Tuesday: “An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere”

Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, feminist

Martin Luther King Jr. said that.  Liberal Democratic women do not seem to understand this statement.  Basically, it means that discrimination, disrespect, misogyny directed towards Sarah Palin is really discrimination, disrespect, misogyny towards all women.  It’s just delivered by proxy.

It shouldn’t matter what political party the woman belongs to.  You have every right to disagree wih her politics.  But it is morally wrong to cheer on the abuse that has been hurled at her, and let us be clear about this, abuse that has been specifically gender related.

She is assumed to be dumb because she is pretty.  The media has screamed and thrown a fit to get  interviews and then proceeded to edit, chop and take her words out of context to reinforce their predetermined narrative.  I’ve watched exactly one interview and have focussed afterwards on Sarah’s live appearances and debate performances.  Peeps, Sarah is not dumb.  She’s got incredible political intuition and she’s a quick study.  After 4 years as VP, she would be a formidable opponent to Hillary Clinton.  If liberal women were outraged by the media’s treatment of Hillary, they are being hypocritical in turning against Sarah.  The injustice is just as bad, if not worse.

When there is constant criticism of her experience, even though she has more practical executive experience than any other candidate, when her clothes are the topic of faux outrage, when she’s been described as “flaky” and “dumb” by fellow PUMAs, when she’s tackled by a linebacker, ridiculed by Katie Couric (I won’t even go there), parodied in a pornographic film called Nailin’ Palin’ and finally hung in effigy, the injustice has gone way beyond the pale.

We are all diminished by this treatment.  If the media and the Obama campaign can take out two of the most powerful women in America through sexist behavior, what’s to stop your workplace from doing the same to you simply because you were graced with two X chromosomes?  Who is going to stick up for YOU when you complain about the cat calls and the ridicule and rough treatment at the hands of men?  The Obama campaign with the help of the nation’s media has declared war on our gender and so far, no one has been held accountable.  When it happens to you, where will you find allies?

What is really disappointing is that Hillary Clinton herself has become restrained by her own party loyalty to support the perpetrator of the crimes against women this year.  Obama does nothing to condemn this behavior and benefits enormously from the outcome.  And Hillary says nothing.  This is the woman we admired for saying that “women’s rights are human rights”, who was a target of this unfair treatment and she ends up reinforcing it by going along to get along.  She sacrifices her moral authority on the treatment of women in order to protect what is left of her political career.  Of all the things I have witnessed this year, this has got to be the saddest.  It shows how effective the injustice has been and diminishes her role as a leader. I’m glad that her surrogate, Linda Bloodworth- Thomasson is speaking out in Sarah’s defense but I’d really like to hear Hillary condemn it, even if it embarrasses the party she represents and its nominee.

PUMAs, if you are still giving into consensus reality and telling your friends that you agree that Sarah is dumb because everyone else is saying it, stop and think about what you are doing.  Now is the time to tell your friends that their attitude is out of bounds and you don’t believe that Sarah got fair treatment from the media.  It is time to tell them to stop spreading the injustice because it will come back to haunt you.  Check out Team Sarah, a group started by Republican women to push back against the misogyny.  Or visit The New Agenda to see how you can advocate for women of all political persuasions.  We must do this ourselves.  No one else will do it for us.

When you stick up for Sarah, you stick up for yourself.  Let’s push this evil thing back into the bottle.