(Ed. note: After writing this and giving it some thought, I was struck by how monumentally silly what some are calling “HillaryRosengate” truly is. ‘Tis much sound and fury that ultimately signifies nothing. Still, I put in the time and effort to write this, and I stand by it…so I might as well put it out there, right? Enjoy the rich, creamy goodness….)
MY NEW HERO
Hilary Rosen
Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen stirred controversy Wednesday evening when she criticized Ann Romney for having “never worked a day in her life.”…. Rosen said she agreed with Mitt Romney’s claim that women care more about economic issues than reproductive rights. But Romney’s use of his wife Ann’s perspective shows how poorly the former Massachusetts governor connects with voters…. “Guess what?” Rosen said. “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing.”…. “There’s something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney. He seems so old-fashioned when it comes to women, and I think that comes across, and I think that that’s going to hurt him over the long term. He just doesn’t really see us as equal.”
Let’s just start with a simple argument, shall we? No one, despite Conservative efforts to twist Rosen’s words into something unrecognizable, is putting forth the canard that raising children isn’t hard work. For Conservatives and Romney apologists to attempt to make this about the definition of “work” is the worst sort of dissembling and propagandizing.
Raising children is hard work; just ask any parent…and I suspect that most of those trying to smear Hilary Rosen are parents. That’s what makes their efforts so reprehensible.
Leave it to the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue (your Christians are so unlike your Christ) to interject his hateful, un-Christian effort to add to the Right’s anti-Rosen propaganda storm:
@CatholicLeague: Lesbian Dem Hilary Rosen tells Ann Romney she never worked a day in her life. Unlike Rosen, who had to adopt kids, Ann raised 5 of her own.
Ergo, Ann Romney’s family is more valid and worthy than Rosen’s. This is what the Right does when you endeavor to focus on the truth…and the truth is that Hilary Rosen is absolutely, 100% correct.
Even if she could perhaps have stated her case a bit more artfully.
No one will deny that raising five children is hard. I’ve never done it, nor had any desire to do it, in part because it IS so difficult…but that’s not Rosen’s argument. Ann Romney may have raised five children, and bless her heart for it. That said, she never had to struggle as so many mothers have, juggling career and family, trying to make ends meet, and being there for her children no matter how exhausted and overextended she might have been. Ann Romney had resources few mothers have at their disposal- virtually unlimited income, nannies, and other services out of the reach of most American mothers. For Romney to paint herself as having been just another struggling mother is as dishonest as it is disingenuous.
Raising children is not “work” as Rosen defined it- and, rightly or wrongly, the federal government agrees. The Congressional Research Service uses 12 criteria to define “work,” and raising children is on the list. We can get lost in debating the correctness or incorrectness of this definition, but this has nothing to do with Rosen’s argument.
Rosen’s argument is that most women must work outside the home IN ADDITION to raising children. For most American families to make ends meet, there’s simply no other option. For Ann Romney to act as if she not only understands but has lived this struggle is a lie on par with any prevarication her husband has employed.
Recognizing that their candidate is trailing badly among female voters, the Romney campaign has tasked Ann Romney with debunking the argument that her husband is anti-woman and that the GOP is waging war on women.
“My career choice was to be a mother, and I think all of us need to know that we need to respect the choices women make,” said Ann Romney to Fox News.
“And by the way, let me give a shout-out to all the dads that are at home raising kids,” she added.
Here’s the thing about Mrs. Romney’s fallacious argument: Americans DO respect the choices women make. Those choices are often made in concert with the men in their lives. Ann Romney has no clue what the vast majority of women have to do in order to keep their family together and functioning. We DO respect the choices that women make. The simple truth is that the GOP doesn’t respect women…though they’re willing to propagandize the American Sheeple into believing otherwise.
The problems is that Republicans like Mrs. Romney’s husband respect neither women nor the choices they make. When the head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus uses caterpillars to buttress his argument that there’s no Republican war on women, it should be crystal clear that war is exactly what’s happening.
Methinks perhaps Mrs. Romney doth protest excessively. Her husband is fully and obviously possessed of a patrician male’s dismissive view of women, and outside of raising her five children, she’s never worked a day in her life. For her to stand up for women and defend Republicans is the height of absurdity and dishonesty. It would seem that dishonesty is a Romney family trait.
