Palin doesn't reflect women's rights

[struggle4progress]

SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

My phone is ringing, my e-mail overflowing. I direct the Women and Gender Studies Program at the State University College at Brockport, and the academic community is — by its very nature — rooted in inquiry. What is my reaction to the Sarah Palin nomination? Has the glass ceiling truly been broken? Have women finally arrived? ...

The presumption that Palin's nomination translates into advancement for women is both infuriating and decidedly miscalculated. As a women's studies major at Brockport wrote to our campus student newspaper, "I don't think that a pro-life woman is better for women's rights than a pro-choice male"; and "The issue is whether or not a John McCain presidency, with or without Sarah Palin, would be better for America than a Barack Obama presidency." The answer here is a resounding "no."

The Palin VP nomination is not a bullet Obama/Biden must dodge, but a message to America that a McCain/Palin presidential Cabinet would be just one more political and economic nightmare for our country and the world. McCain's age and potential ill health, compounded with Palin's inexperienced, conservative ideologies, create a losing ticket for everyone. Add into this mix "troopergate" — Palin's political leveraging to fire a state police chief who refused to dismiss her sister's abusive ex-husband — and the newest development — Palin's 17-year-old daughter's unplanned pregnancy — and citizens of America are in for a bumpy ride.

Sadly, we don't need Bristol Palin's pregnancy to remind us that Palin's abstinence-only approach to teen sex is ineffective. The thousands of unwanted teen pregnancies each year offer ample evidence here, as does the rising number of STDs among sexually active girls and boys who lack educational access to ways they can protect themselves and their partners. In the end, it is superfluous to introduce into this already ill-fated Republican equation Palin's misuse of political power and her paradoxical family life. Let's leave the private private, and instead, recognize that it is Palin's public persona — her questionable ethics, her limited and young political exposure and her old-school views — that make the McCain/Palin candidacy an ineffectual enterprise for us all ...

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20080904/OPINION02/809040333/1039/OPINION

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[tanyev]

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