20 February 2010 Palin uses children as political props yet again – Bested by actress with Downs

20 February 2010 Palin uses children as political props yet again – Bested by actress with Downs


I am among those who instinctively dislike and distrust former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at a deep and permanent level from the first moment I encountered her. Like most Americans, my first encounter was her appearance on stage when introduced as the 2008 GOP VP candidate. Her voice, which she cannot help; combined with her absolute lack of any command of English grammar, which is her fault; were enough to set my teeth on edge and conjure up memories of Heinlein’s prediction of political takeover by uneducated fundamentalists. I was appalled when she trotted her children onstage as props. The election of 2008, any election, is supposed to be about principles, positions, platforms, qualifications and, at some level, truth. Instead, Palin’s very presence was indicative of an attempt to foist off a poorly educated candidate with no national or foreign policy awareness on the voting public in hopes that females would rush to her camp instead of Obama’s. Her gender, her religious fundamentalism, her willingness to sell the nation out to energy companies, and her apparent physical attraction to a percentage of male voters were her tickets to GOP candidacy. Her willingness to use her children, including a pregnant 17 year old daughter and the daughter’s barely literate boy friend who suddenly became her fiancé, as stage props became even more annoying as she dangled her youngest son, afflicted with Downs’ syndrome, as if he were a campaign poster.

Throughout the campaign, as her lack of qualifications became more and more evident, the presence of one or more children became more and more frequent. They were convenient flags to trumpet “family values” while she ignored the values that were really being used to raise them: dishonesty in filing travel and flight expense forms to ferry and house her family at official events that did not require their presence, lack of value for education displayed by taking school aged children on a campaign trail, racism and bigotry combined with blatant lies about political opponents while covering up her own ethical defects and violations.

When it became apparent that she was a major factor in the GOP’s loss of the election she started whining about personal attacks upon her family and herself. To this day she waves her youngest son as if he were a sacred object instead of a child who was tragically borne with a developmental defect. Her child is not the only child to be born with this genetic defect and she gains no sacred status by giving birth to such a child. Thousands of women in this nation deliver Downs children and go on about their lives, taking care of their children, and not feuding with the rest of the world for nor affording her beatification.

Ms. Palin seems to operate under the assumption that her failed VP run and series of incompleted terms as an elected official should protect her from all criticism. Further, she wants to bear a standard for defense of developmentally delayed children without really doing anything for them beyond holding one up to the camera when one is available and then quickly handing the child to one of her daughters who should be in school rather than serving as an unpaid nanny lest Ms. Palin be burdened with the need to actually mother her child rather than speak of mothering her child.

She has now taken offense at the inclusion of a Downs-afflicted character into the script of a Fox comedy cartoon know for bad taste. The character tells another character that her mother is the “former governor of Alaska.” The phrase is an obvious slap at Palin; But Palin wants to claim that it is a direct attack upon her child and says so publically.

Palin, in short, is lacking both a sense of humor and any shred of intellect that might help one be qualified for elected office. Palin, rather than rejoicing that the character with Downs is portrayed leading a somewhat normal life, wants to retreat behind the body of her own child and wave her child about as if it somehow makes it illegal to point out what a poor excuse for a political candidate and a mother she is.

I’ve included the link below. Please read the article. The actress who did the voice-over for the character which offended Ms. Former Governor Palin is, herself, afflicted with Downs and has her own career as an actor.

Her comments upon the show and character in question and about Former Governor Palin, she of the repeated resignations, are quite to the point and thoroughly enjoyable. Ms. Palin has often shown her lack of intellectual curiosity and her own failure to grasp complex concepts. The actress who played the part which upset the queen of quitters certainly seems able to laugh at herself and to understand and act upon complex concepts.

Read the article. Then hope that Ms. Palin retires from the public arena and somehow becomes a real mother to her youngest child, one who will allow it to grow to its fullest potential rather than always being a device to gain attention and pity for his mother.

What is it to be, Ms. Palin? Will you quit waving your child as a prop and allow it to develop as fully as possible or will you keep it a loaf of bread on someone else’s arm while you make the same tired and error-filled speech over and over until there’s no one left who wants to hear it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/arts/television/20family.html?th&emc=th