Barack Obama may think family is off limits as far as Sarah Palin is concerned. I disagree. Republicans have made traditional family values the centerpiece of every election for the past decade or more.
Here’s what’s happening. Bristol Palin gets knocked up. Her family announces she is keeping the baby and marrying the father. Bristol Palin is 17 years old. She is not getting married because she is in love with the father – someone who “don’t want kids“. She is getting married because the “values” she was brought up to believe in tell her that she must marry the father.
When I was growing up, getting pregnant out of wedlock was called getting “knocked up.” Not to get too personal, but my brother had a child out of wedlock, as did my two sisters. My oldest sister married the father. It didn’t work out. Neither my brother nor my younger sister made that decision, thankfully. My younger sister might decide to marry the father, and fine. Her decision. She’s also 30+ years old and has been with him for several years anyway. But no one in my family would say you have to marry the father just because you’re knocked up. That usually ends up to be a disaster. It’s marrying someone, not for love, but because the sex didn’t quite work out how you expected. That’s not what marriage is supposed to be about. And shame on Republicans for celebrating this.
It’s also worth noting that these same people who are rallying around the Palin family and expressing their happiness that she is marrying the father, not for love, but because the sex didn’t quite work out as planned, are the same people who would deny me the right to marry someone precisely because I am in love.
Dear Sarah Palin: That abstinence education you imposed on your daughter and that you’d impose on the rest of the country given the chance, hasn’t worked out quite that well for you, has it?
Over the past decade, the Republicans have made “family values” the centerpiece of their campaigning. It’s not off limits. A 17 year old is going to get married because she was taught that it was the right thing to do – even if love has nothing to do with it.
Family values, Republican style.
[/ rant]
DougJ
Here’s some more good Republican family values for you:
Sorry for all the cut and paste today. The actual stories are better than any snark I could make up.
RAM
Anyone know what the statutory rape laws are up in AK? Just wondering if this unfortunate kid was taken advantage of, legally, as well as morally. Because not only did her boyfriend take advantage of her, but so did her mother in plastering her name and condition all over the front pages of every major newspaper in the world.
MBL
Age of consent in AK is sixteen. I only know that because of this story, I swear. :)
r€nato
Atrios sez that the Palin family took their kids to Ohio without telling them the real reason for the trip.
You think that Bristol made her own choice as far as keeping the fetus or marrying the boyfriend who knocked her up?
She does what the parents tell her to do. Period.
zoe from pittsburgh
I think McCain and Palin made it fair game when THEY PUT OUT A FUCKING PRESS RELEASE ABOUT IT.
I’ve been trying to sort out my feelings about this story– there is something deeply unsettling about the way the campaign and Palin herself handled the news. I realize now that I’m pissed on Bristol’s behalf that her mother told the world about this– why didn’t her mother try to protect her? If she wanted to respect her daughter’s privacy she could have left her back in Alaska instead of putting her on stage holding her little brother to conceal her “baby bump.” Why did they voluntarily put Bristol in the limelight this way? Why not leave her in Alaska to quietly get married FIRST and then announce that she’s married and having a kid soon? Also, if she’s 5 months pregnant why isn’t she married already?
To me this feels like they’re exploiting the girl’s pregnancy to score points with the “pro-life” crowd. It’s truly sickening.
PeterJ
I doubt that the boyfriend wanted to get married.
But I’m guessing that he’s getting a hefty dowry that changed his mind. Or an offer he could not refuse.
Incertus
You can hammer the policies without hammering the daughter, which is how I take Obama’s comment. Bristol Palin shouldn’t be the issue here–Sarah Palin’s positions are fair game.
r€nato
I’m betting on the latter, PeterJ. Bristol’s mom is the woman who fired a guy who refused to fire some guy her family had a feud with, and tried to fire a librarian who refused to ban books which Palin didn’t like.
Nylund
That boy is about to go from a “f*ckig redneck” to possibly the son in law of the 2nd most powerful person in the world! Of course he’s stoked about getting married!
Hahaha…who am I kidding? She doesn’t have a chance of being veep.
For me, it has much more to do with all the jokes (including from McCain) about Chelsea Clinton as well as the hypocracy about family values. Family values and children are FAIR GAME, per the rules of the GOP.
Tells you something when the “family values” party has the knocked up teenage kid “F*cking” a “redneck” running with a guy who cheated on and left his injured wife, while the part of supposed bad morals has the stable and healthy family lives.
xyzzy
Personally, I think it’s basically a nonissue. So a teenager rebels against her parents and makes an unwise decision – seriously, that’s newsworthy?
I will note, however, that I agree with you regarding whether or not it’s fair game, Michael. It is. Scrutinizing a candidate’s family has been okay ever since, oh, Rush Limbaugh joked that the Clinton not only had a cat (Socks), “but a dog, too!” and held up a picture of 13-year-old Chelsea.
