As of last week, former Arkansas governor and current Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. His ascent is the result of an aggregation of multiple factors — the decline of Chris Christie’s viability, a weak Republican bench and, perhaps most significantly, a speech that Governor Huckabee made at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting.

REPUBLICANS LOSING THE "WAR ON WOMEN" 

In this speech, Huckabee referenced the “War on Women,” the wildly effective attack that Democrats have been leveling against Republicans in the last two election cycles. Huckabee claimed, in front of an enthusiastic crowd, that Democrats are convincing the women of this country that they need what he called “Uncle Sugar” to pay for their birth control.

Why would women need birth control? According to Huckabee, it is because American women “cannot control their libidos or reproductive system without the help of the government.” His comments hearkened me back to when Rush Limbaugh called a pro-birth control law student a slut who only wanted birth control so that she could have more sex. Limbaugh and Huckabee are two stars of the conservative movement and are perfect examples of why Republicans are losing the war on women.

Here’s my issue: Mike Huckabee is not a lone voice. He is not some kook on the fringes. He is a very popular commentator on the nation’s most popular cable news network. These comments, instead of damaging his image within his party, have catapulted him to the forefront of his competitors. Until three weeks ago, I didn’t even realize Huckabee was a presidential hopeful — now he’s the frontrunner.

WOMEN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 

Women use birth control in loving, committed marriage relationships. Many women, sexually active or not, use birth control to regulate menstrual cycles, lower their risk of ovarian cancer and augment their iron intake, not so that they can satisfy their radical and wild sex urges without constraint.

Women make up half the population of this country. They are entering the workforce in greater and greater numbers. They are becoming more educated, higher paid and more politically active. The 2012 elections saw more women elected to the Senate than ever before, 80 percent of whom were Democrats. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is a woman, the current Democratic president has nominated two women to the Supreme Court and women voted for Barack Obama by 10 percent more than they voted for Mitt Romney. If that margin had been even half as close to an even split, Romney would have won the election.

This trend will not reverse. It will continue until Republicans stop supporting, nominating and voting for old white men who believe that birth control only exists so that so-called “sluts” can have more sex. Until they pull their thinking out of the 19th century, they will keep losing elections, and they’ll deserve it.