Are we kidding here?  I’d just like to know, because I was a Republican until 31 days before the 2008 primary in Pennsylvania.  Is this really the second best person in the Republican party.  Is Sarah Palin ready to be Vice President?  Is Sarah Palin the best the Grand Old Party can do?  Really?

I don’t buy it.  I don’t buy her and I don’t buy her twisted notion of feminism.  I simply don’t believe that being a woman and being the boss is the definition.  I believe that empowering a woman whose judgment is contrary to the priorities of other women and beyond that, other thinking beings, isn’t feminism at all.  It’s stupidity.

However, any discussions of her abilities to balance motherhood and profession are pure sexism.  Don’t listen to anyone who wonders how she can balance the motherhood of young children with the responsibilities of national office.  You wouldn’t ask it of a man, so don’t ask it of her.  Ask instead about her qualifications and her positions on issues.  You’ll have plenty to discuss and you won’t get very reassuring answers.

Her qualifications are simple.  She was the mayor of a town of 7,000 people and for two years she’s been governor of a state with higher per capita federal subsidies than any other state.  That means the people of Alaska get more federal money than anyone.  In addition, Alaskans get money, in the thousands, from the oil companies who have drilled and harvested the state’s oil. 

That leads us to Sarah Palin’s positions.  She’s sold herself as a reformer in Alaska.  Sure.  It’s like saying she’s a feminist.  In fact, Sarah Palin is different.  She’s an extreme ideologue of the old school.  She is essentially a step back, politically for the Republicans and socially for the rest of us.  Let’s review.  She is in favor of censorship.  Shortly after being elected of Wherever, she visited the local library and asked how to get objectionable books removed from the shelves.  She is against established science.  She doesn’t believe that global warming is caused by man.  She backs that position with her insistence that creationism be taught along side evolution in Alaskan schools.  She’s anti-environment.  She wants us to drill in the protected Alaskan wildlife areas.  As a result, she’s against protecting the Polar bear.  She wants to take us backwards, in time and society.  This is no reformer, unless reform simply means any movement at all. 

As for her feminism, she is against teaching sex education in schools.  With nearly a million teenage girls, including her daughter, becoming pregnant and millions more sharing sexually transmitted diseases, is this feminism?  She is against abortion except in the case of the threat to a mother’s health.  So this means a woman who is the victim of rape or incest is out of luck in the world of Sarah Palin.  You don’t get control over your body and your reproductive system.  You’re going to be a mother, like it or not.  Is this feminism?

Feminism isn’t simply the process of putting a woman in charge.  It is expecting that her behavior will reflect her understanding of the responsibilities of the term.  Feminism is the notion that men and women are inherently equal and deserve the same rights and opportunities.  If you don’t learn the facts about where babies come from and how to protect yourself, it’s not feminism.  If you don’t get control over your body, it’s not feminism, no matter who’s selling it.  The sad fact is women can practice sexism towards women just the same as men.  Want proof?  Take a closer look at Sarah Palin.