Please Make Palin a Contender in 2012. Feminism Could Depend On It.

I know.  I can't believe I just wrote that either.  The current Palin candidacy has me very worried, and not for the reasons you may think.  I'm worried that no matter how the election cuts her status as the beauty queen of the religious right political movement just Barbi-fied the very real gains in politics made by all sorts of women, including Palin.  Gains made thanks to feminism.  

Palin calls herself a feminist, and for some reason, I believe that she really does identify as one. I understand that the difference in Hegemommy's feminism and Palin feminism stems from a difference in, oh, everything, but I absolutely respect the fact that she's scrapped her way up the food chain from broadcast reporter to vice-presidential candidate.  She's one of a handful of female governors, she's clearly comfortable on the national political stage, and fierce at riling the darkest corners of America's heart.  All notable feats to be sure. 

Yes, Sarah Palin is a pretty darn good politician, but the big questions around her candidacy- Is she qualified?  Can she do the job?  What did she just say???- those pose the biggest problem for any gains women have made from the likes of Libby Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Hillary Clinton, Olympia Snow.  

This is how it cuts.  If McCain wins the election and Palin becomes Vice President, that is in itself a victory for feminism.  Less than one hundred years after being granted from the male political establishment the right to vote and an ability to have the voice of a citizen, a woman would hold the second highest political position in the nation.  That's a big deal and there will be a lot of talk of  history making.  Put ideology aside and ignore political platforms, do we want Palin as the Exhibit A to the gains made by feminism on the political landscape?   Should she be our history maker?

It's absurd to think that a Palin Vice Presidency would be the culmination of a race to the top by the brightest, most capable female politicians of the right.  She just is not in the leagues of Dole, Hutchinson, Snow, Whitman, O'Connor, Noonan.  On Sarah Palin, even Peggy Noonan and I agree.  My god that hurts to type, and this is gonna hurt even more - -bravo for having the tits to call out the shallowness of the Palin candidacy, Noonan.  

I think more condemning than Noonan's remarks (she is a paid commentator, so, well, she makes money saying stuff) is the stark silence from the leadership, or even the rank-and-file, of the feminist right coming out in praise of Palin.  Her candidacy is an exercise in vulgarity and they know it.  How insulting it must be to all those qualified women to be overlooked and instead have the cheerleader of the far-right male political establishment on the ticket.  

If Sarah Palin is sworn in as Vice-President that is a victory for style not substance.  Women will remain relegated to the image of supporter rather than equal.  Young girls will be given the image of the beauty queen who grinned her way to political prominence.  A leader that was so darn cute it didn't matter if she wasn't that smart.  We didn't expect her to be.  In fact, sometimes being too smart is a liability, so when in doubt, avoid it.  Try to be pretty instead.  It will get you further.  If only that was simply my tinfoil hat paranoia talking again.  I was actually given that advice by some wealthy women when I was 12.  I have no doubt those who gave me that advice years ago today plan to vote McCain.  And they'll call Palin a feminist too.  

If Palin loses, it cuts along similar lines.  By now her lack of an even basic grasp of historical reality, foreign policy, or time on the national political circuit is well documented.  No one even pretends that she is of a political mind and freely discuss her only a political image.  Her lack of substance will be named McCain's liability.  It already has.  As pundits dissect the campaign they will shred Palin.  Who knows how that will play into the subtle sexism still infecting politics- the sense that the women have a hard time winning national elections in part because of a lack of "qualified" candidates.  

Which is why I hope Palin makes an appearance in 2012 as a serious political candidate, and not as the current candidate Palin.  I want her to be educated on the issues, even as I shout at the tv as a result.  I want her to prove wrong the premise that she simply is Falwell's promised one, because I want to believe that this country is beyond simply voting for homecoming king (or queen) rather than president.  I want Palin to redeem the feminist right, to slap back at the misogyny in its own party that would elevate Palin as its standard bearer, signaling to all the truly brilliant feminist minds of the right that "this is what it takes" to get on the ticket.  Not merits.  Personality.