◼ the true theme of the 2012 election, which Ann Romney and Chris Christie expressed equally well in different ways, is about the end of dangerous illusions. “You didn’t build that” is one of them, but there are others, and they’re all killing us. - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_0
Ann Romney spoke at length about love, marriage, and children, but her message will prove most dangerous to Democrats when it rests in the ears of single women. That’s one of the demographics political strategists say Republicans have the most trouble reaching. That’s because single women have proven particularly vulnerable to the empty promises and illusions peddled by the Left. They were the target audience for Obama’s bizarre “Life of Julia” web video, which presented an imaginary woman whose entire life was lived in the shadow of government dependency. Nothing of consequence “Julia” did – from childhood through her adult career and the raising of her own son, without a single mention of the hypothetical boy’s father – happened without assistance from a Big Government program… all of which, the reader was assured, heartless Republicans couldn’t wait to cut.
But Republicans aren’t going to cut those programs; reality is. It’s telling that Obama had to invent an imaginary woman to tell his little fable. “Julia” was born in 2012, and every promise of Big Government assistance Obama made beyond her teenage years was an utter lie. On the course he has set, there won’t be money for any of those things. Before Julia enters the workforce, the entire federal budget would be consumed by entitlement spending and debt service. None of those entitlements could possibly survive long enough for Julia to take advantage of them in her old age.
Ann Romney addressed this in one of the most widely-quoted passages from her speech:
“I’m not sure if men really understand this, but I don’t think there’s a woman in America who really expects her life to be easy. In our own ways, we all know better!
“And that’s fine. We don’t want easy. But these last few years have been harder than they needed to be. It’s all the little things – that price at the pump you just can’t believe, the grocery bills that just get bigger; all those things that used to be free, like school sports, are now one more bill to pay. It’s all the little things that pile up to become big things. And the big things – the good jobs, the chance at college, that home you want to buy, just get harder. Everything has become harder.
“We’re too smart to know there aren’t easy answers. But we’re not dumb enough to accept that there aren’t better answers.”
The notion that men and women don’t need each other – that a healthy society and economy can thrive without strong family relationships – is another deadly illusion that must be discarded. Uncle Sam cannot afford to fill the role of either Mother or Father any more, and really, he was never a proper substitute for either. The virtues Ann Romney extolled in her husband – competence, modesty, and a commitment to personal charity that he rarely discusses in public, because he’s not doing it to win applause – are vastly preferable to a flashy boyfriend who makes a lot of big promises, then vanishes in a cloud of overdue credit card bills. Our voluntary union in marriage, friendship, partnership, and corporate endeavor is vastly superior to involuntary dependence and servitude, both morally and practically.
