I frequently engage in verbal fisticuffs with a right winger at the Albany Times Union Capital Confidential blog.
We go at it over just about everything – right wing vs. left wing, the war in Iraq, religion, abortion – there is no topic that we have not debated to one degree or another.
He hates Daily Kos (we are KKKos Klanners to him) and rummages through the posts here looking for comments that "prove" we are a hate site. He stalks me and devtob, cutting and pasting from our diaries and comments here to prove his point at the other site. (I would not be the least bit surprised if he signed up here just to attack me in this diary. Gosh it would feel good to troll rate him out of existence, if only here!)
So what does this have to do with "republican motherhood" and "how I raised a liberal"? I’m glad you asked.
Over the last week, we have been engaged in a debate over which side of the political spectrum the American Revolutionaries were on.
"Liberals," said I, noting conservatives don’t like to change the status quo and adding "Liberal hippies with long hair" to further inflame him.
"You conservatives would have been wearing red coats and supporting the King."
The debate moved on to the concept of "Republican motherhood." He insisted it meant Colonial mothers had to instill "Republican Party" values in their children. He tried quoting Abigail Adams.
I told him I thought Abigail Adams was advocating for an educated female population because it was they who would first teach the children about the rights an responsibilities of living in a republic, not to turn the women into Colonial Stepford wives.
ABIGAIL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS
MARCH 31, 1776:
"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.
"Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.
"Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."
She was a feisty one, that Abigail.
So after this little back and forth on line, my 20-year old daughter, let's call her "LuLu Too," came home from a long day working at the mall. Exhausted from her sixth straight day of doing inventory at a national clothing store for young people, she started talking about all the OSHA violations at the store.
She told me a bunch of boxes fell from the shelving and hit her on the back of the neck. The boxes, she said were stacked far beyond the indicated safety point.
LuLu Too then told me she really doesn’t want to continue working for said store because they treat their workers so badly - and then there were all these OSHA violations, too.
She went on to tell me about them: they refuse to allow their under-18 staff to take the 15 minute break during a four-hour shift as require by law, the stock room is a hazard with clothing stacked too high on the rolling racks, exits blocked, the workers have to wear flip-flops even in the stock room because that is the store's "look" and more.
I asked her how she knew all these things were violations and she told me she and her friend didn't think these things could be right or legal, so they researched it on the Internet.
So how does this relate to "republican motherhood"?
Well, I think the real meaning of term is the expectation that well-educated mothers would instill in their children the values not of the modern neo-con "Republican Party" but of a republic "by the people, of the people, for the people."
And here is LuLu Too, showing me by her actions that she learned what her mother taught her all those years – to be strong and independent; stand up for the little guy; question authority; not to just take someone’s word for something, research it for your self; to be intellectually curious;not to be afraid to do the right thing and stand up for your principles...well, you get the picture.
She told me when she gets back to college, rather than working for the same company in the city where the college is located, she wants to look for something else, saying:
"I really can’t work for a company that treats its workers like that."
And like a good liberal, she is going to file complaints about the company so those who work there after her might not have to put up with the violations.
"Looking out for the little guy."
Mama LuLu is proud of her kid.
What have your kids done lately to make you proud?
Please share.
A variation of this diary was originally posted at Capital Confidential open thread