Posted on 09/04/2008 5:56:58 PM PDT by goldstategop
There are reasonable criticisms that can be made of Sarah Palin, both as governor and a vice presidential selection. Yet little of what we have seen in the last six days has been either reasonable or critical (in the traditional sense of the word). Instead, much of the left and many in the media simply lashed out at Palin, particularly at her family.
And not only the fringiest parts of the political fringe: A writer at the Washington Post attacked Palin for the fact that her seventeen-year-old daughter was going to have a baby. A writer for The Atlantic openly questioned whether or not Palins four-month-old baby, who has Downs Syndrome, was actually hers. The utterly unfounded suggestion was that the baby was Palins daughters and that the governor had faked her pregnancy. Proof of the babys birth was demanded.
Again, we are not talking about an anonymous blogger at Daily Kosthis is the commentary from the Washington Post and The Atlantic Monthly. And there was moremuch morewhere that came from.
So why? What is it about Sarah Palin that convinced so much of the left to objectify and assault her so quickly, and with such manifest maliciousness? There are many reasons, but four of them stick out in particular, each having to do not with Palins politics, but with her family.
1) Trig Palins Downs Syndrome is a challenge to their ideas about what represents worthwhile life. The fact that this Downs baby was carried to term and not aborted is statement that his life has the same value as all life. This is an idea with which the left vehemently disagrees. Here is the Washington Posts Ruth Marcus discussing her own opinion of Downs babies in an online chat earlier this week:
I had my children at ages 37 and 39, old enough that the risk of Down syndrome was elevated, as it was for Palin, and my doctor recommended amniocentesis. Had the results indicated any abnormality, I have little doubt that I would have made a different decision than did Palin.
As such, the left sees Baby Trig as a provocation. Note today the commentators complaining that Trig has become a prop for Palins candidacy simply because the family took turns holding the four-month-old in public last night. (Perhaps these observers simply have no understanding of how infants are handled and cared for.) Instead of being viewed as just another baby, Trig is seen by the left as a little Terri Schiavoan assertion of the value of all life and an affront to their belief that there are differences in what constitutes meaningful life.
2) Which leads, of course, to abortion. Palins family is a double-rebuke to the culture of abortion. First, theres Palins decision not to kill Trig because he has Trisomy 21. Then there is seventeen-year-old Bristol Palins decision to not to kill her baby.
Contrast this with Barack Obamas statement that he would keep abortion legal so that if one of his daughters were to make a mistake, I dont want them punished with a baby. This statement is freighted with meaning: Obama views out-of-wedlock pregnancy as a mistake (which is sensible); he views such a resulting baby as punishment (which is less so); and he has strong feelings that should such a situation occur, he would not want his daughter to carry the baby to term. It is, objectively speaking, a pro-abortion statement.
3) Then there are Palins religious views. She is a lifelong Christian who belongs to an evangelical church. No further explanations should be needed about the provocations which emanate there from.
4) Finally, theres the fertility. The Palin familys five children would have been unexceptional forty years ago, but today constitute something of a fertility freak show. Theyre the type of people for whom the epithet breeder was invented. The U.S. fertility rate sits just below the replacement level and is only that high because of the greater fertility of Hispanic immigrants. According to the most recent census data, only 1.1 percent of non-Hispanic white women bear five or six children over the course of their lifetime. By contrast, 22.5 percent of these women never reproduce. The percentage of childlessness among women rises in a straight line with educational attainment.
Why the worry about this? First, theres the fact that few of Palins tormenters can understand the fact of her large, traditional family. That is certainly not the way in which they have structured their lives.
Second, there is the lefts long-standing concern about overpopulation, which has become a staple of modern environmentalism, beginning with Paul Ehrlichs 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb. Ehrlich preached a Malthusian near-future in which hundreds of millions would perish by famine as the worlds unchecked population growth spiraled to infinity. As it happens, Ehrlichs predictions were entirely incorrect: Not only has increased food production reduced famine to a weapon of political conflict, but the worlds population growth has slowed to a crawl. Fertility rates around the globe are falling and world population will peak around nine billion by 2050. From there, we will experience population contraction.
But Ehrlichs prognostications never fell far out of favor, particularly with environmentalists who take it as an article of faith that the planet is already overcrowded. To them, the prodigious Palin family is surely seen as taking more than its fair share.
And finally, there is the concern that the amped up fertility of people such as the Palins will lead to a less progressive future. In an influential 2006 essay in Foreign Policy, demographer Philip Longman warned of the Return of Patriarchy as religiously orthodox and fundamentalist populations were reproducing at much higher rates than post-modern and secular populations. The result, Longman worried, will eventually be a return to a less politically and culturally progressive era.
As you can see, each of these facts about Sarah Palin touches upon deep sources of antagonism. Her opponents quickly intuited that the particulars of Palins story, on their own, stand as challenges to some of the most integral parts of their worldview, whether or not she ever makes them explicitly.
It isnt any of Palins specific policies or ideological beliefs which have so antagonized the liberals (although they surely dislike her for policy reasons, too). They simply hate her for who she is.
This article is dead on. But I must admit, their screams of rage and pain over there on the leftie fringe (oh wait- that isn’t the fringe...) are sending tingles down MY leg.
