“History” was made yesterday as Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth brought her ten-day old infant daughter to the floor of the Senate to cast a vote. Senate rules had to be amended for the occasion–as until now, children were barred from a place where representatives of the people vote on the most-important matters facing our nation. Now, the place where Republican Senator Charles Sumner castigated Democrat Stephen Douglas over the immorality of slavery–and where Democrat Robert Byrd conducted a one-man, 14-hour filibuster of the Civil Rights Act is no different that the PlayLand at your local McDonald’s.
Liberal women’s groups would tell you that bans on children in the workplace are archaic attempts to keep females out of the workforce or to prevent them from advancing within the corporate structure. But men too are bringing kids places they–plain and simple–don’t belong. Upscale restaurants, movie theaters, bars, theme parks–no longer do parents ask themselves “Does a baby (or a child of any age) really belong here?”
When a male Senator asked what if there are ten babies on the floor of the Senate someday–Senator Amy Klobuchur of Minnesota said “that would be wonderful”. Really? Ten babies throwing a fit while the Senate is trying to debate something like gun control, or environmental policy would be “wonderful”? Or would debate have to be stopped while the children are comforted or lulled back to sleep?
If anything, babies and kids in the Senate will become nothing more than props for the cameras of C-SPAN or the news channels. “I have brought my three-year old grandson here today so that he can say he was here when the Senate passed this historic measure”. Or conversely, “If you vote for this bill you are ensuring that my 3-week old daughter will die a horrible death” will become “human talking points” for the theater that is modern politics.
Senator Duckworth has (for now) promised to spare her fellow lawmakers from dirty diaper changes inside the Chamber (which, when you think about it, would have actually been a fitting metaphor for modern politics). If I was in the Senate, I would move to amend the rules to allow the use of noise-cancelling headphones–as those were invented for the sole purpose of drowning out the sound of crying babies and children that business travelers have had to put up with on airplanes.
