One Alaskan's Thoughts on Mrs. Palin

Mirth and Matter is lucky to have a diverse readership from all over the world. An Alaskan friend and fellow blogger generously volunteered the following opinion piece on the topic of the now-infamous governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. (Additional thoughts on the Palin pick can be found at her blog.) Thanks for providing an authentic Alaskan woman's perspective on the issue du jour!

I’ve been given the opportunity, being a vagina-ed human being and a former Alaskan, to write this bit about our future VP (God, I hope not), Sarah Palin. I will start this off with a disclaimer, saying that I’m not totally informed about her doings and evil activities within the state of Alaska; however, I will take this opportunity to merely write a rant, or quite possibly even an incoherent tangent, about this sad occurrence that has come upon us. Please note: I do not bother backing up my statements - this is simply how I feel.

What I did knew of the situation in Alaska back in 2006 led me to vote for Tony Knowles, her “Democratic” opponent, who actually has some worldly knowledge and higher-political experiences behind him. I say “Democratic” simply because any politician in Alaska that says they are a Democrat really means that they are a quasi-Republican, not yet full-fledged.

Another reason for voting for Tony Knowle(dge) was because he had been governor of Alaska before, and while being governor, Tony managed not to mess up the state of Alaska too terribly like Frank Murkowski had when he tried to build “ The Bridge to Nowhere” and when he bought the multi-million dollar jet for himself that was too expensive to fly anywhere.

Regardless of Tony’s knowledge, experience, the ability not to screw Alaska up more than it already is, and the several thousands of votes against her, Sarah Palin won the hearts of female and male voters alike due to her “Alaskan-ess.” By this I mean (and what ran in the Anchorage Daily News): Palin’s ideal day was (and perhaps still is) to go snow machining and then fix up a “mean pot of moose meat chili.” How could any Alaskan pass up this opportunity to have a “babe” and a “typical Alaskan” for a governess? Since this election, I have not returned to Alaska, hence me not keeping tabs on, or giving a shit about Ms. Wasilla 1984.

Of course, other than her terminating her ex-brother-in-law from his position of state trooper, and who can forget her threatening the job of a librarian in the city of Wasilla, when the librarian declined to remove “offensive” books from the shelves, I really haven’t busied myself with Palin. Otherwise, most Alaskans seem pretty pleased with her for reasons I cannot explain. Probably because she doesn’t look like a rubbery, old dinosaur who’s about to die from a heart attack.

McCain announcing that he had picked the power-mongering wenchbot to be his veep about damn near wanted to make me puke. I felt (and still feel) offended that Palin, out of all of the experienced conservative-Christian women in politics today, was chosen despite her blatant lack of knowledge in the world outside of Alaska. Here I should note that in Alaska, the consecutive lower-48 states are even called “the outside.”

On another sad note, we’ve all just read that her travels have only consisted of going to Kuwait, Germany, and Ireland—trips that were primarily to visit Alaskan troops abroad. I’m sure much knowledge was gained from these trips. (For example, that getting a passport is an expensive process.)

In addition to her lack of worldly - and in my opinion - national knowledge, I note that for a woman who proclaims to be for women’s rights, she certainly is very restrictive on what rights women should be allowed to have. Of course, as many of you well know, she is anti-abortion and a firm believer of preaching the glorified rule of abstinence (I shant be bothered to go into the hypocrisy here). How in the bloody hell can a woman say she is for women’s rights whilst opposing them?! This woman may have the same reproductive bits as me, but I certainly do not follow this sort of bull that the rabble masses feed on for faith and guidance in politics. Maybe I’m wrong, but shouldn’t someone who supports women somehow believe that women have the right to decide what their uterus may or may not do in 9 months? I could quite possibly be writing something that someone has written prior to me, and possibly with less-refined eloquence; however, this is obviously beyond infuriating for we female folk who believe we should be allowed a decision on things that may suddenly be inside of us.

The most sickening of all is that a few liberal female friends of mine in Alaska are considering changing their vote from Obama to McCain simply because he has a female running mate from Alaska. Their reasoning behind this is that Palin will be sympathetic, in her run in the White House, toward their womanly and Alaskan needs, whatever they may be. Right. Also, they wish to see a woman in the White House. Yes, so do I, but not Palin. I don’t believe she represents a good change for women in America. In fact, I think it shows that male-conservative politicians feel that they can dupe women into believing that they are the better candidate because they are open to having a woman as a running mate and that woman will then represent ALL women, regardless of their political affiliation. Bitch, please! Don’t I think and don’t I do research on who I’m going to vote for? Simply because some of us females would like to see the sexism in politics cease, it does not mean I’m going to vote for someone who may bleed like me but does not share the same ideals as me.