According to Cory Doctorow, Rupert Murdoch owned newspapers have made over 100 editorials attempting to smear Lina Khan at the FTC. A cursory google search seems to corroborate this assertion.
I'm inclined to agree that there's nothing 'election year' about these cases, and that real work is being done to claw back some measure of control from these monopolies.
Having kids makes you think differently. It makes you think about longer term plans, and immediate plans. It makes you yearn for stability. It makes you more succeptible to scare tactics. It makes you less likely to rock the boat.
It made me personally accept shittier situations personally (work) for the percieved benefit of ensuring stability for my baby. You can imagine how that extrapolates across an authoritarian society.
Even knowing it would probably be fine to advocate for myself, to push for what I deserved; knowing that it was purely biology pushing me to make the choice, I still picked percieved stability. I just couldn't bring myself risk being fired.
Counter-intuitevely, we think of parents as being primed to defend their children from any and all attacks and threats. That works monkey to monkey, but at scale, it breaks down. Being parents makes both men and women more vulnerable.
As for immediate effect: I'd be a lot easier to coerce if you had access to my family.
Edit: It also makes you busy as fuck. Ain't nobody got time for nothin' when they have a kid. Certainly not for uncertain outcomes, like resistance groups or political disident work