Republican Hypocrisy Drives Me Insane

I am so angry at the hypocrisy of Republican evangelical women right now.  Let’s just run through the stupid nonsense point-by-point, shall we?

• Yes, we should leave Palin’s 17-year-old pregnant unmarried daughter out of the politics.  You know who else we should leave out of it?  Palin’s four-month-old infant!  Except that the Republicans (including McCain and Palin) bring up the 4-month-old infant to support their policies, and their critics bring up the 17-year-old to refute their policies (like abstinence-only sex ed programs).  (And does anyone remember John McCain’s joke about Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno while she was still a teenager?  Excuse me if I think that it’s a little late for the ‘leave the kids out of it’ nonsense.  He certainly didn’t care about that at the time.  Not to mention that these comments about Palin’s daughter have nothing to do with Palin’s daughter and everything to do with Palin and McCain and the Republicans’ failed policies, while McCain’s joke was a personal insult made in public and aimed at a child still in braces.)
• Yes, Democrats have always been supportive of working mothers.  You know who hasn’t been supportive of working mothers?  Republican evangelicals!  Conservatives!  With their ‘family values’!  So don’t mind us, we’re just pointing out the gaps in your logic.
• Yes, Democrats have always been supportive of women in politics, regardless of their status as mothers.  You know who hasn’t been supportive of women in politics?  Republican evangelicals!  Conservatives!  Sorry, just more gaps in the logic there.
• No, your nomination of a woman to the ticket in the Vice Presidency slot is NOT historic.  Well, I guess it’s historic for Republicans.  The Democrats did it 24 years ago.  Similarly, however, we nominated a completely unqualified woman just because she was a woman, and you see how that turned out!  We recommend finding qualified women to nominate.  That’s why Hillary Clinton was a historic candidate for the Presidency this year.  She was qualified and she got there on her own terms.  Not like Ferraro, and not like Palin.
• Yes, Democrats have always understood that ‘kids will be kids’ and therefore abstinence-only sexual education programs don’t entirely work.  You know who always told us that we were raising morally repugnant, sexually active teenagers because we believed in informing them and supplying them with the proper birth control?  Republican evangelicals!  Conservatives!  Excuse us while we roll our eyes when you now seem to embrace this compassion and understanding.  Excuse us while we think it’s a little convenient for you to come around on this issue only when you’re presented with a Republican nominee for President who fails to teach her children the same lessons that she expects to legislate towards everyone in the country.
• Also, neither Governor Palin nor her daughter get medals of honor for birthin’ babies.  That’s actually one thing that half the population is able to do, so nobody gets any special recognition or achievement honors for that.  And the pro-lifers need to stop pretending that Palin and her daughter have ‘chosen’ to give birth.  Was it a choice?  Yes!  Yes, it was a choice, because that’s what the pro-choice people have been fighting for.  Either Palin and her daughter and the pro-lifers celebrate that choice, or it really wasn’t a choice.  I don’t drink alcohol because I hate drinking alcohol, but I don’t pretend that I choose not to drink alcohol.  For me, it really isn’t a choice; it’s the way I live.  It’s a choice for others, and I’ll fight for their choice to drink alcohol, but it’s not a choice for me.  See how that works?  So no more special commendations for the baby birthin’.
• So, to sum up, when we make mention of these things (like abstinence-only sexual education, or working mothers, or women in politics, or the qualifications needed for a Vice President these days (especially one who is running with 72-year-old, four-time cancer survivor John McCain), we’re not being hypocritical.  We really believe in that stuff, and we’re asking the Republican evangelical women, “Did you believe in any of that stuff when you threw it at Democrats in last few decades?  Because it certainly looks now like you don’t believe any of that stuff.  Now that is hypocritical.”

It does not look at all like McCain or his team vetted Sarah Palin in the slightest.  She is a gimmick and a bad move.  I’m sure she’ll perform very well tonight when she speaks at the RNC (I mean, who wouldn’t perform well?  I could make that speech tonight!) but either McCain didn’t vet her or they did vet her and didn’t care what they found.  Someone (I think it was Fred Thompson this morning on CNN) made the case that you don’t get to be Governor of a state these days without being properly vetted, but I don’t think that’s true if you’re talking about a state like Alaska.  There certainly hasn’t been any credible mention of successful policies while she has been Governor, and we’ve had ample time to hear about them if they did exist.  With all kinds of investigative reporters up there on the ground in Alaska this week, it’s only a matter of time until the real shit starts to flow.  Palin is dealing with the big dogs now.