Former First Lady Michelle Obama told a Brooklyn audience this month that “you’re not ready for a woman” to be president, insisting America still has “a lot of growing up to do” and dismissing speculation about a run while promoting her new book and podcast. Her comments came during a live conversation at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and were broadcast as part of the rollout for The Look.
That line was dripping with condescension, as if the political elite can simply grade the nation’s maturity from a Manhattan stage. Conservatives ought to push back: hard-working Americans didn’t reject a woman because of gender alone in 2024, and treating voters like backward rubes is exactly why the establishment can’t understand why it lost.
Mrs. Obama’s book and the companion podcast dig into the way her appearance was scrutinized and how style mattered during her time in the spotlight, a subject she’s entitled to explore. The broader point, though, is that turning every setback into a gendered grievance feeds the woke narrative that nothing is ever about accountability, competence, or policy.
On this point Greg Gutfeld and his panel were right to bristle — conservative viewers watched a man who earns an honest living or a mom trying to make ends meet get lectured by cultural elites who live in a different America. Who, exactly, is enforcing these unwritten rules of beauty and political eligibility — the same people who lecture the rest of us about virtue while insulating their own ranks from scrutiny? The question isn’t rhetorical; it’s the heart of the culture war.
Michelle Obama candidly admitted she straightened her hair and navigated white beauty standards while First Lady because the politics of the moment demanded it, and she now revisits those choices in her new work. That confession is honest on its face, but it also exposes the modern left’s double standard: celebrate diversity when it’s convenient, police it when it’s not.
Americans deserve leaders judged on results, character, and love of country — not on curated narratives or identity talking points sold to coastal elites. Conservatives should welcome strong women in leadership while calling out the elites’ habit of weaponizing identity to excuse failure and silence debate. The future belongs to those who value merit over motto, substance over style, and the dignity of every citizen over the arrogance of the self-appointed gatekeepers.
