The revelation that Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has been on paternity leave caused quite the uproar last week. Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, adopted twin babies. Buttigieg has been on leave since mid-August, and many felt that was unacceptable given the country’s current shipping and supply chain crisis.
While this is certainly debatable, some political talking heads on the Right (looking at you Steven Crowder and Matt Walsh) provided asinine comments about fathers taking paternity leave. Their combined ultimate message translated to some inexplicable declaration that essentially states, “Fathers don’t need paternity leave, and they’re weaklings if they take it.”
Walsh and Crowder made both of their statements on Twitter on Oct. 15. Walsh tweeted first, and Crowder followed with a retweet. While Walsh’s tweet was arguably baffling, Crowder’s was egregious. Crowder tweeted that “paternity leave is for p******.” Of course, the inference here is that men who take time off work to spend with their newborn children are weak, cowardly, timid, and inferior to men who do not.
This, of course, is patently stupid. It’s anti-family, even. Helping raise an infant is being a p****? Spending time with your infant is being a p****? Equally raising an infant is being a p****? What’s that conservatives are always saying about the importance of fathers being in their children’s lives?
Perhaps this was meant as a jocular, thinly veiled criticism aimed at Buttigieg — at least, I am hoping that was Crowder’s intention. However, to infer that any father who wants to spend as much time as possible with his newborn child is a p**** is illogical and sheer lunacy. Furthermore, declaring this from behind a keyboard — well, that’s pretty gutless.
This is from a “pro-life” and “pro-family” guy? If this is mainstream thought, then is there any wonder why conservatives lost the culture war? What normal, rational, logical man would ever choose to be associated with such lunacy?
