Republican Ads: "The Bad Boyfriend"

With the 2016 election coming up in two years, it seems like the Republicans have made a big shift to attract female voters, when all the "war on women" policies have done nothing but restrict the rights of women. Women’s reproduction rights, especially when it comes to abortion and birth control, have received numerous restrictions, and women do not respond positively to this. In the 2012 election, two out of three women voted for President Obama. This is not the first time the Republicans have made an attempt to woo female voters by using the "bad boyfriend" analogy. In 2012, the Republicans launched an advertisement of a woman talking to her boyfriend, stating "It’s not me, it’s you. I think we should just be friends," followed by a prompt that writes "tell us why you want to break up with Obama." The problem is that the whole idea of comparing the relationship between voters and the President to a relationship between a boyfriend and girlfriend is a hasty generalization. The President, as a leader of a nation, cannot always make a decision that satisfies everyone, whereas a relationship between couples must be exclusive and satisfying. Saying that the president has not been a good boyfriend in a girlfriend’s perspective is clearly different from a voter’s point of view. Furthermore, this type of ad implies that in order for women to understand politics, it needs to be through the lens of a bad relationship.In the ad, the actress says that "[Obama] thinks the only thing I care about is free birth control, but he won’t even let me keep my own doctor." America has been notorious for failing its health care system, which does not actually "ensure" public health. Unlike governments in other various countries, the U.S. government has not managed or negotiated prices with the private insurance companies that pay for both essential and elective health care. The U.S. government spends $2.8 trillion for public health care, but this luxury only reached 5 percent of the population. To change this, President Obama has made health care more accessible to people who did not have the means to access it before, even if it means that you have to change your provider, doctor or system. Obamacare has also greatly improved the conditions of women, considering the fact that 47 million women now have access to women’s preventative health care services. Considering the fact that half of the women in America have avoided or delayed health care due to cost, this was a big stepping stone in ensuring basic rights of women and their health.The recent ad is not only flawed in form, but also in content. If the Republicans really want to capture the attention of female voters, they should change their policies and start acting out, rather than creating superficial ads merely for election campaigns.