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Outrage Pimps

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  April 13th, 2012 at 10:12 AM  | 

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I am not sufficiently outraged about all the comments this week about stay at home moms.

I’m sorry I refuse to be your outrage pimp on this issue. I won’t deny you your outrage. I recognize much of it is legitimate.

But I want the Democrats and the left to say what they truly believe about stay at home moms. I don’t want to be so outraged that the pushback is so great that they are silent.

I disagree with the comments, but I am not outraged by them.

I want the American people to hear their comments. I know the American people, like me, disagree with the Democrats’ view on stay at home moms. And I want them to go to the polls knowing what the Democrats truly believe.

But I’m not going to be an outrage pimp over their different world view. I’m not going to try to extent your outrage over their comments. Besides, it doesn’t work. We will exhaust ourselves trying to get the media to keep the focus on this particular outrage while they move on rapidly. The media is only willing to fixate on left-wing outrage.

It’s fine that you are outraged. But I’m not going to exhaust myself pimping outrage on all these statements about stay at home moms. We’ve $16 trillion in debt, the President’s economic policy is failing everyone, and Republicans seem too willing to cut deals instead of cutting spending. That’s what I’m outraged about and that’s where I think the focus should remain.

Everything else is just a distraction from jobs and the economy. And the Democrats would much prefer you focus everywhere. In the meantime, in all their rhetoric about how out of touch Republicans are, the Democrats keep making statements proving just how out of touch they really are.

I endorse Matt Lewis’s take on this whole mess.

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  • General_Confusion

    ?We?ve $16 trillion in debt, the President?s economic policy is failing everyone, and Republicans seem too willing to cut deals instead of cutting spending.?

    If we don?t cut spending and the debt the rest will be academic.

    Now if we can only get the GOP leadership to see the elephant in the room.

  • earlgrey

    I am not so much outraged as I am interested in pinning them down for who they are and of course the class warfare aspect.

    A large part of the motivation for what Rosen said was the tired class warfare aspect. I don’t think the Obama’s have a finger on the pulse of the trials and challenges of middle class families either (and Obama has shown that with such stupid comments as Michelle and I could not afford for her to stay home while he was pullling in north of 160,000).

    At the same time, I have not forgotten how many on the left criticized Palin for not staying home with her 5 kids including her special needs child, and also decided to mock her for the fact that the Republican party paid for her campaign wardrobe, a stark contrast to Mrs. Obama who did not need her wardrobe paid for by the DNC.

  • Jack_Savage

    According to Democrats, fertility is a serious medical condition that needs to be managed, its management needs to be subsidized by the government, and if management of the condition fails then the child should be disposed of at any time prior to birth by any means necessary.

    THIS is what we need to keep hammering home, and THIS is why they shouldn’t get an inch of room on this issue.

  • carolina

    The BEST way to pay down the national debt (and stop the annual deficit bleeding) is to grow the economy.
    Too much focus on austerity is a negative message.
    Economic growth will help everyone!
    BO has failed the American people.
    Stop giving the lamestream media excuses to talk about anything else.

  • carolina

    The BEST way to pay down the national debt (and stop the annual deficit bleeding) is to grow the economy.
    Too much focus on austerity is a negative message.
    Economic growth will help everyone!
    BO has failed the American people.
    Stop giving the lamestream media excuses to talk about anything else.

  • tecumsehtea

    I completely agree with you, Erick. Let the Dems speak for themselves, and let them keep talking and digging themselves a deeper hole while showing us all how they really think about women. Where I wish the media would focus their outrage is on all the outrageous lies of Obama and the leading Dems. Why don’t we hammer away at those issues? While America is talking about the importance of stay-at-home moms, North Korea is trying to send a rocket up and the State Dept. is mum about human rights violations in the world, but here everyone is abuzz about Ann Romney. No wonder America is such a mess.

