Politics, the R-word, and good ol' Sarah Palin

Sigh.

I'll be honest. I'm not one much for politics. I probably should be more aware of and invested in what goes on politically in our country, but the only excuse I can offer up is that I keep busy enough taking care of and worrying about the things in my own little world. Not that I don't have opinions about certain national and global issues. But I generally don't spend a lot of time or energy focusing on what political figure is doing or saying what these days.

However, this latest thing concerning Sarah Palin is impossible to ignore.

Let me just say that I know full well that people tend to have pretty passionate opinions about Sarah Palin - my experience is that people either love her (generally, the right-wing religious types) or hate her (generally, the more liberal types). I'm sure there are people who fall somewhere in the middle in their assessment of her, but the former has been my general observation.

Without exposing my own political views too terribly much, I'll just say that I don't really know where I fall. I find myself having conservative views about certain things, and very liberal views about other things. Maybe that makes me an Independent?

Anyhoo. Back to Sarah Palin. I have not followed her politically, mostly because I just don't care much. However, when John McCain first named her as his running mate a couple years ago, my first reaction was gladness. Finn had just recently been born at that time, and I suddenly saw all kinds of possibilities with having someone in the White House who was the parent of a child like mine.

Since then, I've become very aware of people's strong feelings about her. Within the Down syndrome parenting community, there are people who think she is akin to the Second Coming of Christ. And there are others who detest everything she stands for and consider her to be a blight on the face of disability advocacy.

As for me? I've tried to ignore everyone else's opinions and give her the benefit of the doubt. Not politically, but as a parent. It's just very difficult for me to believe in my heart of hearts that a parent really could just sell out their kid in favor of their political agenda. But that is, in fact, what Sarah Palin has done. In one breath, she calls for the firing of Rahm Emmanuel for his use of the term "fucking retards" in reference to his political adversaries, and in the next, she defends Rush Limbaugh's use of the R-word, writing it off as "satire." So, I imagine, then, that she and her family sit around the dinner table up there in Alaska and make jokes about "retards," of course with sweet little Trig sitting right there. And it's okay, because it's satire! They're only joking. So it's okay, right?

What a fucking hypocrite.

I'm disappointed. And I'm finished giving her the benefit of the doubt.