Politics & Current Events
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Everyone works. Not everyone has a job.
Are there really people who don't understand this? Apparently so. Ann Romney has done lots and lots of work. She has never held a job.
Re: Everyone works. Not everyone has a job.
But the quote is that she never WORKED a day in her life, not that she never had a job.
I promise being home with DD is WORK. I love it and wouldn't change a thing but I work harder being at home then I did at my desk job prior to having her.
Romney himself certainly thinks experience with something matters. He touts his experience with business, and Obama's lack thereof, as one of the reasons why he should be in charge.
Right?? I'm not even sure this is an issue. I guarantee you the only thing I have in common with most presidential candidates is that I'm human. I think it's beyond stupid that we have worked out a system where only the wealthy/well off can afford to run for president or get the credentials that would make them a decent candidate and then spend all of our time handwringing over whether someone with the very background they need can relate to us on a personal and independent level.
At this point, I'd vote for a fuuking space alien if it had a decent economic plan.
Also that viewpoint ignores the role of congress in the running of this country.
Click me, click me!
Well then, I guess that means that most politicians can't comment/vote on anything that pertains to women.
This is just so dumb...and a non-issue.
I couldn't care if the president was like me (hint, they never are so...)
But I do think it's weird, and probably not helping him AT ALL, that Romney keeps responding to questions about women's issues by deferring to what his wife would say.
Like everyone has said, you don't need to have done something to make decisions about it. So he doesn't need to acquire a vagina in order to speak with authority on his own opinions and proposed policies as they would impact women and mothers. In doing so he looks like he's avoiding the question, and also makes it appear that he believes women care more about his non-candidate wife's opinions than his own simply because she has the same plumbing. That doesn't create a very favorable image of his thoughts on women, which is exactly what he is trying to avoid!
I don't know. Even though many of us feel this way, I wonder whether he thinks many women think he can't speak on women issues....you know, especially in the War on Women climate.
It reminds me of the folks who said that Bush2 had a good idea of what womanhood was like because he had a wife and two daughters. Well, I've got a tree with some squirrels in my yard but that doesn't make me a park ranger.
To say that Ann Romney has never held a job would have been much more accurate. But I think it's understood that when most people are talking about "work", they're referring to paid employment.
I just really, really wish that Romney and Co. would stop trying to identify with the middle class. They can't. Period. Stop with the "my wife knows what working mothers deal with" because no, she doesn't. Stop with the "I know about NASCAR because my friends own teams." Just own the fact you have absolutely NO idea what it's like to be a middle class American, let alone a working class or poor American, and move forward.
I do think that's exactly why he thinks he is doing it, but it is backfiring spectacularly. There is a way to say "look I don't know exactly what it's like to be a woman and have to deal with some of the unique issues that women have" without deferring to your absent non-candidate wife, you know? It makes the issues seem inconsequential or beyond your comprehension. Neither of which is good.
I really don't think many women believe that men can't speak about women's issues. Radical feminists included. Even the most radical feminists still believe people with penises can be their allies.
I'm saying this mostly to sh!t stir (so feel free to ignore), but I'm sure she worked less with her 5 kids than someone who didn't have all that money would work. I know it's irrelevant, but before you go around saying how hard you worked, you'd better have your ass covered on full time nannies and what not.
FTR, I'm not saying she had one - I have no idea. Just something I think about when super rich women talk about the "work" they did raising their children when I know many of them have full time help and lots of time for hobbies. Just own that you were lucky to not have to work that hard - either inside or outside the home.
Agreed. In her adulthood, Michelle Obama - as an Ivy League-educated attorney - probably has not had to cut coupons and worry that her local public school was the only option available to her children. But she grew up in a family where both of those things were true.
Mx: I hear it all the time on here. If a man is for something they view as anti woman (like banning abortion) then the "a man shouldn't have a say on women's issues" rhetoric comes out. However, they don't say it when a man is pro-choice. Then his opinion is ok
And I say that as someone who is VERY pro choice.
Yup...and Romney is pro-life (well, at least now he is).
Well, I would differentiate between those 2 scenarios because one (anti-choice) is trying to alter a status quo (existence of choice), so many women are going to extend their claws.
Meh, I don't know that I find this argument very compelling (the "men can't have an opinion" argument), but I think I'll agree with it in this context, just because one side of the argument is saying the choice about women's bodies should be left up to women, and the other side is saying it should be left up to the government.
I think I'm liable to get behind a man saying that the choice of what to do with my own body should be left up to me a hell of a lot faster than getting behind a man who's saying that the choice as to what I can do with my own body should be left up to someone who is not me.
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
Oh I get it, just be consistent. Either men can have an opinion on women's issues or they can't. Here Romney is in hot water because he deferred to a woman but if he then came out with his opinion of women's issues, he'd be told by some on here that he shouldn't have an opinion because he is a man. Pick one! Either he should have an opinion or he shouldn't.
This is what I took away from it. It's not about work at all, it's about class and the Romneys not being able to identify with the issues that affect the majority of Americans.
Most people who run for president can't. Even the ones who grew up middle class, which is rare enough, have long since moved up. Yes, Romney is extreme, but we are kidding ourselves if we think there are many candidates who are in touch with the middle class or poor anymore. They aren't. Heck, most aren't even in touch with the average wealthy American lol. Most politicians, whether they are in DC or not, live in a political bubble and cannot relate one bit with the average American of any social class.
Its a problem.
Stupid autocorrect. Adam = DC
Men and women can work. Men can't have babies. I think the two are pretty different.
Also, I think it's ridiculous that Mitt thinks Ann can better relate to me bc we both have the same bits. I relate to her about the same as I relate to him, which is not at all.
But you can relate to a female who has never been pregnant in regards to baby issues more than a man simply because they are theoretically capable? What about someone with IF issues?
This argument is idiotic.
If a man is pro-choice, it's ok b/c to me his idea is 'hands off'. I personally don't believe anyone, especially a man, should have any baring on a woman's decisions in this realm.
I can relate to women who can't or don't have kids b/c as women our experiences are more then just what our reproductive organs do.
Umm, yeah no. I can relate far better with men who have children than my female friends who do not (with respect to babies and parenting obviously). My childless friends say some stupidassshit re: parenting. When looking at the economy we all tend to have similar issues - will I be able to provide money for my family? Will I be able to get/keep a job? What happens if everything goes down the shitter again? The belief that men have different concerns about the economy is sexist bullshit and just shows that he is out of touch with most people and was trying to deflect the question.
Howzabout this:
Gee Ann, you could afford to have as many kids as you wanted. I can't afford one. Even if I could, I couldn't afford to be a SAHM. I relate to your parenting zero much, and that's as much as I think you relate to my reproductive/economic choices. And your husband? Quite frankly, he isn't even speaking the language we're using in this conversation right here. So no. He doesn't get a say. Nor do his political cronies.