  • veritaseequitas

    by the left. Everyone knows how hard it is to be a parent, a stay at home Mom or Dad, a single parent, etc., This is a non issue really, save the outrage, just use the issue to harass and harry Obama the enemy. You know, to make him and his ilk look totally stupid rather than evil.
    Save true and warranted outrage for the likes of the NBPP party, Mike “Addled Brain” Tyson, idiots like those in the Congressional Black Caucus, The Race Hustlers – Sharpton and Jackson, the inimitably useless Eric Holder and his sidekick Baracka Obama, and all the rest who think George Zimmerman should be executed for killing Trayvon Martin and are voicing those opinions publicly and stirring up racial hatred in the hopes of a race war. Those people should be prosecuted for hate speech and terroristic threats. Now THEY are an outrage.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I considered this entire thing to be an excellent one day rough-and-tumble corrective to a lot of stupid junk that the Democrats have been pushing about ‘wars on women;’ ‘fighting fire with fire’ is actually a perfectly valid strategy, as long as you don’t get overenthusiastic about it. Spending more than a day or two on this is probably being overenthusiastic about it.

    But one thing that I don’t think that Matt considered is how this situation must appear to the activist Left. After all, Rosen made the mistake of saying something that a lot of them secretly think – that women who stay at home to raise kids are not really women, and certainly not feminists – and the Democratic establishment reacted by brutally amputating and abandoning her. Loyalty is supposed to flow in two directions; and I think that demonstrating to the Left that they can’t rely on their betters for protection when things get hairy will pay us dividends in the long run.

  • Risky

    I went and counted the front page articles. Five other than this one are about this issue. One is on the Texas Senate Debate and one (the CoffeeAndMarkets Link) is on Tax and the Economy.

  • Jack_Savage

    And his tone is condescending and irritating. Let’s go over his points:

    1. It?s a victim mentality.

    Bullcrap. She said something that she believed, that was not true, and she got called on it. Not only that, but it reveals what the elitist left really thinks about women, children and families.

    2. It?s identity politics.

    No, it’s about stay- at – home Moms who give their lives and careers to properly nurture the future of our country, and how Democrats have ALWAYS minimized and scorned the traditional family. Do we need to get into the psychodramas of the families of the last two Democrat Presidents and how that was a resume’ enhancer instead of a disqualifier?

    3. Media ?surrogates? aren?t necessarily representative of anything.

    She’s not a media surrogate. She represents Democrats, gets paid money for it, and works with people like Mao-loving Anita Dunn to drum up fake controversies like the “war on contraception”. Now she is in a real controversy, and all of a sudden everyone wants to “move on”, including people on our side. Sorry. Nope.

    4. It?s pandering.

    “This was the ultimate pander. God help you if you say anything bad about moms. Moms must be venerated. All moms are terrific. Being a mom is the most important job in the world. (Also, all policemen and firefighters are heroes.)”

    That is where Lewis is simply an a-hole. Period.

    5. It?s the triumph of partisanship games.

    No, it’s an outward sign of a theme that runs through one of the two major political parties in this country. And we are supposed to pretend it never happened?

    6. It?s phony, feigned outrage.

    No, it really and truly irritates the hell out of a lot of people. See the excellent diary by Breanne Howe. Like I have said before, if this were not a perfect representation of a theme running through the Democrat party for decades I would agree with this. But women need men like a fish needs a bicycle, you can have children and a career too! and on-demand abortion really don’t argue for that, do they?

    7. This obscures real issues.

    Maybe. But right now I don’t give a damn about what North Korea is doing. I care that gas is $4.00 a gallon and so is milk, and I am struggling to make ends meet in this pitiful economy. And you know who has to bear the brunt of that struggle? Stay at home Moms.

  • macbookben

    …when it is way more fun to delight in the schadenfreude of watching Rosen being water boarded by Blitzer on CNN?

    Outrage by proxy. Starring roles played by democrats. Priceless.

    Classy move, Eric.

  • moosewing

    Here is what I would like to say to Ms.Rosen. Mrs. Romney will agree to stop discussing what she hears from working women, since she’s “never worked a day in her life” if the left who have never served a day in the military will stop talking about the wars, military spending or the use of military force anywhere in the world since “they have never served a day in their lives.”

