Roe v. Wade headline, 1973Hendrik Hertzberg:
“…here is Kathryn Jean (K-Lo) Lopez, head honcha of National Review Online, explaining why Governor Palin is her leader:
What is it about Sarah?
For many folks on the Right, she represented an influx of social conservatism in the campaign. All she had to do was arrive at the scene with her son Trig to demonstrate her pro-life bona fides. Some estimated 90 percent of Americans faced with the knowledge that they might give birth to a child with Down Syndrome wouldn’t have made the choice she and her husband, Todd, did to let the child live.
I detect some assumptions here. (1) Palin’s carrying Trig to term was a choice. (2) The choice was hers and her husband’s to make, not God’s or the government’s. (3) She deserves praise for having chosen the choice she chose.
But if Palin (and Lopez) were truly “pro-life”—if they truly believed that abortion, especially elective abortion in the first trimester, is murder or at least unjustifiable homicide—then having Trig was not a choice. It was a simple matter of obedience to God’s law, which is infinitely more sacrosanct than man’s law. Palin no more deserves praise for it than I deserve praise for not having lately gunned down any friends, colleagues, or strangers.
What this demonstrates is that even in the minds of anti-abortion zealots, abortion is now implicitly viewed in the same light as divorce: an unfortunate choice, a reprehensible choice, a choice that may even contravene the will of God, but still a choice. And, again implicitly, the choice that Sarah Palin had every right to make. In both directions.
This is why, even if Roe v. Wade is eventually overturned, it will always be legal to get an abortion somewhere in the United States of America.”
via The New Yorker
Lost in all the praise of Palin’s “choice:”
As soon as the story came out, my wife said, “Wait a minute — If she’s so pro-life, then there’s no way she would have known their baby’s Down syndrome status before birth.”
After all: How do you find out if your baby will have Down syndrome? Amniocentesis.
And if you’re staunchly pro-life from the outset, why on Earth would you go through the pain — and subject the fetus to the risk — associated with amnio? The results, after all, wouldn’t change your course of action.
Most likely, either (a) you wouldn’t have gotten the amnio, or (b) if you did get the amnio, you’re not really that staunchly ‘pro-life.’
So the whole narrative put forth by the McCain-Palin campaign falls apart, yet another desperate spin attempt by the Flailin’, Failin’ Palin team.
Let’s hear it for 2012!
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Sarah Palin is such a hero that none of this petty crap can do anything to bring her down.
She is smart, beautiful, free of criminality that plagues the Democrats and she will win in ’12
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> “smart, beautiful, free of criminality that plagues the Democrats and she will win in ’12”
0 for 4 ain’t bad.
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Certainly, I do not agree with Palin on many issues but there does seem to be an all-out concerted effort from the Left to just demonize her. It is as if this all out fear reaction takes over, maybe many on the Left cannot even fathom that anyone who thinks so differently than they do could be even remotely capable in any way that matters, or even remotely human in the same way that they are. (Indeed, one sometimes gets the feeling that a Leftist mob would burn the woman at the stake if given the opportunity!)
Especially revealing was the way that every tiny nasty whisper of a rumor regarding anything that Palin was alleged to have said or done was developed into full-blown gospel-like “news” that was dissected and chewed over for days on end. To the point of like, a falsified myth-generating machine. So much- Gotcha!There!See!
The Lefts reaction to Palin has been so revealing for me- I am starting to unravel how “progressives” “liberals”- whatever label we apply to ourselves these days- spin their/our own reality – one that I used to be completely immersed in myself. Being on the Left was spot-on brilliantly correct and pure. The only “spinning” was done on the Right (which was necessary for them because they were always wrong.) Now -I’m not so sure.
I always thought that the Right was nauseatingly self-righteous, but wow- I am completely starting to understand why they would feel the same way about me!
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