September 10, 2008

President '08

BDS to Become PDS

Justin Katz

Here's a theory — attractive more for the likely reaction than the likelihood that it's correct: America's liberals are preparing themselves for the possibility that McCain will win the presidency. That would explain why they're salvaging the emotionally satisfying, if self destructive, Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) that they've enjoyed for at least the past four years by recasting it as Palin Derangement Syndrome (PDS).

The thought came to mind upon reading Hilary Cosell's fumination (excuse the coinage) against Sarah Palin, particularly the line that I've emphasized:

It's also further proof that John McCain and the Republican Party believe that one woman is the same as the next. That voting women, and former Hillary Clinton supporters, are just too dumb to notice that this Governor Palin is anti-choice and a right-wing evangelical Christian who wants creationism taught in Alaska schools, who has no record of speaking out on equal pay for equal work, health care, child care, or anything at all relevant to the women- and family-oriented issues that are the heart and soul of the concerns of the women of the Democratic Party. (We won't even bother to mention foreign policy here, because there is no Palin foreign policy record or experience to mention.)

Let's move beyond spin and the surprise — rather shock — of McCain's choice and see what it really says: disdain for women as equals, as power holders, power brokers and human beings. Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, or in the vice-presidential mansion, it's the same thing. Palin isn't female empowerment. She, who has benefited from decades of tireless work of the feminist movement, is a slap in the face to us all.

Put aside foregoing falsehoods and note the resurrection of the "barefoot and pregnant" cliché to describe a sitting governor who has been climbing the political ladder with great energy and alacrity. If sexism is mainly a symptom of one's lack of empathy and imagination, I'd put forward Miss Cosell as a candidate. That wouldn't give her any more standing than being "a master's degree candidate at General Theological Seminary" (as her bio proclaims) to hiss so sourly at a vice presidential candidate, but the fact that she lacks a certain male protuberance doesn't make Ms. Cosell's vicious insecurity any less galling.

9:41 PM
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Cosell's thoughts were echoed by the even more offensive comment by SC Democratic Chair Carol Fowler who said that Sarah Palin's "primary qualification seems to be that she hasn't had an abortion."

Fowler later apologized for her remarks, (just as her husband, former DNC Chair Don Fowler, was forced to apologize for joking about a hurricane hitting New Orleans last week).

I suppose you could conduct a psychiatric study into "Fowler Family Humor", but suffice to say Carol Fowler just doesn't get it, either.

Sarah Palin won't attract Hillary voters that are from the extreme left-wing feminist movement.

No, Palin's appeal is to the women in blue collar and middle class families that struggle to balance work and family responsibilities on a daily basis.

In short, Palin's appeal is to people like herself.

Posted by: Anthony at September 11, 2008 1:28 AM

General Theological Seminary?Are they one of those matchbook cover outfits?

Posted by: joe bernstein at September 11, 2008 7:53 AM

If you had a question upon hearing the name "Hillary Cosell," the answer is yes.
Back in the '70s, her dad was considering a run for the U.S. Senate...as a Republican. Could you imagine the bleepstorm that would fly in the current political environment over his outspoken support of one of the most famous Muslim-Americans ever, one who said no to Uncle Sam?

Posted by: rhody at September 11, 2008 11:14 AM

Joe,
I can't defend Cosell's rants, but General Theological Seminary is a very well-established seminary in the Episcopal Church.

Posted by: Anthony at September 11, 2008 5:06 PM

I'll take Anthony's word for it that General Theological Seminary is a real place, and not some diploma mill. However, her evident intellectual dullness and overuse of emotionally driven assertions, unsupported by factual evidence, would certainly suggest the latter. She doesn't sound like any person of the cloth I've ever heard (although Rev. Wright and father Fleuger come to mind).

Sarah Palin has never pushed for "creationism" to be taught in public schools. In fact, in a past campaign, she made a pledge to voters NOT to push for it -- and kept her promise. By the way, she didn't have any books banned at her local library either, no did she charge rape victims for their rape kits. And so on. There are a number of urban legends that have continued to be repeated, even in the MSM. They are outright lies. Period.

Last time I checked, Palin wasn't in the kitchen, Todd was. She had shoes on, too.

She's a "right-wing evangelical Christian"... Ahhhhh! Run for you lives! The Christian's are out to get us all! It was the Christians who bombed the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11, right?

To some it up, she's a driveling idiot.

Posted by: Will at September 11, 2008 5:43 PM