It's been a minute since my last post and because I was slightly impressed by the DNC last week AND McCain's selection of Palin as his VP, I wanted to take time and digest all of that news. I am not going to regurgitate the coverage from last week and I elected to keep this blog free from from all of the News ticker headlines last week. However, I have reached my limit and because of this latest headline, I feel compelled to respond or at least write my take on this.
17 year old Bristol Palin is pregnant and entering her 2nd trimester. She was sixteen when she decided to give up her coochie to some boy without a condom. I mean, really, this is to be expected because her mother, Sarah Palin and her running mate, John MCain have vigourously fought against funding sexual education programs. What I did not expect was the non-chalant response of both candidates , coupled with some of the worst spin doctoring I have ever seen.
Another white teenage girl is pregnant (Hey Jamie Lynne! Although you got fired for beeing a teen slut.) and white folks everywhere are heralding this as "An American family" and as "life happens". Not the fact that some teenagers were doing the nasty and that they probably have some STI that won't be treated because everyone is so focused on the fact that they didn't have abortions. Let me be the first to say that they, and the boys they allowed to ejaculate inside of them make them just as slutty, whorish, and irresponsible, as any Jerry Springer or Maury Povich guest. There is nothing NORMAL or American about a teenager in this day and age giving birth to bastard children - no matter what support network they can lean on.
Family values, my behind! This is what happens when parents have too many children that they can't possibly effectively rear. Had Sarah and Todd been doing a better job of rearing their children instead of trying to be anti-abortion poster folks, Bristol would probably still have her hymen intact. Instead they've chosen to become instant pro-life celebrities, exploiting the fact that they decided to carry to full term a child they conceived who now suffers from Down Syndrome. Equally repugnant is that this genetically deformed child is being used as a trophy to signify that the Palins believe in choosing life as an existence, rather than choosing life as a quality of condition. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that people with DS can't live full lives; I remember Corky from that ABC show, Life Goes On, but that isn't typical of people living with DS.
This kind of behavior isn't limited to Republicans. The common tie that binds is more related to white people and their perception that they are the standard by which all should be judged with regard to social, moral, and familial standards. For those of you who will be quick to be dismissive of this argument based on race, your position doesn't negate the truth. Had these two girls been black, and especially black and poor, the flood gates of criticism would have opened and white folks everywhere would have been co-signing with each other while breaking into choruses of "you KNOW how THOSE people are".
Why are more people outraged at the fact that this came out so publicly and abruptly, than at the fact that NIETHER John McCain or Sarah Palin possess the moral fortitude and American Family VALUES that their party elevated to a core platform issue? If Bristol Palin was poor would her teenage pregnancy be more palatable? Would it still be considered a normal American Family Value? People have chided (myself included) John Edwards, for cheating on his wife and possibly fathering a bastard child by Rielle Hunter. What's the difference here? It's just two older people who knew better doing the same thing that two young people did, both of whom should have known better. These were supposed to be personal family matters, but the fallout became too public and too embarrassing. Their families weren't personal or private when THEY POSED for centerfold spreads in some of the nation's most wideley circulated publications. Such a deluded view of oneself is dangerous and impedes one's ability to lead, particularly when one's party platform make integrity and morality central to the qualification to lead (among other things of course).
John Edwards chiding was still met with the same apologetic, excuse-making, what's-good-for the-goose-isn't-good-for-the-gander, diatribe: This is a private issue, He's done so much good, He's not perfect, We're not perfect, Things happen. Yes, things do happen, but for an American wanting a career in politics things can't and shouldn't happen that undermine one's platform.
Attempting to pander to a socially conservative segment of the electorate is disgusting, but white folks do it all the time. When they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar, doing things that are morally despicaple and contrary to their professed beliefs, they still manage to spin it in such a way where their subjective and skewed value system rewards them for reprehensible behavior.
There is absolutely no way that John McCain or Sarah Palin should be able to excite the evangelical base of the Republican party by being a womanizing, adultering, philanderer or an out-of-touch, unqualified, hockey-mom, with a daughter who has a hot coochie that won't quit. However, they have and if they were to judge these two paragons of virtue by their own standards they would find that they have very little, if anything at all, to cheer about.
