OK. Let's get real for a moment shall we. It DOES matter that Bristol Palin daughter of Sarah Paling the newly minted V.P. Nominee for the Republican Party, has a bun in the oven, is pregnant, and out of wedlock. To try to pretend otherwise just shows this party as the two-faced bullcrap artists they've always been. They made this issue a cornerstone of vitriolic anti-black propaganda and social control (anti-anyone not white, more correctly) for decades. But along comes Bristol Palin, daughter of Sarah Palin, and some how it's different! La dee da! Flowers and fields and pregnant teenage mothers running together! Feeling strong... all "womany" and stuff. WTF...
So what are Republicans saying about their Teenage Unwed Pregnant Family Member?
"It makes her (Sarah Palin) just like other people"
Just like "other people" huh? Funny, I thought "other people" weren't having babies out of wedlock? That's not what "they" do. And keep in mind, in this double-speak mentality, "they" or "other" means "other Republicans" - Republicans are never going to be those other "Other People", you know.
"This is different because she won't be using foodstamps and welfare"
Some people are idiots: While the proportion of black children being raised in single-headed family households is higher than whites the sheer number of single-parented households by whites is far higher when taking account their proportionate volume of the population (roughly 60% whites vs. 20% blacks). Go and get your (our, I'm white, btw) tubes tied and shut up about blacks and hispanics. Maybe if we didn't make their lives a living hell and put 2/3 of their fathers in jail (more than whites for the same crimes, so don't pull that "They did the crime" crap on me here either) then they'd have dads now wouldn't they...
She's keeping the child and "I'm blessed by her decision she "Chose Life" said one male Republican at the convention.
Two words for you: *-*. OK, more than two - "It's not your body" and "*-*".
"I think this makes us stronger."
This is crap. Stronger my butt. Read this you dimwits: This is from YOUR own Republican Party Platform speech, given June 11, 2004, by YOUR president, George W. Bush where he outlines unwed births as a health issue to be ended:
"Each year more than three million American teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases, causing emotional harm and serious health consequences, even death. We support efforts to educate teens and parents about the health risks associated with early sexual activity and provide the tools needed to help teens make healthy choices. Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including sexually transmitted HIV/AIDS. Therefore, we support doubling abstinence education funding. We oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling, and related services for contraception and abortion."(p 81)
Just in time to keep sex ed from Bristol I guess huh? And "makes us stronger" huh? That's why THE REPUBLICAN PARTY put it into their platform speech of 2004 to get rid of it? That's why Ms. Sarah Palin, supporter of "abstinence based sex education" had her daughter go off and get pregnant - so they would be stronger? Guess all those teenage girls oughta put on their low rise jeans and go "get stronger" huh? (This just in... Oh, wait it was "just in" a year ago - I guess Ms. Palin never got the memo: Abstinence-based sex education programs do not delay sexual activity. And while the administration has no plans of accepting the findings of the study - they rather have more car-crash family screw-ups like the Palins instead I thought I'd share it here again. Just thought maybe she'd like to have this for her other daughter maybe...But back to the point - The point being played out here is that somehow it doesn't matter when some smary, white, Republican gets knocked up all 'Juno' like. But for decades it has mattered for Republicans. And not withstanding the difficult time Ms. Bristol Palin has ahead, and in no ways am I demonizing here, it is absolutely hypocritical of the Republican Party to try to spin this as some kind of "fortunate accident" of salvation.
And while Obama was careful and I think noble in his comments when asked and he said "Look my mother had me when I was 18... this is a family matter" what he didn't get to say Tavis Smiley did later on while talking with Newt Gingrich this evening. Tavis asked Gingrich "So how do you think this whole political thing is playing out" (I'm paraphrasing) and Newt said... Blah, Blah, Blah... it won't be playing in three days etc. But Smiley came back and laid him out: "I can show you year after year, tape after tape, of Republicans going after Black unwed mothers." Gingrich hedged it again.... But then again, it's different if your a Republican unwed mother, daughter to the V.P. nominee for the party though isn't it....
(BTW, this doesn't change the 'problem' - it's a problem given the particularly inflexible social structure of our times - of single-parented households. And particularly is difficult on Black folk. Listen, learn, hear more on NPR on Out of Wedlock Births in the Black Community. Then go form your own EDUCATED position on the topic. Not some crap soundbite that's going to get someone an office on Pennsylvania Avenue. Oh, and this was the best comment of the whole night, from a female teen, interviewed on the street:
Wow.. I mean, if she (Sarah Palin) can't control her own kids I can't see how she's going to control a country. I mean, I just don't see it happening.
'nuf said. This isn't some disenchanted 'Hillary Supporter'. This is a person that sees something for what it is. A sham of trying to spin something back in the other direction after you've spent years trying to tar people with the issue. How's it feel now the brush is in the others' hands? Obama took the high road ... I wouldn't be so sure I wouldn't WAP! you one with that brush...
