Blogging politics
My rules (not your rules — my rules):
1. I only write about something for as long as it’s fun/interesting to write about. I reserve the right to stop at any time and ignore certain issues for the sake of my sanity.
2. Generally I don’t debate with folks on the other side of the aisle. It’s one thing to get into a friendly if heated discussion with someone who’s values are mostly mine but it’s quite another to get into it with someone who lives on another planet. It’s not worth the raised blood pressure for either of us so I reserve the right to skip it.
3. On this blog, I’m personally blogging. I’m not trying to share a level-headed, reasonable view of the issues — I’m writing what I think in a way that I wouldn’t if this were an official op-ed column or I was a talking head on television. My standards are lower; I reserve the right to go there.
I’m nervous/excited/terrified/hopeful about this election. My emotions are running pretty high so I’m going to try to not let my blog run away without me. I want Obama to win so bad I can taste it. I’m scared about the supreme court. I’m scared about losing my reproductive rights.
And this is why I think Bristol Palin’s personal life has become a part of the discussion and why I have issue with her mother riding on her back in her effort to get to the white house. It’s one thing for McCain to sell out a teenager; it’s another thing for that teenager’s parents to do it.
Compare the candidates’ positions on sexual education (ganked from Momocrats):
It is simple, Sarah Palin and John Mc Cain support only “abstinence based sex education programs”, while Barack Obama and Joe Biden support “sensible, community-driven education for children because, among other things, he believes it could help protect them from pedophiles. A child’s knowledge of the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching is crucial to keeping them safe from predators.” Get that folks, age appropriate science based information that keeps kids safe. Materials that have been created by public health educators are used all over the country and have been proven to work. When more than half of the STDs and HIV in this country is contracted by people under the age of 25, comprehensive sex education is a must…. More over, most sex education programs have opt-out options. If a parent is opposed, then they can pull their child from the program.
Conservative defined “morality” (i.e., sexual politics and not morality like I define it, which would be about helping the less fortunate) is a central issue of this election. If a 17-year old Chelsea Clinton showed up pregnant during her mom’s run or her dad’s run, the religious right would have eviscerated her even though she would also be living her parents’ “right to choose” values (as we can argue Bristol is living her parents’ “right to life” values). And I’d have just as many bad feelings about the Clintons if they ran knowing their daughter would be ripped apart by the public. It’s wrong to make Bristol live her private crisis publicly but it’s even more wrong to make her a martyr/hero for the cause.
I think that they chose Sarah Palin in part because of her son Trig and her daughter’s pregnancy. I think this is part of the campaign strategy. They are making them the poster family for anti-choice rhetoric. Look — they have right there in their family two of the pro-choice arguments in Trig’s presence and Bristol’s decision to marry her boyfriend and raise the baby. I’m glad the women both had choices. Contrary to popular belief, the pro-choice mindset isn’t that every “imperfect” pregnancy is a failure but that every woman has a right to consider her options and make the decision that best suits her values and her circumstances. I’m glad Trig is here. I congratulate Bristol and am happy she has her family’s support and that they haven’t shipped her off to the Crittenton home. I am angry that the Republican candidates don’t support my right to make different choices.
But the biggest issue for me is that there’s no way Sarah Palin is prepared to step into office if anything should happen to John McCain. NO WAY. And having her step away from the presidency scares the hell out of me.
I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next sixty-something days. My head may explode.
Now I’m off to all day meetings with no email breaks! (What?! No email breaks? My head really MAY explode!)
I don’t have any objection, by the way, to this sort of discussion. In fact I have had it myself. The idea that they felt compelled to tell us that Bristol is doing what she is doing by choice (which is great) while trying to deny me the right to choose is infuriating.
Hearing some religious, right-wing, pastor guy saying they were living “pro-life values” made me want to scream. Good for them. I support their right to do so, just don’t tell me I have to do it too.
For my own sake, my blood pressure goes up whenever I go there — it has now. So this isn’t a good place for me to be.
And I am SO irritated that she has so many loyalty-based firings and other questionable actions. I do want to talk more about that.
I like your rules, and I feel the same way about Palin’s (and the campaign’s) choice to martyr Palin’s children and sanctify herself. Those poor kids. (Some family values).
Great post, Dawn.
I’ll just reiterate: it took me until after my first (unplanned) pregnancy and the planning of the next one to learn anything of importance about my body. It wasn’t until I found out about and read Taking Charge of Your Fertility that I learned about fertility signs, what the hell my body was doing each month and what some warning signs of problems were. ‘
And, please, don’t argue that sexual reproductive health issues are best to be taught int he home. (Not that you are, I’m ranting here.) It’s families that are supporting that idea that ARE NOT teaching the important stuff at home. My Mother NEVER took me to a gynecologist. I went on my own when I was 21. In many of these families, my parents included, pro-life means a complete lack of any information concerning reproduction. What good does that do? None. In fact, it helped prolong a diagnosis that could have been discovered if I had been encouraged or had been taught things about my body earlier. And don’t even blame it on the teen for not picking up a book on her own. How would I have brought a book like TCOYF home with MY parents? It’s hilarious.
