…but conservative bloggers are up in arms over this Palin pregnancy thing and trying to tell me liberal bloggers are …wait…let me find it…
What’s disturbing about both the rumors– originated at Daily Kos on Friday– and the way the Left has already been going after Palin and Bristol is that there’s an
obviously anti-woman streak in it. “Palin can’t campaign because she has a special needs baby!” “Palin can’t possibly run for VP while her daughter is going through a major life transition!” “Palin endangered her baby by being governor while pregnant!”Really, guys? So a highly capable woman with a strong support network and great family is supposed to lay aside the greatest opportunity of her career because she has a family in which normal challenges have to be overcome? The Left is more than happy to abandon all its “I am woman, hear me roar” rhetoric as soon as it meets a woman whose roar it doesn’t like. The Left is more than happy to abandon the
“right to privacy” as long as prying is politically beneficial.– Mary Katharine Ham, BlogHer
I’m sorry but I need to pick my jaw up off the floor here for a minute and bring everyone back to the land of NOT CRAZY, where conservatives normally don’t call the left ‘anti-woman’ and call out sexism.
I would argue, their candidate is the leader of the anti-woman rhetoric and any fringe nut-jobs on the left saying anything remotely ‘anti-woman’ have already been tossed to our liberal curb. You know, where we keep the rest of the Rush-type women haters.
I mean really…are you trying to out “pro”woman the Democrats simply because you’re running a woman? Seriously? Really? When you vote down things like family leave and family planning? SERIOUSLY? The party pushing us to back alley abortions and freaking out over condoms in schools? The one totally fine with the idea women don’t really need equal pay they just need more education and training? The one, as my husband just reminded me, trying to re-classify birth control as abortion?What the hell kind of drugs are you people doing?
How about we all take a deep breathe and review, shall we? I need to take a deep breathe here.
In through the nose, out through the mouth….
From David Greenberg, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood in Oregon-
John McCain is one of only a few Senators to earn a Zero percent lifetime rating from Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund, and he only scored that high because the organization doesn’t have a lower rating…. Let’s look at his record:
He voted against requiring health care plans to cover birth control (3/22/03).
He voted against comprehensive, medically accurate sex education (7/25/06).
He voted against international family planning funding (3/14/96).
He voted against funding to prevent teen and unintended pregnancies (3/17/05).
He voted against public education for emergency contraception (3/17/05).
And he voted against restoring Medicaid funding that could be used for family planning for low-income women (3/17/05).
NPR reported (2/2/08) that, “Many Republican voters seem to believe, incorrectly, that the current Republican front-runner, Arizona Senator John McCain, supports abortion rights.”
John McCain wants us to believe that he’s a moderate who supports improving the health of women in the United States, but in fact he’s among the most extreme members of Congress who voted against common sense measures on family planning, sex education and access to basic healthcare.
So while we’ve got a couple of asshole bloggers who should in no way be associating themselves with a Democratic platform, you’ve got a candidate and running mate poised to set the women’s movement back 50 years. You understand asshole bloggers right? I seem to recall a few that blog for your candidate that the campaign has totally disassociated with too….
Anyway…back to the women’s movement thing.
Is there a women’s movement that involves the beliefs of McCain/Palin and those family values I keep hearing so much about? Sure, it’s from 1950 and still allowed under today’s society and even under a Democratic administration.
Let me be clear. I’m thrilled to see you on the anti-sexism, pro-woman bandwagon. There is room for all. I’m entirely confused by you here, and don’t really understand why you’re sticking around. Maybe those McCain stances above will help remind you of where your candidate stands. I’d dig a bit into that VP candidate of yours too, since you’re so interested in making sure we women-folk are treated so well. I highly recommend you go check out MOMocrats meme today entitled “Palin in Comparison” in which they dismantle, issue by issue, the farce that is McCain’s VP pick.
While you do that, I have to go approve Patrick Ruffini as a Facebook friend now. Because apparently the world is upside down and I am smoking crack.
‘Tis naught but a cynical ploy. It’s like when we were planning to go to war against Afghanistan, and suddenly every living conservative noticed the decades-long plight of Islamic women – as though they’d been playing hide-and-go-seek the whole time. That put them into a position of portraying Democrats as hypocrites. (“They SAY that they’re the party of women, but they won’t drop bombs on people to prove it!”)
Fact is, conservatives don’t have a good line on Palin as VP, and are throwing memes at the wall to see what sticks.
Keep breathing.
To quote their oft-quoted bible, “the truth shall set you free” I think it was the gospel according to John.
And while I am at it, let’s try this one: God Bless America? When will some ballsy politician on EITHER side, say “God Bless the entire world?”
McCain has made me regret that I ever used to be considered a Republican. You’ve got it completely right. It is a ploy to win the Hillary voters and nothing else. How can he possibly think that we all won’t see right through what he is pulling here?!? This is nuts and I hope that no one falls for it.
Can I bother to point out that conservatives do not equal Republicans. Lest you forget what I’ve been saying.
Reminder
I have to agree . . . this pick is far worse than the prospect of having no woman every picked as a VP running mate, especially in the wake of Hillary Clinton losing the primary. This is a reiteration of all the things we were taught that women had to be in order to be successful, but secretly hoped weren’t true–a gun-toting pro-life mooseburger eating beauty queen with no experience? I guess if you look good and toe the party line, then that’s all you can expect out of a woman, eh, McCain?
I live in a pot belt. Does that help?
Either that or its prozac in the water.
There are few things that scare the bejeezue out of me. Sarah Palin and John McCain are two of them.
What it boils down to, is what I wrote in my last post on September 1: its not about birth control/rights/right to life/abortion. Its about CHOICE.
And Erin, you rock.
I’m smoking too. There is a HUGE difference between a highly qualified female candidate (Clinton) compared to touting oneself as a PTA president. As if that is even close to comparable. However, I can get past that. What I cannot get past is her policy stances, and the republican party’s willingness to openly mock women as fools who will vote for ANY woman. No matter what. That in itself sets back the advancements of women.
I am worked up. I need some of those deep breaths…
THANK YOU, Erin!
Frankly, anyone who suggests she shouldn’t run b/c of her kids is a 1950’s throwback. It’s just hilarious that the conservatives are all over this “feminism” thing only now, with a VP candidate they must (although can’t quite really) defend.
I think the Republicans are just annoyed that we won’t automatically vote for anyone with a vagina.
I think you miss the point of the first quote entirely— You have every right to disagree with Palin’s policies. And by all means, don’t support her JUST because she’s a woman– that would be foolish. BUT… to use these arguments: “Palin can’t campaign because she has a special needs baby!” “Palin can’t possibly run for VP while her daughter is going through a major life transition!” “Palin endangered her baby by being governor while pregnant!”, ALL OF WHICH have been used against her, is hypocritical and undermines the feminist platform of the Democratic party altogether.
Republicans only cry sexism when they’re called their tokenism and hypocrisy. I don’t care if Pailin’s fifth child is a special needs baby; if she can care for the kid, good for her. But while Palin’s gone hog-wild with this GOP family values/Bible belt/anti-abortion hooey, her underage kid is having sex before marriage.
Oh, and Governor Palin? Cut funding to help homeless teenage mothers.
Hypocrisy, IMO, is the real issue.
PS: Here is the link about the cut funding:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html?hpid=artslot
Dude, you are not smoking crack, THEY ARE.
There. I said it. It had to be said.
Love,
GraceD
Listening to republicans talk does feel like the world is upside down!