Although Republican women in office bear this burden along with the men, here I want to address the men. By endorsing a man like Trump, these men have elevated a man who has a history of assaulting women’s dignity.

For years these men have deflected the accusations hurled by progressives that “Republican and conservative men are misogynist, chauvinist pigs.” For years they have claimed they were not anti-woman. For years they touted their pro-life position. For years they claimed it was progressives who were the ones waging war on women. For years they told us they were for women. They said they were the compassionate ones fighting for the good of women, and children.

And we conservative women believed them. Across America we supported Republican men and conservative leaders, not only in the ballot box, but in conversations, articles, blog posts, and all across the public square. We have catechized our children in citizenship, teaching them our nation’s founding principles. We have kept our respective faiths and trained our children to love and serve God. We stood bravely against our dehumanizing culture. We have supported Republican and conservative men through mistakes, weakness, and failures.

When progressives accuse Republicans of being the party that harbors misogynists, rapists, and chauvinist braggarts, conservative women go to bat against these false accusations. We’ve had to put up with taunts that we’ve been brainwashed by the patriarchy. By “elevat[ing] to the first place in the government one of the worst men in the community” (as Alexander Hamilton warned against Aaron Burr) Republican and conservative evangelical leaders have made liars out of themselves.