Okay. I’m done ranting in here, Dawn. I promise.
Bless you. I love hearing what you have to say. You make me THINK and I love you for it. I’m frightened too. This whole Sarah Palin thing has sent all of my thoughts on the upcoming election into a major tailspin. The level of irresponsibility in even considering nominating her, much less actually doing so and her ACCEPTING under her personal circumstances is staggering. Absolutely mind blowing.
One thing that especially irritates me is that many of the archconservatives who think it’s so great for someone like Bristol Palin to have and keep her baby are often the same people who would have the exact reverse opinion if she was a black teenager.
Jenna, I LIKE it when you rant here because I’m always nodding my head! Just like I’m always re-sharing everything you share in google reader! (I’m just riding on your coat tails going, “Yeah! What SHE said!!”)
Atlasien, the hypocrisy of the Republican party never ceases to amaze me.
Dawn; *blushes* That means a lot, coming from you… as I look to you as someone who has taught me so much!
Dawn, if I’m the “friendly but heated” you were referring to, I hope the friendly dominates. I didn’t ramble on in your comments because I wanted to criticize your point of view, but because I’ve found that while we sometimes disagree on details I always respect the way you’ve thought through your opinions and you often give me new and valuable things to think about. I know I can get excited by these types of discussions - we all care so much about this election - and I hope it didn’t come across more harshly than intended.
That caring/fear of what would happen if ‘the other guys’ win, which I share 100%, is part of why I tend to defend Palin’s choice to run. Because if I had a daughter, and if I had a chance to protect Roe v Wade, and to promote effective sex-ed, and to provide universal health care, and any of the other things that I care so much about, I think I would want to do that. I would want to do that for my daughter, so that I could protect her from having to grow up in a world that didn’t have those things.
Ok, I’m going to stop now. At least until the next newsflash
I love this.
2. Generally I don’t debate with folks on the other side of the aisle. It’s one thing to get into a friendly if heated discussion with someone who’s values are mostly mine but it’s quite another to get into it with someone who lives on another planet. It’s not worth the raised blood pressure for either of us so I reserve the right to skip it.
I am the same way. Had a blog situation like this just this weekend.
As for the rest of it, guh. I am so overloaded with thoughts on election I cannot even express my feelings properly.
I don’t think McCain had a clue before he chose her. I really don’t think he would have,otherwise. It is too risky a strategy.
As aparent, I would never subject my 17 year old to the scrutiny she is receiving right now.
i would be very surprised if she is still the nominee a week from now.
Amen….Dawn, well said…
Well said indeed.
The more I’ve read about the choice of Sarah Palin as running mate for John McCain, the more I agree that this was all planned. To put a teenager in crisis into the political spotlight is really rock bottom in my opinion.
My head is exploding from the same stress as yours. Scared, excited, hopeful, trying not to count on it.
My husband and I watched “Recount” a couple of nights ago. It was well-acted and interesting, re-opened a lot of old wounds, and gave me pause about how things can go so terribly wrong. How events can be manipulated to make things wrong.
{shudder}
she’s a creationist too, and supports teaching it in the public schools. Does no one even consider the First Amendment to be more than a quaint idea of yesteryear anymore?
Dawn, I agree so strongly with this! The thing that the Palin’s don’t want to admit is that a pro-choice family could look JUST like theirs. Every teenage mother is NOT pro=life/anti-choice. Every parent of a child with Downs syndrome is NOT pro-life/anti-choice.
It reminds me of times that I hear/read that all birthmothers must be pro-life because they chose life for their placed child. Sorry. I’m pro-CHOICE. I just chose to give birth to Cupcake. I thank God I had that choice available to me though.
I am totally against John McCain — but when I first heard about Palin I got EXCITED! I couldn’t HELP IT! Like when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated to the VP-ship. I mean, in my hegemonic household, I made eggplant parmigiana and DARED to name it Eggplant Ferraro because I was sooooo keyed.
This time, I fell back to my initial position, which was “this is cynical and contrived and McCain’s folks know exactly what they are doing. It’s got nothing to do with equality or anything else, even if Palin herself thinks it does.”
Sarah, friendly dominates!!!!
i’m finding this interesting on a number of levels -
1. saying that bristol is ‘choosing’ to keep the baby implies that she has a choice, and that there is another option.
2. the spin. if this were a democrat, pro sex ed, pro choice, working mother who had left her baby who has down’s syndrome at 3 days to go back to work, and whose teenage daughter was pregnant, we’d be hearing about the evils of working mothers and sex ed.