The War on Women

Old Begger to Clouseau: "I'm a musician and my monkey is a businessman. He doesn't tell me what to play, and I don't tell him what to do with his money."*

Apparently, the so-called "Republican War on Women" has created a seige mentality among some on the left. A great many seem on razor's edge, ready to question the motives of a women expressing anything other than orthodox liberal views. Then, the floodgates of intolerant sexism open wide.

Take, for example, former CNN and NBC anchor Campbell Brown's op ed in the New York Times. She makes some valid points, expressing dismay at the condescending attitude President Obama inclines toward about women. She offers an analysis about importance of a strong economy to women, and deems matters of contraception (and who pays for it) remarkably secondary. She discloses that her husband is a Romney advisor, but asserts that she is an "independent journalist." She ends by supporting Obama in part, disagreeing in part. I found her essay to be remarkably balanced and even-keeled. I was, apparently, alone.

One need only read the vitriol that followed in the comments section to truly get a feel for how far away from her "script" she had strayed. The most understandable (many seemed of the "Jane, you ignorant slut" variety) called her, variously, a "typical Republican wife," "lower than the lowliest dogs" (I'm paraphrasing) and invited her to take her children and divorce her husband as a way to bolster her credibility.

Really?

I was reminded recently by a good friend that liberals are an inclusive political movement, whereas Republicans shun all manner of disagreement with the party, that is the most conservative, line. I offer the comment's section of Ms. Brown's essay as Republican's exhibit one as a case where my friend's thesis is...weak.

I don't know about anyone else's relationships, but I know my own. One would have to hold a gun to my wife's head to get her to write an essay parroting my point of view if she did not share it (we do not often agree politically). In a very real sense, She is the musician and I am the businessman. I would never tell her what songs to play.

Neither of us would have it any other way.

*The Return of the Pink Panther, 1975.