{"id":3091,"date":"2026-08-24T04:24:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2026-08-24T04:24:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:24:47","slug":"the-lindsay-clancy-trial-is-sparking-a-political-divide-in-the-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=3091","title":{"rendered":"The Lindsay Clancy Trial Is Sparking a Political Divide in the Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tLindsay Clancy<\/a> does not deny that she murdered her three young children. In her trial, which is set to wrap up in the coming days, the facts of the case are virtually undisputed<\/a>: In 2023 following months of devolving mental health and attempts to secure mental health support, Clancy strangled her three children \u2014 ages five, three, and eight months \u2014 with rubber exercise chords. Shortly after, she attempted to end her own life by jumping out of the window of her family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and was paralyzed from the waist down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tClancy admits to the murders, her ex-husband said when he testified on her behalf. The question at hand is whether or not Clancy \u2014 whom her lawyers say had been suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time of the murders \u2014 is criminally responsible<\/a> for first-degree premeditated murder and deserving of a life sentence in federal prison, or should be committed to a state psychiatric facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the true-crime obsessed network of internet commentary, the Clancy case has already produced thousands of hours of coverage, theorizing, and analysis. It also opened up a tricky conversation about maternal and post-natal psychiatric health, as well as the limitations of public sympathy.<\/p>\n

\n\tPostpartum depression is defined by the Cleveland Clinic as a severe depressive mood disorder that can develop during pregnancy and up to a year after the birth of a child. Causes can relate to \u201chormonal, physical, emotional, financial and social changes after having a baby.\u201d Postpartum psychosis is an extreme, more rare form of postpartum disorder, characterized by symptoms including \u201csevere agitation, confusion, feelings of hopelessness, delusions or hallucinations, rapid speech and mania,\u201d that can last weeks or months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEven talking about the baby blues can be difficult for many women, and postpartum mental health is often a misunderstood and potentially fraught topic. This specific iteration is happening, of course, within the context of a murder trial over three children who should be alive, and the notion that Clancey may not hold the entirety of the responsibility for their deaths \u2014 be it shared with a severe mental illness, or medical and institutional failure \u2014 is being met with outrage and accusation of outright support for Clancy\u2019s actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tThis has been particularly acute among hyper-online, right-wing men. Women discussing their own experience with postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and the mental health struggles that can follow the birth of a child, are themselves being labeled as soulless pro-baby-murder sociopaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ringleader of this push is, to no one\u2019s surprise, professional far right agitator \u2014 and definitely not a doctor \u2014 Matt Walsh<\/a> of The Daily Wire. Walsh went so far as to declare that postpartum depression, and consequently postpartum psychosis, is an overblown diagnosis that masks a woman\u2019s selfishness, and an unwillingness by new mothers to surrender themselves to the demands of motherhood. Walsh has spent days posting about the case, describing<\/a> Clancy as a \u201cuseless woman\u201d who expected \u201cpampering and coddling\u201d in order to prevent her from killing her children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMuch of the \u2018depression\u2019 that parents (and not just moms) suffer after child birth is due not so much to hormones but to the fact that children, especially babies, are demanding and difficult and require us to subordinate our own needs and desires for their sake,\u201d Walsh wrote. \u201cThe more selfish you are, the more of an adjustment it\u2019s going to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A lot of people aren’t going to want to hear this but much of the “depression” that parents (and not just moms) suffer after child birth is due not so much to hormones but to the fact that children, especially babies, are demanding and difficult and require us to subordinate our\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) August 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s worth noting that Walsh\u2019s wife, Alissa Walsh, who gave birth to the couple\u2019s six children, has had a more sympathetic view. In 2024, she responded to a fellow moms post on X about not \u201cdoing well\u201d after giving birth with a supportive note<\/a>. \u201cPostpartum is not easy at all. Praying for you. Here to listen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tWalsh and commentators like The Federalist\u2019s Sean Davis continue to hold an uncompromising view of Clancy as a calculated murderess. Women who dare to push back on Walsh\u2019s minimization of postpartum mental illness are \u2014 as Davis declared<\/a> \u2014 \u201cpsychopaths,\u201d who need to be \u201cinstitutionalized.\u201d MAGA conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec claimed<\/a> that \u201cthere will be Lindsay Clancy copycats because of how the TikTok algorithm and radical feminist groups incentivize this evil behavior.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYet a crack is forming in the right\u2019s coverage, and it\u2019s exposing the gender dynamics of the modern conservative movement. Where right wing women are coming forward to correct blatant medical misinformation, and cruel minimization of their experience, only to be met with the kind of ire typically reserved for their liberal political opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs one of the few women left in conservative media who isn\u2019t trying to live a trad wife life or peddle trad wife content \u2014 a lot of you sound so weird and mean talking about fertility, pregnancy, post partum,\u201d former The View <\/em>co-host Meghan McCain wrote on X. \u201cYou\u2019re scaring the normies. And you\u2019re gonna need them in \u201828.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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As one of the few women left in conservative media who isn\u2019t trying to live a trad wife life or peddle trad wife content \u2013 a lot of you sound so weird and mean talking about fertility, pregnancy, post partum. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re scaring the normies. <\/p>\n

