Sarah Palin: Having X Chromosomes is Not Enough

  I was watching the Lehrer Report on Public Television and I was disappointed that they echoed the preposterous thinking that the Republicans are peddling about Sarah Palin, this conservative governor of Alaska who McCain has picked as his Vice-President.

Even on public television, male commentators are parroting the conservative line that not only does Palin “talk the talk” against abortion, but that she “walks the walk,” proven, they say, by the fact that despite knowing that her fifth child would have Down syndrome, she didn’t get an abortion.

Excuse me? What does one have to do with the other? Are all the women getting abortions doing so because their fetus shows signs of Down syndrome? I don’t think so. Many factors can impact a woman’s decision to terminate an unwanted pregnancy: Poverty. Lack of access to birth control. No reliable sex education. Rape. Accidents. Homelessness. Husband flight. Health threats. Within the complexity of such reasons, surely Down syndrome represents a miniscule percentage. And of course, many women who believe in choice have knowingly given birth to infants with Down syndrome.

 

It is astounding how anti-abortion freaks distort the issues. The Bush administration has been on an infuriating mission to conflate abortion and birth control. Read what one of my favorite bloggers has to say about that. Stephen comments with wit and insight weekly on the quirky and important stories. Visit “Stephen Views The News” for more humorous writing and seething politics:

Burning my condom in protest ~ but not while wearing it

"Three weeks ago I commented about the attempt of the Bush administration to define birth control as abortion. Upon further reflection I considered the implications of this proposed policy change. The next “logical” step would be to accuse Catholics of abortion when they use the rhythm method to avoid pregnancy. And then we can accuse gays of abortion because their union does not lead to conception. And then we can extend the prison terms of those who are incarcerated because most of them are not permitted conjugal visits and therefore they are also contributing to abortion. When your head stops spinning MoveOn.org has a petition you can sign that will be sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, whose department is considering this rule change. I am not fond of sending petitions to Bush administration officials because their political agendas preclude the interests of most Americans and they could arrogantly care less about what we think. However, I did sign the petition hoping it might lower my blood pressure and raise my testosterone."

Spin is a powerful thing when you own the airwaves. Amazing how a piece of bullshit is catapulted around broadcasts just because some idjit put it into play. Take Barack Obama’s astounding triumph Thursday night. Remember, he wasn’t playing beach volleyball, he was giving a speech at a political convention, usually a sure soporific. He filled up a stadium with 84,000 and was viewed on TV by dozens of millions, 38.4 million in fact. According to E[ntertainment] Online, he “not only topped this past year's Oscars (32 million), but every night of the just-concluded Beijing Games (which, at its best, scored 34.9 million), and last spring's American Idol finale (31.7 million).” Now that is mass arousal.

 

But look at how the Republicans so succeeded in pushing the Democrats off the screen when McCain, in order to garner a bit of attention the following day (and after finally managing to get 10,000 people to fill up a little hall to do it in), announced his surprise vice-presidential choice. So all the cable news stations have been saying, “Look how McCain has stolen Obama’s limelight.” But of course, they’re talking about themselves, because it is they themselves who have turned the spotlight on McCain and his unknown new partner.

Palin is part of McCain’s attempt to go after Hillary supporters. In her first speech, she invokes Ferraro – the first woman vice-presidential nominee of a major party – and “Hillary’s 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.” The weird part? All of a sudden McCain’s audience is cheering Hillary. Thousands of Republicans, for gawdsake, cheering Hillary Clinton? Surprise, surprise. The boys adore Hillary as a loser.

 

If you want to know something about Palin’s views, here’s an article on AlterNet.orgthat I found interesting. There are other pieces around taking about her views: she opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest; she wants to teach creationism in schools; and she doesn’t think climate change was caused by human actions.

Epilogue. Before I could post this piece, I heard an interview with Geraldine Ferraro on National Public Radio that blew my mind. I’ll paraphrase. The interviewer asks her what she thought of Palin’s lack of overseas know-how, considering that apparently Palin got her first passport last week! Ferraro says that despite the fact that she herself had served three terms in congress, she was given an advisor, the then-professor Madeline Albright, who filled her in on anything international she needed to know. Ferraro says that Palin seems very bright and is likely to learn on the job.

How is she feeling, NPR asks Ferraro, about having been fired from Hilary’s campaign team for saying that Obama only won a certain primary because he was black? A defiant Ferraro replies that Obama had managed to sign up a lot of new black voters and that the evidence showed that 95% of “them” (I was uncomfortable with her tone) voted for Obama and it was obviously because he was black. Apparently Ferraro hadn’t noticed – and I’m not especially a fan of electoral politicians – that Obama is also a brilliant speaker and strategist who has scarcely put a foot wrong in his political career.

