Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 27, 2011 Kevin Drum meditates on the conservative movement hating on vegetables:
A first lady campaigning against obesity and in favor of breast feeding is now the target of all-out war from the right. I imagine that if she were taking on illiteracy, teenage drug use, or planting flowers, the Republican Party would suddenly find itself opposed to reading, defending Mexican drug cartels, and in favor of vacant lots. And yet we’re supposed to take these people seriously.
No. We’re not, and we shouldn’t.
Planting flowers obviously marks you as a dirty hippy.
Republicans, if given druthers,
Would put a ban on nursing mothers;
Despite what doctors say is best,
The GOP can’t stand a breast.
They cannot see a lot that’s worse
Than letting mom and baby nurse
They’d legislate against their mamas
Before they’d side with the Obamas
Liberals attacked Nancy Reagan for telling children not to smoke crack. So it go…
To be fair, we attacked her for reducing all of the nation’s drug abuse issues into condescendingly telling teenagers to “Just say no.” I was a kid back then, and I found it fucking insulting. More to the point, I knew that it wasn’t meant for me, but for the adults. One of the great failures of policy is that there has never BEEN any drug policy that was more than simple theater.
Just say no…to hamburgers.
While I’ve little doubt that most Republicans would only criticise Obama out of tribalism there’s nowt wrong with picking beefs with a campaign, however noble its intent might seem. (Say, for example, that I launched a campaign to stop children being disappointed on Christmas. Nobody could fault its goal but if I was pursuing it by rushing into houses dressed as Santa Claus, distributing whatever gifts I’d stolen, people might not be uproarious in their acclaim.) So, while I’m all for good ideas on how to stop obesity I don’t think FLMO has them: the notion that it’s a concern of national security, for example, is absurd and faintly noxious.
On the other hand, I like the criticism that she’s been “incredibly insulting to parents”. X is crossing a road in the path of an oncoming car. Y informs him of the urgent risks that such an action poses. “Why, how incredibly insulting!” X protests, before being sprayed across the road like a tomato off a baseball bat. Something can be condescending, patronising or insulting but that needn’t mean it’s incorrect.
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is formerly a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not battling creationists or modeling species ranges, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
February 27, 2011
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