...an eighteen year old unwed pregnant girl was paraded in front of the entire world in order to buttress her mother's image as a premier spokesperson for the party of family values.
It is not misogyny to call that into question.
Update: Did I mention Governor Palin is a compulsive liar? I can't wait for the cross-exams from Biden. Can't. Wait.
It's a great situation to explain to our daughters.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not misogyny, but it's substantially different than your last post.
ReplyDelete(Sorry to de-lurk so aggressively. I usually just read and enjoy, but thought you were way off track in the previous post.)
The difference is that in the earlier post, you were making (I thought) parenting--particularly mothering--skills part of the vetting for vice presidential worthiness. In this instance, you have a singular instance which shows the failure of a policy, when policy-making *is* part of the executive office.
I would still say you could make that point without bringing Bristol into it. But it's a different issue. See what I'm saying?
SHE is making mothering skills, and particularly keeping her Down's Syndrome baby, part of her qualification for being the GOP's Vice Presidential candidate. It is clear she was chosen by her party (not it's candidate) for her gender and her appeal to the anti-choice base of the GOP.
ReplyDeleteThey made her mothering an issue, even in tonight's speech and "celebration" afterwards. They did that. I am criticizing that move and that candidate.
And I don't mind you de-lurking a bit, CK. We are really arguing over tactics rather than issues. I thought long and hard before I posted the previous offering, and felt justified after I did so when I saw John McCain himself greet the pregnant couple at the airport. That did it for me. It is about a mother who would do that to her daughter, make her an in-your-face symbol of her own parental worthiness, that makes me think publishing the earlier post was the right thing to do.
The Republicans finally managed to get excited about something at their party's nominating convention. Good for them.
ReplyDeleteThe real story is that this is news.
I agree totally with this post and the last one. Sarah Palin is talking out of both sides of her mouth and this exploitation of her children proves it. Pro-Family IS an issue! It's an issue throw up in our faces in regular rotation. As with everything else the religious right throws out there, it means one thing for everyone else, and one thing for them.
ReplyDeletePalin asked for respect of Bristol and fucking redneck's privacy and in fact, she's the one not respecting a damn thing about their privacy!!
This is pure exploitation of a little special needs baby (that they pass around like a sack of potatoes!) and a minor child who has an unplanned child on the way. Their mother is exploiting those children in a most obscene way to tot up more points on the evangelicals R Us board.
She is a bad mother. Even if Trig were not a special needs baby, I hardly think being tossed around like a sack of potatoes would be much of a "bonding" experience for the little guy. How is anyone going to report to the doctors his developmental progress or lack there of when he's pretty much a stage prop at this point. I'm disgusted with this. Its obscene.
It is not misogyny at all. There IS a responsibility of parenting from both parents and this is not a responsible display of it. This is Sarah's selfishness.
This is fucked. AND she's a fucking liar.
omg ... the national enquirer has a cover story alleging that palin had an affair w/her husband's business partner. don't know about y'all, but i'm heading out now to buy me a copy. john edwards must be having the giggles about now.
ReplyDeletethey are spinning her life like a top and the right wing religious fundamentalists will eat this up with a spoon. mccain won't have to worry about donations. i'll bet they are pouring in non-stop from evangelicals.
ReplyDeletethey are going to paint ANYONE even moderate republicans that dare to say 1 questioning thing about palin, into a hate-filled baby slaughtering anti-christ.
and the media that they condemned last night will tip-toe around her, scared of their own shadows.
spineless suckups.
and the worst of the lot will be those republicans that KNOW that mccain and palin are the absolute worst things for the country but will chuckle, and support them and be filled with glee at the strategy.
Children used as human shields. That's the Republican way.
ReplyDeleteYou know who are GREAT parents? Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton managed to be a great mother inside the White House and continues to this day.
ReplyDeleteYou know how I know? Chelsea has her head on straight.
And Hillary spoke about both Chelsea and her mother and their experiences as three generations of women living through the changes of the last century into this one.
She did not exploit. And she did not run her campaign nor give her qualifications as being a mom.
I think that if you doubt liberals on this issue you only have to look at how Hillary was treated by us through the primaries. She was treated as a politician vying for the highest office first and as a mother somewhere after that.
Sarah Palin, on her own or with the aid of her spin doctors, turned that on its head.
they are very good at spinning. doing the very things they accuse others of doing and somehow making people believe it.
ReplyDeletesnake oil salesmen.
and a lot of the voters are addicts.
it's time to go cold turkey and kick it.
before the addiction kills us all.
I was absolute in believing the Repug Party couldn't get lower than the murky depths of Bush 2. I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteSarah Barracuda shreds the last vestiges of normal or reasonable politics. Her petty and vicious attacks, the pregnant teen daughter on the national stage? Ugh. Horrid Sarah sounds about right.
Once upon a time, Republicans stood for fiscal responsibility, were steadfast in the argument of Federal vs. states rights and, at one time they were opposed to excessive wealth and large standing armies. Now look at their platform.
Past giants of that Party, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Tom Dewey, Gerald Ford have got to be spinning in their graves.
Voting for McCain-Palin is nothing less than drinking the tainted Kool-Aid.
The sad thing is that the AP felt compelled to issue a Dem "fact-check" article. That's not a problem in itself, just that what they list is awfully weak crap. As always, the GOP lies more but isn't often called on it. That said, I was glad to see the article on the GOP. That line about Palin getting more votes than Biden really made me sit up, since I knew it had to be BS!
ReplyDelete"We are really arguing over tactics rather than issues." - BG
ReplyDeleteNo, I think it's an issue, not a tactic. I think there is a distinction between
1) Families used as illustrations of successful/unsuccessful policies and
2) Using a family situation as some kind of litmus test for a job.
#2 is illegal. ILLEGAL. If a potential employer asks how your job will impact your family life, tell them to shut the F* up. It's also misogynistic to ask it about women and not men, whether we're talking Clinton or Palin. Whether women with "experience" mothering do the asking or not, it's still buying into society's biases.
As for #1, there are lots of other examples how abstinence only education fails. Why take the low road and shoot up the family? Because they're using it as a photo op? Take the high road. Just say "it's not a qualification" and refuse to even judge whether she's a good mother or not.
Suppose she were an excellent mother, with adult children. Would that change your opposition to her? Probably not, so why the debate over this??
A good example of what I'm saying is at CC's blog, here. Being a lawyer, she's much more concrete than my puny philosophy mind!
ReplyDeleteWell, compulsive liar is a bit harsh. I like to think she can control the lies, but she just chooses not to.
ReplyDeleteGood Lord! The minute the McCain VP was announced, the blogs and MSM went viral, demanding to know what child was whose child. Some claimed to have concrete information that Trig was Bristol's child and Sarah's grandchild, some claimed to have pictures of the fetus!
ReplyDeleteSome claimed that flying after one's water breaks causes Down's Syndrome followed by endless discussions on the shape of a 17 year old's belly and by the way what a slut! Followed by which one was more fu@#able and all this from OUR SIDE!
Had she hidden them all away would we have cried "see she's ashamed and rightly so!"
I cannot for the life of me remember a convention where the whole family of a candidate was NOT trotted out so everyone could criticize what they were wearing.
Disagree with her policies or not, vote for her or not, but I had enough of this kind of rubbish lobbed at my preferred candidate, to last me a life time and have no stomach for seeing yet another woman, regardless of what persuasion, have to endure it.
Enough already!
I agree, enough already.
ReplyDeleteI say let's vote Old John and Sarah Barracuda OFF THE ISLAND - now!
And they can take all their kiddies with them too.