A message board on which I post has seen a flurry of nonsense about the Bristol and Levi break up. A friend of mine commented that she thought it was ironic, and a hand-full of people jumped on her for being judgmental of conservatives or some shit.
There are a number of reasons why I have not blogged about the media dust-up over Brisvi (see what I did there?) breaking up, chief among them being that I really don't give a flying moose. Sarah Palin is funny. She cracks me up (although, I really wish she would get some new material), and as a political figure who refuses to go away already, she's fair game. Her family, however, is of no interest to me not matter how fervently each member was paraded around the campaign trail when Gov. Palin was John McCain's running mate.
Yes, I see the irony. Ha ha, saw that one coming. My friend has a valid point: it is pretty ironic that they made such a huge point out of "Sarah Palin's knocked up daughter is engaged after all", and now that they've split the message is entirely lost, it's true. But Bristol Palin never should have been dragged onto the trail in the first place. Didn't those kids have to be at school? How much did we learn about John McCain's family? He was, after all, the top of the ticket for the Republican party -- if they wanted to push family values, they should have mentioned something about how John and Cindy adopted a baby girl from South East Asia when Cindy was there on a humanitarian mission. If they wanted to push het marriage as a value, they could have made a big deal about how John McCain has several children who are married with their own children.
But no. Bristol Palin, whose pregnancy was made public by the McCain campaign was the center of this idea -- this family values nonsense. And it's wrong. She was provided an extreme disservice by her mother who no doubt authorized this information becoming public. And I think I know why:
Sarah Palin was mortified when she found out Bristol was pregnant; to the point that Sarah wanted to kick Bristol out of the house (allegedly), but then she was tapped as VP for the Republican ticket. Well, can't kick the kid out, that would look bad; instead, embarrass her, air her dirty laundry on the national stage and make everyone in the country who neither knows her nor her circumstances snicker about how irresponsible she is. Sarah Palin made the information about her pregnant, unwed teenage daughter public in order to punish her.
The thing is though, their family business is none of our business. I don't care what it says about the "party of family values". Keeping your family business to yourself is a family value, and keeping your nose out of other people's vagina's is another. It's not important what the Republican party thinks about pregnant teenagers who aren't married and who decide that they aren't going to marry (for whatever reason, it's their business, remember). It's not even important that the daughter of the VP candidate for the Republican party has an unwed pregnant teen. Yes, it's ironic. Yes, it gives even more truth to the "keep your focus on your own damn family" saying that we have on the left.
However, Sarah Palin was wrong to punish her daughter by forcing her pregnancy into the public spot-light and everyone who keeps re-enforcing that punishment by continuing to talk about Bristol and Levi and their child is a bastard (myself included, I suppose). It's not our business, and I'd like to see the subject dropped entirely. The girl is 18 (I think), a new mom, a high school drop out blah blah blah. I know too much about her, and I really don't want to hear any more. What's next? Whether her mom made her wear a training bra stuffed with tissue before her breasts developed? Whether she pees in the shower?
No. No more. Enough with the goddamn over-share for the purpose of cheap political points. Bristol Palin is not a politician or public figure. So leave her the fuck alone already. That goes for you too, Governor Palin.
Edit: hehe, "unwed married teen" doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Fixed. Thanks JE.
2 comments:
"Keeping your family business to yourself is a family value, and keeping your nose out of other people's vagina's is another."
Sips iced peppermint tea, nods in agreement and says, "Ya know...".
From the time I heard of her pregnancy all I could think was, so what, and this helps the economy how? Is this child going to help the situation in Darfur? End the war? What's in it for me?
There's actually two parts to the political callousness with making Bristol a centerpiece of the campaign. The first part, that I mentioned, was the punish Bristol for having premarital sex.
The second part was to bait the left, and specifically the Obama campaign, into making calls of hypocrisy thus enabling the McCain campaign and right wing to call foul and say that the left was being cruel to poor, poor Bristol.
Nothing about her being a part of that campaign had anything to do with anything other than cheap personal politics on a large and small scale.
Post a Comment