Special Needs

What moved me above all else in Governor Palin's acceptance speech was her pledge to parents of special needs children: she will be their warrior in Washington. They can count on her, she says, to win for them the government support they require and deserve.

I'm an Obama supporter who agrees wholeheartedly with Sarah Palin that Washington should provide support for families with special needs kids.

What's notable is that previously the Alaskan governor had held -- as her party continues to hold -- precisely the opposite view. For special needs families, and for other families with a variety of needs, it's tough luck. Republican advice to them: cut back on your lavish lifestyle, get entrepreneurial, get night work, get a weekend job too.

What families should not do is whine to the government for handouts to help them handle their hardship.

Is it the government's fault that they didn't plan for a rainy day? Government can't be the people's nanny, they aver. Uncle Sam's your uncle, goes the right wing rant, not your sugar daddy.

Government programs that allot tax dollars to support those in need, Republicans assert, serve only to create costly, useless bureaucracies. Republicans denounce such programs as liberal scams designed to redistribute the people's hard-earned assets to the unwashed and undeserving. Indeed, they promise to shut down such programs.

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Unconditionally and on principle, Republicans like Sarah Palin have opposed such spending of taxpayer money.

Naturally, the governor's private life should be just that: private. Senator Obama properly marked it as off limits.

Regarding young Trig Palin, however, it is impossible not to admire the healing, affirmative model the Palins present as a family meeting a difficult challenge with courage and love.

But in her pledge to champion special-needs families in Washington, it becomes all too clear that Sarah Palin's principles extend only as far as her own skin. She opposes programs except those that serve her own interests.

On Obama's proposal for universal health care she heaps ridicule and scorn.

Why is public support okay for special-needs kids but not for children -- grownups too -- with health issues and no insurance?

What does this tweaking of principle tell us about Sarah Palin's character?

The problem for progressives is not that Republicans know how to win elections, but that Democrats know how to lose them.

Republicans are always on the offensive regarding character issues. Democrats may well lose this election if they don't seize the issue for themselves and hammer on it and hammer hard.

Read more analysis from HuffPost bloggers on Sarah Palin

Comments

[Linda Bergthold - Huffpost Blogger]

I think we need to take Palin's record on special needs funding not just her word. Her record speaks very loudly on what she has done to cut funding for special education and special needs children. I am repeating the URL from the commenter above to emphasize the importance of focusing on the facts not the emotional reaction to her family's very appropriate and loving care for little Trig.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/3/163229/8631/847/584963

[prdamericanmom]

So I guess she knows all there is to know about Down's Syndrome, then. I mean, how else could anyone explain her going back to work DAYS after he was born? Geez, many Moms with healthy newborns will stay home for at least a week so they can, you know, bond with the baby... Yet here she is with a special needs newborn and thinks nothing of leaving him before he's even a week old. I dunno, maybe I'm old school but I just don't feel it's right.

[BG99]

Another good article on this subject...


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/us/politics/07needs.html?ref=politics

[Debanne]

The democrats will do whatever is in their power to not let the republicans win this election, Palin or not. We democrats have no such notion of being beaten, we don't give up, either.

[Chillinout]

Sarah Palin is a character thought up by the GOP. She is not real in any sense of the word. She has been a governor for almost two years which is enough time, the GOP assures us, to be in line to ascend to the presidency, and yet she doesn't know enough to give an interview.

WTF?

[4real]

These Christian-right people forget one of the basic parts of Christian: help for the poor and less fortunante.

But like Obama said these people have a "You're on your own" attitude. The could care less about homeless people and homeless veterans and the working class poor and the middle class.

The just want to keep rewarding themselves with big tax breaks and corporate greed at the expense of all others.

Well if they truly believe in God then they will have to answer for all of this.

[JohnKC]

I'm confused. So were you for Sarah Palin before you were against her?

"What moved me above all else in Governor Palin's acceptance speech was her pledge to parents of special needs children: she will be their warrior in Washington. They can count on her, she says, to win for them the government support they require and deserve."

But then you post -

"But in her pledge to champion special-needs families in Washington, it becomes all too clear that Sarah Palin's principles extend only as far as her own skin. She opposes programs except those that serve her own interests."

?????

[zedthewizard]

THE DEMS CAN WIN IF THEY CHOOSE TOO

Obama
Make it about personality -- McCain wants to fight Washington, when we need to come together to fix our broken America because of him! Yes him! He, Bush, Cheney, they took the country and broke it. McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time. If he wants to reform Washington, first let him reform his across the board voting policy with Bush. If he wants to fight, let him fight himself! The American people don't need a fighter, they need a leader to get them out of this mess. Someone who will work with others and not for an ideology that has broken this country. A mess McCain and Bush created!

Biden
I've heard Palin. I've heard her talk. But, she doesn't walk the walk, she just talks the talk. She walks right to the federal government like it's her own private cash machine. Her great little town was doing fine until she took over and mired it in debt. She mired it in debt while still taking special favors from Washington. Palin and her cozy buddy, Ted Stevens have abused a systemt to help Americans. She worked on his 527, they support each other, he has campaigned for her, and she hired the lobby firm that he is now connected to in scandalous behavior. As governor, she supported the bridge to nowhere, the road to nowhere and that's exactly where she and McCain want to take America to Nowhere!

[Freesia2]

She's already begun an ugly pattern in addressing special needs. She cut the special education budget in Alaska by 62%.

[1will]

Hmmm....I guess we're supposed to take it on faith that Obama will do more for special needs kids since the author did not list (or link to) either sides plans.

[clevelandchick]

Caring for a special needs child is not always the pretty picture the Palins portrayed on stage. Not every person is emotionally or financially equipped to deal with it. It can wreck marriages, bankrupt families, and drive caregivers to self destruction. Those children become adults and there's not always someone to care for them after their parents are gone or the money to cover their care.

I don't advocate aborting every fetus that exhibits defects but if our society does not offer real assistance for these families, it is ridiculous to glorify the choice to continue those pregnancies and cast aspersions on those who choose not to.

[Steve123]

PLAYING THE DISABILITY CARD

Earlier this week, Palin and McCain have briefly shined their spotlights on a demographic significantly less contrived than "hockey moms": parents of children with disabilities. As easily as smearing lipstick on a pitbull, Palin and McCain tried to demonstrate their compassion for this demographic by having their families pass around the sleeping infant with Down's Syndrome they were too principled not to abort, reminding us of the daughter with a cleft palate they adopted at Mother Teresa's personal request, and tempting us with seductive promises of empathy on Pennsylvania Avenue. Does that mean that Sarah Palin now regrets cutting special education funding 62% during her brief stint as the Governor of Alaska?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/3/163229/8631/847/584963

[BAVirago]

One of my dearest friends is the mother of a moderately retarded young woman. Palin's proclaiming that she will be an advocate for parents of special needs children filled my friend with rage. Palin's been dealing with Trig's disabilities for all of four months--and it's very clear from how he's been passed around like a little political football, kept up past his bedtime, exposed to hundreds of people--that Palin has no idea what her own special needs child might need, much less have any insight or empathy for any other family with a special needs child.

She's just as phony and suspect on this issue as she is on all the issues having to do with women's rights and family rights. Many families with special needs children have been dealing with the system created by Palin and her ilk for years. They're not going to be taken in by Palin's folksy rhetoric and empty, sentimental promises.

[Johnnn]

You should accept Palin's comments on the face of it. If she says she will help families of special needs children, now that she is on the national scene, then that's her position. Don't disparage her because she's a Republican and Republican policies differ from that view. She can have a different view from her party. That's why her appeal is so broad.