[SAJAforum posts, resources and sources about the 2008 presidential race]
[Updated with links to Rekha Basu, Nina Verghese, and S. Mitra Kalita comments]
SAJAer Aisha Sultan, the home and family editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has a column this weekend discussing what she calls the "Palin Paradox," the irony of Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin's intense support among social conservatives who, not long ago, might have "pilloried" a woman and mother who made the kinds of choices that Palin has made in her career:
There was a time when [Phyllis] Schlafly would have argued that raising a family of five children required a mother's full, undivided attention and was the most important job to which Palin could ever commit. In fact, Schlafly built her legacy by producing tomes of arguments proclaiming that a woman's primary responsibility is to serve the head of the household, her husband, and raise their children.
In her 1984 book critiquing the feminist movement, "Feminism Fantasies," Schlafly came down hard on mothers who leave their child-rearing responsibilities to further their own careers: "The flight from home is a flight from self, from responsibility, from the nature of woman, in pursuit of false hopes and fading fantasies."
Well, a lady can change her mind, right?
In a prepared statement this month, Schlafly describes Palin as "an exemplar of all that is good and true."
"We couldn't have asked for a better VP pick," she said.
It says something remarkable about how the notion of motherhood has changed when conservatives are championing the idea that a preoccupied, constantly-on-the-road, working mom is an ideal to admire. [link]
Sultan, who writes a regular column and blog for the Post-Dispatch on families and parenting, hastens to note that "most of us are loath to judge the personal career and family choices of an individual mom." But the "delicious irony" of where Palin's strongest support may be found, Sultan argues, brings a number of "hot-button questions to the fore" — including whether "this exuberant conservative love for Palin signal[s] a generational shift in the hearts and minds of the fundamentalists of the right wing."
Here's what SAJAer Rekha Basu, a columnist for the Des Moines Register, had to say in two of her Palin columns. From "Look Who's Playing the Victim Card?":
Of course there's sexism out there, plenty of it. Have you seen the photoshopped images being e-mailed around, of a vampish-looking Palin in a miniskirt? So why does GOP indignation over it feel phony, like a Rovean strategy hatched to compensate for a lack of real issues to campaign on? The Republicans did make history by putting a woman on the ticket. But even a McCain supporter and architect of the last Republican revolution says it was a strategic move to get the female vote. If Obama had picked Clinton as his running mate, Newt Gingrich told Matt Lauer, McCain would not have picked Palin.If her sex is their main strategy, is it any wonder the GOP is trying to rally women with charges of sexism against Palin?
Let's scrutinize where both campaigns stand on policies that affect women - like child care and wage parity, combating violence against women and reproductive choice.
Is there a difference between being sexist to your advantage and using sexism to your advantage? Not if that's as far as you take it. [link]
From Basu's column, "How Does GOP's Rhetoric Square with Life's Realities?":
Sarah Palin's personal choices are fine for Sarah Palin and for those who think like her. Choice has always been the centerpiece of the feminist movement. So criticisms of her for not staying home with her kids reflect an unfair undercurrent of sexism; they wouldn't be leveled at a man.The real question Palin has to answer is how, as chief policymaker, she would reconcile her tough platitudes with other Americans' rights and realities, especially in the face of first-hand evidence such policies don't work. [link]
From the subcontinent, SAJAer Barkha Dutt, Group Editor at NDTV and host of NDTV's prime time talk show "We the People," writes more pointedly in the Hindustan Times that she finds it "infuriating" to see "women who probably abhor the very fundamentals of feminism suddenly embrace it in order to play victim":
Anyone who heard Sarah Palin’s feisty and combative speech this week knows that the former beauty queen and hockey-mom who also hunts, is no one’s idea of a poor-little-thing.... John McCain wanted a running mate who would rustle up a storm and he has got one....
[But] Palin also wants pity. Scandals have begun to surface in the American media on how the Alaska Governor tried to get her brother-in-law sacked, how she was abusive on a radio-talk show, how she is married to a man who wanted to secede from America and how she really doesn’t know that much about the war in Iraq, despite having a son enrolled in the military.... But the moment the fierce public scrutiny and criticism kicked in, Palin’s supporters fell back on that tired old accusation — the Governor, they argued, was a victim of sexist bias.
For god’s sake. Even if Palin were not haunted by controversy, her ideology alone makes her antithetical to the very notion of Feminism....
