Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has lived by the frat-boy image, and now we can only hope he’ll die (in a campaign sense) by the frat-boy image. Because wow, Brown’s visit to College Republicans at a University of New Hampshire homecoming tailgate party is appalling.
In the video, Brown never stops smiling as several men in the crowd of tailgaters surrounding him shout things like “Fuck Jeanne Shaheen” and “Fuck Elizabeth Warren” and “Fuck her right in the pussy” and something about a “cunt.”
These were not a few stray catcalls, as you’ll see on the video. They were constant and unmissable, but Brown just kept gladhanding his way through the crowd, obviously not bothered by the aggressive misogyny of his supporters. This tone is also nothing new to a Scott Brown campaign. Sexism was a constant undertone in his campaigns against Martha Coakley and Elizabeth Warren, with the candidate himself once offering a female reporter beer while saying “I’ve seen you in the bars before, don’t act like you’ve never been to a bar … We’re gonna have her dancing in the back of the truck.”
According to tweets, Brown gave out beer to undergrads at the event, though his campaign denies it. Presumably the campaign’s next move will be to deny that Brown heard anything resembling “Fuck Jeanne Shaheen,” but it’s going to be difficult to persuade anyone who’s seen the video of that. This really isn’t going to help Brown tighten the gender gap.
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Not all Republican sexism and misogyny takes this kind of blatant frat-boy form, but unfortunately, Scott Brown is all too representative of Republicans in thinking that voters don’t care about women’s issues and believing that mentioning the women in his family is a decent substitute for supporting women’s rights.
