Don't Be Distracted by Faux Stay-at-Home "Momney" Issue

One thing the Republicans have made very clear this election season is that as much as they fear and hate President Obama, they fear the reality of actual issues even more. At a time when every American puts job creation at the top of their list of things for Congress to do, the Republicans hold hearings on denying access to birth control to 150,000,000 women. At a time when the President has ended one wasted war and is winding down another, they attack him for not having a parade. As the Republicans have divided this nation worse than at any time since the Civil War (another example of conservatives willing to destroy the nation entirely rather than give up their extremist obsessions), they ignore the President's repeated calls for civility and instead try to defend a racist murderer and demonize an innocent seventeen year old whose only crime, apparently, was being black. And now we come to the "mommy" issue. It's true that Hilary Rosen made a poor choice of words in saying that Ann Romney had never worked a day in her life, but in context (yet another thing the Republicans fear) she was absolutely right about how hypocritical it is for people like the Romneys to even pretend they have a clue as to what the average American has to go through just to keep their family safe and fed. While the Republicans try to demonize the most needy among us as "people who just sit at home waiting for the check to come in the mail" they ignore the fact that that's pretty much a precise definition of Ann Romney's life. She hasn't worked a day in her life outside her own home. She has never had to stretch a paycheck so her family could eat. She has had servants to pick up the dirty socks, gardeners to pull the weeds, and chauffeurs to take her to the beauty salon. And these are the people with the gall to say that a single mother earning minimum wage are the freeloaders.

Article excerpt follows:

Don't Be Distracted by Faux Stay-at-Home "Momney" Issue
By: Leah L Burton
April 15, 2012

"Moms Do Work"…this is the newly created bumper sticker phrase manufactured by the Mitt Romney campaign on the heels of comments that flew back and forth this past week over an irresponsibly careless remark by a democratic strategist. (It also eerily reminds me of one of Bush, Jr.s infamous remarks, "Childrens do learn"). A virtual explosion of faux outrage ignited, asserting that all Democrats/Liberals view momhood as inconsequential and effortless.

The comment was an adrenalin-filled remark directed specifically at Ann Romney as a wealthy stay-at-home mom who couldn't possibly identify with the economic struggles of working moms in America. Predictably, the Romney campaign made an election year "mountain out of a mole-hill" and turned this golden opportunity into a slogan that absurdly insinuates that democrats/liberals and the Obama administration are overwhelmingly anti-stay-at-home moms.

Obviously this is patently ridiculous, but reality has little place in politics. Both republicans and democrats value the responsibility and work that it takes to raise children, albeit on a different basis in many cases. Motherhood is a full-time job that is never compensated adequately – and that is assuming that an hourly pay scale actually existed for the job.

Many, many women across America do not have a choice to stay home due to lack of necessary income. Most women must go out into the workforce to provide for their families whether as the sole contributor or as additional income in a two-parent household. That reality is fact for most.

And then there are those women who are career oriented and carefully balance dual roles as mother and professional. This is an option that is exercised with great success and satisfaction by many women, including former First Lady and current Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. Much ado was made 20 years ago when she was lambasted by the conservative right in 1992 after making this statement…

"I could have stayed at home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession". ~ Hilary Clinton March 1992

For Clinton, her remarks were made from the perspective of lifestyles that she was familiar with. Women from every spectrum have unique takes on motherhood. This isn't about Ann Romney making the choice to stay at home and raise her children. Her decision was made with any number of reasons in mind including her role as a Mormon mother and spouse, and her good fortune to be able to financially afford to do so. It is about a struggling economy making that very choice unattainable for the majority of women in America.

But this is all a distraction that gave the Romney campaign a golden opportunity to invent faux indignation against the liberals for discriminating against stay-at-home moms. After the bumper stickers and mugs are sold and the dust settles back down, the elephant in the room for the conservatives is still going to be standing there. The very real War on Women.