The Palin Paradox: Does Her Candidacy Mark the Death of the Christian Right?
Sarah Palin's political and religious and religio-political background is the stuff of Christian right dreams. Raised in a Pentecostal Church, running for Mayor of town of 4000 by opposing abortion (is that a mayoral issue?), claiming to be its "first" Christian Mayor and ousting a 3-term incumbent (Lutheran, aren't they Christians too?), Palin saw "God's plan" in her political destiny as she later did in the war in Iraq. Her opposition to abortion is nearly absolute, allowing an exception only for the life of the mother.
Despite John McCain's consistent record denying women the right to make this most personal decision themselves, the Christian right never accepted him. Perhaps, it was because McCain does not have a fire-and-brimstone style, or perhaps it is because he did not accompany his anti-choice position with opprobrium against different lifestyles, or perhaps it was his embrace of the evil mainstream media. Or, maybe, they were not sure they really controlled him.
Whatever the reasons, choosing Palin erased all Christian right hesitation. Although he really wanted to choose Lieberman, McCain kowtowed to the Christian right and then one-upped them by going all the way for Sarah Palin. He was controllable. He went immediately from outcast to hero.
Enter, daughter Bristol's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. The Christian right had to make a quick choice (choice?!) -- either applaud the pregnancy or dump Palin.
By choosing to applaud the pregnancy, and to take the line of Steve Schmidt, "life happens", the Christian right ceded most of the claptrap they have been preaching for 30 years. No longer can they rail against big-town, or Hollywood, or Washington DC (read, experts) or New York (read, Jewish) or San Francisco (read, gay) "values" as the cause of peoples' "misbehavior" and social disintegration. No longer can they even call it misbehavior. No longer can they wring their hands about poor role models for children, about out-of-wedlock sex being a sin against God, about how books can be the devil's work.
No longer are testosterone and estradiol the devil's hormones; from now on, they are God's.
It is has been a tough few years for the Christian right. From the Reverend Teddy Haggard's secret gay life to Mark Foley's diddling House pages and the cover up, to Ralph Reed's (Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition dude) promotion of gambling... there is not much remaining about which they can claim righteous indignation.
What currency do they now have to rail against sex education in the schools as the cause of promiscuity? Or, vaccination of teenage girls against HPV (cause of both genital warts and cervical cancer that the vaccine can protect against) as leading to promiscuity? Or, even, the absence of Church and prayer as the cause for moral disintegration?
Because the Palin family had it all. No sex education in the Wassila schools. No vaccinations against HPV. If Mayor Palin could not get dangerous books out of the library, you can bet they were not at her home. A Pentecostal Church preaching righteousness, speaking in tongues -- and a bit of end of times eschatology just so they had something to look forward to in life.
What's left, then, for the Christian right is abortion. Although there were links of Tom DeLay to the abortions practices on the Mariana Islands (to keep the low-wage imported Chinese workers able to work), it never received publicity while "hot tub Tom" was still a prominent political figure the Christian right had to defend. And, Sarah carrying her Down Syndrome baby to term, and Bristol's becoming a mom at 17 rather than choosing an abortion enables the Christian right to retain its anti-choice message without a hiccough.
By being forced by circumstance to embrace Sarah Palin, the Christian right is acknowledging that "legitimate" families are not just the "mom&dad&buddy&sis" of the 1950s, but have morphed into a variety of shapes and forms that all need to be supported and accommodated.
None of this is to say, of course, that unwed teen pregnancies should not be discouraged. They should. Nor is it to argue that one parent homes should be encouraged. They should not. But, the fire-and-brimstone approach used by the Christian right to denigrate other peoples' circumstances should no longer have any currency.
Instead of accusing, perhaps we can be understanding. Instead of making up facts to fit our beliefs, perhaps we can look at the best information available, and start making some good policy. Perhaps, just perhaps, we can start a dialogue instead of a shouting match.
There was one overlooked part of Sarah Palin's announcement of her daughter's pregnancy. She said that her daughter had decided to carry the child to term. She later remarked that no one had pressured her daughter to do so.
I take Sarah at her word. Is it not wonderful, and will this not be a happier baby and marital circumstance, that they all had these unpressured choices? The issue is not abortion vs carrying to term, it is who gets to make that choice. Sarah Palin would have the government choose. My vote is for Bristol Palin.
I, for one, wish Bristol Palin and her husband-to-be a very healthy and happy child, a happy and meaningful life together, and a return to the anonymity they so richly deserve.
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Of course not. After this election it's back to abstinence education and cursing dirty liberals.
The only poll you'll need is the one on Nov. 4th:
O b a m a/Biden 59%
John Bush/Sarah Cheney 33%
Barr 4%
Nader 2%
You are soooo right.
Obama - Biden '08/12!
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely
While respecting John McCain for who he is ---or at least WAS before buying into being managed by the Rove/Bush pliticians in order to get elected---I GRAVELY FEAR what can happen if he is elected. Whether the Palin choice and the hatefilled, attack posture of Wednesday night was orchestrated by power politics, poor judgement or poor vetting, or some other form of subtle or actual control,the fact is that McCain the man and former maverick seems HOSTAGE to the control of the power brokers who have nearly destroyed America over the last 8 years ----and putting him into the White House WILL NOT SOLVE their continued control over the MASSIVE WASHINGTON BUREAUCRACY which is one of the greatest barriers to change. If they can control his appointment for even the highest office (VP) by either coercion or false or distorted information, then they can control his choices for his Cabinet, Supreme Court, major Federal Agencies, and so on.