 

Ferraro won’t even say she will vote for Obama, while protesting that she’s a Democrat. I was living in the Middle East in 1984 when Ferraro was losing the election, so I’ve never had a particular political or emotional impression of her. Until now. As my friend E said, Let’s strike her from our dance party invite list. After all, it is not enough to get us to support you, Sarah Palin and Geraldine Ferraro, just because you may share some chromosomal signature and mammary configurations with other women.

Comments

[Pat]

Just as a matter of fact, currently 90% of pregnant women who have been informed that their baby will have Down's syndrome abort their fetus. I didn't know that.

[Sue Katz]

A reader left me a very long comment - longer than my posting. I discovered that it was actually a copy of a post on the writer's own blog. Here is the beginning and then the link where you can catch the rest of the comment. (Thanks for writing!)

A Few Thoughts on Sarah Palin's Noble Choices and Aspirations. As much as I may resent what I see as some of the most exploitive politics in recent times, I can't help thinking and talking about McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. It's true that I am playing right into GOP hands by helping wipe the slate clean after this week's Democratic convention. But this is a fascinating scenario that I'm still trying to get my head around....

http://dgrim.blogspot.com/

[Gema Gray]

Well, I'm as blown away by the choice of Sarah Palin as the next person. As I digest the ramifictions several thoughts come to mind:

** She certainly addresses the wealth and elitism issue - definitely middle of the road American family. She knows how many homes she owns. Good choice for McCain.

** She shores up McCain's wobbly credentials with the Evangelical Right of the Republican Party. Eh, O-kay, but they were going to hold their noses and vote for him anyway, weren't they? Oh, sorry, I forgot about Bob Barr (who?)!

** Apparently women and independent voters, who are predominantly female, are now more likely to vote for McCain. But independents are usually centrists, and Palin shores up the Right Wing credentials. I don't get it...

** If McCain is incapacitated she becomes President - even for a day. Scary? Heck, yes! She has no experience whatsoever outside of Alaska politics. How can the McCainiacs *ever again* mention Obama's inexperience? It takes away the best issue they've got - and frankly one of the biggest points of concern for Democrats on the fence about supporting him.

** She's a woman. Yup, I noticed that. So what? Here your blog is right on the money. We didn't support Hillary just becasue she was a woman - although that did excite us. We supported her because she had the experience and intellect to make an outstanding President of the United States. Sarah Palin? Not so much...

** The choice highlights the craven sexism of the McCain camp, and has done the same for the media. If we feel the need as a society to be concerned for the care and well-being of a major candidate's young children, let's do so for the male candidates as well as the female ones. The first coverage of the choice of Palin was about how she would juggle her motherly duties to five young children, including a disabled infant, with her duties as a candidate and possibly Vice-President. I found myself agreeing with former Massachusetts Governor, Jane Swift (well, first tme for everything I suppose!) when she called the media out for this double standard and demanded that they pose the same questions to the McCain and Obama families - and to every male candidate with minor children.

** If Palin proves to be a bust (pardon the pun!), I worry that this will set back the march of women towards the halls of power. I am particularly concerned about a VP debate with Joe Biden. Women should be able to run for any elected office we choose...*provided* that we have the necessary qualifications and experience to be successful in that position. The choice of Palin is tokenism plain and simple and it could be used by men everywhere as further proof that women are not ready to be leaders. Sigh.

** On the plus side, this should encourage the Obama campaign to put Hillary out there as a surrogate as often as possible. It will help even more now than it would have with a different VP choice by the republicans.

[Santiago]

Palin proves in deeds her love and courage: being a proud mother of five children, and a son with Down syndrome, is a good sign. She could be a person with a not long political experience, but I think that I could trust in this woman.
Good luck, America!
Santiago, Granada (Spain)
http://opinionciudadano.blogspot.com/

[Ruth Z Deming]

One of your best blogs, Sue, very accurately reported. I was outraged when I heard the same Ferraro interview on NPR. I also took exception at "them" and was shocked that this supposed life-long Democrat won't decide who to vote for until she's in the voting booth!

Also hadn't known about Palin's creationist views - or should I say cretin-ist views. This is the 21st century. Spare us, dear God, spare us!

[Stephen Weinstein]

I feel compelled to take issue with Santiago's comment. There are millions of loving and caring mothers on this planet BUT, that in itself does not qualify them to be in a position to make decisions with international implications. Trust requires demonstrable behavior over time. I believe that the Republican vice presidential nomination of Governor Sarah Palin, who lacks broad administrative experience and has NO national security experience, is an insult to women, the American people and the world community.

[Distractions]

Thanks for another great post Sue. McCain's pick - if it was his, rumors are that he only met Palin once -- is
going to get all those evangelical votes that he would've gotten with Huckabee, but he gets all that play from the media because he selected a woman. But I can't see how anyone who would've voted for Hillary would find any common ground in Palin's very scary views. Oh, and I just don't get Ferraro.