So, Mike, you may be asking, where’s your post on Sarah Palin?
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure I was ready to even begin commenting on Palin. Like many Americans, I don’t have the slightest clue who the hell she is (which is a criticism unto itself), so I felt ill-suited to start squawking about her.
The pregnant teenage unmarried daughter thing feels almost too easy a target, and I think the GOP knows that, because look how quickly they’re all going, “Hey! Leave her family alone! Let’s focus on the issues here!”
This isn’t an issue? To me it’s another example of the rampant hypocrisy prevalent in the Conservative Right as of late: preach righteousness, and if/when you get caught, say, with your homosexual lover or your pregnant jailbait kid…well, you have four options, three of which have already come out of the Republicans’ toolbox:
1) The Diversion, in which the defender tries to dismiss the problem as a non-issue or point out something the other guy’s doing that is, in theory, far worse
2) The Righteous Indignation, in which anyone who dares to point out the elephant in the room (so to speak) is lambasted for his insensitivity and the inappropriateness of his remarks
3) The Sympathy Spin, in which the defender cops to the problem but paints it as a a spiritual trial and an exercise in building character
4) The Throw The Poor Sod Under The Wheels Of The Bus So We Can Show Everyone Who Appalled We Are
The extra layer to all this: were this happening to a Democrat, were it one of Obama’s kids now sporting an illegitimate baby bump, no way in hell would the GOP and their allies (lookin’ at you, O’Reilly) back off and let it lie. It’s a classic case of The Difference Between An Outrage And No Big Deal: if it happens to one of your guys, it’s an outrage; if it happens to one of our guys, it’s no big deal.
Then there’s the experience debate, which is becoming increasingly silly. Palin’s 20 months as governor trumps Obama’s nearly three years as a US Senator because it provided her with “executive experience”? She has superior foreign policy experience because Alaska is adjacent to Russia? HubbaWHAH?
And isn’t it funny that Karl Rove once regarded the idea of Obama picking Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as a running mate as purely political, this opinion based on Kaine’s lack of experience? Kaine, FYI, has been the governor of Virginia for three years, and before that was the mayor of Richmond (population: 20 times that of Wasilla, Alaska).
Of course, she holds to the usual standards of Conservative inconsistency: she’s anti-abortion but pro-capital punishment. Sorry, people, that doesn’t track: if all life is sacred and should be preserved, then ALL life is sacred.
So yeah, I’d heard all the squawking about these and other more important issues (and non-issues), but what’s the one that lights my fuse?
Book banning.
From the New York Times:
Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.
Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.
The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.
In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were “rhetorical.”
“Rhetorical”? I so call BS on that. You don’t go to your town library just to hold a hypothetical conversation on what books to ban based on “objectionable content.” That’s the kind of topic you broach when you plan to do it, and I dread to think what titles Palin might have tried to exorcize. Maybe she had this list tucked in a pocket.
Anyone who has the brass to call themselves an American and would for even a second entertain the notion of censoring ANYTHING because it doesn’t jibe with their particular worldview is a liar of the highest order. Our Constitutional right to free speech is designed to protect all forms of expression, especially those that might be considered controversial and unpopular, and Palin should thank her precious Christian God for that, because I’m pretty sure there are millions of people in this country who don’t want to hear word one coming out of her mouth.
All we need to cap this discussion off is a visit from the Irony Fairy, and that comes to us courtesy of Mitt Romney, who said this during his RNC speech:
“It’s time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother!”
Yep. Sure is. Way to goodthink, Mitt. Unfortunately, thanks to Palin, the GOP is looking pretty damned Orwellian about now.
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
