Simply Human.

Published September 2nd, 2008

So. The 17 year old, unwed daughter of GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant. And she’s keeping the baby. And wants to marry the father. Clearly this means the end of support for her from the evangelical republicans. They can’t possibly support a woman who was unable to teach her daughter right from wrong. They can’t imagine supporting someone who couldn’t control her child. How immoral! Their house is full of sin! Let’s get the story straight from some evangelicals:

“We have always encouraged the parents to love and support their children and always advised the girls to see their pregnancies through, even though there will of course be challenges along the way. That is what the Palins are doing, and they should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.

“Being a Christian does not mean you’re perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I’ve been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I’m sure the Palins have,” Dobson said.

Uh, what? Really? Let’s try someone else….

“Before, they were excited about her, with the Down syndrome baby,” conservative, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist said. “But now with this, they are over the moon. It reinforces the fact that this family lives its pro-life values.”

Holy crap. Excited about Down syndrome babies? Over the moon about teen pregnancies? What the hell is going on here? Let’s try this one last time.

“The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a ‘hypocrite,’ but all it really means is that she and her family are human,” Dobson said.

Well jumpin’ jehosephat - they’re human! OOHHHH well that explains it all! No, wait - it doesn’t. I agree this doesn’t make Palin a hypocrite. But it just means that the evangelicals who support her are. I can understand why they would respect Palin’s choice to keep her mentally challenged child. I can see why they’d support the daughter keeping hers. They’re against abortion, we get it. But to like a candidate MORE because she has failed to instill their values to her child? Like a candidate MORE because she chose to accept the nomination to VP even though she has an infant child AND a pregnant teenage daughter? Where’s the family values there? Family obviously isn’t coming first. This has brought a world of scrutiny down on a family currently going through some challenges. Even the evangelicals agree than having a child as a teenager stresses a family.

And don’t tell me this is logical. If Joe Biden had a pregnant, unwed teenage daughter, the evangelicals would be frothing at the mouth at the sinfulness and moral failings of the Democrat VP candidate! There’s no way they’d say, “We believe children are a blessing, and commend Biden and his family for keeping the child.” No way in hell. They’d be assaulting Biden’s fitness as a parent and, by extension, fitness to be VP of the USA. The hypocrisy isn’t Palin’s - it’s that of the “values voters” who support her.

But this is one of the biggest problems Democrats have in pointing out the moral failings of those on the right. They point and say, “See! They’re not perfect! They talk a big game but none of them are any better than anyone else! They’re as morally corrupt as they say we are!” And it’s true - both Democrats and Republicans are humans and have human failings. Dobson says that it means Palin and her family are human - but did anyone think otherwise? Really? Of course not. So those on the right hear the criticism and respond with, “True, we are human. But at least we say we’re better than you.” And “better” is to their definition. The Democrats should not be assaulting the Republicans for their moral failings. They should simply say, “As you can see, they are as human as we are. We simply expect humans to make mistakes - whereas the Republicans pretend no one does until they do.” The Democrats call the Republicans hypocrites for acting in opposition to their stated values. Republicans call Democrats immoral becuase they don’t claim to be perfect in the first place.

If God forgives, as the evangelicals claim, then why would he forgive Republicans more than Democrats? That’s never spoken of. Democrats don’t deserve to lead because they have moral failings. Republicans deserve to lead because God has forgiven their moral failings. This makes no sense to me. But apparently it makes sense to a great many people. The face of the evangelical right has severe tunnel vision.

Conservative commentators have so far focused exclusively on Bristol’s decision not to have an abortion. Nothing has been said about the subject of unwed teenage mothers, personal morality, and parents’ responsibilities, although many of these people have clear opinions when talking about unwed teenage mothers living in urban ghettos.

Well said, electoral-vote.com. I personally don’t really care that Palin’s daughter is pregnant. I do wonder what her sex education was though. Was it the proven-fail method of Abstinence Only, which we know Palin endorses? Was she aware of the myriad of contraception choices? Ultimately I don’t believe this disqualifies Palin from being able to hold the VP position. I think there are plenty of other reasons to be concerned. This is the least of them, if a reason at all. I don’t expect her to have watched her 17 year old daughter 24/7, nor do I think she should have. I only question whether the daughter had enough information to make an intelligent choice.

But the evangelical right isn’t concerned with intelligent choices. They’re forgiven for the mistakes, so why bother thinking in the first place?

Category: palin, Personal, opinion, election 2008, politics | Tags: