The Obligatory Sarah Palin Column

Greta Christina has written a blog post which very neatly, clearly, and succinctly explains nearly exactly why I am opposed to Sarah Palin. I'm going to quote it in full here because, as I said, it's almost exactly what I think. But please follow the link to her entry so that she can be made aware of people who are reading her words. Especially if anyone has anything to say about this, good or bad. My personal comments in purple italics:

[Greta Christina] The Obligatory Sarah Palin Column, or, Why I Don’t Care About A Pregnant 17 Year Old

I just don’t care that much.

About the pregnant seventeen year old, I mean.

I suppose this is an abdication of my responsibility as a lefty sex writer. But I just don’t care that much that the 2008 Republican nominee for vice-president has a 17-year-old daughter who’s unmarried and pregnant.

I don’t even care all that much about the hypocritical double standard: how Sarah Palin and the Republicans want us to respect Bristol Palin’s personal and sexual privacy but don’t want to respect anyone else’s. That sort of double standard isn’t the most charming trait in the world, especially in an elected official . . . but it’s also very human. We all cut slack, and make excuses, and act protectively, for the people we’re close to. It’s probably not morally perfect, but I’m not sure I’d want to live in a world where it wasn’t true.

When it comes to Sarah Palin, here’s what I do care about.

I care that Sarah Palin thinks that the war in Iraq is part of God’s plan.

I care that Sarah Palin thinks religious creationism should be taught as science in public schools.

I care that Sarah Palin thinks dinosaurs and people may have lived at the same time.

I care that Sarah Palin doesn’t know enough about foreign policy to know what the Bush Doctrine is . . . and that she seems to think she has foreign policy experience because “you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” (Or, as Tina Fey put it, “I can see Russia from my house!”)

I care that Sarah Palin thinks that Jesus Christ will — not that he may, but that he will — come back to Earth in her lifetime. Unfortunately, the links for this, the dinosaurs, and the creationism comment are heresay in these articles. They do not quote Palin directly, they quote people saying they once heard her say that. I don't think it's unreasonable to believe she said these things, given her track record, but I would like to see an actual quote by the press, text attributed to her, or some other form of recording that verifies these statements undeniably.

I could go on. And on. And on. I care that she approvingly quoted a racist, anti-Semitic nutbag who called for Robert Kennedy’s assassination. I care that she lies, repeatedly, about whether she sought and accepted pork barrel money from Congress for her town and her state. I care that her only government experience is as a city councilmember of a town of less than 10,000, as mayor of said town, and as governor of Alaska for less than two years. I care that, as Matt Damon put it (yes, you heard me, Matt Damon — it’s an amazing video and you’ve got to watch it), the prospect of a Palin presidency is “like a really bad Disney movie.” I care . . . oh, you get the picture. These, actually, are lower down on my priority list than the hypocrisy of the "right" for her family to choose keeping a baby and a teenage bride while simultaneously taking away my right to make other choices, but that's not about Bristol, per se, that's about what Bristol represents - more on this later.

And I care that the McCain campaign and the Republican party were so sloppy in vetting her that they keep getting ambushed with new outrages and inanities about her, every day of the campaign. I care that their thought process in picking her was apparently not, “Who might be qualified to be President if the 72- year-old McCain dies?” but, “How can we get evangelicals and disaffected female Hillary supporters to vote for McCain?” I care that Palin was nominated, in large part, because the GOP (a) wanted to get women voters, and (b) thinks women voters are idiots. I care that they view their Vice- Presidential nominee as, essentially, Dan Quayle in a dress.

Oh, and since this is a sex column:

I care that Sarah Palin is so rabidly opposed to abortion that she even opposes it in cases of rape or incest.

I care that Sarah Palin opposes birth control being made available to teenagers.

I care that Sarah Palin supports the grossly failed, grotesquely inaccurate “abstinence only” sex education policy — which flat-out lies to children and teenagers about sex, and which completely fails to reduce teenage sex, STIs, and unwanted pregnancy.

