Random Thoughts on the RNC

So I am very interested in the RNC this year.  I'm hoping that I can stomach the DNC enough to watch it too, because it pays to be informed, but after reading that the party of tolerance will not tolerate children at their convention, and that it's going to be a pro-women abortion fest (which seems mutually exclusive to my world view) ... I'm not sure now is the time for me to be paying attention to anything they say.

I caught bits and pieces of the speakers before the Key Notes; Nikki Haley, Artur Davis, some other Governor that I can't remember.  Ann Romney's speach was out on the internet hours before she actually gave it, a practice I don't really like (Chris Christie's was too).  But I watched both of them.

Ann's opening remarks about women and how they feel the effects of the economy hardest, because they hold the country together resonated with me.  Her comments on being a SAHM and that being the most important job (not the stay at home part, the mom part) in the world hit home too.  Honestly there are not a lot of people out there promoting taking care of kids, not really anyway.  We pay lip service to  it, but most peoples actions don't really back up the claim that taking care of kids - the actual day to day - is paramount to them.

I thought her speech was good.  I thought she was happy (though I think that was nerves, too) and upbeat and positive.  I thought she did good.

Juan Williams, great man that HE is, did not.  He called her a "corporate wife" who can't identify with real women because she's rich.

I hate this type of thing.  I really do.  Am I a corporate wife?  Are the other stay at home mom's I know corporate wives?  Is my mom, a military wife, would she be considered a corporate wife?  What the hell is a corporate wife, Juan?

Why does money, or success really, limit a persons empathy?  I have always had a house and a roof over my head; that doesn't mean that I don't have empathy or care about the homeless.  I've never done drugs.  That doesn't mean that I don't want to help or understand those suffering with addiction.  I've never been truly poor; that doesn't mean I've never had to budget.  It doesn't mean some months are really lean.  It doesn't mean my car doesn't break down or the A/C doesn't go out the hottest week of the year or that I struggle to save money for my kids.

Empathy and perspective are not limited by what a person has in their bank account.

And seriously ... get the hell off Ann Romney.  What has Michelle Obama done, really done, in the last 10 years?  She's been on boards and received low to mid 6 figure salaries just for being there.  She too has mostly taken care of her children.  Is she a corporate wife?  Her early life was pretty modest, but she went to Princeton, for the love.  I could never, ever, ever have gone to Princeton.  One - and it pains me to admit this - I wasn't smart enough and I honestly think one of the drawbacks of my upbringing was a lower GPA (I can go into detail about how different state requirements hurt me, but it would be long and pitiful - and sound like whining).  Two - I never could have afforded it.  Michelle, being a minority (I assume), and smart (she was salutatorian) earned herself a scholarship.  Even if I had been valedictorian and gotten a 1600 on the SATs ... I never would have been given a scholarship to Princeton.  Because I'm white.  I didn't qualify for any aid at all, because my parents, a single income family in the notoriously underpaid military, made too much money.

I ramble.  Sorry.

In short I thought Ann did a good job.  And I think her life has been interesting and I think she did a great job raising her children.  I know no specifics, but I don't think any of them are meth heads or dancing in Vegas so I'm thinking she can count herself a success.  If I can raise my boys in any similar fashion, I will be pleased.  The Romney's are good people.  I have no idea if his policies will be good.  I am hopeful. (I'm also terrified because of crap like this)  I like the sound of some of them.  But I know all too well that Presidential ideas sound great but when hit the reality of dealing with Congress they change.

And this war on women ... can the crazy women dressing up as vagina's protesting some imaginary war on women please stop?  I am more than my sex organs.  There is more to my vote than abortion and birht control.  Please, please, stop victimizing women and making us nothing more than morons who need someone to provide us birth control otherwise we're just too stupid to do it for ourselves.  And please, please, please, please stop thinking that you can earn my vote simply by throwing free birth control at me.  I am not so easily bought.

And the abortion fight ... for those of us on the pro-life side ... is about the BABY not about the mom.  Which is why when asked about abortion is the case of rape or in the case of health of the mother, we still side with the baby, because for me, it's about the baby, not about the mother.  And I know, that if my life were threatened, I would gladly lay it down for my child.  As much as that would pain my husband (who feels differently).  And that's the fundamental difference between the two sides.  Pro-choice care more about the rights of the mother and pro-life care more about the rights of the child.  Never the two shall meet.  So please, stop talking about it.  It breaks my heart that there are so many out there that want to fight so hard for the right to unnaturally end a pregnancy.  That there are people out there that think late term abortion should be legal.  And I can't even think on that right now because in my 38th week I'm praying every day for a healthy delivery and a healthy baby.

Ugh I can't think about it.

Please don't take that rant to mean I want anything legislated.  I don't.  I don't want women sneaking off to dirty folding tables.  I think the only way to end the abortion fight is to change hearts and minds, not by legislating it.  That having been said ... I want late term abortion outlawed.

The evil vitriol that I read on twitter and in the comments sections of commentary pieces today is completely disheartening.  People calling Ann Romney a c***, a b****, and countless other vile names.  Nothing about her policies, or beliefs, just straight attacks on her.  I can only imagine what her children must think reading those things.

They said she somehow attacked gay marriage; she didn't.  She just said people have called her life a fairy tale, her marriage a fairy tale.  All she said was that MS and breast cancer aren't in any fairy tale she's read, and what she has is a real life and a real marriage.

People will find what they want to find, no matter what these people say.

And Mia Love, someone that I know very little about but hope to hear more from, has been attacked so savagely ... it amazes me that these people call themselves tolerant.  Progressive?  The party of compassion?  Where?  Where is that compassion?  They hate her because of what she believes, but rather than debate her on those issues, they just personally attack her.  Horribly.  And then they claim that no one of any real diversity is a member of the Republican party.  And she's not the only one.  There are many others.

Oh well.  At least the RNC didn't ban children.  But I paraphrase what someone smarter than me said ... it'd be difficult, or at least, awkward to discuss abortion ad nasuem with children in the room.