Palin’s Wake

I was raised in a Republican household, my father’s own history and career giving voice to the American Dream. Born in Janesville, Wisconsin, a town where most fantasy ended in a factory job at the GM plant, my father was the first of his family to attend college. He started his construction business that went bankrupt, but he pressed on, obtaining an MBA and eventually became the Vice President of a Fortune 500 Company. My relatives include members of the Steelworkers’ Union, ex-Navy Seals and entrepreneurs, each believing in the value of hard-work, perseverance, and the “pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps” mentality.

My father told me the other day that Obama supporters (and Democrats in general) undermine his own life story. In his view, if everyone worked as hard, they too could be comforted by the financial security that our democratic capitalist system affords.

I read a bumper sticker online this week that said, “Piss off a Liberal: Work Hard and Be Happy.” Immediately, I thought of my father (a wry smile appears on his face).

In my family, and under the auspices of my father’s protestant ethics, work means value, and value means profit, and that profit, yields worth. For my father, everyone has the opportunity to do well in this country, every individual has the advantages that living in this country affords, and anyone can find success and stability, if only they are willing to work. The converse of this argument, of course, is that if you do not have success and stability, you simply have not worked hard enough.

I cannot help but be kept awake at night by this election, particularly in light of the announcement of VP nominee, Sarah Palin. My mother, who has always been pro-life and Republican, has also been staunchly against “career women” types. Once she showed me an article about a group of mothers in L.A. who had formed a band and was furious that they would “abandon their children at home.” The feminist in me rebuked, and I asked her if she would have been offended if the band members were fathers: “It is a mother’s job,” she responded.

Since the Palin announcement, my mom sounds like a raving feminist and a liberal for the first time: “She’s just awesome…all that she has done.” And I am left sounding like the aged Republican housewife, “Do you really think she is ready? What about all of those kids?”

As a liberal (often feeling at odds with my own upbringing and past) this election feels particularly schismatic. It is becoming clear where exactly where my beliefs part, not only from my family, but also my roots in Middle America:

A Choice is Not Always Easy
I believe that women have a choice. But, it is…a choice…a choice that comes with complications and sacrifice. You choose whether you want to have a child or not. You choose whether or not you can afford to have 1 child or 10. You choose whether you want 2 children or 12 (ask Angelina). If you are lucky enough, you get to choose whether you want to work at all (though for most mothers, this is not a choice). Any honest mother who works will admit the difficulty of this choice, understanding that they sacrifice time with their families to work. Palin seems to deny this hardship and choice all together, seeming to breeze easily from beauty queen, to “hockey mom,” to PTA mom, to Mayor, and is now primed to become the next Vice President of the United States. She seems to deny any real hardship that working mothers face, and reinforces the Republican ideals that anyone can “have it all.” As a feminist, I cannot criticize her career, but her apparent recklessness and abject disregard for the reality that working mothers face.

Short rant #1: I have been reluctant to indulge the Palin (Spearsesque) baby drama, but I cannot help but be reminded of a conversation I recently had with my father who (not so subtly) blamed teenage pregnancy on the uneducated “black girls in the ghetto.” The GOP’S treatment of Palin’s daughter reminds us that teenage pregnancy for black girls is an “epidemic” and white-girl suburban pregnancy remains a “private family situation.”

Short rant #2: So maybe no one asked Bill Clinton about his ability to be a father and be Commander in Chief. And maybe it is true that no one asked Obama about whether his parenting would suffer if he were elected, but everyone would surely start questioning his integrity and judgment if he brought 5 kids and a pregnant teen into the white house (you know, because he’s black).

Reading the Constitution
I believe that the President should be of superior intelligence. The fact that he went to Harvard Law School should not be considered a threat, but a highly desired credential. Since when does “hands on” work preclude an intellectual understanding and since when does education preclude “real” experience? An attorney and law professor, who has actually read and understands the Constitution, who can articulate its nuances and credibly discuss its application, is not a blemish, no matter how much Republicans resent intellectualism. His sweeping acceptance internationally, his diverse cultural background, and willingness to engage diplomacy are not a slight of record. Do we really need to reinforce the stereotype that Americans are ignorant? Is hawkish militaristic rhetoric, cowboy hats and use of the word “dude” really conducive to national security?

*And no, living in Alaska does not qualify as “experience in foreign policy” because it is the closest state to Russia.

Living in Fear
As if using lies that spurred fear to cause a war were not enough, the Republican party continues its scare tactics in the movement of its people. They invoke the fear of God, the potential of Middle Eastern “savages,” the Axis of Evil, and threaten the loss of a Constitutional right to bear arms. In a not-so-ironic-twist they are using the fear of a worsening economy under Obama to galvanize swing voters (even though Clinton’s fiscal policy and economic record compared to that of the past 8 years is direct evidence to the contrary). The most abhorrent and base level human behavior on a micro and macro level arises out of fear. The Republican commitment to catering to this animal instinct (in addition to other acts of flagrant dehumanization) is further evidence of their ardent cynicism and shameless will to preserve their own machinery.

According to the GOP, Sarah Palin’s strength is Obama’s weakness. He is from a big city, she is from a rural town. He is Harvard educated. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho. She fishes and hunts. He eats arugula (according to his critics- he is so healthy! What an elitist snob!) This difference is the Republican advantage, and the argument goes like this: lofty intellectuals, impotent by design vs. get your hands dirty types who eat meat and understand “straight talk.” My entire family (veterans, businessmen, and ironworkers) all embody the morality of Midwestern family and work “ethics.” In this campaign, they can make a clear distinction between the character of John McCain and the character of Barack Obama. To them, the difference is tangible.

This election has created a larger personal rift (ironically in opposition to the promulgated goals of both parties), forcing us to personally attach ourselves to these ideals. How does your experience as a mother inform your choice? Are you voting for Obama simply because he is black? Would a true veteran not vote for McCain? As a “true” feminist, is it fair to call Sarah Palin’s ability into question?

This election has become personal the same way that politics in my own household have become personal. Despite my parents’ best attempts, I am not a Republican. I do not believe that every American is given the same opportunities for security and success. I do not believe that every person who “makes it” is a product of his or her ethics. I do not believe that the government should be able to spend on corporate bailouts and a war that is in violation of international law, all while invoking the fear of “big government” at home (“big government” being education, health care, and disability programs). I do not believe that intellectualism is pejorative. I do not believe that deregulation of the market is the answer to our social and economic problems (see Enron scandal and current mortgage crisis).

I can make peace with my own beliefs at-large, but when I challenge the notion of the American Dream, am I challenging my father? When I devalue the experience of a PTA member or scoff at a “hockey mom” am I belittling my mother’s work? As an academic in NY, am I not a “real” worker like my father, grandfather, and immigrant ancestors?

More, important, am I really making a choice in this invented cultural war between intellectualism and the “real world?”

In the same logic of the Republican campaign strategists, my father calls me cynical and mother thinks I “just don’t know.”

For this first time, I feel a very natural and divisive split from my parents, Republicanism, and what has seemed to be the vast majority of this country, at least in terms of the sprawling red states where urban (particularly bicoastal) living means isolation.

Being born in a country that you do not agree with is not so dissimilar from being born a dissenter in your own household. A friend said to me the other day, “I am starting to accept the fact that these yahoos might actually win the election. The hard part is accepting what that means about this country. I am going to have to completely recalibrate the way I feel… I need a new understanding of where it is that I live.”

This is a task I cannot so sanguinely complete, when my country… is also my home.