Tuesday, September 9, 2008

This blog tries something new

How about a link to Jennifer Moody's blog:

It is simply not possible to be both a parent and a high-powered executive and give both jobs your absolute, undivided energy. (Frankly, it’s not possible to be only ONE of those things and give it your absolute, undivided energy 100 percent of the time, but I digress.) One or the other, and sometimes both, will be dropped from the priority list every single day.

....

God bless women who want to lead. I have every confidence in women as governors, women as politicians, women as leaders of countries. They should not have to sacrifice parenting to accomplish any of that.

But the reality is, they do. Just like their husbands have done for so long.

And so, for her sake and her family’s, I’m sending up a prayer. Because something’s going to have to give, and I’m betting it won’t be the job.


Moody gets it right; even with the tremendous amount of help Palin is sure to get, something's going to give.

I've linked to a lot of stuff that is critical of Palin - and rightly so. That doesn't mean I think she or her family are immune to the stress they are about to go through. Far from it - which is part of the reason I am linking to Moody's blog post as well.

That said, I can't get over the fact that Palin gets help of the kind she would seek to deny others through her policy preferences. On some level, that has to produce cognitive dissonance for her. I hope. Certainly it should for her would-be voters.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can you make you very famous with you comments about Palin Dennis.

Anonymous said...

It surprises me that we liberals, we independents, we progressives, are so up in arms over Palin.
If she did not hold the political views she does I don't think she would be in the middle of a bombardment of baloney.
If she were, say, Michelle Obama nominated as VP I don't think we would have any problem with the fact that she has child responsibilities.
As a woman I am disillusioned with the double standard. I actually really believe in a woman's right to decide for herself what will and won't work for her and her family, just like a man.
I thought the majority of us did.
Wrong.
Apparently if a woman decides to have a family and a major career we don't support that.
We feel she must choose between those two things.
That sounds way more like the conservatives and I am finding it hard to accept.
It seems we only believe in choice when it comes to other issues.

Dennis said...

Anon @ 11:41 AM - I've not heard many liberals/leftists/progressives question Palin's choice to run based on her family needs. I know it's happened, but I don't think it's very widespread. Therefore, it might be nice not to tar whole groups with the same brush.

Moreover, I would say that while it's Palin's right to decide whether or not it's possible for her to have a major career and a large family that includes a child with special needs, it is fair to ask how she plans to make it work - and how her policies will enable/prevent others from making that same choice she is afforded.

One might also be cynical and say that if it were Michelle Obama, or any Democratic politician, the Republicans would claim that it was just more evidence that Democrats were destroying families.

Dennis said...

Anon @ 11:41 AM -

See this blog post by Glenn Greenwald for evidence that almost no one (in fact, no liberal or leftist who appears in the paper or on the TV) is questioning Palin's ability to be both a parent and a VP, despite media reports to the contrary.

(Basically, the reporter made some shit up and got called on it.)

This is not to say no one is saying it, but that it's not part of the national discourse at this point - meaning prominent lefties, progressives and liberals aren't saying it.

Large parts of the media are clearly not liberal.

 
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