I will be the first to admit that I’m dismayed at Sarah Palin’s recent panderings. She had an excellent opportunity to forge her “maverick” style by ignoring ideologies and just doing what’s right. Her record as Governor of Alaska revealed shades of this type of independence and until now I held out hope that she would resist the temptation of using ridiculous and useless rhetoric to fire up that base. Maybe she thought joining these forces was the best defensive posture against the heinous sexist treatment she’s regularly pelted with. She’s wrong. Dead wrong.
Sexism clearly knows no political boundaries. Case in point are the recent comments by Glenn Beck. Apparently Sarah responded to a question regarding the possibility of a presidential pairing of her and Beck. In a display of naivete, Palin remarked in so many words that such would be “a hoot.” So, was Beck flattered? Hell no. He wasted no time spewing sexist insults meant to demean her status simply because she has a vagina. In a “make me a sammich woman” moment, Beck scoffed at the idea of playing second fiddle to a woman. *gasp* This needs no intro or explanation. Just have a listen.
Maybe Sarah will see this moment as her opportunity to grasp the painful truth that she will not escape sexism by clinging to any ideological group; and she will not be spared their misogynistic wrath even if she spreads their empty, parasitic mind-viruses.
The people of America are looking for independent thinkers who do something because it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s in line with some Madison Avenue-designed talking point. So many women whose eyes were opened during the 2008 primaries are newly independent and fiercely protective of their rights in this democracy. This was a golden opportunity for Sarah Palin, yet for some reason she has chosen to align herself with and parrot talking points written by those who will attack and degrade her with the same ferocity.
Because of these things I offer the following advice to Sarah Palin:
Do yourself a huge favor and follow the lead of Hillary Clinton. Support issues that raise women up regardless of ideology. Abandon those who want to hold women down and who use sexism and misogyny to keep women from their rightful place in society. If for no other reason, do it for your daughters.
Let this be your final wake-up call. Quit knocking on the door of the He-man wimmen haters club — they won’t let you in.
Carpe diem, my friend. Carpe diem.
Filed under: Sarah Palin, sexism and misogyny
Well – what a doomed outlook – who are we to critize the Taliban? Seems like se are also having some more work to do!
My sister, the Obot, spent Thanksgiving at our house. I was nervous and swore that I would be a good hostess (well kinda) and not bring up politics. Well, Friday morning her husband starts making fun of Palin and saying how dumb she is and all. Well, I comment that while I disagree with most of her policies, I do not think she is dumb and that she is better than Huckleberry, Dodd, Edwards and all the rest of the men that can run without being attacked. I almost died when my sister agreed with me. She said that she thought Palin was really interesting…… My Obot sister thinks Palin has ‘something’ and that the criticism is unfair.
SOD, I hope that Palin reads your post and has a epiphany. If she is true to herself, she will go far.
I think Palin is being pushed to the right. We need to remember that she had governed Alaska in a pretty moderate fashion and has gotten all that shit thrown at her and a shit ton of lies, which nobody bothered to defend her form- aside form the small islands of sanity like here.
So, what would there be in it for her to act as a moderate? If she wants a new political position she needs to go after her base, and they aren’t moderates. It is a sad thing, but such are politics.
Her base would be broader as a moderate.
Yep
Misogynists don’t give a rat’s ass about ideology. All they care about is biology.
myiq2xu, thats preety good . im going to have to rember that one….
Isn’t that the truth…I often wonder why women think he cares about their rights. If I had my computer I would link to the video of him making fun of Hillary during the campaign.
The guy is in the Outer Limits yet folks think he is a scientist?!? Go figure???
Can someone put up the video of him going bunkers on a woman caller? If he is ever put on a ticket, I predict a 500 market drop and I will pack and move to Canada!
This one?
If Beck is ever put on a ticket, prescriptions for Ativan will go way up. Put your money in mind-numbing drug stocks.
SOD,
Ayup, that is the one. Thanks.
We’re screwed, we really are. Women are never going to be smart enough to stick together, we’re just not. Not until it’s too late to do anything about it. I coincidentally just walked past an “Another Hillary Voter for Obama” bumper sticker. For everyone of us, there were 10 or 20 Hill voters, women, feminists, who jumped on the bandwagon and savaged Palin while fluffing Obama and excusing prog dude bs. And the same would have been true if it had been some Republican woman subjected to the same awful treatment in the primary. We’re loyal to parties and get nothing back from it, then we beat up on each other expecting a pat on the head and get a kick in the teeth instead.
