September 01, 2008
IOKIYAR: Family Values Edition
The RNC has announced that Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant with her boyfriend's child. It also says they will be marrying soon. Congratulations to them and of course we wish them the best.
Can you imagine, however, what would be the right-wing's reaction if this had been Barack Obama's 17-year-old daughter? It would take racial coding to a whole new level.
For that matter, can you imagine what their reaction would be if the Democratic Presidential candidate had cheated on his first wife, who was disabled, in order to marry a younger, prettier heiress?
And if the Vice-Presidential candidate's teenaged daughter had had sex and a child out of wedlock?
Or if the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate chose to run for national office while attempting to raise a six-month-old infant with Down's Syndrome?
Or if their own Vice-Presidential candidate's wife was tragically killed in an auto accident and the candidate himself took the train back home every night to care for his sons?
As a Democrat, I believe strongly in family privacy. These things should not be the stuff of political discourse. It hurts families and children and makes a mockery of the idea that the right wants to strengthen American families. It's a shame that the Republicans don't believe the same.
In the meantime, memo to the Republican Party's "family values" or "values voters" crowd: STFU.
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