Palin Adds Right-Wing Cruelty to GOP Ticket
In the wake of John McCain picking Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, it will be very difficult for Democrats -- and impossible for the media -- to avoid falling for the framing trap in this choice.
What is the trap? Whoever is talking about "John McCain and women" in response to the VP pick is now in the GOP framing trap. Gov. Palin's gender is a biological fact, but it is not the political issue germane to her nomination. The real issue in Gov. Palin's nomination is her outspoken support for various forms of political cruelty -- both in the media and in her policy positions.
McCain's Cynical PR Strategy
By focusing on her gender, the media has fallen hook, line, and sinker for the PR campaign pushed by McCain.
Although Gov. Palin is clearly a bad choice for women, the McCain campaign is using her as part of a larger framing push to say the opposite. Nobody is more complicit in this propaganda than Carly Fiorina.
In a blatant attempt to use the media to undercut the Democratic National Convention in Colorado, Fiornia published an op-ed in Friday's Denver Post with the conspicuously propagandist title, "John McCain is the Right Choice for Women." Fiorna's article is a transparent attempt by the McCain campaign to sell their candidate as 'feminist' with an eye towards attracting supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton:
When feminist pioneer and poet Robin Morgan was asked this year if she was supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton just because Clinton was a woman, Morgan replied, "No. I'm supporting her because I am."
I'm reminded of this as I campaign around the country for John McCain and particularly as I've spoken to women. It's especially on my mind today, on the historic occasion of both Hillary Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention, and the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage. Women of all political persuasions are taking a serious look at John McCain.
Within hours of Fiorna's article, the McCain campaign announced Palin as their choice--using language almost identical to Fiorina's Op-Ed:
The person I'm about to introduce to you was a union member and is married to a union member, and understands the problems, the hopes and the values of working people; knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments and health care, the cost of gasoline and groceries. A standout high school point guard; a concerned citizen who became a member of the PTA; then a city council member, and then a mayor; and now a governor who beat the long odds to win a tough election on a message of reform and public integrity. And, I am especially proud to say in the week we celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage, a devoted wife and a mother of five.
Take a second look at that last line in that paragraph from McCain:
And, I am especially proud to say in the week we celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage, a devoted wife and a mother of five.
What we see in this line is a framing strategy from the McCain communications team, whereby the campaign attempts to convince the public that John McCain is good for women's rights by associated his name with the suffragette movement. The first step of that campaign was to roll out a high-profile op-ed from a campaign surrogate (Fiorina) with the false claim that John McCain is the choice of 'feminists' and the symbolic fulfillment of the suffragette movement. The second step is to have the candidate reference the suffragette movement again in reference to his VP choice.
Cynical Campaign Insults Memory of Suffragettes
But wait a minute: McCain said that when he thinks about the suffragettes, he is proud of the fact that Gov. Palin is a devoted wife and mother.
If we just take a second to crack open our American history books and pull up a speech from Susan B. Anthony, perhapas the most famous leader of the American suffragette movement, we quickly see how much McCain's comment would have been rejected -- vehemently -- by the very movement he claims to now represent. In this 1872 speech given after she was arrested for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election, Susan B. Anthony said the following -- hold onto your hat, this is a powerful quote:
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people -- women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government -- the ballot.
For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.
To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.
Does that sound like something John McCain would say? Not even close. Does that sound like something Gov. Palin would say? No way.
Gov. Palin, despite her gender, has demonstrated how complicit she is in the very 'hateful' forces described by Susan B. Anthony almost a century-and-half ago. Gov. Palin has shown herself to be in sync not with the movement to value women's voices, but with the right-wing media movement that seeks to undermine our civil culture.
In January 2007, Gov. Palin participated in an on air interview with right-wing shock jocks "Bob & Mark," during which the hosts repeatedly demeaned Gov. Palin's political opponent, Senate President Lynda Green, using crass epithets. Gov. Palin's response did not embody any political legacy from the suffragette movement. She simply laughed along.
Summing up the incident for the Anchorage Daily News, Dan Fagan observed:
The Daily News opinion page addressed the governor's gaffe. They wrote, "She came off looking immature herself, almost high-schoolish. It was conduct unbecoming a governor."
