Okay, my take on Sarah Palin’s resignation. Definitely a prime illustration of why more good people don’t go into politics, especially if you happen to be a conservative woman. From what she said, it would seem that this woman, for all her tenacity and drive, is doing the right thing at the moment for her family–she’s a good mom. Let’s take stock: Here we have the liberal media and liberal blogs completely dedicated to destroying her, mainly by attacking her children. Here we have bloggers at the Huffington Post repeatedly calling her baby with Down Syndrome, Trig, a “retard.” Here we have Letterman making inappropriate sex/prostitution jokes about her 14 year old daughter, Willow. Here we have the pathetic treatment of Bristol for being an unwed mother.
Can you imagine the outcry if even ONE person dared to say a thing about the Obama girls?
I don’t think I need to go into what most women would feel if their children were being subjected to these vicious and outrageous attacks by the Left. It’s sad and sickening, and it makes her actions completely understandable, if this is her main reason for bowing out. From the Campaign Spot on NRO:
The lesson that the ruthless corners of the political world will take from the rise, fall, and departure of Sarah Palin is that if you attack a politician’s children nastily enough and relentlessly enough, you can get anybody to quit.
Liberals should be quite satisfied with themselves.
However, is Sarah Palin out of the picture? Not on your life. She’s got something in mind, and I hope she continues to scare the organic-weave hemp pants off of liberals everywhere. Which she does. The Left is terrified of this woman, because she’s charismatic, has experience, and isn’t afraid of saying what she thinks. Moreover, she connects with average Americans.
I thought these two theories very interesting on why the Left–and especially many women–have such vitriol for SP.
The first, from NRO:
Liberals believe that their ideas, philosophy, worldview, and policies liberate believers, and that the conservative equivalents limit people. Liberals see themselves as rejecting outdated beliefs and obsolete ideas, overturning established orders, and discarding traditions established by superstitious and ignorant forebears who weren’t as enlightened as we are. Conservatives, in their minds, are runaway cultural superegos, always wagging their fingers about individual responsibility, dismissing excuses, reminding people that they can’t always do what they want because of the consequences to themselves and to others.
Conservatism, they suspect, will leave you in a marriage that doesn’t satisfy you, burden you with children you don’t want, repress your passions, and trap you in a empty, boring, and unfulfilled life, with no hand of government able to help.
Today almost everyone faces some sort of challenge in balancing work and family; I don’t know too many people who believe there are sufficient hours in a day. And then along comes this woman who’s made all of these “conservative” choices and now has an amazing career, a supportive husband, a beautiful family, and great health and appearance, and she bears it all, including the inevitable hard times, with pluck and a smile, as far as we can tell. (For all we know, perhaps behind closed doors, Sarah Palin screams into a pillow when it all gets to be too much. But what we know about her suggests she relieves her stress by shooting moose.)
In her opponents’ minds, Palin’s made all the wrong choices, and cannot, they insist, be very bright. Yet she’s happy and successful. She is an anomaly that invalidates their worldview, and for that, they attempt to immiserate her — regardless of whether she wishes to run for national office again.
Really, I think there’s a lot in that analysis that is accurate.
The second theory, from Why Mommy is a Republican, Lisa Graas:
More than one in five pregnancies end in abortion. 35% of women will have had at least one abortion by the time they’re 45 years old. 90% of babies found to have Down Syndrome are aborted. With these statistics in mind, consider what Graas is saying:
The exploitation of Trig Palin compels me now, at long last, to be open about my view on the source of the hatred. I believe that many women attacking Sarah Palin do so because they had an abortion themselves, or multiple abortions, and Palin’s story which touches many so deeply in a positive way actually brings them personal shame. With shame comes pain…..and when someone causes us pain, we sometimes lash out. This lashing out is particularly more likely if we haven’t come to terms with the reality about it.
According to the statistics above:
It means that Sarah Palin is a personal threat to 35% of women of child-bearing age in America. Of course they are going to try to label her as a hypocrite. Of course they are going to file complaints pertaining to the subject of ethics. Of course they’re going to respond positively to the mocking of Trig Palin.
Interesting theories. And I definitely think there’s something to the theory that PAS (post-abortion syndrome) can lead at least some women to PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome.)
Sarah Palin is not out of the picture, though. If anything, she’s mobilizing herself to be better able to make a difference in the political world. The timing may seem off, but she’s not finished.