Conservative radio host Erick Erickson raised eyebrows this week with a rather politically incorrect social media post about how conservative men, referring to Joe Kent, who recently resigned from the Trump administration, may be impacted by liberal wives.
Here is the post:
“There’s a rule in conservative politics that a man is rarely to the right of his wife. Joe Kent lost his first wife in war and remarried a woman who now works for a far-left anti-Israel, pro-Iran website. Kent should have never been appointed to anything in the Trump admin.”
At first blush this seems jarring, especially at a time when so many are trying to cool the political temperature. But on the other hand, Kent is not the only example of this phenomenon of lefty wives influencing their husbands that we’ve had just this week.
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So, could it be that far from the stereotype of brutish MAGA men forcing their wives to vote for President Donald Trump, it is the liberal wives who are controlling the Overton window in the home?
Take the viral video from Bill Maher’s show this weekend, in which actor Jerry O’Connell admits to being all but physically assaulted by his wife and daughters for a slight criticism of Kamala Harris last election night.
After stating the obvious fact that Harris’ campaign was, shall we say, lackluster, O’Connell dramatically told Maher, “Without saying anything, [They] became physical…They were filled with rage.”
He went on, “Yes, I live in California. I live with not one, not two, but three people [women] who, if I made any kind of joke that they would, um, they’d become very angry with me, you know.”
Meanwhile, comedian Rob Schneider spilled some similar tea regarding rabidly anti-Trump late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and he did not hold back.
After alleging that Kimmel’s liberal wife had confiscated a pair of the one-time comedian Kimmel’s anatomical items, he said, “His wife is the head writer of the show. She used to be an ‘assistant writer.’ Now she’s the writer. And I think that’s completely ruined him. I do. I’m sorry, Jimmy. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think I’m right. Liberal women who have lost their minds are controlling these men.”
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All of these recent examples bring to mind a controversial and hilarious ad from the 2024 campaign, in which timid White women gave each other strength, secretly, at the ballot box to defy their awful MAGA husbands and vote for Harris.
In the spot, movie star Julia Roberts, no less, gravely tells the gals, “In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want and no one will ever know.”
I cannot recall meeting a liberal White woman in the last decade who hasn’t let me know, usually quite explicitly, exactly how they voted, but let’s put that to one side.
The whole ad was a fantasy, a stereotype of misogyny pushed by strident women who, in reality, try to control their husbands’ votes.
This is where all the weird semiannual campaigns to deny sex to men to achieve political goals come from, and it’s not new. Aristophanes came up with the idea in 411 B.C. in the play “Lysistrata,” notably the only time the tactic has ever worked.
The point that Erickson is making, that all of these examples flesh out, is that in a marriage, it is just as likely, maybe even more so, that a liberal wife will be the political bully rather than the conservative husband.
This is a trope in our society now. Many women think they have no conservative guy friends. I often ask if they have any guy friends who are just nice and never talk about politics at all. When they say yes, I say, “Those are your conservative guy friends.”
Usually this is met with a subtle facial expression of recognition. I kinda feel bad for outing them.
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It should not be suggested that a lefty woman and a MAGA man cannot have a healthy, loving and robust marriage, even if they work in politics. But every societal pressure today, from standing up to alleged fascism on one side, to calling out communism on the other, makes that situation harder and harder.
In the end, the best answer may be, not surprisingly, to bring down the temperature, not just in the halls of power or the studios of big media, but by the hearth at home as well.
In the meantime, we cannot blame conservative voters who look a bit askance at a GOP politician with a wife in a pink hat, because, let’s face it, for all the political power in the world, these guys still have to go home at night.
