My political colleague Matt Lewis offers a few reasons in the Daily Caller why Rosengate is an ultimate loser for the GOP:
The flap over Hillary Rosen’s comments disparaging stay-at-home-moms like Ann Romney has gotten a lot of play. I’ve been on the record (okay, on Twitter) mocking the feigned Republican outrage. Something about it just didn’t sit well with me.
This, of course, puts me at odds with the Republican “team” who sees this as a huge win (it is) for their side. It may be smart politics, but it’s still damned depressing. It took me a while to figure out my visceral disgust at this issue. It turns out, there are a lot of things to hate.
…and it didn’t take me very long to figure out why Lewis’ disgust was ill-placed. Here’s 7 reasons why Rosengate was, frankly, awesome.
1. Motherhood just got a little pride back. Is there anyone else here sick and tired of hearing that the only real women in America are the ones who can juggle it all? Why are those who choose not to be this androgynous, liberated person somehow deemed as being less? Why aren’t mothers and fathers deemed as being something — not more — but just different than what the liberals would care to impose upon others? Why are parents less, and working DNC hacks more?
2. It damn well is identity politics. Let’s face it, Democrats have been trashing motherhood and stay-at-home mothers for the last 40 years. It’s about time women reclaimed a little bit of pride against the feminist left, eh?
3. The mirage of a divide between talking heads and the MSM is finally being torn down. Plausible deniability ain’t enough, folks. Rosen is a DNC operative, active with the Human Rights Campaign, with a vested interest in defining real women as those with careers and as few children as possible (or as many adopted ones, if you’re a homosexual couple trying to redefine marriage). Either way… the insinuation that Ann Romney was living up to less of her vocation because she chose to be a mother? Outrageous in the extreme.
4. It clearly drew the lines about what leftists expect of women. Spanish Inquisition, thy home is with the Democratic Party now.
5. The boorishness of Rosen’s statement cut across party lines. Democrats and Republicans have stay-at-home moms. So I’m curious… are real women those who sacrifice family for career? Or are all those working mothers with families who make the conscious decision to stay home with their children to give them the best education and childhood possible as selfish as Rosen makes them out to be?
6. The outrage is real. Mrs. Kenney (UVA educated, mind you) was not pleased to hear that Democrats believe that as a homeschooling mother, she was living in the lap of luxury, I assure you. She’s not the only stay-at-home mother who has all the credentials to run circles around Rosen — and does so everyday — who chose a better career than being a Beltway hack.
7. It strikes at the very heart of the Democratic “war on women” talking point. No longer do Republicans have to tolerate this fantasy concept that only the Democrats support women. This is as false as claiming the Republican Party — you know, the party that ended slavery? ended Jim Crow? reformed welfare? — is no home for minorities. The overseers with the DNC and DPVA would rather women know their role… and they’re going to make damn sure it’s not at home raising kids (after all, isn’t that what government is for?) and choosing to somehow live beneath their potential… which is the effective point Rosen was trying to make against Ann Romney.
