or even have a job …..

[Rebl2]

52. I would

guess not even republican women want this kind of man in office.

[Judi Lynn]

7. 64 years straight back? Climb aboard the clown bus, Glen.

[madaboutharry]

9. He probably likes some another features of 1960,

like the free reign men had to sexually harass women, the racist disenfranchisement of minority voters, and all the separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, and segregated schools down south.

A bit of context: Grothman's district includes the hometown of Joe McCarthy as well as the national headquarters of The John Birch Society.

[Autumn]

11. 1960 my ass. This fucker wants a redo on the civil rights movement.

Last edited Fri Jul 12, 2024, 08:41 AM - Edit history (1)

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. Today's homogenized, conglomerated media will probably "pick up" on the message and aid in the transformation.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Example of Rep Glenn Grothman, doing his best work:

The Real Reason Cardi B Got U.S. Rep Glenn Grothman All Riled Up
Let's focus on real issamues, please.
Alice Kelly
Written on Apr 23, 2021

Cardi B had some fighting words for Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman after he criticized the performance she and Megan Thee Stallion gave of their song "WAP" at the Grammy Awards in March.

In the midst of a pandemic, a racial reckoning, demands for police reform, and the ongoing battle against climate change, the GOP congressman from Wisconsin stood on the House floor on Thursday morning with only one issue on his mind: Cardi B and “WAP."

What did Representative Glenn Grothman say about Cardi B and "WAP"?
Grothman claimed that, like the FCC, he had received complaints about the superstar's performance at the Grammys, saying “I realize that Kamala Harris has used her fame to promote this performer, but I assure the FCC that millions of Americans would view her performance as inconsistent with basic decency.”

He also blamed Cardi B and the FCC's "complacency" in the matter for “the moral decline of America.”

"Wake up, FCC, and begin to do your job," he chastised the US government agency, the actual job of which is to "[regulate] interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories" and implement and enforce "America’s communications law and regulations." as well as to "promote connectivity and ensure a robust and competitive market."

More:
https://www.yourtango.com/2021341798/why-cardi-b-has-rep-glenn-grothman-riled-up

[Ray Bruns]

41. "he had received complaints about the superstar's performance at the Grammys"

Well, that was a lie. People who vote for Glenn don’t know who Cardi B is and don’t watch the Grammy’s.

[Lovie777]

14. I guess the GQP women don't mind.....................................

[atreides1]

22. Are you kidding

The women of the GQP are even worse than their male masters!!!

[Blue Owl]

15. Aww, someone make poor Glenn a sandwich

[Scrivener7]

16. Lots of jokes in the replies in this thread. This is no joke.

[ck4829]

17. What it really is: Dude remembers the easy life of being... (checking notes) 5 years old

Chalk this up to rosy retrospection.

[AllaN01Bear]

18. snork

[Progressive dog]

19. There was nothing great to go back to

Only an idiot would think things were better then. Rivers were burning, smog was killing people in many cities. Syracuse, NY had a river that was so acidic you touching it would burn your skin. Onondaga Lake was a septic tank.
https://www.npr.org/2012/07/31/157413747/americas-most-polluted-lake-finally-comes-clean
"The lake [smelled] so bad [from the pollution] that you had to roll the windows up," he recalls.

By then, swimming had already been banned for more than a decade. Because of mercury contamination, fishing was banned in 1972, although there were not many fish in the lake. Effler says there was so little oxygen that fish often swam right out of the lake.
In many countries there were regular famines where many people starved.
Great Chinese Famine 1959–61[16] Half of the country, in particular Anhui (18% died), Chongqing (15% died), Sichuan (13% died), Guizhou (11% died), Hunan (8% died)[17] Great Leap Forward, Floods, Droughts, Typhoons, Insect Invasion[18] 2.6 million to 55 million died.[19][17][20][

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines_in_China

[Stuckinthebush]

37. Wasn't the Cuyahoga River fire in the 60s?

Great time to be alive, eh?

Oh, and down here in the Deep South you better be a white person or else you might get killed for looking at someone wrong.

So, yeah no thanks on going back to when women were second class citizens, black and brown people were less than that, and the environment was killing us all.

[keep_left]

55. Al Franken pointed out (in one of his books, I think) that the Cuyahoga...

...actually caught fire two times! This was before we finally got an EPA and environmental laws that were strong enough to deter the kind of pollution that existed in the '60s and '70s.

[Stuckinthebush]

57. Whoa! I didn't know that

Thank god for the EPA! The GOP would have us go back to such a perfect time where corporations could make massive amounts of money while destroying the environment.