It’s frustrating, isn’t it?
I just saw another “Re-elect Hillary in 2012″ apparently there are more than us out there who know she really won the primaries.
I think there is hope but it will be a very tough fight and I don’t know if we will win anytime soon. Hillary was so, so close to winning the Democratic nomination. Millions of women and men on both sides of the political aisle supported her and stood up for her. The problem is that we weren’t enough to fight the corporate mainstream media who supported Obama and we couldn’t stop the women and men in the Democratic leadership who disenfranchised voters to help the male candidate they knew would continue to the status quo because Obama would do anything, throw anyone under the bus, to advance his career. That doesn’t mean there aren’t millions out there still fighting for women’s rights and single payer health care or that there are thousands more each day who are realizing that they were fooled by Obama’s rhetoric. It will be interesting to see what happens to the Democratic Party if enough liberals and independents sit out 2012 that Obama loses. It will be a huge rejection of the way the Democratic Party has been headed since Obama took office and it could lead to a Renaissance of real progressives, women’s rights, and single payer advocates. Let’s hope that something good can come out of this huge mistake that allowed Obama to win in the first place.
Actually Hillary won the Dem nomination. Which is the sadist part of all. If a smart woman who might just be able to fix this shit we found ourselves in after dubya is blocked even though she won, what hope do we have.
So my answer to all of those “Got Hope” bumper stickers is, fucking no. Not since the fucking empty suit puppet of wall street got installed instead of the real winner.
I’m grumpy tonight.
“What will it take to have a woman president if 18 million is not enough?”
votes, that is
Too many women are just too “nice,” and want to please others, to get along, not make waves, not be assertive — let alone “aggressive” (i.e., stand up for themselves).
“Why am I hearing your voice? I’m not in the kitchen.”
Jesus Christ.
that deserves a tire slashing and a note left “why am I hearing your vote, I am not at the funny farm”.
okay, I wouldn’t really slash anyone’s tires.
Beck’s just pissed that it was assumed that Palin would claim the the number one spot over him.
What a little boy he is.
What would qualify that guy to be on any ticket let alone the top of the ticket? Are people serious when they say Beck ’12! ?
OT. I admire Tiger’s golf as much as the next person. But the plain fact is that he makes tens of millions for putting his talents on display in commercial mass media for hours at a time most weekends – more than most actors, musicians, artists, pols, or other pro athletes. So where is it written that he deserves more privacy, special treatment, or coverup than anyone else in public life. Yes it was the National Enquirer. But the Enquirer also busted John Edwards, not the mainstream media, and if the timing had been earlier last year during the primaries, who knows. Doesn’t matter now, but the truth is the mainstream media had an active role in electing our current President, and today as they fight for their lives against the web and social media, the mainstream news media are lost at sea. The role of the fourth estate searching for truth and providing another check and balance to the powers that be, that role is gone.
I think we should find a way to draft this to Palin’s team… Maybe some of her people will pick up on it. If she takes an Independent stance and starts focusing on the economy, jobs, energy advancement etc. Then the tide will start to turn and she can free herself of the party system nonsense.
She also needs to drop the Raygun worship.
Yes, aside from the fact that it’s too much like Obama heralding himself as JFK. I want to see politicians starting to define themselves independently without echoing past figureheads. That’s what Hillary did.
I think she believes the only people she will win over is Reganites and tea partiers. Who she needs to appeal to is independents, and moderate dems. Like my comment says above, I think she can do it by simply following her stronger areas like job creation, the economy & energy.
Reagan won Independents and moderate Dems to some extent. Without them he would never have been elected.
If we can survive this to live another day gawd help us if our choices are bad and worse again.
that doesn’t matter to the political strategy though.
I guess I just wish the political strategy was to do what’s right by the American people. That’s what I loved Hillary for. I cannot think of one policy decision she’s made that I disagree with quite frankly. Same with Bill. All of the criticisms Bill took on issues like NAFTA, or Welfare Reform, or DOMA were all steeped in falsities or neglect of the facts.
