One of our favorite columnists here at YSDA is Sara Elizabeth Cupp. She’s a Never Trump Republican who takes a right-center point of view, which is more conservative then our left-center take on most things, but that just gives her more credibility when she points out the hypocricies of the hard-right.
She did that beautifully this week when she took on “pro-life” pols and pundits who have been attacking Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg for adopting twins and then taking parental leave to care for them.
“It’s almost as if — almost — Republicans are playing politics with abortion,” Cupp wrote. “They sound less than committed to “family values” when they mock adoptive parents for, you know, parenting. Call me crazy, but it seems like the sanctity of life loses its luster when applied to the adopted babies of a liberal, gay couple.” Cupp opposes abortion.
Buttigieg and his husband Chasten adopted pre-mature twins a few months ago. As Cupp points out, they’re making a good home for two infants who would otherwise have had a tough start in life, perhaps even been aborted. For the “pro-lifers” from Sen. Tom Cotton to talking head Tucker Carlson, who snidely ripped the Secretary, this should be a cause for celebration. Instead of being aborted, these kids now start life with a good chance of happiness and success.
But, of course, the welfare of children is the furthest thing from the minds of the likes of Cotton and Carlson. No, instead all they want to do is exploit the culture wars. The subtext, of course, is that these are two men raising children. There’s a part of our society that still hasn’t caught up with that reality, and so the hard-right wants to remind them of it at every opportunity.
In order to do that they need some sort of foothold. It’s a sign of some progress anyway that Cotton and Carlson can’t just come out and say that they don’t like the sight of two men and a baby — or, in this case, babies. So, the ruse is that it’s some sort of scandal that the Secretary of Transportation has taken parental leave. (He’s back in the office now.)
That’s silly and stupid on two levels. The first is that Buttigieg is entitled to leave, as every American should be. If you really care about kids and families wouldn’t you want that too? And the second is that a senior official like Buttigieg is never going to be off the clock. The idea that Buttigieg wouldn’t have been in daily communication with his office is just implausible.
The hard-right would be more believable on the abortion issue if they were just a little bit consistent. If they really cared about young lives they’d be celebrating Buttigieg and his husband instead of exploiting them to rev up their base.
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Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 