Biden Is Coming For Your Appliances!

Inside Right Wing Media’s “Operation Gaslight”

By Kevin Howley, January 18, 2023

Right wing media outlets are in an uproar. No, I’m not talking about Biden’s sticky fingers on classified documents. Or the “lame stream” media’s double standards on what, inevitably I suppose, we’re calling garage-gate. And no, the Hunter Biden laptop story hasn’t broken wide open. Not just yet.

I am, of course, referring to gas stoves. You read that right. We’re talking kitchen appliances. You’d think Biden was selling nuclear launch codes to the highest bidder. Instead, conservatives are sounding a five-alarm fire over proposals to phase out gas stoves for cleaner more efficient electric cooking ranges.

In a moment when it seems our politics can’t get any more divisive, the culture wars are boiling over.

Green Energy Tyranny

According to the Washington Post, Richard L. Trumka Jr. of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) ignited the controversy in December when he said the agency was considering “regulating indoor pollution from gas stoves.”

“Barely had his comments hit the national news,” writes Barbara Simpson for WND, “then a storm of controversy arose. Not only was there criticism from the entire gas industry but also from lawmakers and consumer groups.” Simpson, whose column, “Babe in the Bunker” tells you all you need to know about where she’s coming from, is being modest. Right wing media fanned the flames, opening a new front in the culture wars: the kitchen.

Headlined “The Feds Are Coming For Your Gas Stove, Here’s How to Fight Back,” James P. Pinkerton at Breitbart sees the CPSC’s diabolical proposal for what it is: part of the Democrats’ “woke agenda” and a cunning 2024 election ploy to boot. “Trumka and CPSC didn’t just wake up and discover that gas stoves are bad. Instead, they woke up and realized that a stove-ban was their ticket to ride, alongside their fellow green Democrats.” Clearly Pinkerton isn’t one to be gaslighted.  

Fellow Breitbart scribe and man with a laundry list of conservative grievances, John Nolte, sees a pattern in the radical Left agenda. “Democrats are coming for our children, our guns, our pickup trucks, and now our gas stoves. Using hoaxes about Climate Change, gun violence, racism, and health, the left’s goal is obvious: centralized, authoritarian control. By killing gas-powered appliances, we are all stuck using the centralized electrical grid. We’ve seen in Blue America where that madness is heading, including control over our thermostats.”

This is what passes for the “common sense” right wing media uses to expose “the left’s gas stove hysteria.” Look who’s talking.

A Woman’s Place

Notwithstanding hyperbolic headlines such as “Nanny State Throws Kitchen Sink, Aiming For Stove,” conservatives are aghast at Biden’s assault on the sanctity of the home – and of women’s place in it.

Writing for American Thinker, Christopher Chantrill exposes a paternalistic streak a mile wide, claiming “women expect to have gas stoves” – a realization he and fellow red-blooded men only came to in recent weeks, when the Democrat’s march toward the Green New Deal “stubbed a toe on the gas stove issue.”

“It’s obvious now,” Chantrill continues with at least one foot in his mouth, “Women like their gas stoves – even Dr. Jill Biden – and they all think it’s ridiculous to ban them.”

With all that nostalgia for the patriarchy that made America great, it seems Chantrill missed the memo. The bulk of right wing media reporting in “Operation Gaslight” invokes the first lady, or the GOP’s favorite progressive punching, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to ridicule their hypocrisy for using gas stoves of their own.

Demonstrating their investigative prowess, The Daily Caller caught Jill Biden red-handed when she “shared a picture of herself cooking spinach on a gas stove at what appears to be the Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.” Nothing says “gotcha” like sauteed greens.

Likewise, Breitbart takes AOC to task for discussing scientific research in polite company. All the while relishing the opportunity to belittle the New York Democrat’s intelligence. “According to Rep. Rocket Scientist, this is very concerning science, ‘especially around the cognitive development of young children, asthma, cancer, et cetera.’”

Doubling down on the misogyny, Nolte adds, “AOC uses a gas stove, so let’s be broadminded enough to admit there is some evidence for the ‘cognitive development’ part.” Who says the party of Trump can’t win back women’s support?

Not From My Cold Dead Hands

Adding insult to injury is a full-time job for conservative pundits. “I support a woman’s right to choose whether or not to cook on a gas stove,” writes Daily Signal columnist Deroy Murdoch. Tone-deaf as it is, Murdoch’s ire isn’t directly solely at “leftist autocrats … killing pipelines” – better pipelines than babies, I suppose – he’s got a message for the gas industry: man up.

“Where are the gas companies? Where are their ads denouncing these idiotic, deadly policies? Why are they not organizing citizens to surround left-wing city halls, Trumka’s office, and Hochul’s headquarters to scream: ‘Bloody murder!’”

Invoking Hollywood icon and legendary gun nut, Charlton Heston, Murdoch continues, “The American Gas Association should be driving chefs to these places so they can holler: ‘Get your filthy hands off of our gas ranges!’” Leave it to WNDto conjure Heston’s most infamous line with this headline: “Pry It From My Cold Dead Hands: Dems Torched for Gas-Stove Ban.”

There’s no telling how much mileage right wing media aims to squeeze out of this installment of America’s Got Gas. This much is certain: for headline editors, the gas stove flare up is the gift that keeps on giving.

Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. His most recent book is Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.

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