Sadly, I must defend Donald Trump’s comments on Megyn Kelly. Trust me, this hurts me more than it does you. Basically, The Donald felt that he was treated unfairly by Kelly, and his step over the line was to intimate that she had her period. Thus, the misogynistic idea that monthly flow makes women stupid, confused, angry and all the rest of the lies that men have used against women over the years.

It used to be that it was a thing. That the fact that women bled regularly and men didn’t meant they could be treated differently in business environments. As in: don’t hire women because they’ll get pregnant and leave. Mothers miss time from work for their kids. Etc.

BUT let’s compare his ACTIONS toward women compared to the rest of the Republican field, and to the Republican platform. When you do, you’ll see that if actions speak louder than words, The Donald comes off better than all the rest of them. Sad but true.

The Trump organization employs, in total, over 20,000 people. They are employed by a number of smaller businesses, but the most recent aggregate number is 22,000. And if you look on the sites for the businesses, you’ll see that they’re equal opportunity employees, and they provide health insurance, including birth control. The wages are the same as other comparable businesses, so for example, his casinos (before they crashed and burned) paid the same, and had the same benefits as other casinos. Because all businessmen and women know that to attract top talent, you must be competitive.

Pro-life? Pro-Choice? I don’t think The Donald really knows where he stands on that – he may, like many people, dislike abortion, but he certainly knows that Roe v Wade is the law of the land. You don’t hear him railing that his companies will not provide birth control due to his religious beliefs. So let’s compare.

Jeb Bush? Against abortion except in the cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. Led the Florida charge for “Choose Life” license plates. Tortured Terri Schiavo.

Marco Rubio? Against abortion in ALL cases (even to save the life of the mother) and for birth control exemptions.

I could go on, but the bottom line is that the rest of the field wants to defund Planned Parenthood (and shut down the Federal government if that doesn’t happen), doesn’t care if women die trying to carry a fetus to term, are opposed to birth control (and that IS why you shut Planned Parenthood, anything else is a red herring lie), oppose the kind of STEM learning that help girls growing up to be able to be gainfully employed in a changing global environment, and believe that women should be subservient to their husbands.

So he said a bad thing. Something he might even believe (it’s hard to tell because with The Donald a lot of truths are moving targets) – but he has never actively worked to make working lives of women worse. He employs women, minorities, gays, lesbians, etc. – as a business person he cares more about the production and value of an employee than anything else. Quite a contrast to the rest of the field that works actively to keep women down in all regards.

I’m not saying that Trump is “good” on women. For candidates with good positions, one must look exclusively to Democrats. Just saying that the Republican establishment is going after him because of words not actions, and ignores the true damage their party an its candidates cause many women on a daily basis.