About two years ago Sarah Palin tried to convince the world that she was a feminist.  Mama Grizzly gave a speech to an anti-abortion group, sprinkling the term “feminism” liberally throughout. At the time the Washington Post opined that Palin was simply using the words of the women’s movement to attract more women to the conservative movement. She was selling “anti-women policies shrouded in pro-women rhetoric.” Having lived on the fringes of the women’s movement, my opinion was simpler: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.

Fast forward to 2012, and we are looking at a different world. The Palin new feminists are losing ground and old feminism is seeing a new awakening. Women all over Colorado are planning a march on the capital in Denver on April 28. Robyn Parker, a woman I met because we are both on the board of Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County, has been busy organizing local women to attend that march.  This march isn’t just happening in Colorado, there are similar marches being planned all over the nation for the same date.

The old feminism is experiencing resurgence because the grizzly feminists were taken seriously by Republican legislators. They started passing laws that trampled on a woman’s right to manage her own reproductive health. Some extreme legislators even passed laws that would legalize the rape of a woman by requiring transvaginal ultrasound prior to any abortion, and without the consent of the woman. 

Transvaginal ultrasound involves sticking a wand into a woman’s vagina. It is an unnecessary, and expensive medical procedure for a pregnancy that is about to be aborted. The only possible reason for a law mandating this procedure is to humiliate and punish a woman who didn’t keep her panties up, even in the case of rape or incest. Medical professionals have begun questioning the use of ultrasound on pregnant women because of its possible association with the increase of autism in our society. Republican legislators are not doctors, but they have been dishing out prescriptions for procedures that would harm both the woman and the fetus.

Those laws were just the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Previously  legislators were insistening that Planned Parenthood, which delivers reproductive health to both men and women, be cut out of funding by both governments and the pink ribbon folks. The backlash to that move was so swift that we could see pink ribbons hitting the recycle bin all over America.

Have the Republicans learned anything? Nope! They doubled down and started talking about eliminating birth control. A bunch of out of touch Catholic Bishops linked up with some extremist Republican presidential wannabes claiming that giving women access to birth control, through their health insurance, was a violation of their religious freedom. The religious freedom of women be damned.

And now the poor misunderstood GOP is facing an 18 point gender gap for the fall election, with women supporting Democrats over Republicans. The supreme irony is that yesterday John McCain recommended that Mitt Romney select Palin as his running mate. Mama grizzly wasn’t a feminist two years ago, and she isn’t one now. Putting the resurging women’s movement back into the bottle, and corking it with a Palin is not going happen. Women are mad as hell about the laws that are taking away their freedom, and no half-time governor from Alaska is going to change that, even if she is a pretty sex object.

Homework

Washington Post Story About Palin & Feminism

Gallop Poll Reveals Gender Gap

McCain Tells CBS that Romney Should Pick Palin

I previously wrote about how I thought that Michelle Bachmann was a better candidate than I was because she understood the political pivot. Intellectually I understand the pivot, but my gut is always to answer the question, so I follow my gut and forget to pivot. This morning on Meet the Press Rick Santorum demonstrated that his pivot is a beautifully executed pirouette.

When David Gregory asked him a question about culture wars, he masterfully delivered his message about economic growth and left the culture wars as a footnote. My reaction to Santorum this morning was much the same as my reaction after his Iowa speech. He has a way of connecting with people that is hand and shoulders above both Newt and Mitt.

Romney has consistently put his foot into the mouth that has spent a lifetime being fed with a silver spoon. Romney is rich, one of the richest men in the world. Romney has always been rich. Despite claiming to be unemployed, Romney has never faced homelessness or going to bed hungry. Romney is not concerned about the poor because he has no idea who they are or how they live.

Gingrich, on the other hand has one position—pissed off. He is mad at the media. He is mad at the other Republican candidates. He is mad at his ex-wifes. His is mad that his third choice for a religion can’t dictate to all women about birth control. Gingrich has burned bridges at every step in his life because he is always pissed off.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never vote for Santorum, but his rising star in the current field of Republican candidates is no fluke. He stays on message. He ducks the culture wars questions by saying that there is a difference between what he personally believes and what public policy should be. John Kerry said the same thing when he ran for president. And he smiles. Santorum is a very attractive candidate—he has a beautiful smile. He stacks the deck by bringing his entire beautiful family on stage with him at the conservative conference where another beauty queen got cheers and standing ovations because she can smile pretty.

What Palin and Santorum have in common is an understanding of how to smile and speak populace language. Mitt always looks like a cardboard cutout because he is uncomfortable around ordinary people, or maybe he is just uncomfortable around TV cameras. A local man told me yesterday that he was impressed with Mitt’s recent visit to Grand Junction because he took the time to speak to the crowd that had gathered outside the meeting room when there wasn’t room for all inside. This man was very complimentary about how Mitt treated one elderly woman during the exchange.

Santorum isn’t going away anytime soon, much to the chagrin of moneyed Republicans.

Homework:

Today’s homework is a post at Jonathon Turley’s blog about the constitutionality of the Obama compromise with the religious groups who want to deny women access to birth control. It includes a link to a segment that aired recently on MSNBC.

Employment Division v. Smith

I try to avoid talking about Sarah Palin. I try to avoid talking about Donald Trump. But when my in-box starts filling up with stories about Sarah defending the Donald, it is time to say something.

First, Sarah had the audacity to say “Trump is running on the issue, bottom line that President Obama is in so far over his head.” Obama may not be saying or doing the things that Sarah says and does, but when it comes to pure brain power he’s head and shoulders above either Palin or Trump.

Look at the accomplishments of all three.

Obama was at the top of his class at Harvard Law, went on to work in Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods to protect people who really don’t have a voice in their community, became a professor of constitutional law at one of the major universities in the nation, became a local legislator, then a national legislator, then was elected President in a landslide.

Palin bounced around lots of schools, focusing on being a beauty queen and broadcaster—professions noted for looks, rather than brains. She went on to be mayor of a city that had fewer inhabitants than some of the buildings in the Chicago neighborhoods Obama was organizing, and leveraged that into a gig as governor. But when it got tough being the governor, Palin simply quit and went back to her first love, being the center of attention on TV shows.

And then there is Trump. He specializes in self-promotion. He is all about making money and being in the news. He has his name on lots of buildings that were built with other people’s money, and is in the news often either at ground breaking ceremonies or because another of his projects is going into bankruptcy. A casino is a license to steal, yet Trump’s casino has had to access bankruptcy courts multiple times.  He makes his money as an entertainer on NBC and by convincing people to buy into his real estate projects.

Given that both Palin and Trump are media sluts, it is no wonder that they have gravitated to each other. But I wouldn’t trust either one of them with fiscal policy, with monetary policy, with constitutional issues, with decisions of war and peace. I don’t agree with everything that Obama does, but at least he has the background and temperament for the job.

Homework:

Palin Tells Media to Be Nicer to Trump

Wikipedia Entry on Trump