Payback’s a bitch.
Pooh
Ak. age of consent is 16 to do it with someone 18 +
Krista
Gah — I had a whole comment written, and WordPress ate it.
Anyway, the gist is that I really feel sorry for that kid — she never stood a chance. It’s not like she would have received medically accurate sex education, and I’m sure she wouldn’t have been caught dead being seen buying condoms, considering who her mother is. So, her ignorance (naturally) catches up with her, and now she’s being forced into a life sentence because of it.
Terrible.
Ari
hmm? Without any sarcasm on my part, did I miss something? As far as I’ve read, nobody’s suggesting anything like that. Sleeping with her is hardly taking advantage of her, given their similar ages (he’s 17 if I’m not mistaken) and over-consent-age status.
capelza
In a nutshell..that!
It isn’t about the kids…but that their parents are doing this. Family values my butt.
And now, the young father’s mother has announced that he is in Minneapolis, too. Way to sic the hounds on them.
And Michael is right, this woman would gladly interfere with anyone else’s family she could, gay, straight…because her version of Jesus tells her she has that right..
Tsulagi
I’m certainly no saint to the god of PC, but you leave the kids out of it. Knock Republican candidates up one side of their head and down the other on their family values hypocrisy, their vapid belief they’re morally superior as well as patriotic by the virtue invested in them by their R-card, but leave their individual kids out. It’s not a winner.
Just Some Fuckhead
Look, cut her some slack. She didn’t make her parents psychotic cultists. Besides, the onliest things to do in Alaska is hunt and fuck and Bristol don’t hunt.
Optimus Prime
So when are she and her future ex-husband going to tie the knot?
They’re just pissed because they were planning to announce the baby was born 8 months premature, after the fact.
Karma is a bitch…
Chum
Hunted by helicopter?
Poor kids, the poor dopes. What chance do they have now. And the mother’s ambition has done it to them. They were a couple of statistics last week and now they are forced into a marriage of convenience….unless the new husband changes his mind about kids.
Family values my ass.
Dr Laura considers her a feminista. Dr. Laura is not happy but she can’t bring herself to vote for Obama either.
Bootlegger
Michael D. you can marry whomever you love as long as its a woman. Just like Bristol can refuse to marry a violent redneck as long as her mother says she can.
This is freedom baby! What do you have against freedom!
Optimus Prime
And drinking. Don’t forget drinking. (which you do before, during and after the other 2 things)
corwin
This will end badly.
Neither one of them is ready to get married, he’s definitely hot headed, as all too many 18 year old “rednecks” are, and their family life is about to go upside down for at least the next 2 months.
Once McCain loses, the best thing that could happen would be a very quick and very quiet divorce. God forbid McCain wins, and they are forced to stay together for any length of time, especially after the baby is born.
Halteclere
Anecdotal evidence is all I’ve got when it comes to teenage parents marrying for the sake of the baby. Basically two wrongs do not make a right – i.e. I’ve never seen a couple stay together who got married in their teens because the girl got pregnant.
Does anyone know of a couple who did manage to stay together and had a happy marriage for at least 10 years? Or is it all pretty much a foregone conclusion that these sort of marriages are just money in the pocket for some divorce lawyer down the road?
w vincentz
@ renato,
Minor correction…
“She does what the parents tell her to do. Period.”
NO PERIOD!
Jill Howell
Michael,
I agree with you but for a very different reason. I think you will have a tough time making the argument that one has to marry for love. Arranged marriages have not prevented generations of Indians from experiencing a loving, fulfilling marriage. There are cultures in the world that believe there are more important reasons, than love, for getting married and that love between two people will develop over time.
A more effective argument, I believe, is to continue talking about Palin’s daughter and Cheney’s daughter so when the “family values” crowd attacks us and says that families should be off limits we can respond EXACTLY – that’s why “family values” DOESN’T BELONG IN POLITICS!
As long as they are going to drag “family values” into the political arena, families are fair game for public discourse and debate. Perhaps, if by personal experience, they can feel the sting and inappropriateness of having their family dragged onto the public stage then maybe they can begin to see why “family values” does not belong in politics and that includes whom one marries, how one raises their children, etc.
Ella in NM
RAM:
I understand your concerns about this girl, but do we really want to go down the ugly road of trying to turn teen-age lust into a crime?
Just Some Fuckhead
I really don’t have a problem with teenagers having sex as long as they videotape it and put it on the internet. The truly wonderful thing is that now generations of wholesome Christian teenagers can show the world their beautiful family values.
GailVortex
Does anyone know of a couple who did manage to stay together and had a happy marriage for at least 10 years?
Well, my grandparents managed to fool everyone into thinking their marriage was happy for 72 years… :)
The Truffle
However, Obama’s mother had him when she was 18. So it would be a bad idea for him to comment on the Palin implosion. At least in this case, it really is better for him as a candidate to take the high road. This is the 107th example of general GOP family values hypocrisy; let them hang themselves.
