In a culture that does not much believe in reason, politics sets aside the old tactics of logical argumentation and rational persuasion. Instead, the preferred political tactic becomes DESTROY YOUR OPPONENT PERSONALLY. And if that isn’t enough, DESTROY HER FAMILY.
Leftists have been trying to dig up dirt on Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. They discovered she was once caught fishing without a license (gasp!). They discovered she may have tried to get a state trooper–her sister’s ex-husband who tased their son–fired (gasp!). Then the dirt diggers turned to her family. Her husband was arrested for DUI when he was 22. That sister had an ugly divorce. Then the dirt diggers turned on her children, to the point of making things up and posting them on the internet. They maintained that Governor Palin really didn’t have the baby afflicted with Downs Syndrome but her teenaged daughter did.
The Palins are indeed struggling with something in their family, so they have brought it out into the open. Their 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. She is going to keep the baby and marry the father.
Some seem to think the “Christian right” will now abandon her. Some are accusing McCain of not vetting the candidate enough (though all of this was told to him), as if having an errant daughter should disqualify her. I do give Barack Obama credit for chastizing his followers for dragging his opponent’s children through the mud; he threatened to fire any of his staff who indulge in such tactics. But I suspect Governor Palin will have to endure much more of this sort of thing.
I love this comment on
Hugh Hewitt’s blog:
There couldn’t be a clearer difference between conservatives and liberals than this one…
Obama…
“If my daughter makes a mistake, I don’t want her punished with a baby”
Palin…
“As [our daughter] faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.”
(also… “Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.”)
When I, myself, became pregnant in college, my soon-to-be mother in law (a hard-core liberal Democrat who had openly encouraged me to have un-married sex with her son) expressed her “disappointment” in both of us – and immediately pushed for an abortion. My own mother (a sex-before-marriage-is-sin Catholic) immediately comforted me, affirmed her love for me and said, “There’s always room in our family for another baby.” My husband and I have been JOYFULLY married 21 years and have 4 amazing kids…. What a beautiful gift of love my mother gave me that day!
Babies…Punishment vs. Love. I think I’ll take love.
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