And what a lovely world that would be. But sorry, it's not happening. The extreme right fundies are all about judging and dividing, and not at all about forgiveness and healing (as Jesus was).
Heck, No!! This is business as usual - Republicans can be as down and dirty as they want to be
( and especially dirty) , but Democrats or Independents or just regular heathens have to be angelic.
McCain sold his soul to the Christian Right to get this far-
Now that Palin's personal issues have clouded their vision of America
including a secessionist husband, well, Good Morning! Tom Perkins!
America, I mean, Alaska- First!
Does this mean I can quit worrying about sitcom character Murphy Brown corrupting my life?
Sarah Palin is reported to be a Tina Fey look-a-like. Now on June 2, 2008, Tina Fey was announced as the "Sexiest Woman in the World" by readers of lesbian/bisexual Web site AfterEllen
Is Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy relevant to the presidential campaign?
Absolutely – it points to the glaring problem with her position of supporting abstinence only sex education. Perhaps Sarah and the religious right think that the young moral “offenders” (their value judgment, not mine) can “make it right” by getting married and living with the consequences. These particular “offenders” are fortunate enough to have a support system robust enough to make that a viable option. These children are the lucky ones.
What if the consequences had been an HIV infection instead of an ill timed pregnancy?
It is not good public health policy to withhold information from our youth that can make them safer and reduce unwanted pregnancies. That Sarah Palin wholehearted adopts this approach in her personal life as a result of her religious beliefs is commendable. When she advocates public policy decisions based on extremist interpretations of religion it becomes an important factor in evaluating her candidacy.
Sarah Palin is the real deal; she has a rigorous moral sense and lives by it. If even she can not make it work in her own family it is just not going to work for families who don’t have her commitment and resources. We need to teach sex education, both why abstinence is a good choice and safe practices to protect our youth who choose otherwise.
Having Sarah Palin as our next vice president could put a generation of children at greater risk of HIV and unwanted pregnancies.
It is not a paradox, but hypocrisy. If any Democrat ever was in Palin position, she were be called a out as supporting free love, not teaching her daughter abstinence, troopergate would be tantamount to treason, the entitlements she got would be used to say she wants the Fed to tax and spend. As to comparing Hollywood's unmarried pregnancies, the argument will be she is getting married, those in Hollywood are not. Isn't is lovely.
If only we could pass a law against HYPOCRISY.
I was thinking that when McCain/Palin lose - it would proove that the Christian ticket was not invincible. This could reduce the Republicans efforts to court them & that they might look for votes elsewhere in the future.
"Elsewhere"? On what planet?
What if they develop a pre-natal test that reveals a child will be gay - will they still be against abortion ? I DOUBT IT !!!!!
Suspiria.. check out the movie
I'm much more pessimistic than you, Mr. Abrams, because I'm convinced that the actions of the Christian Right have nothing to do with the ethics or values of Christ. You say the "Palin paradox" is that Bristol got pregnant in spite of her Christian Right home. But the Christian Right has embraced a much more horrible paradox. Read Matthew 25:31-46, the parable of the sheep and the goats. Jesus is clear: those who care for the poor, welcome the stranger, look after the sick, and visit the imprisoned go to Heaven, and those who don't suffer damnation. Yet the Christian Right has been the most powerful force in America for pursuing the exact course that Jesus said leads to Hell. Instead of caring for the poor they favor cutting taxes on the rich and services for the poor; instead of caring for the sick they are the strongest voice against national health care; instead of visiting those in prison they favor torturing those in prison.
The Christian Right is as much about values and ethics as the Nazis were, or as the Hutus in Rwanda (the most Christian nation in Africa) were. This is state religion, and the real issue for these "Christians" is to feed their narcissism by demonizing non-whites, gays, and the educated.
There are differences among "working mom's". There are those who use/abuse and neglect their children in order to pursue their selfish ambitions, and there are those who prioritize their lives responsibly to allow a balance.
Any woman who would risk 10-12 hours on an airplane while supposedly in labor and then return to work so soon exemplifies a woman who uses her children as stage props. Her Down Syndrome (grand)child is stage prop, her son going off to war is a stage prop (By the way, will he have a Secret Service detail with him?), her pregnant daughter and subsequent forced marriage is a stage prop. She did not consider her family's welfare at all and only whipped them into submission. I wonder if she can do the same to everyone in Alaska who has to perpetuate the lie.
She is no more "working mom" than she is a "Hillary woman". Admittedly though, she is quite a piece of work.
I also question why no one is adding "Insurance Fraud" to her list of crimes. When she faked her pregnancy, she files false insurance claims.
This is what bothers me about the Christian Right, even more than the whole teenage pregnancy thing. How can you spend years talking about Family Values and the family being the foundation of society and then all of the sudden, endorse someone for Vice President who so obviously considers her family and children as less important than her career. I agree with you - the whole concept of "working Mom" is how to balance everything, but her orientation seems extremely out of whack! Even though I am NOT a Christian Right, I wrote Laura Bush and Focus on the Family about their hypocrisy, because they represent for me the proponents of these FAMILY VALUES that have been so muted by this choice of VP they are advocating for.
Sarah Palin's family is off limits. I get it. What I don't get is answers to my questions about her judgement. Sarah Palin's choices. Carrying an 8 month pregnancy at age 43 into a speech in
Texas, her water breaks and rather than deliver the child, she delivers the speech. She concludes the speech and rather than delivering the child at the nearest hospital she chooses to fly 7 hours back to Alaska. WTF! I want to hear her take us through those choices. I want to hear her explain her judgement. This is not about family, this is about jeopardizing her unborn child, her own health.
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