During Saturday night’s ABC debate, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio all responded affirmatively to a question, saying that women should have to register for the selective service. The next day, Ted Cruz—perhaps sensing he had a chance to seize this issue for himself—publicly disagreed.

Cruz, I think, shrewdly pounced on an opportunity to distinguish himself from the pack. And, in a very real sense, it was Cruz who chose the conservative position.

Presumably, most traditional conservatives believe that women should not serve in combat roles—and most believe they certainly should not be drafted (not to conflate registering with the selective service with the draft; we do not currently have a draft).

So why did Rubio, Bush, and Christie say what they said? It’s impossible to know for sure (maybe they really don’t think there’s any difference between the sexes?), but I have a theory that goes like this:

If feminists want to insist that there’s no difference between men and women—that women can serve in combat roles—then it’s only fair that they should also be eligible for the draft. In other words, America, this is what you asked for. You want equality? Well THIS is full equality. Good luck with that!

What I have just described is a sort of spiteful rhetoric that is more and more common these days. My guess is that Rubio, Bush, and Christie had this in the back of their minds when they stated their positions. In their heart of hearts, they probably don’t really want women to have to register. They were just tapping into the conservative zeitgeist.

In a sense, this is exactly what Mitt Romney was doing when he talked about the 47 percent. It’s one of the ways that having an angry base to appease can sometimes lead candidates to adopt unpopular political positions that they don’t actually believe in.