And you\u2019re gonna need them in \u201828.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) August 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\tAbby Libby, a conservative influencer and mother of three, responded to Walsh<\/a> by telling him that his posts were dismissive of the very real hormonal changes experienced by women after giving birth. Libby stressed that while she believed Clancy deserved the death penalty, \u201cYour tirade against Lindsay has begun to extend in a cruel way to women who have brought life into the world and struggled.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSitting with my 3rd baby in 3 years, 5 weeks postpartum, finding out from Matt Walsh that the reason I\u2019m struggling with PPD for the 3rd time is that I\u2019m selfish,\u201d Libby wrote in another post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Sitting with my 3rd baby in 3 years, 5 weeks postpartum, finding out from Matt Walsh that the reason I’m struggling with PPD for the 3rd time is that I’m selfish. https:\/\/t.co\/0lVe0TfZj4<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Abby Libby (@abbythelibb_) August 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\tRight wing commentator and Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren said on her podcast that while murder is inexcusable, there are a lot of men on the right \u201cwho will never give birth or have never experienced postpartum [and] they think that women who are empathizing with her are condoning murder.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNobody is saying that. What women are saying is, \u2018I went through it, or I know somebody who went through it,\u2019 and damn, there\u2019s got to be a better way than putting people on a cocktail of drugs or just telling them, \u2018Oh, you don\u2019t like being a mom? Get over it,\u2019\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tFormer Trump Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin, also a current co-host on The View, <\/em>wrote on X<\/a> that \u201cno serious person is saying psychosis exonerates Clancy. Many of us are saying the medical and mental health system first and foremost failed her innocent children \u2014 but also her \u2014 and that deserves to be interrogated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThree children are dead after a woman tried dozens of times to get help she needed. That does not mean she shouldn\u2019t face either life in prison or an institution. Civil societies attempt to learn from horrible things that happen so they can be avoided in the future,\u201d the host added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEven right wing men were appalled by some of Walsh\u2019s commentary. The Daily Wire <\/em>founder Ben Shapiro avoided calling out his coworker by name, but implored an unnamed individual to \u201cplease, please, please, stop being a moron.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ben Shapiro rebukes his Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh, who spent Monday arguing that postpartum depression was due to women\u2019s selfishness. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, please, please, stop being a moron.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/P4l2WahMte<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Christopher Hale (@ChristopherHale) August 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\t\u201cPost-partum depression is quite real. Post-partum psychosis is real but also distinct. People who conflate the two are being foolish. People who dismiss either are being ridiculous,\u201d Shapiro wrote<\/a> in a separate social media post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFellow Daily Wire co-Founder \u2014 and Walsh\u2019s former boss \u2014 Jeremy Boreing wrote<\/a> that Clancy \u201cdeserves our sympathy. Postpartum depression is real. Hormonal shock, exhaustion to the point of hallucination\u2026 And the system clearly failed her \u2013 responding to her pleas for help with a spastic spate of mindaltering drugs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy heart breaks for her,\u201d he added. \u201cAlso she should receive the death penalty.\u201d This is, of course, the far right we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSecond Amendment activist Chris Loesch accused <\/a>Walsh and others of engaging in \u201cclick bait engagement farming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cCalling a documented endocrine event a character flaw is not tough-mindedness,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe contemporary right has openly embraced natalism \u2014 the promotion of large families as part of a political project \u2014 as a cultural marker of their movement. Get married (ideally young), have babies (ideally also young), lots of babies, and raise them to be good conservatives. But the clash over the Clancy trial reveals deep division in a movement dominated by male voices, where women \u2014 no matter how bonafide their political credentials \u2014 are often expected to accept the edicts of the loudest men in the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n