When Sarah Palin was first announced as VP, many people began attacking her personally. I know that her supporters have yelled "sexism". I, myself, felt that without a doubt sexism was an issue behind her attacks. However, I no longer think the attacks are sexist. I believe there is a much bigger underlying issue in the attacks, not just from the left, but from the media as well.
There is some sexism against her, but the core issue seems to be an ideological one, not a gender one. I have gone back and looked at some of the comments made about Palin in the media and on the blogs. They state that she is the anti-feminist and will bring down women. Why? Because as I have said in the past, liberals do not understand that their point of view can be an elitist one. I am a conservative, but I do not feel that my opinion speaks for everyone. Yet, if you read the attacks on Palin, those attackers feel that their point of view is the only point of view and Sarah Palin is the antipathy of those views.
Here are some examples in the media:
Campbell Brown of CNN questioned whether Palin could be a mother and Vice-President at the same time. At first glance you would think that she, as a woman, was being sexist. However, if you take a look at Campbell Brown's own life, you will find that is not the case. She is a mother of a small baby and has been working overtime as a CNN anchor during the campaign and political season. By questioning Palin's ability, she would have to question her own. Yet, it's not a female issue. It's an ideological one.
National Organization for Women states on it's own website that it is "taking action for women's equality since 1966". There is no way that this organization could be SEXIST right. That would stand against everything that they supposedly stand for. Yet, on their own website they have this posting: NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy said, "Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest." Do I think they are sexist? No. Without a doubt this is an ideological issue. Apparently, NOW will now have to change it's name to NOLW or National Organization for Liberal Women because they no longer speak for those of us who are conservative.
Even during Charlie Gibson's interview with Palin, watching the disgust on his face at having to interview her was disheartening. Is Charlie Gibson sexist? For that matter, is ABC sexist. No. However, they do apparently take a left leaning turn at the ideological wheel. If you look at the parts of the interview with Palin that were edited out, you would think it was a completely different interview. You can read the full transcript here.
He misquoted her comment on sending the troops out on a mission from God. Is he a bad journalist? No, but is there a little bias in his interviewing?.....yes! You can compare the questions that Gibson asked Obama compared to those that he asked of Palin here. The bias is unmistakable.
Now does any of this matter to voters and to the election in general. The answer is yes. If the media that most Americans watch on a daily basis or read on a daily basis are openly showing their personal political views, how does the average American hear the truth? Good Luck. Even the NYT recently had to retract an article they had written about Palin that was false. Of course the retraction was three days later and placed on page seven.
I don't tell anyone who to vote for. You visit here knowing that I am Conservative and you will hear my point of view, but please make sure that you don't believe everything that you hear or read this election cycle. Great......now I am agreeing with Hollywood. Are pigs flying too?
Saturday, September 13, 2008
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5 comments:
Hey, I appreciated your post, and I think it's right on.
Lori
Obama's and his supporters' attacks are basically racist. Sexism, ageism, ideologies are only used to cover the fact that their attacks are racist. They are based only on the fact that a Black is the only acceptable candidate, notwithstanding or because of his obvious lack of qualifications.
BA
There is motivation, and there is means, of political bludgeoning.
True, the motivation is partisan. That is why these people attacked Sarah Palin. They do display a partisan bias because the same harsh attacks aren't applied to liberal candidates (unless the candidate is a moderately liberal Hillary Clinton running against Obama and angriest-philanderer-in-the-world John Edwards).
But the methods of attack - how they attacked her - were sexist because they were specific to her position as a mother and there was also just an underlying contempt for her experience that wasn't applied to Obama (a common double-standard; a man with less experience is "ambitious", but that's often seen as a negative quality in a woman). Certainly no one's ever asked if a male politician can handle the responsibility because he has children.
I think you're right on the money with elitism, however. What appealed to me instantly about Palin was something that nobody in the MSM has talked about: that she spent summers as a commercial fisherman, that she came up through public schools and state universites, that she's authentic. No one else in this year's campaign can hold a candle to her in terms of being someone with a real first-hand knowledge of what hard work is about - I really don't think Obama has done a day's hard work in his life, and Biden's been in the Senate since 1972!
So the Obama camp and the MSM use what they used to call the "kitchen sink" strategy; they hit her with partisan bias -and- sexism with a dash of elitism, and they'll keep throwing their negative stuff hoping something will sticks, and then pretending that negative politics is the fault of conservatives, who must be all just like Karl Rove.
And to think that just 4 short months ago I was still a Democrat... What a year!
Stacy -
I'm a blogging novice and so have not figured out how to either send an article I've read or link you to it! You might find the September 11, 2008 article by Judith Warner, entitled "Domestic Disturbances", in the Opinion section of the NY Times of interest.
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/
Ms. Warner set out to observe a McCain-Palin rally and find humor in the Palin effect (fairly admiting she could no longer beat it!) She ended up observing alot more, most importantly, the need for both parties to respect and empathize with each other's views. She clearly leans to the left in her personal views but her observations are enlightening to all.
Here are the final paragraphs -
"For those of us who can’t tap into those yearnings, it seems the Palin faithful are blind – to the contradictions between her stated positions and the truth of the policies she espouses, to the contradictions between her ideology and their interests. But Jonathan Haidt, an associate professor of moral psychology at the University of Virginia, argues in an essay this month, “What Makes People Vote Republican?”, that it’s liberals, in fact, who are dangerously blind.
Haidt has conducted research in which liberals and conservatives were asked to project themselves into the minds of their opponents and answer questions about their moral reasoning. Conservatives, he said, prove quite adept at thinking like liberals, but liberals are consistently incapable of understanding the conservative point of view. “Liberals feel contempt for the conservative moral view, and that is very, very angering. Republicans are good at exploiting that anger,” he told me in a phone interview.
Perhaps that’s why the conservatives can so successfully get under liberals’ skin. And why liberals need to start working harder at breaking through the empathy barrier."
If you want to help fighting unfair treatment of Palin in the media..sign and advertise this petition. They are not stopping and we have to send a message. As soon as I have 1000, I will print and send this certified mail with return receipt to the CEOs of the major news channels and NYT. I want to do it by the end of the week and can do this with some help from fellow bloggers and supporters.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/womenforpalin/index.html
Thanks,
http://www.mccainpalin2008.blogspot.com/
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