I’ll just come out and say it: John Foust is a sexist jerk.
The latest installment? Foust says his opponent for the 10th District Congressional seat, Barbara Comstock, has never had a “real job.” [read_more]That’s right…the lawyer who mothered her kids while she attended law school at Georgetown, the former Justice Department official and senior partner in a DC law firm, former Congressional aide (in which role Democrats accused her of working too much), has never had a real job.
Would Foust ever think to say that about a male opponent? Of course not. And while he might *think* it about a female Democrat, we know he’d never say it. It’s only when his opponent is a conservative woman that this kind of unvarnished bigotry flows from Foust and his male supporters.
The irony of it all is that Foust’s messaging is clearly aimed at women, as he knows he can’t win without them. Indeed, the Ashburn Rising puff piece in which this quote first appears is entitled, “Democrat Foust Stakes Ground as Women’s Candidate Against Republican Comstock.” The apparently supportive author is also apparently oblivious to the article’s content:
On creating jobs, Foust said, “In her mind that means giving tax benefits to special interests and the super wealthy. I don’t think she’s even had a real job.”
How does Foust rationalize this patronizing, bullying sexism when he’s supposedly the “Women’s Candidate”? Simple…just deligitimize Barbara Comstock’s status as a woman. It’s an old tactic in leftist identity politics: if you need the support of one identity group, you pit your opponent as diametrically opposed to (and not among) that group. It’s what Democrats have been doing to conservative women and minorities for decades (albeit most of the time in less openly hostile ways). Here, when Foust accuses Comstock of never having had a real job, not only does he demean and denigrate tens of millions of women who HAVE HAD those kinds of “real jobs,” he does it in service to a narrative aimed at painting Comstock as something less than a “real woman.”
I’ve got news for Foust: Not only has Barbara Comstock had real jobs, like raising a family and serving her country and community, but she’s a real woman who is going to kick your backward, old fashioned, sexist ass in November.
