Politics and Palin
It has really irritated me lately to hear progressives dragging out Palin's past as a beauty contestant and her large family (and her being a working mother who returned to work shortly after birth), much /less/ her daughter's pregnancy, when talking about her fitness to be the Vice Presidential candidate.
Seriously. There are SO MANY ways in which she makes a bad choice to vote for, for someone with progressive ideals, that in no way should either her attractiveness or her motherhood be in the running for things to talk about. C'mon, people, it's making me freakin' cringe to read some of this stuff...it doesn't stop being misogynistic just because it's a Republican, y'know. And her daughter's pregnancy is a complete non-issue, /yes/, even if Palin is a 'family values' sort of woman. Anyone, particularly a teenager, can make a mistake, and there's not a one among us who knows what that young woman's situation was, or will be. Certainly, she's not going to have as many problems as some young women in her position will.
But lay off Palin's contestant and mothering backgrounds, and lay on to her policy positions. (And no, insinuating that she only got the nod because McCain likes to look at pretty girls isn't any better, since it's a dog whistle for 'she earned on her back', and it's disingenious to pretend otherwise.)
Seriously. There are SO MANY ways in which she makes a bad choice to vote for, for someone with progressive ideals, that in no way should either her attractiveness or her motherhood be in the running for things to talk about. C'mon, people, it's making me freakin' cringe to read some of this stuff...it doesn't stop being misogynistic just because it's a Republican, y'know. And her daughter's pregnancy is a complete non-issue, /yes/, even if Palin is a 'family values' sort of woman. Anyone, particularly a teenager, can make a mistake, and there's not a one among us who knows what that young woman's situation was, or will be. Certainly, she's not going to have as many problems as some young women in her position will.
But lay off Palin's contestant and mothering backgrounds, and lay on to her policy positions. (And no, insinuating that she only got the nod because McCain likes to look at pretty girls isn't any better, since it's a dog whistle for 'she earned on her back', and it's disingenious to pretend otherwise.)