[flying_wahini]

74. And Manchin is still sore over having to follow EPA restrictions.

[ProfessorGAC]

62. It's Worse Than That

While some of the fires were minor compared to 1952 or 1969 (the former being the worst), the times the river caught fire in double digits.

As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so much so that it caught fire at least 14 times.

Now, those 14 fires extended over a 101 year period, but still, a body of water catching fire every 14 or 15 years? Unreal.

[keep_left]

63. Wow, I had no idea. I guess the "two times" Franken mentioned were the fires...

...that got the attention of the major news media (which would show up when doing research for a book). But that number of fires is just...beyond. My understanding is that back then, there was a lot of heavy industry along the Cuyahoga, and they were just dumping huge amounts of flammable solvents and other chemicals directly into the river. Since those chemicals are usually less dense than water, they float on top as an oil slick, and all it takes is a spark from an outboard motor, etc.

[ProfessorGAC]

71. Had To Be Oils

Alcohols with high combustibility of flammability are fully miscible in water.
As I'm sure you know, we can't light beer on fire unless the temperature is elevated.
So for it to be miscible flammables, the river would have to be than 10% alcohol. Even a company with zero regard to the environment would dump that much solvent, because it would be a gigantic waste of money.
So, these flammables had to be something that floats on water.
Just guessing, but I'm going with benzene, toluene, xylene & the like. Very flammable yet would concentrate on top like a combustible film.
Gladly, benzene is used far less today than it would be today. Too toxic. It's still used, but not like in the 60s and further back.

[catbyte]

85. Randy Newman wrote a song about it.

[DavidDvorkin]

20. I'm of the generation that helped create that change

I wasn't old enough to vote for JFK. My first vote was for LBJ in 1964. We welcomed the change and were happy to bid goodbye to that world that Grothman wants to go back to.

If only we could have kept those changes coming, instead of backtracking later, how much better this nation and the world would be.

[bluedigger]

21. It's been a while since I heard Angela Davis blamed for all our woes.

This guy has a true appreciation for the classics.

[Solly Mack]

35. I know, right?

[JanMichael]

83. Crazy dude probably love Anita Bryant.

I miss Jimmy Buffet...

[Solly Mack]

84. No doubt.

[Wounded Bear]

23. Maybe we should get corporate America to stop working people to death...

maybe then they could "spend more time with their families."

Just sayin'

[Ziggysmom]

86. Corporate tax rate in 1960 was 37%; I doubt the elite owners want that back.

Heck, in 1960 the average home price was $11,900! But a married woman couldn’t get credit in her own name. Grothman is a kook!

[Archae]

24. For me, the worst part is this asshole is my congresscritter.

He used to be in our state assembly, until he moved into our district.

While in the assembly, he said about income parity based on gender, that "Money isn't important to women."

No wonder he's still single.

[AllyCat]

47. He's dreadful. I met him once at the state capitol

Lobbying for public schools. Utterly dismissed with a wave of his hand and left us with his staffer who had no answers to anything.

[suegeo]

60. So this man doesn't have a wife of his own to give his life purpose.

Is hypocritical the right word for this creeping white guy.

He can't get a woman, start and support a family, but that's LBJ's fault and the fault of angry feminists.

He's an incel, I guess. Angry nobody will fu*k him and put up with his bullshit.

He said "Money isn't important to women"
Money is very important to women. We use money to leave bad marriages. We have money so we don't HAVE TO get married, especially not to assholes like Glenn.

[58Sunliner]

25. Is he sure he meant 1960? Cause women could vote then and we had the pill.

This pig just wants to hamstring women into forced birth, bad marriages, no autonomy.

[Ocelot II]

26. It's not worth bothering to emasculate guys like that;

they've done it to themselves. If their sad little balls shrivel at the thought of women not needing men, there was never much there to begin with.

[Raven123]

27. Something we can all unite against. Thanks for posting

[Maeve]

28. Yeah, I'd like to be 5 again....

We aren't going back anymore than I can do that.

[slightlv]

29. They sure hate women!

Just keep going Repug men. I'll give you a statement also well known in families...

If mama ain't happy... no one's happy!

Guess what... "mama" ain't happy with you, and we're gonna show you by how much this Nov!!!

[sybylla]

30. Says Incel who lives/lived with his mom.

Unfortunately, his Wikipedia page is full of this crap and more: misogyny, anti-education, anti-LGBTQIA, ad nauseum for decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Grothman?wprov=sfti1

[Dulcinea]

56. Yeah, another incel mad at the world because women have choices.

And they didn't choose him. Bless his heart.