Where is the evidence that Palin was ever anything but a right-winger? Did I miss something???
Well, she always personally held right-wing positions, some of which were fairly moderate (pro-business, small-government stuff) and some of which were more extreme (pro-life, no exceptions), but her actual history as governor and mayor was pretty moderate.
My question is (since I’ve been too busy for my political blogs lately, and so I’m a bit out of the loop) What has she done or said recently to make people say that she’s tacking right?
Perhaps Palin — being female might be able to learn from her mistakes.
Middle of the road — appealing to the moderates of both parties (which is what Clinton did, more or less) is the best approach.
I’m reading her biography (the nasty old “Progressive” MCPs made me do it) — and she has a practical, common sense streak found in the frontier folk. I swear there is a gene that makes a certain percentage of a clan migrate out to new territory. These people tend to be highly adaptable. Women have to be hardy to survive — and deal with the macho men.
At the same time she is pandering to the wacko right in her book — perhaps she thinks these are her “base”. One group we have in abundance out here in the far far west are the small sect religious groups — come to Jesus groups. There are these small churches all over — more sort than in the east or even midwest. (My ancestors migrated from New England — and colonial New England) and I’ve studied the various religious sects and congregations to locate family records.
This book tour should be a great way to learn about the various regions. I expect that Palin doesn’t know much about the east coast — and from my perspective — the east coast (esp. the New England east coast) is really very different from the mid-west and West Coast. People who have spent their lives on the east coast has NO concept of the culture on the west coast — NONE. Same with the left coast — except that we have to put up with network news etc. that is east-coast centric (and stupid about the west coast — meaning that the west coast is far more varied than damned LA! AND Washington is a STATE — DC is the District of Columbia — as in Washington, DC).
Anyway I am hoping that Palin comes to understand that sexism is found in both parties — and that there is a lot of PENIS worship going on in this country.
I’m new to Seattle (and I’m about two blocks from Mars Hill, so I do know what you mean about extreme religious sects). I don’t really see the huge difference between west coast and east coast. But then, I’ve been preoccupied noticing the Canada/US differences.
I agree that I hope she tries for the moderates. But honestly, it makes sense as a tactic. To get the PRIMARY win, you have to court the party’s base. To get the GENERAL win, you have to court the independents and moderates. I think she’s just playing the game. I’m holding her to the same standards I hold the male politicians- I judge her by her actions, not by her rhetoric.
“Penis worship”–now why does that make me think of the quote “Your god is too small”?
Sandra, BTW have you had your 2nd opinion yet? Are you in the Seattle area? I practice in a specialty clinic and would be happy to talk with you if that would be at all useful to you. You can reach me at lh(dot)seattle at gmail(dot)com. Hope all goes as well as possible with you.
And yes, if Palin governed as POTUS in the same style she did as governor, that would be fine by me.
Thanks!
I haven’t had my 2nd opinion yet, but that’s because I’m swamped at school. The plan is to get a referral from my GP to the UW neurology folks.
Excellent plan! (And sorry you’re swamped at school; I can sympathize.)
BTW make sure the referral is to the MS Clinic, rather than to just Neurology. And you couldn’t go to a better place, if I do say so myself
Her position against Dede in NY 23 was troubling because Dede was the moderate candidate. Furthermore her arguments against a government health care program were filled with dishonest charecterization.
I am in agreeance with you on Dede.
On health care she may have made dishonest characterizations, however, I don’t want this shitty bill being passed and if the Republicans can help prevent it I’m all for the dishonest characterizations. No way in hell should we have to be stuck with a lack luster health mandate.
The only state supreme court nomination she made as governor was a pro choice judge. That just doesn’t happen with real right wingers. She’s a feminist for life, which means other than the pro life part (see above sentence though), she’s a feminist. She believes in evolution and thinks it should be taught in science class. She believes in teaching birth control and advocating for it.
Don’t get me wrong, she seems to advocate for the crazy ronny raygun economic voodoo economic crap that has been nothing bot an abject failure. So for that reason, I think she would be as bad as Bush or Obama. But I’m not sure there will be any real liberal alternatives, so who knows.
