Compilation of thoughts on the GOP VP pick
You know what's really killing me about the McCain campaign's selection of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee? It's not just that she's unqualified and a right-wing "Christian" social conservative, it's that throughout the next few months until the election is over I'm going to have to be defending her from ignorant assholes on the Left. Yeah, normally I spend my time analyzing and mocking right wing assholes, but I will readily acknowledge that there's no lack of them from the side that is supposedly "progressive".
And that really hurts me - not because it's defending someone whose views I disagree with, but it's a sign of how much healing we all need, even for those whose views I agree with most of the time. (that's probably a grammatically incorrect sentence)
So please, my fellow liberals or those claiming to be. Don't be sexist.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize Palin, none of which having anything to do with her gender. She's anti-choice, pro-guns, pro-big oil, pro-death penalty, against marriage equality, and knows even less about foreign affairs than I do.
So that'll lay the record straight - I'll defend her from misogyny not because I agree with her policy views (I probably disagree with almost ALL of them) but because that's simply how feminism works.
On a related subject, I know there's been a lot made about the fact that Sarah Palin's 17-year old daughter is five months pregnant, and some are somewhat aggravated by this because it completely contradicts Palin's own policy views, so-called "family values". To rephrase that, on various blogs some people have been arguing that criticizing Palin for her daughter's pregnancy out of wedlock is fair game since she is anti-choice and therefore must have forced her daughter to keep the child. Or maybe a choice was offered, but it was between raising the child and giving it up for adoption, and in actuality the young girl would have preferred aborting it. Now it is not my intention to make ad hominem attacks on anyone, but that is pure bull.
I am pro-choice, and I constantly have to remind some of my Christian friends that this is not the same as being pro-abortion. I don't really know anyone who is actually pro-abortion - it's a painful process, physically and emotionally, and I'd say the best thing is to avoid getting into that sort of situation in the first place, either through abstinence or birth control or whatever you see fit.
Being pro-choice means you support a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy and to continue one if she wishes. Though I may disagree with a woman's decision because it may be unwise, it does not necessarily mean she was coerced into doing it. If she looked at her options and decided to continue the pregnancy and raise the child, then that's great.
I think this is one of the reasons for why there is such a divide between Evangelical Christians and Liberal Christians, and why the former demographic finds it so hard to vote for a Democrat and tend to lean heavily Republican, even when it goes against their own best interests - because there is rarely clear, educated, and civil dialogue on this issue. To frame outlawing abortion and forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy to term as "pro-life" is to me deceptive and dangerous, which is why I use the perhaps somewhat insensitive (but to me, accurate) term "anti-choice". This is probably a bit harsh and I realize I'm criticizing many of my Christian friends in particular here, but I also feel that until we actually talk and think about issues we'll have this culture divide forever.
Sanctity of life doesn't mean protecting a clump of cells (fetus) over the life of the potential mother, it means taking care of those we already have - our orphans, and our disabled, and our mentally handicapped... to avoid unnecessary warfare, to condemn torture, to stop killing animals for our own selfish pleasure. That's why I approve of teaching comprehensive sex-ed in schools, including contraception, because it's been proven that this is the most effective way to reduce unwanted pregnancies and thus the possibility of abortions.
Until we have a society that actually actively helps pregnant girls after a child is delivered, that takes care of our orphans adequately, that resolves pregnancy issues in the workplace fairly, I cannot in good conscience be "pro-life". (I don't think I could be anyway, because I'm not very comfortable deciding for someone else an issue this personal)
Back to Palin, I found a quote by Obama regarding Palin's daughter's pregnancy:
I applaud him for doing this, and it makes me feel more confident in supporting him. (I didn't vote for him in the primary - Kucinich was my ideal choice as far as policy views go, though undoubtedly Obama is more charismatic)
And that really hurts me - not because it's defending someone whose views I disagree with, but it's a sign of how much healing we all need, even for those whose views I agree with most of the time. (that's probably a grammatically incorrect sentence)
So please, my fellow liberals or those claiming to be. Don't be sexist.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize Palin, none of which having anything to do with her gender. She's anti-choice, pro-guns, pro-big oil, pro-death penalty, against marriage equality, and knows even less about foreign affairs than I do.
So that'll lay the record straight - I'll defend her from misogyny not because I agree with her policy views (I probably disagree with almost ALL of them) but because that's simply how feminism works.
On a related subject, I know there's been a lot made about the fact that Sarah Palin's 17-year old daughter is five months pregnant, and some are somewhat aggravated by this because it completely contradicts Palin's own policy views, so-called "family values". To rephrase that, on various blogs some people have been arguing that criticizing Palin for her daughter's pregnancy out of wedlock is fair game since she is anti-choice and therefore must have forced her daughter to keep the child. Or maybe a choice was offered, but it was between raising the child and giving it up for adoption, and in actuality the young girl would have preferred aborting it. Now it is not my intention to make ad hominem attacks on anyone, but that is pure bull.
I am pro-choice, and I constantly have to remind some of my Christian friends that this is not the same as being pro-abortion. I don't really know anyone who is actually pro-abortion - it's a painful process, physically and emotionally, and I'd say the best thing is to avoid getting into that sort of situation in the first place, either through abstinence or birth control or whatever you see fit.
Being pro-choice means you support a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy and to continue one if she wishes. Though I may disagree with a woman's decision because it may be unwise, it does not necessarily mean she was coerced into doing it. If she looked at her options and decided to continue the pregnancy and raise the child, then that's great.
I think this is one of the reasons for why there is such a divide between Evangelical Christians and Liberal Christians, and why the former demographic finds it so hard to vote for a Democrat and tend to lean heavily Republican, even when it goes against their own best interests - because there is rarely clear, educated, and civil dialogue on this issue. To frame outlawing abortion and forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy to term as "pro-life" is to me deceptive and dangerous, which is why I use the perhaps somewhat insensitive (but to me, accurate) term "anti-choice". This is probably a bit harsh and I realize I'm criticizing many of my Christian friends in particular here, but I also feel that until we actually talk and think about issues we'll have this culture divide forever.
Sanctity of life doesn't mean protecting a clump of cells (fetus) over the life of the potential mother, it means taking care of those we already have - our orphans, and our disabled, and our mentally handicapped... to avoid unnecessary warfare, to condemn torture, to stop killing animals for our own selfish pleasure. That's why I approve of teaching comprehensive sex-ed in schools, including contraception, because it's been proven that this is the most effective way to reduce unwanted pregnancies and thus the possibility of abortions.
Until we have a society that actually actively helps pregnant girls after a child is delivered, that takes care of our orphans adequately, that resolves pregnancy issues in the workplace fairly, I cannot in good conscience be "pro-life". (I don't think I could be anyway, because I'm not very comfortable deciding for someone else an issue this personal)
Back to Palin, I found a quote by Obama regarding Palin's daughter's pregnancy:
"I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics, it has no relevance to governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18. And how family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn't be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that is off limits."
I applaud him for doing this, and it makes me feel more confident in supporting him. (I didn't vote for him in the primary - Kucinich was my ideal choice as far as policy views go, though undoubtedly Obama is more charismatic)
Comments
Post a Comment