[Raven123]

31. Did this guy just make an ad for the Dems?

Dems should use his words as reason to flip the House in this year’s election

[Funtatlaguy]

32. Oh, for the days of the Beaver. 🦫

[Hieronymus Phact]

33. If you think feminism emasculated you...

You couldn't have been much of a Man in the first place.

[Evolve Dammit]

34. And it all looks like a Norman Rockwell painting right?? What an asshole.

[Solly Mack]

38. Won't somebody please think of all those put-upon straight, white Christain males?

Fuck that noise.

[AncientOfDays]

39. On the other hand

On the other hand, in the 1960's we taxed the rich

[julmur]

40. Milwaukee irish

This food has been a total POS since he’s been in office, unfortunately he’s in an extremely red area of Wisconsin, so impossible to vote him out

[Martin68]

42. One of the many ironies in this pathetic speech is the contention that men are less involved in family life now than

they were in 1960. On the contrary, most men are expected to play a much fuller role in the family than in 1960, when the traditional husband's roles were confined to being the sole breadwinner and mowing the lawn.

[Rebl2]

51. I think men

have been much more involved in their children’s lives the last 20 years than they ever were in the 1960’s. I remember when a young family moved in across the street from us when I was a child-in the 60’s. My father talked to the young man who said he really had no interest in the kids while they were toddlers. He said when the kids get older he would have more to do with them. My Dad, who was about 10 to 15 years older than him, couldn’t believe what he was hearing I am pretty sure. That guy did become more involved with his kids when they got older, and I would guess regrets saying that out loud to someone. At that time he seemed to be more interested in working on his cars and listening to loud rock and roll music.

[TheRealNorth]

61. Let me translate Wisconsin Republicaneese for you.....

Grothman is referring to a specific type of man, usually living in the inner city and a few shades darker than the men Grothman interacts with while practicing his game at Whistling Straits.

[Trueblue Texan]

43. Well, what was the corporate tax rate in the 60s? nt

[hadEnuf]

44. So he watches "Leave it to Beaver" a lot? That's his reality?

Or is it the reality of keeping people poor with little hope of moving out of it and women basically being kept subjected to only have the identity of "Mrs. John Jones" or some such crap. Not to mention women stuck in abusive relationship that would only cease if they "disappear" or exit horizontally through the front door.

[Bev54]

45. He is right to a degree, women have no use for a man like him. nt

[Rebl2]

46. Don't know

what 1960’s he was living in, but I was a child and really have no good memories of the 60’s. I take that back, I did like following the Apollo missions.

[patphil]

48. Sure, blame the women for wanting to be heard; for wanting a place at the table of political, economic, & social power.

This is just more mindless blather from the " women should be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen" crowd.
And, of course, it's also just the tip of the iceberg. He most likely wants to flush the whole civil rights movement down the toilet.

Even his hair is white, male supremacist.

[eShirl]

49. no, YOU fuck off to 1960 and take your MAGA horde with you

EVERYBODY VOTE

[Bluethroughu]

50. How he got to Congress, is pure unadulterated Gerrymandering.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

53. Same old

Male Narcissism in action.

We have to get narcissism in this country under control.

These two bastards are narcissists first before they scapegoat women.
Get the narcissism in the population under control the men will follow.

[republianmushroom]

54. Strange as it may seem, there are a lot of woman in the republican camp

who must want this also. Seems to me they are voting against there best interest.
But there they are.

[Collimator]

69. During the Abolitionist Years. . .

. . . there were no slaves traveling about giving speeches about how great slavery was. . . However, there were women traveling the country during the more heated years of the Suffrage Movement who were vehemently stumping against giving women the vote. It is one of the most chilling tells of how intensely ingrained misogyny is in most of human culture.

Granted, even today, social experiments show Black children regarding darker-skinned dolls as less attractive than lighter-skinned dolls, so there is still a great deal of deeply ingrained self hatred regarding race in this country, but misogyny can be both blatant and subtle and it is oh so disturbingly pervasive.

My hope is in each new cohort of girls turning 18 and becoming voting age women in America. I still remember the stirring words of one 12 year old speaker at the massive gun control rally that took place weeks later. She essentially put the politicians of the day on notice regarding what would happen when her generation came of age. I really, REALLY, hope that she will have turned 18 before the election this November. Whether she does or not, I will be thinking about her when I cast my ballot.

And regarding those observations about neanderthals-- remember that they are gone for a reason. They were out paced by homo sapiens not because we had bigger muscles or even bigger brains, for that matter. The general consensus is that our species was more flexible and adaptable to change. Never bet against change because the Universe is founded on it.

The 1960's are NOT coming back. The can't. Now, who knows how good or bad the 2060's are going to be, but time moves in only one direction. Things CAN get worse, but they will never "get better" in terms of re-creating an illusion of the past. And people who direct their focus onto the past will never be happy no matter how the future plays out.