  • earlgrey

    won’t stop them for voting for Obama, but it was sort of refreshing to see them not act entirely in lockstep.

  • APA Guy

    My wife has sacrificed personal ambition to care for her family. For this snotty, condescending lib to explicitly and arrogantly assert that stay-at-home moms don’t work is an insult that demands the rhetorical smack-down that is taking place.

    Amplifying the Dems’ position on stay-at-home moms ensures they can’t run from it as the election nears. This outrage is both well-deserved and bad for Obama.

  • anjinconsulting

    It is SO refreshing to see someone call it as it is.

    I for one believe that we should follow Reagan’s exhortation to distinguish ourselves from the other guys in bold colors, not in pale pastels. Liberals, including Captain Zero have just handed us a 3 inch wide paint brush and a can of Day-Glo paint.

    Having said that, there is no need for the conservative “leadership” to go on the talking head shows and carp on these clowns, just let everyone in every market see and hear them speak their own words in campaign commercials from now until the election.

    Besides, fewer and fewer donors are going to cast their lot or their cash with a party that willingly and publically devours its own.

  • APA Guy

    We’ll let Romney and the GOP leadership point out the travesty…then proceed to the high ground. The rest of us working on the ground will make sure the voting public knows exactly where Dems stand on this issue. I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but here in the Midwest IT MATTERS.

  • http://www.ArchitecturalShots.com mdyou

    Q. When your opponent is deceitful, cowardly, and shamelessly remorseless about the misery they cause this country (in other words, a Democrat), and then they dig themselves a deep hole, climb in, and hand you the shovel, what do you do?

    A. Accept the shovel, hid them over the head with it, fill up the hole, and say “Good Riddance”.

    Eric, no thinking conservative begrudges your ‘pragmatism’ in light of your situation at CNN. We’re glad to have you in there, you’re the camel’s nose. We’ll take it from here on this issue.

  • http://www.ArchitecturalShots.com mdyou

    That’s just great, I disagree with our own Dear Leader and I mispell his name. I’m the North Korean rocket of RedState posters. Please don’t nuke me.

  • anjinconsulting

    Elitism – belief in concept of superiority: the belief that some people or things are inherently superior to others and deserve preeminence, preferential treatment, or higher rewards because of their superiority
    -Bing Dictionary

    I am struggling to understand how some clown in the White House who plays 92+ rounds of golf in 3 years and who takes more family vacations in one year than I have in the last 10 years can call anyone an elitist. This is the same clown who went to school at Ivy League institutions, NOT because of his grades in high school and on admissions tests, but because he was a favored minority; a man-child who occupies the office of the greatest nation in the history of the world because the ?elite media? saw him as the savior of all things liberal and lied, obscured and made excuses for his ideology and his past behavior as a community agitator.

    I am struggling to understand how anyone in the ?elite media?, who spend more time primping before going on air to read something that, has obviously been written for them and at best plagiarized, or at worst disseminated for the benefit of the Democratic party can be considered a reliable, credible source of judgment. The same people who spend more on their lunch than a lot of folks do on a family meal are the same folks telling me that the policies of the clown in the White House are improving the economy.

    I am struggling to listen to members of congress and their lackey poverty pimps cajole me, and bloviate about how someone who was a malcontent and a thug is the victim of some ordinary guy who was simply trying to do something good for his community, instead of the malcontent thug being a victim of his own behavior. The same congress who tells me I should pay more in taxes because they don?t have enough to spend on welfare programs and medical treatment for the citizens of this great country, yet who are not willing to forego their own health care plan to participate in the one they crafted for us. The same congress cannot be bothered to execute their constitutional duty to pass a budget for the federal government.

    I am struggling to listen to slackers and deviants tell me that they are the 99%, that they are entitled to free student loans, guaranteed jobs upon graduation and adequate representation via some other form of government. The same people who crap on the police cars of the officers assigned to protect them and the public while they whine and snivel and assault the weaker sex and use drugs in their ?camps? as they protest.

