Click the play button below to hear our song about the Palins and ending the silly, epic sex wars.
When you think about all the heavyweights that have taken bullets in the partisan sex wars, it's hard to imagine a peace brokered by a pouty-faced 17-year old Alaskan who as far as we know doesn't speak. Here's hoping.
The response to Bristol Palin's pregnancy from the Obama campaign, and anyone else with half a brain, a sprinkle of candor and a dash of decency, has been pitch perfect. It really is the family's business. It's not ironic at all that the daughter of a Governor opposed to sex-education and very possibly opposed to contraception has a pregnant daughter (it would be ironic if the daughter of the founder of Trojan got pregnant) and the family's response has been exactly in line with what you would expect of someone with their principles.
And sure, abstinence-only education is as much of a joke here as it is a tragedy in Africa, but the Palins have made good on it. I have no idea if Bristol Palin would not be pregnant if she had the pleasure, as I did, of seeing my school nurse with an OTB addiction put a condom on an unlucky banana plucked from the cafeteria. What I do know is that no one went and blamed rap music or Grand Theft Auto II or Leisure Suit Larry (remember?) for it, and that's a step in the right direction.
The fact is we should treat every pregnant teenager like she's Bristol Palin. Hate-mongering pols can find this to be a fine moment to stop making teenage black mothers into welfare phantoms while issuing oratory icing about Bristol Palin's bravery. They're both in difficult situations where to do anything at all is brave. And after years of back-and-forth of debate about which party's sex scandals make them bigger hypocrites, from Clinton to Vitter to Craig to Spitzer to Edwards and all the forgotten political corpses in between, and the ones we haven't found out about yet and perhaps never will, now might be a good time to take stock. Find me a person whose sex and/or family life isn't the slightest bit at odds with his or her public persona and I'll show you someone with a fucked up public persona. The only people that come to mind are Bret Michaels and GG Allin, and one of those was buried with a mustache and no pants.
So. as someone who still doesn't care about John Edwards' affair, thinks that David Vitter's senate career is marked far more darkly by his policies than his diaper fetish, and that Sarah Palin's parenting skills might be her best trait, this is a nice time to admit that both political parties have done a horrible enough job at living up to our own sexual ideals and instilling them in their children that we should just declare it a 0-0 game and get the hell on with it.
This is the point in the blog where I introduce the song that we did about the topic discussed above. It's called "They'll Make an Example Out Of You" and we scratched it together today as an attempt to present this idea with fewer words and more bounce.
And re: rock music/politics, Fred Durst will not make it into the rock and roll hall of fame, but not because of the sex tape (gross!) He won't make it in because he isn't qualified. Hopefully Sarah Palin won't make it to the Vice Presidency for similar reasons. Led Zeppelin did something with a groupie and a fish and are firmly in the rock god pantheon. We clearly apply better standards here than we do in politics.
Play it!
They'll Make An Example Out Of You
I drove passed the PSA on a western federal road
I waited on the time delay to filter out the signal from code
I'm not in the business of throwing rocks, if I was I know where they'd go
I'd aim for the schoolhouse door, they'd aim for my radio
Call off the coverage, declare this one a draw
Mistakes they come to many, we're happy hypocrites all
But the angle angles different, based on what we're born into
The focus will hedge on the tone of the flesh
If you fit in the story they'll make an example out of you
I enjoyed all the summer heat as the reports blared into my cure
Schadenfreude it sure tastes so sweet, jumping out of our seats towards the stars
Quite tempting though it all might be, it don't dignify a response
I'll sit on my filthy hands to get this off the table for once
And for good, I'm declaring this one a draw
None of us are any good at this, so let's stop pretending we are
Go on and treat them like royalty, but do the same with all others too
I've got no respect for the best laid plans
With clean losing hands, making no examples out of you
Max and the Marginalized are a band and a blog. We do a song every week on the Huffington Post, all 48 of which are available for download here at our site. Add us on Facebook or MySpace.
Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin
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This nation just gets nuttier and nuttier I'm sad to say.
Another AWESOME M&TM song.
Bravo men...bravo!
Oh I beg to differ here . Palin's family problems are very important if she is running for VP because she needs to have her mind on the country and the job she has to do and be ready to go anywhere the President wants to send he at a moments notice she can't be at home whenever she wants and her head can't be on her family problems ,with a child who has special needs and a pregnant teen daughter.Being the VP is no 9-5 job ! I think she made a grave mistake under the circumstances by accepting the VP slot when she already had a lot on her plate at home with her family ! Not good judgement on her part and I think everyone has the right to take a good look at her judgement if she is running for VP!
