Bad news from the midwest

[lolaraincoat]

For people who don't read blacksquirrel's journal, you should pop over there right now and look at her last couple of posts. Her not-especially-political brother was arrested as he walked to his car from a sold-out concert in Minneapolis a couple of nights ago by police who thought he might be an anarchist, held overnight, and treated ... not so well. It's not too different from what you might remember from the 2004 Republican convention in NYC, except for the "completely innocent bystander" part. Still, if you thought that the thuggish tactics of the Bush administration - notably, the disregard for habeus corpus that I keep going on about - were likely to diminish under McCain, well, this might worry you.

Relevant post is here and the preceding post.

...

Meanwhile, like everyone else, I am unable to look away from Sarah Palin for a red-hot second. Still. I love her! She is the butchest Republican since Teddy Roosevelt! I mean, she would be an awful president, or vice-president, but I am sincerely grateful to learn that she exists. Did you know that when she got to be governor of Alaska she fired the chef who worked at the governor's mansion because real women do their own cooking? I told you: she loves her family, and she loves firing people!

And another thing: apparently most of the childcare in her family since Palin became governor has been done by her eldest daughter and her mother-in-law. This is the same mother-in-law who ran for mayor of Wasilla after Palin moved on to higher office, and lost because Palin supported another candidate whose anti-abortion stance was tougher. Todd Palin was supposed to be more of a stay-at-home-dad, it seems, but he just couldn't hack it, although he has been doing a fair amount as the spouse of the governor - or, as he prefers, "First Dude."

Do you think Geena Gerson could play her in the movie? The movie in which a shy but brilliant bisexual historian living in a romantic Canadian city is swept off her feet by the force of personality and fabulous gun collection of a former runner-up for Miss Alaska who now is a candidate for national office, but still finds time to nurture her large family - and her secret lesbian passions? Do you think the movie could be called "First Dude"?

...

If I can be semi-serious for a moment, though, as difficult as that is to do in these circumstances:

I agree with Obama's stance toward the whole Palin debacle that candidate's family lives are not fair or useful topics of political discussion. I'm not claiming to be having a political discussion here. I'm just sincerely fascinated. But if I was having a political discussion, I would say that I don't see the hypocrisy that bloggers and commenters have pointed to in Palin's actions having to do with teenagers and sex. The point of abstinence-only education is to prevent non-reproductive sex, right? And to link up sex and marriage? Preferably not in that order, I get that, but still - I don't see the hypocrisy here. There's quite a lot that's wrong with Palin's ideas, especially around marriage and sex, but if we match up her public words and actions with what her private ones seem to have been, she is quite rigidly consistent.

In fact, it's her rigid consistency that makes her so funny.


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Comments

[florahart]

I don't see hypocrisy, just evidence.

The folks who don't like the sex ed (the kind that involves, y'know, education) tend to either outright say, or heavily imply, that the kids who get knocked up/do the knocking, it's not because they should have had birth control, but because they either were not told about the no fucking rule, or were raised poorly and without morals and stuff.

Since one assumes that Ms. Palin believes her approach and stances to be moral, and one assumes that she shared these things with her daughter, and attempted to raise her with the message and the morals, what I see there is simply evidence that her approach and stance is misguided as hell, because clearly with the message and morals, still, there was the teenage pregnancy. Apparently it's not actually about lax morals or about permissive parenting or anything like that, at least in this case. *gasp* It's about the fact that teenagers, being biologically adult and emotionally maybe less than great with restraint, have sex when the opportunity presents, in large numbers.

So, yes. I see the mother's behavior as perfectly consistent, but the daughter's as evidence the mother is just doing it wrong.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, I think we agree here more or less: there's much to be said - oh, so very much! - about Governor Palin as a parent and politician, but it's hard to say that she's hypocritical. I agree , too,that if abstinence-only sex ed was intended to prevent teens from having sex or having babies, it's a complete failure. But I am not so sure that was the intention. I think it was intended to link having babies, having sex, and marriage. So you could see the Palin Family Circus as evidence that abstinence-only education worked just as planned.