However, I think that when it comes to economic matters she could be strong. She knows that if something isn’t working there needs to be a different approach – She wouldn’t continue on in denial like Bush and now Obama. That’s kinda where her common sense message comes in I guess.
She may espouse voodoo economics yet she raised taxes on the oil companies in Alaska. Doesn’t quite fit, does it? Maybe it’s common sense pragmatism.
Yes. As I mentioned there were shades of an independent spirit who sought to do what was right, not what was “right.” There was a glimmer of hope.
Actually, SOD, it is the media and blogs saying that she advocated Canada scrapping their system for a totally private one. She never said that. What she actually said was that perhaps they should REFORM their system to allow the private sector to take over SOME of what the govt has absorbed.
That is not a batshit rightwing nuttery statement, and many countries in Europe and elsewhere are finding that some mix of private and public works best, and have tweaked their systems accordingly. Canada itself is allowing more private clinics, etc in areas where govt is unable to meet the demand.
Of course, all the headlines are reading that she told Canada to dismantle their system and go private. She did no such thing.
I didn’t say she was advocating a totally private one.
I agree – I just find it amusingly par for the course that all the headlines are screaming “She told Canada to dismantle their entire healthcare system and go private!”
Um, no, that’s not what she said.
I think that we, as women, have an obligation to hold Sarah’s feet to the fire because she has potential.
Apart from her environmental policies, the thing that concerns me most is her courting of–and by–the extreme fundamentalist faction. She’s apparently being flown around on her book tour in a plane belonging to Franklin Graham’s outfit, Samaritan’s Purse. Graham is a full-on Dominionist and has ties to Doug Coe’s C-Street Family.
These are “muscular Christianity” adherents–or muscular something, at any rate, because their teachings would qualify as heresy in any mainstream denomination–for whom women are to be handmaids. They’re aren’t any mothers in the Family, just “sisters” who wait on the men and serve as housemaids. So one has to wonder why they would be, at least indirectly, supporting Sarah Palin. To pre-empt a run by Hillary in 2012? Stalking horse, with support pulled and trasferred to one of the brothers? It’s an interesting connection, but also a very disturbing one.
I’m completely against all the misogynistic attacks against Sarah Palin, but that aside, I wouldn’t support her for any high level office. Her views on most things are anathema to me. She’s from the right wing whacko side of the party and I believe she is too guide by religious extremists.
I don’t believe it was always that way. She may have had religious views but her record didn’t show any imposition of those views in her public service. I understand the cultural worldview that may be prevalent in a place like AK, but there was the sparkle of something there that had potential.
She’s being exploited in her lack of political savvy.
I hate to be overly pessimistic SoD, but I’m not sure I buy that … guess we’ll see.
The part of her story that I found most compelling was her ability to rise to the level of political leadership without benefit of connections or money. She was moved through the system by her own moxie and by those that recognized something special in her. I’ve known people like that in my life. They are sought out for leadership, not like someone who seeks a leadership position. The concepts of emergent leaders applies to her political rise.
Wasn’t Palin tapped by McCain to appease the far right who hated him?
I don’t think so Cinie.
SOD, I’ve been back checking Palin/McCain, and, you’d have to show me the “buzz” from Hillary supporters pre-nomination. Between my memory and my research, I’m not seeing Palin moderate stories until very recently. I’ll keep looking, but, from the things she says herself and personally endorses, she’s not moderate at all.
I’m not defending her stated views. I’m just saying that she is not the same politician she was in AK.
I checked the comments here and there were numerous beginning 6/8/08. At least 20-40 comments per day mentioning her.
I certainly can’t easily check other blogs, but I think that is fairly representative of the comment “buzz..” RealClearPolitics mentioned her as a possiblity on 6/4 and immediately “PUMA” blogs appeared attached to her name. Those very well have been astro-turf, but they indicate a possibly attempt to siphon Hillary voters.
If Sarah Palin wants to be POTUS she has to win the GOP nomination first.
That means she’s gotta be a wingnut.
The question is whether she’s really a wingnut or just pretending.
I don’t think they (repubs) will even let her on the porch let alone a foot in the door. Something’s changed.
That’s not necessarily true.
If we need to stick it to the Dems (and we so desperately do), I’d much prefer that we do so at a time when we can support a moderate woman with (imho) actual integrity. Regardless of her flawed economic policies.
