On the Substance of Hilary Rosen’s Remarks About Ann Romney
April 13, 2012 2 Comments
I believe that the substance of Hilary Rosen’s “poorly chosen” remarks about Ann Romney — that Romney is unqualified to speak about the United States economy because she has never depended on a salary or had to worry about being fired — is actually a conservative rhetorical move. After all, it is the conservative movement which constantly harps on the importance of having worked in the private sector in order to work on public policy matters.
To deliberately misunderstand Rosen as attacking women who choose to stay at home to raise a family is, well, to deliberately misunderstand Rosen. That’s neither what she meant nor what she said.
The media jumps on this issue because it’s easy. They love it when the fight is personal, as it means that they don’t have to do any…what is it called? Oh yeah, they don’t have to do any thinking.
There is, however, some substance to this debate. I would love to see the outraged conservatives asked why they support continuing a conservative economic plan (higher budgets for the military and lower taxes on the wealthy) which has led to fewer women being able to choose to stay at home should they wish.
When talking about this brouhaha, Democrats should ask Republicans to put their economic plan where their supposed values are.
SEE ALSO
Under the Mountain Bunker: Enough with the Ann Romney hissy fit
Blackinformationhighway’s Blog: No Need to Apologize to Ann Romney
A Crowded Bookshelf: Hilary Rosen wasn’t wrong and Obama shouldn’t defend Mrs Romney
Robert’s Virtual Soapbox: Mrs. Mittens is NO feminist
About Matthew
A couple of comments on this. First Rosen’s choice to talk about this at all was a mistake and then she did not choose her words carefully. Women who work at home with 5 kids work hard. Second, The Rick Santorums of the Republican Party want women not to use contraception and so they will be only working at home.
Her statement that “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life” was the mistake because, as you point out, raising five kids at home is hard work. But Rosen is right that Ann Romney didn’t have to deal with the economic insecurity which faces so many women (and men) in this country. I agree with Rosen on what came after, that “She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing, in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.”