I care that Sarah Palin reportedly tried to get a pro-gay book — not even an erotic gay book or a gay sex information book, but a book by a pastor arguing that homosexuality and Christianity are not mutually exclusive — banned from her town’s public library.

I care that, as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin was responsible for a policy in which rape victims had to pay for their own rape kits. (No, I’m not kidding. A policy that not only further victimizes the victims, but ensures that rapists of poor women will get away with it. And a policy, btw, that McCain also supports, with multiple votes in Congress.)

In other words, I care that, on issues of sex, sexual freedom, and sexual information, Sarah Palin is not only a right winger — she is on the far, far right end of that right wing.

You know, there’s something people often forget about the Presidential elections and the Vice President. And that is this: The Vice President’s most important job isn’t to “balance the ticket.” Or to deliver their home state. Or to do a lot of stump speeches in the campaign. Or, when elected, to go to a lot of state dinners that the President doesn’t have time for.

Their most important job is to be President if the President dies.

(Especially if the President has a 1 in 3 chance, statistically speaking, of dying in office.)
And this is a job that Sarah Palin is grotesquely unqualified to do. "So if Obama is shockingly inexperienced, Palin is, what? Intriguingly inexperienced?" I just can't fathom anyone claiming that she is more experienced than Obama, yet, as we see in the comments, people actually believe her handful of years as a mayor and govenor of a small population is better than Obama's dozen years as a Senator & leader of populations double that of Palin's comparable locations.

But she’s not unqualified because she has a pregnant teenage daughter.

That can happen to anyone. Liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, person of integrity or total hypocrite, sane member of the reality- based community or deluded religious extremist. I was about Bristol Palin’s age when I started having sex, and I wasn’t always careful about birth control, and it could very easily have happened to me, with my leftie, beatnik, agnostic parents. And I don’t think it would have proven very much about them at all. It would have proven that (a) teenagers are often horny, and (b) teenagers are often careless and stupid.

You can argue, as Dan Savage and others have, that Sarah Palin has no right to expect privacy for her own family when she has such callous disregard for the privacy of anybody else. You can argue that, given her policies on birth control for teenagers and abstinence only sex education and such, her daughter’s pregnancy is fair game. You can even argue that her mulish refusal to reconsider her positions on things like teen birth control and abstinence-only sex ed in the face of her daughter’s pregnancy (in contrast to, say, the way Barry Goldwater reconsidered his position on gay rights when his granddaughter came out) shows a stubborn denial in the face of reality that makes her unfit for high office.

You can argue that. You could probably make a good case for it. But I’m not going to. There are lots of reasons why Sarah Palin is grossly unqualified to be Vice-President (as well as lots of reasons why John McCain is grossly unqualified to be President). But in my opinion, her daughter’s pregnancy is not one of them.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t talk about it, ever. I wouldn’t say that, what with the hypocrisy and the abstinence-only sex education and all. Heck, here I am, talking about it right this minute. I’m saying that, in the scheme of things, it’s just not that big a deal. I’m saying that we have much, much better reasons not to vote for this person. I’m saying that we have bigger, and better, fish to fry.

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I'm throwing this in here just because it's related.  

I was at work today and, although I know better than to discuss politics at work, Palin came up and I just couldn't keep my mouth shut.  A co-worker of mine was mouthing off about how we have no right to talk about Bristol without being allowed to drag in Obama's mother.  Obama's mother was an unwed teenager when she got pregnant.  And by teenager, I mean, graduated high school, in college, of legal age but not yet 20, in 1960 when the teen pregnancy rate was higher than it is currently, when contraception was little more than a condom and a prayer, and when abortion was still an uncommon and relatively unsafe procedure.  I believe the phrase he used was "liberal hippie slut" and "white trash" (under the rationalization that "only white trash white women hang around black men").  Never mind that "hippies" didn't come into existence until the early '60s and Obama was born in 1961, and she was not a pot-smoking, free-love, protesting kind of person - she was actually more more comfortable in traditional Javanese society (which, I just learned, believed that remaining in an unhappy marriage made you physically ill, so divorce was societally accepted with no stigma back in the '60s) than in the liberal American circles - although she was not-bigoted and not-sexist, she was rather understated about it, preferring to simply go about her business rather than preach with signs and flowers on campuses. 

