Virtually everything said and done in a presidential election year distorts the truth much like concave and convex mirrors in a carnival attraction alter ones true reflection.
That kind of distortion occurred in the recent dustup over whether women who choose to stay at home can completely understand the economic challenges and personal struggles faced by women who choose or need to work outside the home while raising children.
There is no question that professional women receive much more societal validation than stay-at-home moms. Few magazine covers at the checkout line or full-page ads promoting events and awards to successful women laud mothers who stay home to raise their children. There arent a lot of television shows today like Ozzie and Harriett Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best.
The view expressed by Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen that Mitt Romneys wife Ann has never worked a day in her life and thus cant relate to struggling families is bogus. Can a politician who has never held a job in the private sector relate to those who work there or are searching for a job there? Im thinking of the former community organizer now president Barack Obama. Can a career politician like Vice President Joe Biden identify with someone who doesnt have the perks -- planes limousines high pay and discounted or free health care -- he has enjoyed for most of his career?
Former Vice President Dan Quayles wife Marilyn who is an attorney said it best at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston: ...having a profession is not incompatible with being a good mother or a good wife. ... Womens lives are different from mens lives. We make different trade-offs. We make different sacrifices. And we get different rewards.
If a woman chooses to work at home (and arent politically liberal women supposed to support a womans career choice?) and if she feels adequately compensated shouldnt her choice be affirmed not only by her husband or partner if she has one but also by society?
Similarly if a woman wants to work or must work outside her home shouldnt she be equally supported by society and not made to feel added guilt and pressure? Reasonable people ought to be able to answer yes to both questions.
Still all of this is a distraction. Even if Ann Romney had chosen to work outside her home (and she did perform a great deal of volunteer work while battling breast cancer and multiple sclerosis) and even if she then could -- in Rosens mind -- relate to other women who made that same decision how would that make anyone elses life better? Would such a choice by Romney have improved the economy so that women who want to work outside the home but cant find jobs get one? Would it have allowed women to stay home if they were afforded that luxury?
This is what politics has become. Its about feelings and image not substance and ideas that work. Because of skyrocketing debt high unemployment and the failed policies they have promoted Democrats cling to feelings and focus on ones ability to relate. But its a fiction to believe that the only womens issues of importance are those promoted by the left.
Liberal women are attempting to dominate women who share a different political and moral worldview. Its all a house of mirrors; nothing more than a distortion of reality in an election year. Expect to see more of the same between now and November.
Cal Thomas is co-author (with Bob Beckel) of the book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America.
Virtually everything said and done in a presidential election year distorts the truth much like concave and convex mirrors in a carnival attraction alter ones true reflection.
That kind of distortion occurred in the recent dustup over whether women who choose to stay at home can completely understand the economic challenges and personal struggles faced by women who choose or need to work outside the home while raising children.
There is no question that professional women receive much more societal validation than stay-at-home moms. Few magazine covers at the checkout line or full-page ads promoting events and awards to successful women laud mothers who stay home to raise their children. There arent a lot of television shows today like Ozzie and Harriett Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best.
The view expressed by Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen that Mitt Romneys wife Ann has never worked a day in her life and thus cant relate to struggling families is bogus. Can a politician who has never held a job in the private sector relate to those who work there or are searching for a job there? Im thinking of the former community organizer now president Barack Obama. Can a career politician like Vice President Joe Biden identify with someone who doesnt have the perks -- planes limousines high pay and discounted or free health care -- he has enjoyed for most of his career?
Former Vice President Dan Quayles wife Marilyn who is an attorney said it best at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston: ...having a profession is not incompatible with being a good mother or a good wife. ... Womens lives are different from mens lives. We make different trade-offs. We make different sacrifices. And we get different rewards.
If a woman chooses to work at home (and arent politically liberal women supposed to support a womans career choice?) and if she feels adequately compensated shouldnt her choice be affirmed not only by her husband or partner if she has one but also by society?
Similarly if a woman wants to work or must work outside her home shouldnt she be equally supported by society and not made to feel added guilt and pressure? Reasonable people ought to be able to answer yes to both questions.
Still all of this is a distraction. Even if Ann Romney had chosen to work outside her home (and she did perform a great deal of volunteer work while battling breast cancer and multiple sclerosis) and even if she then could -- in Rosens mind -- relate to other women who made that same decision how would that make anyone elses life better? Would such a choice by Romney have improved the economy so that women who want to work outside the home but cant find jobs get one? Would it have allowed women to stay home if they were afforded that luxury?
This is what politics has become. Its about feelings and image not substance and ideas that work. Because of skyrocketing debt high unemployment and the failed policies they have promoted Democrats cling to feelings and focus on ones ability to relate. But its a fiction to believe that the only womens issues of importance are those promoted by the left.
Liberal women are attempting to dominate women who share a different political and moral worldview. Its all a house of mirrors; nothing more than a distortion of reality in an election year. Expect to see more of the same between now and November.
Cal Thomas is co-author (with Bob Beckel) of the book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America.