This is why I want Palin and her ilk as far away from administrative power on any level from the local to the national as they can possibly be kept: I think they're not stupid, and they're quite good at getting what they want.

[aubrem.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if you were being serious up there or not but I too am loving Sarah Palin. As you say, the butchest republican since Teddy Roosevelt. Of course she'd be a horrendous president or VP but she is one hell of a character. Her very existence makes the country take women more seriously - hell, they'd better or Palin will shoot them - or maybe just fire them if they're lucky.

Did you see this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-QevraCQUc

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am totally serious. God forbid anyone should ever vote for her for any office whatsofuckingever, but I love her and am very glad to have made her media acquaintance.

Thanks you for the link here and the links you posted in your journal. Great stuff!

[cordelia_v]

Yes, I'd noticed the fact that the oldest daughter seemed to be providing a TON of childcare for the baby. She stayed out of last year's schooling do to an 8 month case of mono (!!!) and apparently cared for her brother since his birth.

It crossed my mind that she might have been getting pregnant/marrying in order to get out of her mother's household. That is a traditional escape route for older daughters who are being used to do childcare/household management, after all. She'll have to stay in Alaska, one hopes and assumes, and perhaps the First Dude will finally do childcare. OR they'll take the mother-in-law with them to Washington.

She's a piece of work, relying on her mother-in-law for baby care after foiling the woman's attempt to run for office. And yes, I'd never ask my oldest to that much childcare, either. I'm thinking that she might be a bit . . . narcissistic. Which is common among all politicians, of course.

[cordelia_v]

ps---just wanted to add that I am ADORING these Palin posts. I'm too overloaded this week (nigh on overwhelmed, but that's another story) by RL to do this research myself. So, I'm deeply grateful that YOU'RE doing it, and posting the results in such amusing prose.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you. I'm a bit overwhelmed myself - and that's another story! - but am happily distracting myself with the Palin Family Circus when I can. It's just so good, you know?

Did I even mention that her church in Wasilla isn't fundamentalist at all, it's ASSEMBLY OF GOD, a.k.a. Pentacostal? Somewhere, somebody has a photo of a Palin handling snakes. And then - these are Palins, after all! - shooting them.

[winterthunder.livejournal.com]

Thought- it doesn't say much about her family values that she accepted the VP post knowing the scrutiny it would bring to her oldest daughter during her pregnancy. Whether or not you think the scrutiny is justified, she had to know it was coming. If I were that girl I would be so pissed at Momma for exposing me to the media like that...

[fishwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love how she asked the media to respect the young couple's privacy, and then two days later dragged daughter and teenage boyfriend out on the campaign trail.

Seems to me there's more than one layer of people getting used here.

West Wing Bridezilla?

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I believe that in the very best society, the announcement is made *after* the shotgun wedding (particularly in households where the presence of a shotgun is a dead cert). I wonder if they're hoping for a Tricia Nixon moment after the election? But they should remember that a wedding episode generally proves that a show has jumped the shark.

Re: West Wing Bridezilla?

[fishwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think Palin might BE the Republicans' shark.

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

I think the charges of hypocrisy come from the contradiction of her publicly stated beliefs and some of her political decisions: despite her pro-life stance, she cut funding for programs that help teen mothers. I can dig up another link, but it's all over--despite her claim to be fiscally conservative and against earmarks (McCain's big claim to fame), while she was mayor of Wasilla, she got the town earmarks AND left it way in debt.

So that's where I'd see the hypocrisy.

The narrative elements are.....well, stranger than fiction!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I think, after about the fourth lie of her speech, I was ready to throw things at my television (I was also tired -- my last class ended at 9 pm).

[cryptoxin.livejournal.com]

Gina Gershon as Sarah Palin in "First Dude"? SO MUCH YES.

I'm probably the wrong person to ask, since I not only saw Prey for Rock & Roll but even enjoyed it, but hey....

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

I thought the ones being accused of hypocrisy were the commentators, Bill O'Reilly et al. That's what I've seen, anyway - I've seen that charge a lot, and with a lot of quotes etc to back it up. Especially (but not exclusively) when you throw in race, there is unquestionably a double standard in talking about pregnant teenagers depending on which ones and under which conditions.