Now that it has sunk in...

My initial excitement about Sarah Palin has given way to the same curiosity most people are feeling about how she will manage in her new role as potential Vice President. As a newish Alaskan (we moved here three years ago from Los Angeles to escape big city life), I am thrilled on one hand and saddened on the other hand that we may lose our governor for good as she moves to the national scene. In fact, even at this point, "we can't go back." There's a sense she is lost to us on a state level, even while we potentially get her back at a national level. Alaska has a delightful sense of isolationism that will be lost, in part, as it takes the national stage in this way.

It is wearying, the amount of stereotyping that goes on with this sort of thing. I have deliberately avoided watching Jay Leno or listening to any of the comedians who ransack the news for material. Her hunting caribou becomes this big political statement. It's not, really. I can think of a dozen women I know around here who hunt, and that's just a fact of life around here. One young woman I know, age 9, has caught more salmon than most people will in a lifetime.

Another thing that becomes painfully obvious is that women, who have only "had the right to vote" for well under 100 years (that phrase deeply bothers me, as though we didn't "have the right" prior to that point), still face many biases and "lose-lose" situations when they enter the limelight like this. I have been distressed to hear criticism that McCain picked her "just because she's a woman." And yet, when watching her being introduced for the first time on CNN (my first mistake), they only showed the part of her speech where she discussed being a hockey mom on the PTA. They literally cut her off when she began discussing her actual political experience. How transparent can you get, CNN? I know you have been one of Obama's biggest fans, but do we not deserve at least an attempt at fairness here? Our democracy is in such big trouble when the press cannot be bothered to report the news but is more concerned with accurately portraying its own agenda. As much as it might bug liberated women out there that McCain in part picked her because she is a woman, she certainly used her brains and talents to get in position to be in the running, and anyone who looks at her as though she is merely there to be his cheerleader is looking through their own biases.

So once her very existence on the scene is accepted, the next order of business is to slam her for daring to do this while raising a young infant with down syndrome. I have heard many "gentle concerns" and not-so-gentle, downright rude and judgmental blasts about how she can possibly do this while "leaving her family behind." Um, like this?

Insert rant:

What more do you want, people? A return to the stone age? The woman has her baby with her on national television and talks with People magazine about breastpumping in the middle of the night!! She must have missed the memo from God about she should just bask in the glory of motherhood and forget about the whole governor thing, let alone the vice president "offer." Sigh. For the record, "just being a mom" is JUST FINE. But so is doing something else too. It doesn't make you better or worse, it just means you are a human being with certain skills, dreams, talents, desires, and callings, and have also procreated and participated in the invention of a new human. This should not isolate you but should enhance your experience of life while also giving this newly made person an experience of life also. In this interview, Palin gives a nice window into the goings on of having a baby in the middle of an already busy life.

There is the issue of her policy positions, many of which have largely been assumed because she is relatively unknown and also has only been a governor for under one term and not long enough to demonstrate decades of policy. Her Christianity is the neat box that people put her in and it is presumed by Democrats that she will proceed to foist it upon the country as soon as humanly possible, although she has not done that in Alaska and has, at times, vetoed thoroughly "evangelical" legislation due to its unconstitutionality in spite of her own preferences (sigh...why did politics become the forum of choice for this stuff? More later on that.)

Finally, there is the question of whether Palin is good for women--if she will better the conditions of women. Alaska has an interesting lack of sexism, in my opinion...young girls are taught right alongside boys to do all the Alaskan stuff that Alaskans do. This AK pride in having the "hottest governor" may sound incredibly crass to many "more liberated" people but it is hard to explain why that is a loving term of endearment that has practically nothing to do with lust and everything to do with Alaska. I will blog more about this issue of bettering the lives of women soon, attempting to tie it in with what I hinted at earlier in re: to marrying politics with morality.

It is my hope that as vice president, Palin will fight as hard as she does for Alaska to get resources into the households of America and that she will hold on to her disgust for "back-rubbing" and all the other practices that led to her entering politics in the first place. I'm still excited!