April 13, 2012

Thank You, Ms. Rosen

Though everyone is talking about Democratic strategist and Obama confidant Hilary Rosen’s insolent remarks about Ann Romney, I want to discuss them, too, because they reveal her leftist mindset.

Rosen didn’t misspeak; she spoke deliberately and with passion. And when given a chance to retract or soften her remarks, she doubled down – at least initially.

Her comments came in a segment on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Cooper pointed out that in the current economy, “women are seeing jobs come back much more slowly than men are,” and he asked Rosen, essentially, whether there was anything wrong with the Romney campaign’s highlighting that fact and “reaching out to women on an issue that they care about, on the economy.”

Though everyone is talking about Democratic strategist and Obama confidant Hilary Rosen’s insolent remarks about Ann Romney, I want to discuss them, too, because they reveal her leftist mindset.

Rosen didn’t misspeak; she spoke deliberately and with passion. And when given a chance to retract or soften her remarks, she doubled down – at least initially.

Her comments came in a segment on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Cooper pointed out that in the current economy, “women are seeing jobs come back much more slowly than men are,” and he asked Rosen, essentially, whether there was anything wrong with the Romney campaign’s highlighting that fact and “reaching out to women on an issue that they care about, on the economy.”

“Guess what?” asked Rosen. “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 in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school and why we worry about their future.”

Though Rosen’s next comment hasn’t received as much attention, it exposes liberal thinking. She said: “There’s something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney, because he seems so old-fashioned when it comes to women. And I think that comes across. … He just doesn’t really see us as equal.”

Ann Romney responded in her newly launched Twitter account, “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”

Back on CNN the next day, Rosen protested that she loves stay-at-home moms. “This is not about Ann Romney,” she said. “This is about the waitress in a diner someplace in Nevada who has two kids whose day care funding is being cut off because of the Romney-Ryan budget and she doesn’t know what to do.”

Rosen’s remarks, taken together, tell us that like many of today’s leftists, she sees America not as a melting pot, but as a Balkanized land of categorized groups, warring against one another. She sees people as blacks, women or gays, not as individuals.

From Rosen’s leftist perspective, Republicans don’t care about these groups but consider them inferior; “he just doesn’t really see us as equal.”

As usual with leftists, she’s projecting. Who’s not seeing women as equals, Ms. Rosen? Deny it as you now must, but you are the one dissing stay-at-home moms, diminishing their role and its worth and dignity, and implying they are somehow inferior.

That’s not the way conservative women see it; they respect women whether they stay at home or work. As Ann Romney told Martha MacCallum on Fox News Channel: “My career choice was to be a mother. … We need to respect choices that women make.” She said that Mitt had always told her that her job was more important because it would make a permanent difference.

But we must understand that Rosen’s comments also transcend her opinion of stay-at-home moms. She’s articulating the narrow, intolerant leftist view that if you are a member of a particular group, you must adopt the attitudes of the left, or you won’t measure up. If you are black, a woman or gay and don’t subscribe to liberalism and embrace its hostile identity politics, you are not an authentic black person, woman or gay person. If you are a pro-life woman, you can’t fully identify with real women.

Rosen’s view that the “Romney-Ryan” budget victimizes waitresses further displays the left’s habit of seeing everything through the prism of identity politics. Like President Obama, she places people in economic classes, too – the haves and the have-nots – and the only solution they offer the “have-nots” is government assistance, not the hope of advancement through greater opportunity.

Ann Romney served up a delicious smack-down on this argument, as well, saying that she’s been on the campaign trail for a year and what women are talking about are “jobs and … the legacy of debt that we’re leaving our children.” She gave no quarter to Rosen’s implication that the Romneys’ wealth makes them insensitive to the less fortunate – again mouthing the noxious view that unless you’re part of a group, you can’t relate to that group. “Mitt and I have compassion for people that are struggling, and that’s why we’re running.”

Sorry to break it to Ms. Rosen, but the question isn’t whether a president is poor – none of them is; Obama’s not – but whether he would implement pro-growth and anti-debt policies.

Truth be told, conservatives, generally speaking, have more compassion than those leftists who relegate people to dehumanizing groups. Compassion is a very human phenomenon, not sterile political advocacy ostensibly on behalf of categories of people ripe for political exploitation.

The left’s manufactured GOP “war on women” is backfiring. Thank you, Hilary Rosen, and thank you, Ann Romney.

COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.