As Americans mourn the loss of Nancy Reagan, we cannot mourn without noticing the perpetually hateful, angry liberals grasping at straws at a chance to tear down the dignity of even the deceased. Fox Business host, Trish Regan called Nancy Reagan a role model and liberals became unhinged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxIKoFNm1dQ

Of course the media has penned Regan’s commentary as an “attack” on liberals. Along comes Salon’s Amanda Marcotte on Monday…with a hate-filled rant insinuating that the late Mrs. Reagan was addicted to pills whilst promoting the “Just Say No” campaign. Marcotte then went on to call her the “perfect” First Lady for the “Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous” Era. She also went on to argue that Nancy Reagan was at the heart of anti-feminist backlash:

On one hand, she was an undoubtedly powerful and influential woman who had a great deal of influence over her husband’s views and career, making hiring decisions for his campaigns and running the damage control initiative after the Iran-Contra scandal.

On the other hand, she was, both in word and deed, a role model for the idea women are meant to be helpmeets for men instead of heroes of their own stories. She threw her weight around but refused any public credit for it.

Reagan, in turn, helped shape what would become one of the most potent weapons of the anti-feminist backlash: Portraying feminists as oppressors and bullies that would deny women their supposedly biological desire to live submissive lives devoted to husband and children.

You can read the rest here. Marcotte adds that Nancy Reagan’s brand of anti-feminism, “posits that inequality is little more than a freely made ‘choice’ women make, continues to be a powerful force, fueling conservative arguments against feminism and feeding continuing pressure on women to step back and live lives in the shadows of their husbands.”

Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique” and Gloria Steinem have both been critics of Nancy Reagan in the past. In their eyes, Nancy Reagan was a feminist’s worst nightmare. I mean…how dare Nancy Reagan. She wore extravagant clothes when people were living in poverty! (When Tyson’s Galleria closes off so Michelle Obama can shop, I assure you she’s not going to Marshall’s to look at the clearance rack but that’s beside the point). The point here is this: angry feminists will stop at nothing and stoop to classless lows of throwing blows (even at the departed) to push a warped, dysfunctional agenda. It’s empowering to pose in various stages of undress because it’s your body, after all. And when your indiscriminate behavior results in a pregnancy, it’s empowering to shout from the rafters that you took a life instead of giving birth to one. Should you give birth, it’s your duty to give into the pressures of working and throw your child into a daycare for the sake of being a “modern woman” and not scrutinized by other feminists. And while you’re doing your “modern woman” thing in the workplace, it’s empowering to whine and moan about being treated unfairly because of your lady parts. When you come home for dinner, it’s empowering to throw a wedge into your relationship or marriage by saying you are not equal, demanding to be treated as such when, chances are, (if you are in a traditional marriage) your male spouse feels that you very much are because marriage is a partnership. That’s “feminism” today. And any woman who does not buy into their conventions is simply a “helpmeet” and not a “hero of their own story”, like Nancy Reagan. And who’s doing the bullying here?!

Feminism is the ability to choose what you want to do.-Nancy Reagan

As a woman who took a step back from the fast track of career to be on the home front while my Marine husband deployed so I can be a constant in our child’s life, I made a choice. I wasn’t forced to quit my job by my husband, he did not hold a gun to my head. Did I have pangs when I saw my peers moving ahead? Of course I did! But those pangs were material in nature and they went away. I work now but on my terms and am home for our son when he gets home from school because that is my choice. I look at my family now and confidently feel that I made the right decision, the right choice. Feminists love to push the word “choice”. She “chose” to abort her baby. She “chose” career over a man. She has the right to make that choice. When it comes to choosing to be a woman who comes alongside her husband to support him and children on the home front, collectively as a team, a family, to them she is NOT making a choice, she is living in “the shadow” of the man. Nancy Reagan chose to stand by her husband. She chose to be at his side. She was not submissive because she made this decision out of her own free will. To us, this did not make her a helpmeet but indeed a hero of her own story. It comes as no accident that I came across this gem of a piece from Salon yesterday on International Women’s Day. As a result, I reflected on Nancy Reagan’s “brand” of (anti)-feminism and the brand of feminism recognized by “true feminists” today and you know what? I’ll take Nancy’s brand over Gloria’s and Ms. Marcotte’s any day of the week.