Back in India, we may be amused at all the fuss and the fury. But our polity isn’t free from the overweening political correctness that seeks to make potential victims of us all. We saw the first signs of this distorted debate, during the elections for the President’s office. Women in India have enough real issues to battle and real victories to savour. Let’s not get imprisoned by our Gender. Female First doesn’t have to be our motto. [link]
Other South Asian women have reacted to the Palin nomination more favorably. For example, a couple of recent stories in the Columbia, South Carolina newspaper The State recount the reactions of Nikki Randhawa Haley, a Republican state representative:
[Haley] said Palin understands kitchen-table issues — the sagging economy and rising inflation.
"When a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk are running the same price, we need someone who is a fighter and is not afraid to take that fight to Washington," said Haley, who said she identifies with Palin in part because her children were 2 and 5 when she first ran for the S.C. House. [link]
~~~
[Haley said she] was impressed with Palin’s record of shaking up Alaskan politics. Experience does not breed courage, Haley said, it comes from within.
"(McCain) basically said 'courage is what I need,'" Haley said. "It proves that McCain really does want change." [link]
In discussing the Palin nomination with a columnist for The State, Haley also recently shared, apparently for the first time publicly, some of the challenges and questions she has faced as a mother since first deciding to seek political office five years ago:
Nikki Haley was shocked. A Democratic official known throughout South Carolina as an enlightened feminist counseled that she should not run for public office because she had two young children. But later on the same day in 2003, Mrs. Haley was in the audience when another prominent Democrat, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, challenged women to seek office.
Spurred by both encounters, the Lexington resident ran the following year and was elected as a Republican to the S.C. House of Representatives. Some insiders say she has statewide potential....
Mrs. Haley is reluctant to discuss the double standard for female officeholders ("I am not a victim and don’t want to sound like one"), but she can relate to the pounding Gov. Palin is taking over whether a mother of five should be vice president.
"Every week I’m asked how I handle my little ones and serve my constituents," she said. "It's no different from anybody else’s life. I prioritize with my children and husband and do the best I can and refuse to feel guilty." [link]
And then there's Nina Verghese, spokeswoman for the Indian American Republican Council. Here's what she had to say in a Sept. 10 release from the IARC:
"The acceptance speech last week of Governor Sarah Palin was an historic moment for the Republican Party and our nation," said IARC spokeswoman Nina Verghese. "The GOP has an intelligent, highly-qualified woman on the national ticket for Vice President, and the far-left can’t stand it. Their baseless attacks against Sarah must stop."
[release in full below]
What do you think of Gov. Palin's nomination? Share your own reactions, or any links to other reactions by South Asian women, in the comments below.
Earlier on SAJAforum:
- Desi Spotting with Sarah Palin
- Anand Dubey, CIO of Alaska - Sarah Palin Appointee
- Desi spotting at the Republican National Convention
- Desi spotting at the Democratic National Convention
- Joe Biden on South Asia
Press release on Sept. 10, 2008, by the Indian American Republican Council:
Contact: Nina Verghese
(202) 329-4063 (cell)
info[at]iarcnational.orgSeptember 10, 2008
IARC Statement on Governor Sarah Palin
Washington, D.C. - The Indian American Republican Council (IARC) issued the following statement regarding the ongoing political attacks against Vice Presidential nominee Governor Sarah Palin.
"The acceptance speech last week of Governor Sarah Palin was an historic moment for the Republican Party and our nation," said IARC spokeswoman Nina Verghese. "The GOP has an intelligent, highly-qualified woman on the national ticket for Vice President, and the far-left can’t stand it. Their baseless attacks against Sarah must stop."
Governor Palin has held elective office for 13 years serving on city council and as a mayor prior to being the first woman elected as Governor of Alaska. She appointed 2 Indian Americans, Mr. Anand Dubey and Mr. Banarsi Lal, to high ranking positions in her Administration after her 2006 election. Mr. Dubey serves as Director of the Enterprise Technology Services Division in the Department of Administration where he is responsible for all information technology services provided to Alaska state agencies. Mr. Lal was appointed to the Alaska Pioneers’ Homes Advisory Council, serves as Chairman of the Alaska Commission on Aging, and also serves on the Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education.
"Sarah Palin has not only shaken up this presidential race, she has shaken the Democrat Party. The only way they can respond is by attacking her appearance and character and avoiding a discussion on the issues. Our message to Democrats is simple: these personal attacks must stop."
UPDATE (9/15/08): See also SAJAer S. Mitra Kalita's column in Mint on Sarah Palin and Mayawati, "When Girl Power Grows Up":