Well Sandra made a great point. Her history in office has been moderate. Also, she has a record of listening to the majority of the people and implementing want they want and they aren’t necessarily right wing things. That 90% in Alaska weren’t all Republicans.
She does have right wing social views but they are basically something that she holds personally and has made it clear that she would never implement anything into law. So they aren’t exactly policy issues for her. I think most of us on here would rather have a true progressive in 2012 however, if it comes down to her or Obama or another crappy dem nominee, I would push the lever for Sarah.
Given that choice, I won’t push any lever at all.
I’ll stay home and pack for my move to Denmark.
For me its a no brainer because I will NOT vote for Barack Obama under any circumstances. If the Repubs nominate a lackluster candidate that cannot win against him then I can only assume that they believe that they will continue to gain under Obama and would like to continue the stealth governance of this country under this so called Democrat. If they nominate someone who could actually win, then so be it. They’ll be getting what they want under more honest circumstances. No matter what happens, I won’t be voting for him. Hopefully there will be someone I can vote for but I am not opposed to sitting it out for the first time in my voting life.
wmcb – what happened to the wonderful hat?
My own laptop is in the shop. I’m using hubbys off and on, so I guess logging in from his does not bring up my pic? I dunno.
yes, apparently you did.
Kool-Aid is a helluva drug. And using the r@cism slam again? Yawn.
LOL. That old chestnut. Sorry Obots, you’ve made that term meaningless. If everyone is a racist, then what does it mean. Maybe, just maybe we should reserve it for those that really hate someone based on their race or I suppose worship someone based on their race.
He didn’t win the FIRST one.
0bots come crawling out of the septic tanks.
One thing that Palin is NOT is r@cist.
You creeps are the r@cist — Todd Palin is Native America and THAT fact was used to smear her and her family with vile slander. Palin is proud of her husbands heritage and the STRONG women in Todd Palin’s family.
You Messiah isn’t what you think HE is — and his record shows that he is a classist snob. He did NOTHING for the people in his district who were freezing — Mrs.0bama did nothing for “her people” except ship them away from her hospital.
Go back 0bot and wallow in sh*t.
Some days there are 0bots that need to be smacked up side da head.
To say that Gov. Palin “asked” for is shows that this 0bot is a genuine Neanderthal.
Well good — this shows that Palin can whip your messiah’s behind in the election because you creeps are afraid already — thus you suckers know that you are backing a weak two faced looser!
Dang. Did I miss my failbot visitor?
I do not think you can really understand Sarah Palin w/o grasping what it means to actually be in a wilderness environment and not the wilderness we have in the lower 48 but the incredible wilderness of Alaska. I have a young friend who worked for the Ak state park system. One of her posts was in a small enclave that you could only reach by 3 days of travel by helicopter, bush pilot and dog sled. No roads at all. That is remote. But it is such surroundings that build a mind set markedly different from a world dependent on easy access to shopping malls and the pleasantries of urban life.
True. But urban Alaskans tend to be pretty sophisticated, not least because many of them live in port cities that serve the entire northern Pacific Rim.
2008 to be repeated in 2012 on the other side? There is a reason why there are only four republican women senators to the 11 democrats and similar dismal numbers in the house. At least democrats have committed to faking it for several decades (pro-choice positions, work place equality policies, international women’s rights etc) even though when it comes to a head their resolve to those issues collapses. Republicans have never made a pretense of where they stood!
I’m probably wrong. we will never get a repeat of 2008 on the republican side because it wouldnt even get that far. You cant get angry or dissapointed when u are not even led along in the first place.
I have said this in the past, the best chance for a woman president is either independent party (and Hillary should have seriously considered this) or democrat with Hillary after a complete collapse of the current presidency. Democrats know no other in their ranks will be accepted by the country after Ozero in 2012 and Hillary’s stock only continues to rise.
Nice piece SOD.
She might stand a chance if she really could understand women’s issues in this country. I’m not sure at this point whether she does?
Frankly, all the politicians seem only interested in their own brands?
Rather than the country as a whole.
She’d have to care to win Dems over — Hillary stood for us.
In toto. Unforch. Palin wasn’t and is not a substitute for her.