U.S. House Office of Photography via Wikimedia Commons, MattKeeble.com//Shutterstock
October 26, 2021, 7:09 am
The best way to get attention as a Republican these days seems to be to publicly attack someone your fellow right-wingers already dislike. It doesn’t even matter if it’s over something logical enough — strike out, act like the heart of American values are at stake, and send a message that you’re one of them, willing to go to battle over knee-jerk reactions with everyone you hate.
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Missouri representative Jason Smith is the latest to try this game plan out, speaking with the Daily Mail to suggest Meghan Markle have her royal title stripped after she dared speak up in support of…paid parental leave.
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“Ms. Markle’s latest interference in U.S. politics reignites the question in my mind as to why the Royal Family does not simply strip her and Harry officially of their titles, particularly since she insists on sending this under the pretense of being the Duchess of Sussex,” he said.
He also tweeted that the “British Royal Family must remove all titles of nobility from Harry and Meghan at once.”
Markle, who is still a U.S. citizen and currently resides in the United States, wrote a letter to Congress “as a mom,” advocating for guaranteed paid family leave. She acknowledged her own current privilege to not have to worry about choosing between work or being with her child in those early months while also talking about her own childhood and the struggles of her family to make ends meet.
“The working mom or parent is facing the conflict of being present or being paid. The sacrifice of either comes at a great cost,” she wrote. “People in our country work incredibly hard, and yet the ask is soft: for a level playing field to achieve their version of a common dream — what is fair, and equal, and right.”
“In taking care of your child, you take care of your community, and you take care of your country—because when paid leave is a right, we’re creating a foundation that helps address mental health outcomes, health care costs, and economic strength at the starting line,” she added, before talking about other countries that already have paid leave in place. “I’m sure you agree that if we are to continue to be exceptional, then we can’t be the exception.”
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Republican politicians have generally been against expanding paid family leave, despite it being popular among their constituents, but that doesn’t explain Smith being so triggered by Markle’s comments that he felt the need to lash out publicly and demand that she be stripped of her royal title.
But it isn’t the first time he’s said as much, previously accusing both Meghan and Harry of interfering with the presidential election after the royals suggested Americans vote and “reject hate speech, misinformation, and online negativity.” Smith, apparently, took that to mean they were against Donald Trump.
Of course, as a U.S. citizen, Meghan Markle has as much of a right to free speech as anyone else, and if she’s using that to champion causes that would help people in less of a position to advocate for themselves, then good for her. And if she had been writing letters to Congress in support of things Republicans want, it seems safe to say Smith wouldn’t be saying a word.
*First Published: October 26, 2021, 7:09 am
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