[allegorical oracle]

58. Wow...a Rush Limpaw redux -- them !@#$ Femi-Nazis

[suegeo]

59. Is Glenn Grothman married, with a family to give his life purpose?

I did a quick googl and found no wife, no mention of kids.

Glenn couldn't get a woman, and hopes he can someday be assigned a handmaid his own personal "Ofglenn"

Even if he is married to a woman, that does not negate in any way the "ick what a woman hater" vibe I get from this uptight white guy.

[Model35mech]

64. Grothman thought he was about to die on the WI capitol lawn in Feb 2011

back in the massive anti-tyranny protests and calls for Walker's impeachment. He was SO dumb that he walked among the protestors telling them they were wrong to protest.

I was only a couple of dozen feet from him when after being surrounded on the west side of the capitol building by hundreds of angry protestors and hiding in a window well, he literally wet his pants in fear.

One of the Dem WI Senators intervened on his behalf, urged the crowd back away from him so he could escape unharmed. Probably saved Grothman's life.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

66. GOP's Grothman slams 'angry feminist movement,' seeks return to 1960s

Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman not only slammed “the angry feminist movement,” he also called for the U.S. to “work our way back” to the 1960s.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/gops-grothman-slams-angry-feminist-movement-seeks-return-1960s-rcna161534

It was a few years ago, for example, when the Wisconsin Republican argued that the District of Columbia doesn’t deserve statehood because it doesn’t have any local mining. That came on the heels of Grothman explaining his opposition to equal-pay legislation by saying, “You could argue that money is more important for men.”.....

Last year, the GOP congressman expressed concern that by diversifying the courts, President Joe Biden might be “actively discriminating against white heterosexual men.” Soon after, Grothman lamented the lack of “white guys” among the White House’s judicial nominees.

Unfortunately, he’s still at it. The Daily Beast reported:

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) on Thursday accused “the angry feminist movement” of emasculating men and said the U.S. should “work our way back” to 1960 if former President Donald Trump wins in November.

Even by contemporary Republican standards, Grothman’s remarks, delivered on the House floor from what appeared to be prepared notes, were striking......

After criticizing a variety of social-insurance programs — including day care and pre-school — and denouncing “the angry feminist movement,” the Republican concluded, “So I hope the press corps picks up on this, and I hope Republican and Democrat [sic] leadership put together some sort of plan for January, in which we work our way back to where America was in the 1960s.”

Link to tweet

I mention this because the former president is defined in large part by his retrospective perspective. Trump isn’t forward thinking; he boasts about his desire to go backwards, to a time when he thinks America was “great.”

And while the presumptive GOP presidential nominee tends to be vague about just how far back he wants to roll back the clock, his congressional sycophant was more explicit: Grothman doesn’t just want to go back four years, to Trump’s term; he wants to go back six decades, to a time when people who looked and thought like him enjoyed a more exalted status over everyone else.

[Boomerproud]

80. Looks from the background he was babbling to an empty chamber.

[CBHagman]

67. Ah, the '60s, when a cancer diagnosis...

...was more likely to end with a funeral.

I remember. It seems the congressman's train of thought hasn't stopped at that particular station.

[alwaysinasnit]

68. It is absolutely mind-boggling how many right-wingers are so insecure.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

70. wow

[LetMyPeopleVote]

73. These guys don't know the power of women, but they'll find out!

[TygrBright]

75. LOL... does that include the 90% marginal tax rates, too? n/t

[crickets]

87. ☝️☝️ I'm all for it. Hell, I'd settle for going back to 70%. Make the 1% pay their share.

[duncang]

76. He was at the oldest 15.

Other than the musings of a teen what does he actually remember from then about adult life.

[bdamomma]

77. Are you

showing how insecure and misogynist you are Rep Grotman????

Women are not second class citizens!!!!!! Or breeders!!!!!!

[keithbvadu2]

78. 1960 elected a Prez who served in our military and did not run away as a coward with fake bone spurs.

[yourout]

79. Louis Gomert with a cheese head.

No longer just a Wisconsin embarrassment.

[Kath2]

81. That really pisses me off.

The "angry feminist movement" is nothing but a reasonable response to being second class citizens for so long and which we still are. Yes, we are angry and have every reason to be. People like this have beat us down for too long. Social programs actually help people. And Angela Davis was far ahead of her time and a beautiful person Gloria Steinem, too. How dare he insult her! I certainly don't want to go back to 1960. He can go back to 1960. I want to be here in 2024.

[GenThePerservering]

82. He's a dirty little incel

old and in the way (at any age).