Interesting piece by Barbara Amiel on whether Sarah Palin is like Margaret Thatcher. She highlights also all the delicious ironies the result of her nomination.
Had she been a man with similar political views, the left’s opposition would have been strong but less personally vicious: It would have focused neither on a daughter’s pregnancy, nor on the candidate’s inability to be a good parent if the job was landed. In its panic, the left was indicating that to be a female running for office these days is no hindrance but an advantage, and admitting that there is indeed a difference between mothers and fathers that cannot necessarily be resolved by having daddy doing the diaper run.
Just to be sporting, I’ll highlight the irony for some on the right but not for me personally. It is that people who normally would say mothers should, well, mother, are cheering her on in a job that will call her well away from her kids and home. Thankfully my line on women working and raising kids has always been that they should do what they feel comfortable doing, what they choose, working this out as a family, without government interference. (ie. no state funding for inequitable child care arrangements that not every woman can or will choose, like institutional day care.)
Yesterday I had an email from another “downscale” educated woman who is thrilled with Sarah Palin–she pointed out she and her husband are working together on this one. How novel, we remarked, they are like a team.
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Large families, especially those with an age span the likes of the Palin family, have the advantage of learning to work together. The older ones tend to pitch in with the younger ones. There has been so much criticism of photos of Bristol Palin carrying her baby brother during the family’s public appearances. Have any of these critics considered that she loves her baby brother and doesn’t mind carrying him? That way Mom can wave and smile and not end up toppling down stairs 🙂
I chose to stay home with my children, but I respect what Sarah Palin has done while raising her children. Mothers have a certain sensibility about them that they bring to everything that they do. I have a feeling that, like everything else that Sarah Palin has set her hand to, she will find a way to make it work, should she be elected VP. For some reason, life experience – as in raising five children which in itself is no mean feat – is discounted when it comes to politics.