In our new Play of the Day series Sauron’s Army, Lady Parts Justice League will explore the key players Donald Trump has chosen to surround himself with: his advisors and the people being appointed to his cabinet, many of whom have a deep of history of being strongly anti-choice.
Today’s addition to Sauron’s Army is Shelob, the giant evil spider represented by Linda McMahon, professional wrestling mogul, repeat Senate race failure, and Donald Trump’s pick to head the Small Business Administration.
Of course, Trump’s nominee to the run the Small Business Administration would be a total disaster for small business–that goes with being part of Trump’s carny mirror world. And Linda McMahon is as uniquely unqualified as you would expect. Her wrestling empire exploited workers by forcing them to be independent contractors instead of employees. And the WWE actually drove many small businesses out of business by waging “relentless warfare” on smaller competitors.
But in addition to her anti-small business boner-fides, when it comes to reproductive rights, McMahon manages to be venomously anti-choice. That’s not always easy to find in a Northeastern conservative. And indeed, during her two disastrous runs for the Senate, McMahon did try to masquerade as a pro-choice Republican–as she would have to in order to have a shot at a Senate seat in Connecticut.
But McMahon’s true arachnid nature is evident in her support of restrictions on abortion rights such as parental notification and the ban on federal funding for abortion services. She also supported the Blunt Amendment, which would have allowed employers to deny birth control coverage to their employees. McMahon said “the issue that was being addressed was the fact that the government was trying to force religious institutions to be engaged in something that went against their beliefs.” Rick Santorum couldn’t have said it better.
Linda McMahon is an eight-legged freak lurking in the shadows to try and disguise her true nature. This SBA nominee is bad for business and bad for women. Connecticut women saw through her in both her Senate runs, with 60% of women voters rejecting her. Perhaps the Senate will do the same thing.