Every single Republican in the house and senate voted against Equal Pay for Women. That, alone, is enough to lose my vote forever.
They also voted against paid, protected sick leave. That's completely unacceptable, as far as I am concerned. Far too many of us with PTSD have days where forcing ourselves to function at work to keep a job hurts our health and none of us should be denied the ability to take sick leave as we need to. We also deserve to be able to take off to go to health appointments as our physicians and therapists advise us to do so. Yet when it's between losing a job entirely or waiting until an appointment opens on a day off (which can take months) so many of us end up not being able to take good self-care. With a suppressed immune system, I also don't want workers coming into work sick and putting me at risk.
That's another deal breaker for me.
The Republicans also voted against parental leave. Far too many women have to return to work far too soon after giving birth. Even at my workplace, women have to return before their doctor's guidelines after having a c-section or they have to burn vacation leave, destroying that chance to actually take days off to manage hearth and home. There's a reason why our maternal death rates are climbing while they're falling everywhere else.
These are issues that really matter to me and my family, and watching Republicans turn their backs on us for these simple things time after time is infuriating. As long as they can throw up scandal after scandal, they never have to explain their votes to their constituents. But you know, let's not discuss how sick leave would help us. Let's keep just discussing Benghazi so none of these issues that truly affect us every day are in the conversation.