    The very idea that we should cut ANY of these clowns ANY slack at all is enough to cause bile to rise in a man?s throat.

  • basokla

    Guess some folks don’t like being called a “lump on a the log”.

  • johnt

    n/t

  • Common_Cents

    People are sick in tired of being blasted by the lame stream media, conservatives are tired of all the attempts to put them down and made to feel guilty.

    When we get an issue that does resonate we should stick with it. Why lay down and let the lying arrogant left off the hook?

    It’s no more Mr. Nice guy. The left plays for keeps.

    Why does it have to be this issue or the economy? do you think the DEM propaganda media will resort to the terrible economy if there is not another issue?

    As we’ve seen lately, the DEM propaganda media would rather invent racism out of a Zimmerman/Martin case if anything. To the extent we got coverage on this assault on women by the left is a good thing.

    As more people realize what elite arrogant phonies are in the white house and on the left, the more they are going to question their “good economy” BS propaganda too.

    These issues are not in a vacuum. Any issue to legitimately discredit the left will be additive and synergistic.

    You want more people to hear the left’s outrageous comments? I guarantee more people heard about this than if we just ignore the left and give them tacit approval by saying nothing.

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    what is given away for free…

  • gtbw

    If eric erickson ever say’s anything thats not politically correct on cnn his liberal friends will turn on him like rabid dogs and he would lose his job. just ask Pat Buchanan.

  • kowalski

    The Ann Romney thing can best be thought of as an attempted mugging. It was atrocious but there are going to be more attempted muggings right around the courner. So keep moving! :)

  • goodgovernance

    I also think focusing on Rosen’s comments for a short period of time is useful to us. It gets the narrative off that idiotic “war on women” the Left was trying to sell, so now we’re no longer on the defensive.

    However, Rosen apologized, and the Obamas came out and denounced what she said. As true as it might be, we’re going to get limited mileage out of shouting, “This is what you really think, Democrats!” so long as they’re smart enough to keep their yaps shut about it.

    Unless we get new footage of liberals disparaging stay at home mothers (and if some enterprising citizen journalists can obtain such footage or find such op ed pieces, it could be very helpful to the conservative cause) claims about a “war on moms” is going to fall on deaf ears with the general public pretty quickly. Like by this time next week.

    I hate to think the Dems might (from a pure election strategy standpoint) demonstrate a greater amount of awareness than we on the Right have done on too many occasions recently. But it just might be true, if all we do is rely on the politics of outrage.

    Erick is right — we need to get the focus back on the economy and jobs. Everything else (unless a foreign policy crisis pops up) could be quickly forgotten as part of the circus.

  • smagar

    Sorry, Erick, but I must heartily disagree here.

    What weapons should you use on your political opponent? The ones you WANT to be using? The ones you THINK we all should be using.

    No…you use the weapons that WORK! If you find a weapon that works, stick with it. Even if you’d prefer to be using something else. The bruises you inflict now could weaken them down the road.

    If the outrage weapon is inflicting damage on the Democrats, keep using it until its potency fades. And, right now, the outrage weapon is working.

    Hillary Rosen hung a sign on the Democrats that said “Kick Me.” What are we supposed to do—take the high road? Let them slink away undamaged?

    No. IMO every Democrat who comes within ten feet of a microphone should be made to answer for Hillary Rosen. Hang her around every Democrat neck we can find.

    Reporters who just want to “move on”—to topics less embarassing for Democrats—-should be accused of double standards.

    You take your shots—or kicks—when you can. And never, ever pass up an opportunity to exploit a mistake by your opponent.

  • aesthete

    To use an analogy, it wouldn’t have made any sense to try to fight the insurgency in Afghanistan through set piece battles. Likewise, these tit-for-tat spats between third-teir pundits can be exploited for some uses, but have a short shelf life and strategy concerning these spats should reflect this limited exploitability.