So anyway, we're not allowed to bitch about Bristol without the Republicans being allowed to call out "yo mama!"  Bristol Palin, although legally the age of sexual consent in Alaska, is still a legal minor, unable to drink, sign contracts, or die for her country, and lives in a society and age where there are several methods of birth control, abortion is a routine, outpatient procedure, and adoption does not have the same stigma it used to.  Of course, if you're only given Abstinence Only education, these options are unknown to you and, if contemplated anyway, strongly stigmatized against.  Also, it is unclear whether Obama's parents' marriage was because of the pregnancy or not as they were married secretly when she was only 3 months pregnant and no explanation was given to friends or family.

He couldn't see any difference between a grown man having absolutely no control over what his mother did before he was born and a woman whose policies directly contributed to her daughter's situation.  If you pick on the opposition's family, your family is fair game, apparently. 

I tried to point out that Bristol is not the point, it's that Sarah supports Abstinence Only education which, clearly, doesn't work.  Bristol is merely a product of Abstinence Only education.  His retort: "Hell, 90% of pregnant teenagers are part of that program!"  I said, exactly, that's the problem. 

Then, and I don't remember how, exactly, this came up, but someone made a reference to Palin getting in office and I made a comment that I *thought* was out of his earshot, reassuring someone that she wouldn't if she is actually found guilty of the charges against her.  They asked what charges and I explained how the mess of firings in Alaska is being investigated.  To which the original co-worker chimed in.  I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was blustery and loud and doubtful, something about the Democrats making the whole investigation story up - not just the charges, but the story about an investigation.  I said "subpoenas have been sent out".  His next comment was "So you believe everything you read?"  

*blink blink*

I said "the fact that subpoenas have been sent are a matter of public record".

He said "Oh, so now you read public records?"

I said, "yes, actually, I do research these kinds of claims.  She is being investigated.  That is true".

Then he went on a rant about this whole thing being a conspiracy by the Democrats who have seized control of the government in the last 2 years and when I pointed out that we had a Republican in office and the effects of bad policy can take several years to show, he retorted with "The president is nothing more than a puppet, it's the damn Democrats in Congress that have screwed up the economy".  Then he said something to the effect of the Republicans could charges on Obama's mother for being a "lesbian freakshow" if it weren't for the Democrat conspiracy to keep the Republicans out of power. 

I said "yes, well, they could, except that being a lesbian freakshow isn't actually illegal". (I neglected to point out that getting knocked up by a man at 18 is kinda the opposite of being a lesbian).

Thankfully, the resident lesbian made a joke about thinking maybe she should be offended by these comments and walked away.  I tried to leave, but he followed to continue the debate.  He then ranted about how Revelations has foretold that McCain will be elected President, then in 4 years, the 2012 election (which the Mayans predicted - although how this fits in with Revelations, I'm unclear) will have either Palin or Hillary elected and one of them will become the anti-christ.  He didn't know which one, but he was sure it was one of them because the anti-christ was a woman.  I muttered to people nearby that the Mayan calendar doesn't have the same dates as us, so the 2012 thing is bunk, but that, at least, got him in an argument with the other resident fundie xtian over whether the anti-christ was female or male (she maintained it was male because the Bible said "man" and he maintained that "man" was used like "mankind" which was really short for "humankind" and could be either gender).  I took that opportunity to walk to the other side of the room.  As my sweetie says, you can't argue with the mentally ill.

The quotes, by the way, are actual quotes.  I immediately called zen_shooter  to bitch about the conversation, so these phrases managed to stick in my memory fairly accurately.