In 2004, Thomas Frank wrote "What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," which described how the blue-collar residents of Kansas voted solidly Republican and possessed a deep animosity toward the left.

According to Frank, this is a self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy at the expense of the average worker.

Unfortunately, history is repeating itself in 2012 when recent polls show 51 percent of white women intend to vote Republican in this election. These women apparently intend to vote for a party that does not like or respect them; a party planning to impose severe restrictions on women's health care choices in the party platform as well as a redefinition of rape (i.e. "forcible rape"). Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, partnering with Rep. Todd Akin, brought this idea forward. Akin famously asserted that women's bodies could magically shut down during rape thereby preventing pregnancy. Ryan has described keeping abortion legal when there's a risk to the woman's health as "a loophole big enough to drive a truck through."

These anti-woman positions taken by the Republican Party are callous and mean-spirited. I hope that women will know exactly who and what they are voting for when they go to the polls in November and vote for the party that has their best interests at heart.

Robbie Nichols

Hilton Head Island