The left hates the fact that not only do conservatives choose not to abort their young, they reproduce on purpose! Now that Roe v Wade is 34 years old, that makes sixteen years worth, or about 24 million voting age liberals, snuffed out by their own base.
Ann Coulter had a great liberal talking point: Sarah Palin: only five abortions away from the presidency.
“Prima facie evidence of their misplaced beliefs. They read the book in the 70s, its conclusions were disproved, yet they still rely on those conclusions.”
Even more pathetic than that, these are the same people that bought the 120 year old (at the time) theories of Karl Marx as the Way of the Future.
They can’t win.
Some reasons I noticed why the leftists hate Sarah.
The Pallins love and adore Trig.
They welcome Bristol’s boyfriend with open arms and feel blessed with her baby (Double whammy). Not supposed to happen except with Barack himself.
Hunting and fishing, marksmanship, dress out game, (enough said).
Can clean up corruption with a completely clear conscience (hey media, Vet me until your head explodes).
Laid off the governor’s chef and put the Lear jet on E-bay (elite liberal’s heads explode)
Can wear a skirt without ticking off any special interest.
Got to where she is without any liberal crutches.
Has a politically incorrect looking husband that enjoys sports (same as Sarah) and hard work.
Many other reasons, views on oil lobbyists, specific government handouts, community organizers etc.
For later read.
While this post details very valid points so typical of the left, I believe their hatred of Sarah is more basic.
The democrat party, the saviors and guardians if all women’s needs, cannot allow the Repubs to be the first to have a woman elected to the VP slot. This is just as the democrat controlled congress cannot allow any legislation to pass for which the republican president would receive credit from the masses.
No kidding! Especially in larger families babies are handled and held often by siblings as well as the parents.
But their hatred comes down to one thing, Sarah Palin isn't a liberal.
No wonder they all have their knickers in a knot.
Great photos. Sarah looks much better with her hair down. Thanks for posting.
“Trig is seen by the left as .....an assertion of the value of all life”
“Trig Palins Downs Syndrome is a challenge to their ideas about what represents worthwhile life”.
Brilliant article. It really gets to what the left is all about them and shows why the very existence of Sara Palin has them chewing up their furniture. I hope the health Department has plenty of rabies vaccine on hand.
Must-read ping!
“I was not enthusiastic about McCain, but as someone else noted, she cured my electile dysfunction.”
Now *that* is a memorable line!
The very fact that they hate her and the very ways in which they express their deep hatred is a great testament to her reputation. The funny thing about this is the left know that the more they clamor and shout and carry on with their incredibly childish protests the more they will look like the silly lost adult children they are. She has something most of the wimpy, meandering, cowtowing Republicans don't have; and that only makes her stronger in the face of liberal pressure. Because of who they are and who she is, they have nothing to fight her with. They know that if she gets enough momentum that they will have to go back into the closet and eventually have to pretend they like her.
It's just like a liberal to get beaten up by a girl, isn't it?
Damn good post.
Instead of being viewed as just another baby, Trig is seen by the left as a little Terri Schiavoan assertion of the value of all life and an affront to their belief that there are differences in what constitutes meaningful life.
***That is brilliant. Something along these lines was rattling around in my head this morning and I couldn’t put words to it, viola’ here it is. This article is excellent. One thing Sarah has inspired is some of the best political writing I’ve seen in more than a decade.
They simply hate her for who she is.
***Exactly. Which makes her applicable experience LIFELONG, just like Obambi’s.
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Heres how Ive been bumping Palin/Obama threads.
Sung to the tune of Oh! Susanna, dont you cry for me.
Oh, no Bama, please dont lie to me... for Im off to Free Republic with a laptop on my knee.
I come from Minnesota with my laptop on my knee;
Im goin to Free Republic my true love for to see.
It rained all night the day I left,
the weather it was dry;
The sun so hot I froze to death,
Obama dont you lie.
Oh! No Bama, dont you lie to me;
I come from Minnesota,
with my laptop on my knee.
I had a dream the other night,
When everything was still;
I thought I saw Obama dear,
A-coming for The Hill.
The smearing lie was in Duluth,
The tear was in his eye,
Said I, Im coming for the truth
Obama dont you lie.
Oh! No Bama, dont you lie to me;
Im off to Free Republic,
with my laptop on my knee.
I fight in my pajamas,
Its plain for all to see.
I aim to be the next Buckhead;
The media all hate me.
I fell in love with Sarah
When my sister bit a moose.
The Guvnors family ate it up
And then they set it loose.
Oh! No Bama, dont you lie to me;
Im off to Free Republic,
with my laptop on my knee.
She loves her sons, she likes her guns,
and Trigonometry.
The media will jump the shark
When Juan makes history.
Well, JimRob knows shell pave the trolls
So controversially,
And Berg will knock Obama down
With friends of Hillary.
Oh! No Bama, dont you lie to me;
Im off to Free Republic with a laptop on my knee.
I soon will be in Hawaii,
And then Ill look all round,
And when I find his birth record,
Ill fall upon the ground.
But if I do not find it,
This Freeperll surely die,
And when Im dead and buried,
Obama dont you lie.
Oh! No Bama, dont you cry for me;
Im off to Free Republic with a laptop on my knee
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2073903/posts?page=6#6
I think that what they really hate is that Sarah and women like her are raising the next generation of Republican voters. It is hard to get aborted babies to vote.
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