It was conduct unbecoming a human being, never mind a governor.
The governor's office eventually tried to spin the public relations disaster, releasing a statement reading, "Governor Palin was caught off guard by Bob Lester's reference to Senate President Lyda Green."
I don't buy it. Early on in the conversation before Palin started to crack up, Lester referred to Sen. Green as a jealous woman and a cancer. Palin, who knows full well Lyda Green is a cancer survivor, didn't do what any decent person would do, say, "Bob, that's going too far."
But as the conversation moved on, Lester intensified his attack on Green.
Lester questioned Green's motherhood, asking Palin if the senator cares about her own kids. Palin laughs.
Then Lester clearly sets the stage for what he is about to say by warning his large audience and Palin. He says, "Governor you can't say this but I will, Lyda Green is a cancer and a b----." Palin laughs for the second time.
What were teenage boys thinking when they heard the governor laugh at someone being called a b----? How about the teenage girls who look up to Palin. What did they think when they heard her laugh?
What do young boys think when they hear a governor laugh at a female elected official being described as a "b---h?" They think it is commendable behavior. What do teenage girls think when they hear a female governor laugh at the gendered put downs of another female member of government? They think that that women do not deserve to play active roles in American government--that they should be happy to be 'devoted' wives and mothers, but leave the governing to men.
The conversation America should be having about Gov. Sarah Palin, in other words, is not about women or gender or suffragettes. That is the communications plan the McCain campaign wants us all to follow.
Instead, Americans should use the Gov. Palin nomination as an opportunity to talk about the corrosive impact of right-wing media on our political culture.
If we are truly interested the politics of Gov. Palin, then we must be willing to look past the cynical effort by John McCain to use her gender to brand himself falsely as the inheritor of the women's rights movement. We should take this moment to focus the debate on the policy threats Gov. Palin brings to the table.
Among other concerns Gov. Palin has been described as a pro-life 'zealot' who believes that the victims of rape and incest should be subjugated by law to forced pregnancy and required to give birth to their assailant's child. One would be hard pressed to think of a form of punishment more cruel and inhumane, then a law that would sentence a woman to prison if she refused to give birth to the child of a man who raped her.
Cruelty, not gender. That, America, is Gov. Sarah Palin. And that is the discussion we should demand from our media.
Follow Jeffrey Feldman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JeffreyFeldman
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— Mayoral performance. Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla — that amounts to $3,000 per resident. She argues that the debt was needed to fund improvements.
http://www
Toward the very bottom.
While we were asleep John McCain released this list of candidates to fill the following positions:
Sec of State - Homer Simpson
Sec of Defense - Pee Wee Herman ( man I loved Pee Wee's Playhouse!)
Attorney General - John Edwards ( 2 lying Johns make a right I think )
Sec. of Agriculture - Ronald Mc Donald
FBI Directory- Barney Fife
more positions to fill will follow as they will need to be extensively vetted but for now these were all they had time to vet...lol
Giant fonts causing nationwide crisis....
The Republicans have always been better at framing issues, and making good seem bad, and bad seem good. (like the Peacekeeper missile, the death tax, etc.) They are now claiming that Ms. Palin is a qualified candidate. Their strength is that they repeat the lies again and again and again, until they have a life of their own. The Dems are weak in this area. I agree that her gender should not be an issue; it's a gimmick. The dems can win on the issues - but they have to be presented in the right context. I hope the Obama people figure it out.
Palin is underqualified. She has a penchant for firing public servants for political reasons. She is not kind to opponents or animals. She is a journalism major who looks great on camera and thinks her extremist views are not extremist because they are "old fashioned".
Fox News Nation.
This choice isn't about women. Conservative men are alreay taking McCodger's lead and voting with their other heads. Would she be as "qualified" if she was plain?
What Palin has experince in running is --RUNNING!
Like GWBush had experince in BIKING as his MAIN QUALIFICATION for a White House JOB.
Because a Texas governor is mostly 'for show" while the REAL big hats run the show there.
So Republicans ARE NOT CONVINCING about Palin's ability to run anything but a highway race.
