An open letter to Ann Romney

Oh Ann...

You really had America wrapped around your finger last night. You were cheerful, determined, reticent, charming... You knew exactly when to make us laugh and exactly when to make us agree with you.

You see, I wanted to believe you. I wanted to believe you when you said women are what holds this country together. I wanted to believe you when you told us you wanted to help the single, working mothers who want to work just a little bit less so they can spend time with their children. I believed you when you explained to us that your's and Mitt's marriage is a "real" one full of complex issues; just like any other American family. But then you made a dire misstep: You told us to trust your husband.

Ann, I'm sorry. I just can't believe you.

If you really do believe that women are what holds this country together then why would you ask me to trust a man who wants to take away our basic right to be in charge of our bodies? Why would you tell me to trust a man who doesn't believe in offering no-charge basic contraception to women (thus raising the already exorbitant social services and healthcare debt our country is already suffering from)? Why, Ann, would you tell me to trust a man who said he wants to "get rid of" Planned Parenthood, an organization who's low and no cost healthcare services are 97% women's health and preventative services and only 3% abortion procedures (and, coincidentally, government funding is NOT used for that 3%)? Are you being serious when you ask me to trust a man who would cut social services in every way possible, and, by extension, remove the safety net single mothers all over the country rely on to feed their babies and keep a roof over their heads?

How on earth do any of his positions on women's rights support your idea that women are what keep this country together? Perhaps what you meant to say, and forgive my loose translation, is that, even though women are what keep this country together, your husband would treat them as second class citizens, deny them basic rights, disenfranchise them, and then expect them to find some magical way of rearing children and find their own success with magical resources that would just pop up in front of them in the form of unicorns on rainbows.

If that is, in fact, what you meant, then please, allow me to make some parallels in the hope of awakening you:

• Poor, homeless boys, and children who were supporting destitute families are responsible for providing news to New England at the turn of the century but had very few rights and were horribly underpaid and overworked. They were what kept the news together.
• Black slaves were abused, tortured, sold into slavery, and worked to death to line the pockets of rich southerners for centuries. They are what kept the south and agricultural economy together.
• Children were used in sweat shops up until work was unionized (Thank you Teddy) and are what kept the industrial revolution together.

None of these things are moral. And yet, you seem to not have a problem allowing your own gender to suffer similar inequalities at the hands of the man you married.

You see, Ann, here's the problem:

When privileged, wealthy, white people like yourself (and your husband) look at the world around you, you have NO FUCKING IDEA what the average American goes through every day. Just like Tobacco tycoons had NO FUCKING IDEA what their slaves went through every day. It's a selfish, self serving view of the world that damages your ability to empathize with those around you on a human, realistic level. Yours is a skewed view of reality based on your cozy, picturesque, suburban life in Utah. You are not a real person. You, my dear, are what valiumized housewives pretended to be in public so many decades ago.

Ann, I'm sorry. I wanted to be on board. I wanted to believe you. But ma'am, if you think for one second I'm dumb enough to turn my back on my gender and every human being's right to basic civil equality, then you're crazier than I thought you were.

Sincerely,

A Human Being