PS: That Pajamas TV side ad is scary. I don’t want to see Buttrocket and Stalkin’ Malkin’s nasty mugs! EW!
DrDave
No, we want to make the stupidity of Family Values thinking a crime.
LiberalTarian
The issue that has really been bugging me today has to do with something they said in their press release yesterday … “She has to grow up faster than we ever planned …”
Yeah, being a mother at 18 makes you grow up. But, the kid is a baby. Maybe grandma will help babysit once in a while so you can go out and have some fun. But not this family.
Being your mother’s full time baby sitter at 17, basically being made responsible for her son while your mother goes galavanting around the countryside pursuing her career, that is punishment. “No, no fun for you you stupid slut. You wanna be a mother? Fine. No more high school for you. And, you are going to take care of your newborn baby brother full time. I have a state to run and a campaign to wage. You want babies? Now you’ll have two to be responsible for. And if you think I am going to babysit, you have another think coming!!”
Sorry, I don’t think Ma and Pa Palin are nice people. Their daughter comes a long way behind their personal ambition. THAT is what I think is immoral.
Calliope
From the National Enquirer:
Crikey, poor Bristol.
Now that’s from the Enquirer, so a huge grain of salt is necessary. However, if true, can I just say that Sarah Palin is starting to scare me. Raw naked ambition and no scruples is a very scary thing indeed.
With this and all the personal vendetta stuff coming out of Alaska, she’s beginning to remind me of Mrs. Iselin, (Angela Lansbury), Raymond Shaw’s mother in “The Manchurian Candidate.”
cain
BJ has been replaced by my other favorite blog I visit ‘WordPress Error’. :)
cain
Matt D
Moreover, it seems like most of the support for Palin is already so personality-driven, I don’t see how you can keep family issues out of it.
I just find the whole thing depressing. You know the kids didn’t have any choice in the matter. You know that mom could pretty easily have spared them this grief by refusing the VP slot. You know that the Republican base (and, god help us, Althouse) is going to lap this shit up anyway. And you know that they’re going to keep on vilifying and attempting to undermine or even criminalize relationships they don’t personally approve of (which means, more or less, that to the extent that who we choose to build our lives with is our family, family hasn’t been off limits for a long time now).
Nancy Irving
After the John Edwards story, there’s no way Palin couldn’t have known that going forward with the VP nomination would expose her daughter to international ridicule.
And she decided to go forward with it.
She’s a toad.
YellowJournalism
I have a serious problem with people lobbing personal attacks at the teenagers in this horrible train wreck of a story (not really been a problem here at BJ), but I think that it’s entirely legitimate to discuss the situation in terms of Palin’s family values stance and the strange way the McCain/Palin camp are trying to positively present the pregnancy and the subsequent shotgun wedding as something to be admired or, God forbid, emulated by those in a similar position.
It’s weird, but after I made the Jamie Lynn Spears comparison on another post, it made me stop and think about how teenage pregnancy is presented in the media as of late. With both Palin’s daughter and Ms. Spears, there’s more talk about how Jamie Lynn can play dress-up with her new
dolllittle girl or how responsible Bristol Palin is for keeping the baby and marrying the father. There is very little discussion about the downside to teen pregnancy. (No, I don’t count Palin’s pithy little comment about her little girl having to grow up too soon as addressing the downside.) In fact, I think it does a disservice to young women in a similar situation who do not have the resources, financial or otherwise, that Spears and Palin have. It’s an unrealistic portrayal of the consequences of unprotected sex and unplanned pregnancy.That said, I don’t think the pregnancy is the biggest issue regarding Palin as the VP pick. I think it does, though, send big warning signals out as to the judgement of McCain and how much care is taken when making the important decisions.
JGabriel
LiberalTarian:
Bristol has probably been in the position of full-time baby-sitter all her life. Which may be a factor in why she got pregnant so young.
If you have to spend all or most of your time taking care of kids anyway, why not get preggers? It’ll get you out of the house of that annoying termagant, you mother, and you’ll only have one kid to care for instead of three.
My own mother, the eldest of seven, was pregnant at 17, for much the same reasons.
.
Damned at Random
My cousin married his very pregnant girlfriend in 1972 and they are still togeather -4 kids and a couple of grandkids later. His wife is great- and they are great togeather. The exception that proves the rule I guess. I know at least a dozen forced marriages that turned out badly. (I should add that both my cousin and his wife had great, supportive families)
Conservatively Liberal
I learned long ago that after I write something, I hit CTRL A (highlights the text) and then CTRL C (copies text to clipboard), then I refresh the page (to make sure the database is still connected) and hit Submit.
If it fails, I just go back and CRTL V (paste) the clipboard into a new post and try again.
Saves the agony of losing a post. :)
myiq2xu
You should worry more about posting a loser