When I heard the rumors (yes, rumors) that 4 month old Trig was actually the son of Bristol Palin, daughter of VP candidate Sarah Palin, I'll admit to sharing a private "Oh Snap!" moment. However, the more compelling evidence I read about the subject, the more I started to feel just plain sorry for Bristol. I mean, if these rumors are true, her family structure (as well as the overlying societal structure she lives within) completely disallows Bristol from claiming her own baby. And that's just sad.
Well this morning, the Maverickette spoke out, clearing Bristol's name the only way she could: Bristol can't be 4-month old Trig's mama, because Bristol is 5 months pregnant now! Another private "Oh Snap!" moment.
Wow. Well, okay. That of course doesn't mean (as Nikki suggested) that they're not fudging her pregnancy and she's not pregnant with a second child immediately following the first (it's very easy to get pregnant immediately after birth), but really this is all aside the point.
What interests me here is the way the campaign has handled it. Well okay, the way the campaign has basically HAD to handle it. The family (Sarah and husband) have publicly stated how "proud" they are at Bristol's "decision" to carry to term. Now, I'm not saying Bristol didn't REALLY make that decision on her own, but what good is it considering that's most likely the ONLY option she had regarding her pregnancy? In Alaska (as in many other states), 17-year-old Bristol wouldn't have been able to obtain an abortion without parental consent, and Palin supports that law. In Alaska (as in many other states), Bristol wouldn't have been able to access EC without finding doctor to write an underage woman a prescription without her parents finding out, and Palin supports that law. Let's go to the beginning: in Alaska (as with any state that needs federal funding for schools), Bristol would not have been taught about contraception in school, and given her mother's take on birth control and condoms (she's against them even in marriage), I doubt there was much education at home either.
Bristol Palin is one of thousands of poster children for abstinence-only education. She is one of thousands of young women who find themselves without options due to lack of access or laws barring "underage" women from making their own decisions about their bodies. And worst of all, Bristol Palin has become a convenient political tool for her mother and runningmate to use against the case for reproductive justice, just as Sarah Palin herself has used her decision to carry a fetus known to have Down's Syndrome to term. ("If I can do it, so can you... and you WILL.")
Now my only other thing is this: what if Joe Biden (or, heaven forbid, Barack Obama) had a pregnant teenager? Not being seen as champions of the so-called "pro-life" movement, the Democrats would hardly be able to turn a case which would so obviously have left a horrible taste in the mouths of social conservatives into a politically-OK situation without serious spin (awe, she's marrying the father!), and could have easily destroyed a once-flourishing presidential campaign. In fact, it would have added a great deal of fuel to an already out-of-control fire in regards to the way many see the daughters of more liberal legislators: conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel, for example, believes that legislators with daughters are more liberal on reproductive rights issues because liberal legislators have, and I quote, "slutty daughters." In fact, she went so far as to say they support abortion for "selfish, personal reasons." Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly have echoed these sentiments many times over. A pregnant daughter on any Democratic candidate's behalf would please the conservative think-tanks to no end: "Can we really elect a president with such a slutty daughter?" "If he can't raise his daughter to behave right, how can he run a country?" etc etc etc. And if Obama had a pregnant teenage daughter, well, I don't even want to imagine the blatant old-school racism regarding black women's inherent "looseness" that would resonate from the mouths of these pundits.
And yet with Bristol you have the Jaimie Lynn effect. Conservative white girl gets pregnant and, my god, decides to carry to term! And she's getting married to the baby's father. How endearing. (There's just no way the endless financial support from multi-millionaire family members had ANYTHING to do with that decision!) She's not slutty, she's MORAL. She's a poster child for Traditional American Values.
Isn't it amazing how a little spin can turn that frown upside down?
Monday, September 1, 2008
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4 comments:
This is a plus. As Mark Steyn points out in his recent best seller, America Alone, if our western civilization is demographically to survive in the increasingly “hostile to the west” islamic world — and not end up like the sinking European populations — these are the precise people (the Bristol Palins’) we should thank for increasing their progeny.
thank you...im gonna link your article to c&l
you hit the nail on the head
bristol had no choice at all...except to keep her legs together...thereby denying a basic fact of life...teenagers are all horny
You're right, of course, on all points. Did anyone see the sadness on Bristol's face during the announcement her mother made? No, not that she was going to accept the vp nomination, but that SHE, Sarah Palin, was the mother of the little boy Bristol held, (like a mother holds her child) it was obvious what a hellhole of a family she's stuck in.
Any dem wouldn't have faked a pregnancy in the first place. "Here's my daughter and I'm damn proud of her" is what you would have heard.
The same way the dems treat gays in both houses. No big deal, they just accept them and get on with the business of the country and their respective states.
They don't have a twelve-page list of sex offenders, single spaced that go after children or pretend they're not dipping their wick in the toilet to their misguided wives.
Religion. Don't you just love it.
Especially mixed with semen and the affairs of a country.
More proof that Palin is ready to be VP - Cheney has an illegitimate grandchild, too.
Of course, Cheney's grandbaby is a bastard and an abomination since it has two mommies and, according to the Will of God, they can never marry.
See, it's all about Jesus and love.
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