Radical feminist and intolerant liberals are squirming, complaining, criticizing, and generally in a frenetic state of cognitive dissonance. Hordes of confused media are streaming into Alaska to find some dirt. They are facing a stark confrontation with everything that contradicts their perceptions of a successful woman. As such the chances for civil discourse and respect for differences of opinion is diminished. Senator Obama to his credit has criticized the extremist but to little avail. He wants to stop the bleeding but his tourniquet is inadequate to stop the deluge. He knows that middle America respects and admires the Governor of Alaska and that the unfounded attacks will hurt him.
Governor Sara Palin is a living definition of a self made woman. She is a wonderfully accomplished independent woman who shuns leftist ideology. So the dogmatic purveyors of leftist ideology who have masqueraded as the lone defenders of woman’s rights have been exposed. Their preoccupation is political and leftist not women centered. Ask Condoleezza Rice. Ask Lynne Cheney. Ask Tammy Bruce. Women who stray from the leftist orthodoxy are not given respect as authentic women’s rights advocates.
Gloria Steinem asserts Governor Palin was nominated by the “anti-feminist right wing.” Can there be a more demeaning attitude toward the woman who governs America’s largest state? She gives the governor not one once of credit for a plethora of accomplishment. Who’s demeaning a woman of merit?
Mrs. Steinem’s extremist mindset assumes a woman cannot be conservative and a champion for woman’s rights. How very tolerant of her. Sara Palin is a living and breathing example of all that an American woman can be. Can we envision a better role model for young women?
Let’s do a bit of analysis of the Governor’s rise to prominence for the sake of clarity. Sara Palin is 100% self made. Governor Palin is a beauty queen, religious conservative, political conservative, athlete, sportscaster, mother, wife, hunter, mayor and governor. In any world outside of the closed minded feminist extremes she is a role model par excellence. Every role and every accomplishment she achieved on her own. Merit, grit, talent, charm, faith, family and a bit of luck have placed her on the national stage. She did not depend on affirmative action. She did no whine her way to the top. She did not sue her way into places of authority. The victimhood and anger at the core of radical feminism is not part of the psyche of this amazing lady. And her advancement and visibility were not the byproduct of the man she married.
She lives her convictions. Knowingly she gave life to a baby that many would discard in the womb and others have fought for the right to destroy. She proclaims love after two decades for her sweetheart. One of her sons has chosen to serve his country. Her husband does all the domestic duties necessary to support his wife’s aspirations and accomplishments. She has a large extended family that also helps her juggle her many responsibilities. She represents the best of American’s heartland and the power of an American woman. But she is not Ivey League nor organic. She is Wal-Mart and hamburgers. Hence, she is diminished in the eyes the elites.
On a national stage she demonstrated the presence and ability to communicate with wit and charm. She is hard nosed concerning core principals and compromises for the public’s interest. If indeed Steinem and her angry minions were concerned with women and not leftist ideologies they would be enthusiastically trying to book Sara to speak at every women’s studies department across America. But politics will always trump accomplishments among the angry self righteous.
As an exercise in contrast let’s take a look at someone Mrs. Steinem feels is qualified as a feminist icon and presidential candidate. Senator Clinton is a woman whose political career is directly tied to the man whom she married. Is their any question that Senator Clinton would not have been a Presidential candidate had her husband not put her on the national stage? And ironically is it not her continuing attachment to her husband that was a major factor in her not joining Senator Obama as V.P nominee? Is that the example that Mrs. Steinem suggests young ladies follow to establish their careers? Senator Clinton has chosen to live with a serial philanderer who humiliated her before 300 million witnesses. Is this Mrs. Steinem’s prescription for young ladies whose husbands have a hard time keeping it in their pants? Independence? Self respect?
Don’t get me wrong. I am the last one to criticize a couple for trying to stay together after infidelities. That is their business. I have no right to question their choices. But I am not a leftist feminist who is associated with the phrase, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” What is clear is that people like Steinem are much more concerned with their political ideology than the actual progress and outcome of women’s lives. The ironic truth is playing out with crystal clarity before our eyes in this election. We witness Governor Sara Palin becoming a radical feminist nightmare precisely because she is so darn good at being such a great woman.