Bristol needs support and love, not the limelight being forced on her by her parents and the McCain campaign. She is a child herself, and even though she will appparently marry the child's father, life will be very difficult for them. I don't understand what Sarah's agenda is when her dauaghter and special needs child need her most. Sure, there are working mothers. My mom went to work after all three of us siblings were in school, and I, as the oldest, was old enought to take charge when I got home from school, start dinner, then do my homework when my mother came home at 3:30, about half an hour after me. I don't think a VP, let alone a President with five children, a grandchild of a child on the way, plus a very young special needs child in the mix, can possibly keep a schedule like my Mom's.
it's not at all private if Sarah Palin and John McCain chose to broadcast Bristol Palin's bidness to literally millions (maybe billions) worldwide. Sarah Palin's children and now the babydaddy will be used as props on the world stage again in a just few hours. we will here stories about Track's participation in the military. heart-tugging mentions of Palin and baby Trig have and will be sprinkled in speeches and photo-ops. at every chance, McCain and Palin will prostitute those kids far beyond the bounds of decency and privacy.
and if there is no shame in the babymama's behavior, as the Republicans now tell us, then why is discussing it off limits?
all the Republicans want from these kids is control of the imagery and narrative, so don't fall for this "off-limits" crap. there are right and wrong ways to approach it, but McCain and Palin made the pregnancy story fair game.
This is what happens when you let babysitters raise your children...trust me, I've been one for 20 years. Daycare providers often discuss among themselves how one parent needs to be home caring for the children in this country - but how neither parent wants to. They think it's OK to have a child then pay someone else to raise it. And believe me, we are only doing a job by meeting the immediate needs of these kids. We do not sign on to actually raise them. I hope this fiery discussion brings into play the real issue: Both parents can't "have it all"...one of them needs to be AT HOME taking care of the kids, period.
But wait a minute, sarah, we're told, is the epitome of motherhood. She can hunt, skin the meal. cook it, run a house with five kids, including a special needs newborn, and the governor's office and the national guard and still find time to run for VP. I don't hear anything about babysitters, except you do only see her daughter carrying the baby, not sarah. Why is that? Is the mccain campaign afraid she won't look man enough is she's cuddling a baby?
BTW, if this were Obama's daughter I am sure the repubs would be calling her another ghetto babymomma with no morals. Oh wait, that's what they called his wife.
If it were Obama's teenage daughter instead of Palin's, I'm sure the reaction from the press and the public (especially the "religious" right) would be quite different.
How they handle it may be private, but it does matter. They keep the story on how Palin chose to have Trig and her daughter chose to carry the pregnancy, but Palin has an agenda to not allow other families the same option. In addition by choosing abstenance only as a government education program they are choosing for the rest of us ignorance of how to reduce teenage pregnancy and STD's.
I am a woman, a mother, and a working woman, and I am not impressed with Sarah Palin. I don't like her uber nationalist super woman image. I know how hard it is to raise a family and work, it's no joke. I believe a woman can be anything she wants to be, but not at the same time. Being President of the Untied States, it's not a 9 to 5 job. I know women who have high powered jobs who regret leaving their young babies in the care of other people when the job demands and let's face it THE JOB WILL ALWAYS DEMAND.
As the Govenor of Alaska, a very small state, population wise, is not the same thing as being the President of the United States. In Alaska, it was rather easy to juggle her job around the demands of ther family and do very well. It is just not possible to juggle the President's schedule around the needs of a baby. And let's face it, Babies need their mothers and their fathers, but they really need their mothers.
I know a lot of people will argue that Obama has two small children also, but Barack Obama is not the mother of his children. Mothers are different than fathers in the lives of very small children. Ask Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales., he is said to never gotton over being rasied by women other than his mother, Elizabeth, Queen of England.
Also a woman, mother and a working woman and I am not impressed with Sarah Palin either.
Although, she may be a very nice person and qualified to be Govenor of a state with the population of the city of Omaha, Nebraska she isn't qualified to be 2nd in command of this country.
I lost all respect for her when I found out about her daughter's pregnancy. I can't respect a woman
who puts her political ambition above the needs of her 17-year old daughter. To me she has exposed her daughter to the embarrassment and salaciousness of the MSM in a way that smacks
of being clueless. I feel so sorry for Bristol to be exposed in a way which she pretty much had no control over. With four grown daughters I can speak to the immaturity and insecurity of most 17-year old girls, yet Palin doesn't hesitate to put her daughter in the eye of the public - shows very bad judgement. And, supposedly McCain knew about this before he made his decision to go with Palin, therefore, he showed very bad judgement because he was more interested in the election then in the welfare and feellings of this young girl. They both threw this girl out for the media sharks to feed on.
Thank you - I agree 100%.
