Of Course It's Hypocritical. But That's Not The Point

(UPDATE: Katie Allison Ganju makes a similar point, more eloquently than I did)

Kleinheider doesn't think that we on the Left should point out the hypocrisy of the "abstinence-only" Sarah Palin having a pregnant 17-year old daughter, because, you see, it's not really hypocrisy. Everyone has moral failings, and conservatives understand that. Yelling "hypocrisy" will only make conservatives more likely to rally behind Palin.''

Of course it's hypocrisy though, and of course it demonstrates "abstinence-only" sex education for the farce that it is. But that's an obvious point, and that's not the point here.

Oh, and if you want to talk about how well conservatives understand and are willing to forgive moral failings, then can we please forgive Bill Clinton and John Edwards as well (and no, Martin Kennedy, there is NO WAY IN HELL that Chelsea Clinton would have been treated as sympathetically had she gotten pregnant at 17)? Hell, let's forgive Newt Gingrich and David Vitter and Larry Craig too. If everyone has moral failings, then maybe we should stop judging one another on each other's issues. Let's all agree that one's sex life is a private matter, between a person and their family and God, and is not relevant to one's ability to lead. I'm all for that. I'm all for not judging people based on their life choices. If some of my friends on the right could join me in that agreement, we'd have a much better political discourse.

But that's also not the point.

My mother, a former Hillary supporter, told me today that she's finally been galvanized into truly supporting Obama over the Bristol Palin issue. So have several of her Hillary-supporting friends. She doesn't understand how, as a mother, a woman could jump into the public eye like this knowing that her daughter's name and situation would be dragged through the mud. My mother so wants to see a female President in her lifetime, but has come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin would be a huge setback for women.

All good points. But with all due respect to my mother, that's not the point either. Here's the point.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Palins were to take a step back and say to themselves, "Gee, we're in this tough situation, but fortunately we have the resources and the supportive family network so that Bristol can keep her baby and give it a good standard of life. But what about everyone else who doesn't share our situation, all the other young single women who find themselves pregnant without anything to fall back on? Since we're so blessed, shouldn't we find a way to help them as well?"

It would be nice. But they won't do it.

The same people who say that it's such a blessing to have a baby at 17 are the same people who oppose giving children expanded health coverage, oppose allowing for paid maternity leave, oppose daycare, oppose on principal any policy that would allow a single woman without such a network as the Palins' to keep her baby and thrive.

The Right will tell you that you are such a good person to keep a baby when you're in a situation like that. But then they'll turn right around and say that you shouldn't expect any help from society...because after all, it's your fault for having sex in the first place. In the conservative mindset, it's not MY problem that you have a baby to take care of, that's YOUR problem. Enjoy your little bundle from Heaven and don't bother us for help, Commie.

Make no mistake, the Right still wholly believes in shaming the whores in the public square and branding the scarlet "A" upon their clothes. They just do it in a more subtle way these days.

That's how we as Democrats ought to deal with this new twist. Barack Obama says that families should be off-limits, and I agree wholly (and hey, TNGOP, that means that Michelle is off-limits too!). But this situation doesn't necessarily demonstrate as Kleinheider claims, that Sarah Palin will now resonate with average middle-class voters. What it should demonstrate, and what Democrats need to point out now, is that Sarah Palin has been in the same situation as you may have found yourself in....

....and yet still doesn't give a rat's ass about you or your family. It doesn't matter if your family suffers as long as hers doesn't.