Whenever Mike Huckabee opens his mouth about contraception and female sexuality, there's a high likelihood that he'll say something revealing about conservative thinking on the issue, and his remarks at the annual Republican National Committee meeting didn't disappoint.
Huckabee said Democrats tell women “they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government.”
Now there was some initial confusion about his remarks because some reporters hived off the part at the beginning where he made clear that he was characterizing the Democratic view, and that genuinely made his remarks seem more offensive than they were.
But not by much. First and least of all, it's a smear against Democrats who don't believe this in any way.
More importantly, though, the error itself gives shape to muddled conservative arguments about the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate.
If the incorrect knock on Democrats is that they think women need the government to help them control their libidos, the corollary is that Republicans believe women can control it all on their own -- or in other words that not having sex is the only legitimate form of birth control.
The common factor here, obviously, is controlling the female libido. The female sex drive is a problem that must be solved. Latent Akinism: It's a thing!
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