Plus we are damn sick of Republicans' MEANNESS & OPPORTUNISM to take advantage of
everybody else WHILE ENRICHING THEMSELVES and their NANNY STATE FOR THE RICH.
I'm voting for Obama-Biden for a change.
"One would be hard pressed to think of a form of punishment more cruel and inhumane, then a law that would sentence a woman to prison if she refused to give birth to the child of a man who raped her."
And in this they almost exactly mirror the fatwas of the mullahs in Saudi Arabia. We have a perfect match of fundamental Christianity and fundamental Islam.
I say - let's take Gore's lead....
Call them what they are:
EXTREMISTS.
That's the new buzzword from the rethugs "misogyny" and THE reason why he picked her. In hopes that democrats will be labeled misogynists. Why DIDN'T he pick Kay Hutchinson? Too old, but way more qualified. We won't fall for this misogyny crap. Instead of talking about Palin, we should be asking why not Hutchinson
This puts Obama in difficult position. How do you attack someone with such obvious shortcomings without sounding “elitist” in the process? I feel for Biden who will have to “debate” her. They will prep her with sound bites and cute one-liners and anecdotes. She can’t really lose. Can’t really go after her without being perceived as mean or arrogant. Remember Gore/Bush debate? Despite having encyclopedic policy knowledge, Gore was caricatured as arrogant by MSM for being anxious while W was trying to put a sentence together. This is such an obvious mismatch that going after her can backfire. Instead they have to focus on the decider himself, his judgment and priorities.
Thank you sooooo much for taking the time and energy to create this blog.
It's a piece of artwork. It's got me fired up even more to keep fighting for the rights of women and my little girls' future. Thank God for feminist men who know and advocate for equality, humaneness and justice.
Keep on enlightening Jeffrey!!! And I'll keep on registering more and more voters!!!!!!
I think it's a mistake to frame this VP pick in terms of gender.
Me, too. It's not gender, it's competence.
Palin is not competent to be Commander-In-Chief while we are at War. She cannot fix the economy or work with Congress effectively to solve educational and environmental problems.
McCain has shown himself completely incompetent to protect our country.
He puts personal political gain over national security interests--as in "we need great people in the top position".
His choice is an insult to all the female Republican office holders who are so much more qualified than Palin.
It definitely is. This has to be about McCain's judgement, that he would rashly just choose someone he'd only met once or twice, and that he feels she's the most qualified person to take over leading the country if something should happen to him. His judgement, lack of thought and serious consideration of consequences regarding his decisions scares the cr@p out of me!
SARAH PALIN IS MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER STATE GOVERNOR.
She shook up Alaska to its political and financial core.
McCain has made a bold and telling move selecting someone with Chief Executive experience – the only one to have any - of the four running for the White House.
18 months hardly counts much for experience
She may be "more than just another state governor", but that doesn't mean she's capable of running every aspect of our country, and given McCain's age and that he's had cancer 4 times, for him to choose her it's clear he only cares about getting elected, not about "country first".
Barack Obama graduated from HARVARD LAW SHOOL, with the highest honors.
He then organized in Chicago one of the largest most successful programs ever to help people find employment, and more...he was then a CONSTITUTONAL LAW PROFESSOR, then elected was elected to the Illinois STATE Congress..
He has been vetted for almost two years in a Presidential Campaign, winning the nomination, where he received the votes of 18,000,000, that's MILLIONS, US citizens..
Palin...no time campaigning or vetting for this possition, no work what-so-ever, it was handed to her...she had the vote of ONE man. John McCain. His own party didn't even know who the hell she was!
You could at least admit we have a valid point here.
One thing is clear, Palin exhibits more intelligence than most republicans.
Since when has the definition of "irresponsible" been "bold"?
When I looked at all of the posts/articles on HuffPo that had such positive things to say about how smart Mccain was in his choice and how inexperienced Padil is but it might work for him all I could think about is how she is being investigated for having her brother-in-law fired as part of a family related dispute and of the examples noted above about how she tends to laugh at hateful remarks and how this behavior reminds me of Mccain's "jokes". When he says something hateful/ou
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