The panderer-in-chief is looking for an extremist edge in the 2018 mid-terms:

“Every day between now and November we must work together to elect more lawmakers who share our values, cherish our heritage, and proudly stand for life,” Trump said. He summed it up for the roomful of enthusiastic supporters: “The story is, ’18 midterms, we need Republicans.” Trump has long been an unlikely sweetheart for conservative and evangelical voters. But now, in the lead-up to the midterm elections, the thrice-married former Democrat who used to describe himself as “very pro-choice” has been offering catnip to conservative voters.

Last week, the administration unveiled a new push to strip funding from Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics. The initiative, which was formally unveiled Tuesday, is aimed at resurrecting parts of a Reagan-era mandate banning federally funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, or sharing space with abortion providers.

Women's rights are being attacked on all fronts, which is why it's more important than ever for Democrats to not only hold fast to their principles, but push back against these misogynistic and regressive movements. I'm not a big fan of "purity tests" for candidates or elected officials, but this is one issue where no compromise will be accepted. And I'm pretty sure such a compromise would backfire on you anyway:

Apparently they have too many women in office:

Incumbent lawmakers running for re-election are used to campaigning against primary challengers, but usually those challengers aren't other incumbents. But that's a situation four Republican state senators are facing this year after redistricting drew two incumbents each into District 45 and District 31. First-term Sen. Deanna Ballard, R-Watauga, faces off against three-term Sen. Shirley Randleman, R-Wilkes, in District 45, which includes Watauga, Wilkes, Avery and Alleghany counties and part of Surry County.

Nathan Miller, vice chairman of the Watauga County Republican Party, said a lot of people are frustrated with having a double-bunked district. "They're both highly qualified, they're both highly competent," Miller said. "Frankly, I don't know why they got double-bunked. ... They're both strong-willed females in the N.C. Senate. Why would you want to double-bunk them? Eventually one of them is going to lose."

If by "eventually" you mean tomorrow, then yes, eventually one of them will lose her seat. The other race mentioned (District 31) also has a double-bunked GOP woman (Joyce Krawiec), so that makes three out of the four unlucky candidates female. Because GOP values are either inscrutable or non-existent.

Quite possibly the worst candidate to run the Veterans Administration:

During an overseas trip in 2015, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, was intoxicated and banged on the hotel room door of a female employee, according to four sources familiar with the allegation. The incident became so noisy, one source familiar with the allegation told CNN, that the Secret Service stopped him out of concern that he would wake then-President Barack Obama.

Two sources who previously worked in the White House Medical Unit described the same incident, with one former staffer telling CNN that it was "definitely inappropriate, in the middle of the night," and that it made the woman uncomfortable. At the time, the incident was reported up the chain of command, and it is one of multiple drunken episodes involving Jackson on overseas trips, according to a source familiar.

Those two paragraphs highlight three major problems with the military, two of which make Jackson supremely unqualified to run the VA. Because there is always a victim, the 1st problem is sexual harassment and assault. Decades of efforts to curb this have mostly failed, and Jackson is a prime example why. When junior officers see (and hear about) a Rear Admiral pulling this crap, they know the good old boy's club is still alive and well. This makes the problem "perpetual," meaning it will likely never stop, unless drastic measures are taken. The 2nd problem is substance abuse in the ranks. This is another problem that is not new, but seventeen years of sustained hostilities in Afghanistan and Iraq have supercharged it, and the vast majority of the record-breaking number of veteran suicides can be chalked up in the substance abuse column. The last thing we need is an alcoholic at the helm of the VA. The last problem exposed above is the military's inability to police its own ranks, once officers have achieved Field Grade level. Jackson should have been cashiered years ago, but he's still partying on. Now that my critique of the military is done, let's look at the dysfunctional White House:

And what can only be described as a blatant cover-up of said behavior:

The first incident happened ten years ago when Representative David Almond (R-Stanly) allegedly exposed himself to his legislative assistant – and then masturbated on an office chair. The legislative assistant reportedly filed a complaint, and legislators dealt with the situation swiftly.

"The chair we put away. There was semen on the chair. We went to the individual and dealt with the situation," said House Representative Julia Howard (R-Forsyth), who was on the Legislative Ethics Committee at that time. "We put a fine line in the sand and addressed it. That’s the end of your story."

Uh, no. The lack of exposure this incident received because you and others decided that "story" should not be told at the time is a story in itself. And it's a good bet at least part of that story is the desire not to impugn a Republican when they were counting on capitalizing on the imprisonment of Democrat Jim Black:

Extremist demagoguery is always counterproductive:

The simplest and best way to reduce abortions is to avoid unwanted pregnancies. The best way to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is through sound family planning, access to contraceptives and good affordable health care for women. It is not complicated and shouldn’t be controversial.

But it is, largely because one of the best providers of these services and information to help women avoid unwanted pregnancies happens to be an organization that also offers legal abortion services to women – Planned Parenthood.

If this was merely an anti-abortion debate, Republicans would be tripping over themselves creating clinics that offered affordable health care for women, supplied various contraceptive methods, and rendered first-class prenatal and neonatal treatment to ensure healthy babies. The fact they don't speaks volumes about their true motivations, which is to perpetuate an outdated patriarchy in which women are merely vessels for procreation, and should be totally reliant on a husband to provide the things she needs. If a third party (the government) were to provide these things, the importance of that husband fades, and with him the entire social construct fades. And that construct is so important to these men that putting lives at risk is a small price to pay to strengthen their primacy: