My Thoughts: Sarah Palin

Okay, so what do I think about Sarah Palin? I know that most of you have been waiting all weekend for me to get around to writing this post. No? Too bad. I'm going to tell you anyway.

First, I should probably start by saying that I thought that it was a good choice by McCain. She's young, charismatic, and she has an interesting personal narrative. Not to mention that she's a woman. I think it was classy of her (or do I mean cagey?) to acknowledge Ferraro and HRC during her acceptance speech. And since I was a Clinton supporter initially, I think I'm the target audience for this pick.

My news sources (and that's NPR, the NY Times, CNN International, and a variety of feminist bloggers for those of you who wondered - I don't care what Fox News says about this or any other issue) are divided about whether it's a good pick. Good because of the reasons I mentioned earlier but bad because it's harder to criticize Obama for not having experience, when the country would only be a heart attack away from having someone similarly inexperienced as president.

But I think I'm going to stay away from that here, and talk about identity politics a little. My understanding of the term (perhaps based on a Fresh Air interview I heard one time, but maybe not) is that it basically means that people support candidates "just because" of their race/gender/religion etc. rather than their actual qualifications/positions on issues. This isn't an issue for Protestant white men, just for the handful of candidates who don't fit that description. WASPy men are always elected because they're the best qualified for the job (note: this sentence is ironic).

But identity politics can work in another way. I might vote for someone who has the same race/gender/sexual orientation as me because I believe that an African American/woman/lesbian would have similar values as me, and might govern in such a way as to make life better for African Americans, women, and lesbians (note: I'm only marginalized in one way. I use these other ways as examples).

I should confess here that I'm sort of and old skool feminist - believing that sisterhood is powerful and that women should get equal pay for equal work - that sort of thing. And so I was totally with HRC - I wanted a woman to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling. I thought that the symbolism would be meaningful. And I guess that I also thought that as a woman, she'd govern in a way that respected women and tried to make their lives better. I'm sure that was idealistic, but there you have it.

I don't feel the same way about Sarah Palin. She hasn't defined her position in many cases, but Ms. Palin and I disagree on many issues that are important to me. She supports the death penalty and wants marriage to be only between a man and a woman. She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She believes in "personal responsibility" to improve health care. And she doesn't trust women to control their own bodies and choose when to have a child. I don't know exactly what women's issues are - but these are some of mine.

And before I end this little diatribe, can we please stop talking about how pretty she is? I realize that she was a contestant in a beauty pageant. I won't hold it against her, but I fail to see how it's relevant in this election. "Sure," I imagine the pundits saying "Obama gave up a job in a big law firm to work as a community activist on the south side of Chicago, McCain was a POW in Vietnam, and the tragic death of Biden's wife and child inspired him in his senate career, but did you know that Sarah* was once a contestant in the Miss Alaska pageant?" The other one will say "Yes, she's a real firecracker!" and then they'll chuckle in a patronizing manner. Lets all remember that she's not the host of an MTV reality show. She's a candidate for VP, people. Is it too much to ask that we treat her as such?

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*Because we call female candidates by their first names. Makes them less threatening.