A mother who really loved her daughter would not have thrown her into the middle of the media piranha pool - wearing a black dress and carrying Trig to attempt to hide the baby bump. What was Sarah Palin thinking to be willing to do that to her daughter. This is about who she is as a human being and as a mother ... this was cold blooded, cynical ambition at its least attractive ... wearing the sweet smile of American Motherhood. Ick
Exactly. Women should choose between raising children or holding a job. Not try to do both, expecially not an executive position, a job who's demands that lower-class women cannot even fathom. If one an executive does have a baby, she should immediately abort it, as that baby would much rather not live at all than be raised by nannies and inherit a fortune.
Population wise, Alaska is about the same as Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota, just to give some comparisons. Does that mean Governors of these states would not be qualified to run for President or Vice President?
Alaska may be that big in size but not in population !
BTW being a governor alone doesn't make you President or VP material ,your qualifications do and what has she really done as Governor in that state ?
The governor of Wyoming has been in office for five years, has a degree in economics and alaw degree, practiced law and was a US attorney. More Qualified.
The governor of South Dakota has a degree in political science, was a partner in both a insurance company and a real estate company, was a state senator for 10 years, and governor for 5 years. More Qualified.
The governor of North Dakota has a MBA, was a banker, and governor for 18 years. More Qualified.
There are 17 cities and 2 school districts bigger then Alaska population wise and although I haven't looked the heads of those are probably more qualified then Palin.
Why assume that the right, should it come into power, will honor the positions being forced on it or which is promoting on an ad hoc basis only for strategic purposes? The right's demonstrated hypocrisy in the unbridled pursuit of power (well illustrated and critiqued in Kevin Phillips' Conservatives Without Conscience) negates every Republican expression of compassion for the put-upon. The Republicans' current spiel is complete break with reality.
Yes, the Obama response was "pitch-perfect". Not only was he unequivocal in his position that it was a private matter for the family, but he profoundly humanized his statement by commenting on the fact that his own mother was only 18 when she conceived him.
Notwithstanding the politics of the matter, is this really off-limits stuff? Not really.
It would have been had Sarah Palin not been selected precisely to put forward her image as super-mom and family values advocate. Are kids off limits? Then tell Sarah Palin, who couldn't wait to tell America that her son was soon to be deployed to Iraq. An isn't Bristol's predicament relevant given her mother's advocacy of abstinence-only education for eliminating teen pregnancy?
Admittedly, the Bristol Palin story has way more sleaze and titillation value than it does honest newsworthiness. But given the motivation for selecting Sarah Palin and the manner in which the Palin persona has been sold, it is difficult to say that the story should be off-limits.
http://memestreamblog.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/the-vetting-process/
This is a test. My entries stopped posting. I think my saying not to allow insecure materials to be seen publicly shortcircuited my posts. Just testing to see if changes I made fixes this.
Hasn't Palin given up her right to privacy in matters of unwed teen pregnancies, like her daughter's, by making a political career on denial of abortion rights. What better example of her politics is her own means of preventing teen pregnacy which is not successful. The 17 year old father of Palin's daughter's baby, in his own words, does not want the baby. So we have a shotgun wedding at best, and a disagreeing couple.
Palin's goal is to establish a religious-based, national legislation, to deny both abortion rights and even education and pregnancy preventive means to teen girls. This legislation will make American teen girls dumb, clueless, powerless and with no control over their future. Palin is a hypocrite to claim she has the right to privacy in these matters when she wants to officially take away all privacy from young women.
This is a fine chance for the left to show compassion for the unborn child, because this one will be born with children for parents -- which typically results in emotional tension and child abuse. But this opportunity will be foregone if the left only focuses on the young mother's (and father's) well being. Both parents and child may be bound for tragedy, complicated by the fact that Palin has now sacrificed them on the altar of realpolitick, entangling them in power politics in the worst possible position: unable to act in their own behalf, able only to support others' , their elders, ambitions.
"...This legislation will make American teen girls dumb, clueless, powerless and with no control over their future."
You meant to say...This legislation will CONTINUE TO make American teen girls dumb, clueless, powerless and with no control over their future...didn't you?
You make a very good point. If Bristol is a paragon of virtuous bravery, then so are the millions of other pregnant teens out there. We as a nation need to stop playing favorites. Unfortunate things happen to all of us. Do any of us want to be reviled and left on our own in our hour of need?
"It's the family's business"?
Well, it _was_, until she took a job knowing that her pregnant teenage daughter would be shoved into the public spotlight.
In fact, the woman paraded that daughter and the rest of the family in front of the cameras for the family photo-ops, to push this image of the "hockey mom."
Anybody who thinks this represents "family values," I'd love to hear your case for it.
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Posted September 3, 2008 | 05:00 AM (EST)