Republican S.E. Cupp wrote a heartbroken takedown of her own party for The New York Times

(Image credit: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)

published 27 October 2016

Conservative commentator and writer S.E. Cupp really, really wanted to root for the Republican nominee. But after "witnessing some real progress in our outreach to women ... I did not expect an egomaniacal arsonist to come along and set all that ablaze," she writes in a new op-ed for The New York Times, "The Lonely Life of a Republican Woman."

Cupp decries the fact that Donald Trump has taken her party "back to the Dark Ages — or at least the 1950s," claiming that it is increasingly difficult for women Republicans to justify remaining with the right, even when it might be in their best interest in the long run:

Democrats' lofty language about empowering women sounds great (and way better than Mr. Trump's), but President Obama's economy has done just the opposite. By many metrics, women (and men) are worse off. The poverty rate is higher than it was in 2007. Real median household income is down. More Americans are dependent on the government for assistance. Homeownership is down. Student debt has skyrocketed, along with the national debt. We now know that Obamacare is becoming unaffordable.None of this is empowering, not for working women, mothers, small-business owners or students. Whether you're a veteran or a millennial, it's hard to argue that big government has solved your problems efficiently, if at all.But before we can make that case to women, Republicans will have to earn the right to be heard at all. That will require emptying the party of Mr. Trump's enablers. Who knows how long that will take, but in the meantime, women would frankly have to have been lobotomized to believe anything the Republican Party tells them. [The New York Times]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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