I'm the son of a single parent, specifically a single father. So, it was with considerable annoyance that I heard Ann Romney, a woman who has never, a single day in her life, ever been less than considerably affluent, make a speech that included this little gem:
"It's how it is, isn't it? It's the moms who have always had to work a little harder to make everything right."
This bothers me for three reasons. First of all, I've weighed in before, at length, about how a single income family isn't remotely viable. But pretending you understand the difficulties of that when you don't is offensive and condescending. I'd respect you if you, say, worked with single parents, or donated to groups that support them. But you don't.
Secondly, thanks for discounting my dad, rich lady. Yeah, he didn't have to work hard at all. It was easy! Parenting is automatically much easier when you have a penis! There's no difficulty whatsoever!
Thirdly, don't pretend you're like most of America's parents, lady. I know single moms, single dads, married couples, gay couples, and they all love their children, but they also work constantly and deal with relationship trouble. They worry about money. They have to sacrifice and make compromises.
And really, that's what sticks in my craw the most, Mrs. Romney. I'm not saying being a parent is easy for anybody, even the excessively affluent. But spare me the pretending that you're just like the rest of us. You're not. You never have been. You never will be.
And lying to our faces about it is just offensive. So spare me the lies. You really want me to pay attention to you? Try being honest.
I watched a bit of him on the news... he seemed creepy and fake. I'm a single mom and I agree with you. it's insulting when people pretend to understand the difficulties.
Ann Romney was trying to counter the attempts to strip women of their rights that he husband and his running mate are threatening, and which their party has already done in dozens of states. But in doing so she offended 1) all childless women, as if we don't exist, 2) men, and 3) everybody who has ever had to work a day in their life.
But in the end it all doesn't matter, because people will believe what they want to believe. Anybody who *wants* to vote Republicans will hear her speech and think it is fantastic and that she truly understands Americans. Anybody who doesn't want to vote Republican will see holes in it. And anybody who doesn't feel motivated one way or the other will continue to be disenchanted with our pathetic two party system.
*her husband, not he husband
AAAAAAMEN, brother. AMEN.
I don't want to add to the tedious debate, believe me, I try to avoid the preachings of my militant right winged friends on facebook, but I will just say this:
The RNC (and DNC for that matter) is less of a platform intro, and more of a PR/Ratings showdown to see by what gymnastics each party can entice fence-sitters to see things their way.
Mitt tried to be charming and passionate...but PAUL RYAN LIED FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END OF HIS SPEECH. There is no amount of Obama-dissing that can distract from that truth.
He purposely mis-stated that The GM plant closed due to Obama's direction when first in office. NOPE. It closed in 2008 under GWB.
The deficit is "billions" more than when Obama started 4 years ago.
Uh, no. Obama didn't sink us "billions" into more debt, he included the WAR debt (initiated, led and continued by GWB for the 8 years prior) into our total, which the former Pres did NOT include.
If you want to watch and believe the 2016 Obama movie, become enamored with the spin of the Romney/Ryan speeches, then please visit the website www factcheck (dot) com. It's a non-partisan, non-profit, easy to navigate, focused site which breaks down the facts (on both sides) of politics for we, the public.
Thanks Dan for saying what I would have liked to.
preach it sister. and to you too Dan! i'm Canadian and "technically" bipartisan and I saw the same things. the deception, the lies, all of it. even when Romney and Ryan are photographed they are squinting through their smiles. you can't trust them. i got so tired of the "we love women hear us roar" mantra they tried to spew, like Dan said, it was offensive, because they have no idea what women in America really need right now. The thought of the Romneys in the Oval Office terrifies me, because what happens in America, trickles over to my country. I am so tired of hearing the word "jobs" from their mouths to every single question. like the issues on health care, contraception, IVF, etc. the answers to those issues are not "jobs"!! ugh. i am so tired of them. i have sort of reached a point where anybody but them would be better in the White House.
I believe Ann Romney deserves more credit. A man my mom works with was once a high powered executive with Men's Warehouse. He was never home but his family was very, very wealthy. He told a story once of how he called home after having been traveling for business for several months and his seven-year old son asked to see a picture while he spoke to his father so he could remember what he looked like. He credits this as the breaking point. Two months later he had quit his job and taken up a career as a middle school science teacher along with sustaining a substantial pay cut. He moved his family out of their home they could no longer afford and started a new life. He says that his life is much happier despite the lack of money (going from the income of an executive to that of a middle school science teacher is quite dramatic) and that he wouldn't ever go back. So I think that Ann Romney has just had challenges that many people do not understand because they see her only as a wealthy snob. Money isn't everything.
Her challenges that we can't understand don't really matter. After all, we're not electing her and her family into the white house to make things better for the Romneys. We're doing it to make things better for us.