Palin Again
The issue is not Bristol’s pregnancy, other than it ought to be a warning that abstinence only coupled with no sex education in school is not an effective policy position. The issue is not that Sarah Palin has insufficient time as Vice President to care for her children. (My prediction is that she would not be taxed by a McCain administration to provide counsel to John McCain and should have plenty of quality time with the kids).
The issue is the unquestioning acceptance of this event by the admiring hordes at the Republican Convention. To get an idea of their hypocrisy, just imagine the reverse of this situation: A Democratic Presidential nominee choosing a liberal feminist whose 17-year old daughter announced her pregnancy.
Dan Quayle was incensed that Murphy Brown (a TV series character!) was having a baby without being married and he berated the event as indicative of a Democratic “poverty of values”. Phyllis Schlafly and the Eagle Forum believe that sex should only occur between married adults and that woman should have babies before they are thirty, and of course, stay home to care for them.
But the Republican conventioneers have promoted Palin to goddess stature and are defending her as if none of their past criticisms of liberal values ever occurred. Of course, six months from now, they will have forgotten this episode, and will be full-throated decrying the erosion of values in the US, unmarried sex, and women working instead of caring for their families. Values to them are what everyone but they should be doing.
This ignoring of facts and saying whatever you think will benefit your position is endemic with Conservatives. Last night Palin boasted how she turned down the “bridge to nowhere”. She didn’t mention that she supported that earmark when she was campaigning for governor, nor did she mention that she did not bother to turn back the money allocated for the bridge, but kept it for Alaska to use somewhere else. She was for it before she was against it.
Her purported role as a reformer needs to be countered by the realization that she has sought these funds throughout her tenure as a “chief executive”. $27 million for Wasilla; over $200 million for Alaska. Has anyone figured out that earmarks come from US Treasury courtesy of taxpayers in the rest of the US?
I’m looking forward to hearing her defend, before a not so enraptured audience, her statements that Iraq is a task from God; that drilling is the solution to the gas crisis; that the jury is still out on global warming; and that the theory that the earth is six thousand years old is a theory equal to evolution.
So far my favorite Palin quote is her reaction to a question about whether “under God” should remain in the Pledge of Allegiance. She said if the Founding Fathers were for it, so was she and she would fight to keep it in with whatever it takes. The Pledge was actually written in 1892 (a bit more than 100 years after the founding, and “under God’ was added in 1954).
The main Republican argument in favor of Palin is that she is a Mom who has learned deep lessons from being a parent. (Something like George Bush being a guy you would like to have a beer with. We know how well that bit of voting logic worked out). How that translates into being qualified to rectify the problems that the Bush Administration has created is unanswered. The new McCain strategy is that he and Palin are mavericks who will clean up the mess in Washington. Not to get to subtle, but wasn’t that mess created by the Republicans? How in the world do you now reward them by giving them four more years in the White House heading our government?
Last week James C. Dobson’s organization Focus on the Family issued a video imploring its followers to pray to God for a rain of biblical proportions in Denver to inundate Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. While I won’t suggest praying to God, I will be rooting for the Redskins to reverse their futile pre-season performance and rise up to force tonight’s opening game with the NY Giants into overtime, thereby, delaying the start of McCain’s speech past prime time.
The issue is the unquestioning acceptance of this event by the admiring hordes at the Republican Convention. To get an idea of their hypocrisy, just imagine the reverse of this situation: A Democratic Presidential nominee choosing a liberal feminist whose 17-year old daughter announced her pregnancy.
Dan Quayle was incensed that Murphy Brown (a TV series character!) was having a baby without being married and he berated the event as indicative of a Democratic “poverty of values”. Phyllis Schlafly and the Eagle Forum believe that sex should only occur between married adults and that woman should have babies before they are thirty, and of course, stay home to care for them.
But the Republican conventioneers have promoted Palin to goddess stature and are defending her as if none of their past criticisms of liberal values ever occurred. Of course, six months from now, they will have forgotten this episode, and will be full-throated decrying the erosion of values in the US, unmarried sex, and women working instead of caring for their families. Values to them are what everyone but they should be doing.
This ignoring of facts and saying whatever you think will benefit your position is endemic with Conservatives. Last night Palin boasted how she turned down the “bridge to nowhere”. She didn’t mention that she supported that earmark when she was campaigning for governor, nor did she mention that she did not bother to turn back the money allocated for the bridge, but kept it for Alaska to use somewhere else. She was for it before she was against it.
Her purported role as a reformer needs to be countered by the realization that she has sought these funds throughout her tenure as a “chief executive”. $27 million for Wasilla; over $200 million for Alaska. Has anyone figured out that earmarks come from US Treasury courtesy of taxpayers in the rest of the US?
I’m looking forward to hearing her defend, before a not so enraptured audience, her statements that Iraq is a task from God; that drilling is the solution to the gas crisis; that the jury is still out on global warming; and that the theory that the earth is six thousand years old is a theory equal to evolution.
So far my favorite Palin quote is her reaction to a question about whether “under God” should remain in the Pledge of Allegiance. She said if the Founding Fathers were for it, so was she and she would fight to keep it in with whatever it takes. The Pledge was actually written in 1892 (a bit more than 100 years after the founding, and “under God’ was added in 1954).
The main Republican argument in favor of Palin is that she is a Mom who has learned deep lessons from being a parent. (Something like George Bush being a guy you would like to have a beer with. We know how well that bit of voting logic worked out). How that translates into being qualified to rectify the problems that the Bush Administration has created is unanswered. The new McCain strategy is that he and Palin are mavericks who will clean up the mess in Washington. Not to get to subtle, but wasn’t that mess created by the Republicans? How in the world do you now reward them by giving them four more years in the White House heading our government?
Last week James C. Dobson’s organization Focus on the Family issued a video imploring its followers to pray to God for a rain of biblical proportions in Denver to inundate Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. While I won’t suggest praying to God, I will be rooting for the Redskins to reverse their futile pre-season performance and rise up to force tonight’s opening game with the NY Giants into overtime, thereby, delaying the start of McCain’s speech past prime time.
posted by John Weiss at 5:17 PM
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