The Importance of Being Sarah

I really did not think I would live to see the day when a major political party in the U.S. would find it necessary to add a woman to the ticket in order to win the presidency. It's a shame I can't be at all happy about the particular party and woman making history. However, if you will recall, I predicted something like this situation some time ago. I just got the particular woman wrong. As I noted in a comment on that post:

...the majority [of] people will love a non-traditional candidate who is a conservative much sooner than they will love a non-traditional candidate who is a liberal. Or, should I say, they will be made to feel less uneasy by a conservative non-traditional candidate. The conservatism compensates for being non-white and/or non-male.

The analogy...to engineering...[is] my observation that male engineers are comfortable with women engineers who do not agitate for women's or minority issues in engineering, who do not concern themselves with access and climate, who insist that they've never been discriminated against and that everybody should just be judged on their merits, as if that is what happens all the time except for when the bleeding heart liberals start talking about affirmative action. They will love a woman like this, and point to her as an example that there is nothing wrong and any woman can succeed if she only tries and they aren't biased because there is this one woman they admire.

Conservatives love Condoleezza [Rice], because she helps them feel not prejudiced, and she can out-conservative any of them, so she doesn't threaten their worldview with any of that ridiculous liberal claptrap. What she's accomplished is a separate question. I don't think she's a strong presidential candidate but I think she would be completely acceptable as a VP.

Just substitute "Sarah Palin" there for "Condoleezza Rice".

Liberals should not underestimate how important Sarah Palin is, and conservative women in general are, to this election's outcome. Ronnee Schreiber, author of Righting Feminism: Conservative Women and American Politics, observes

Having women speak for these causes helps legitimate them to other women and casts the Republican Party as one that cares about women's interests. Not surprisingly, the former president of the Independent Women's Forum, Nancy Pfotenhauer, is now a senior policy adviser for the McCain campaign.

McCain's pick of Palin is not lost on conservative women's advocates; indeed, it helps solidify their stance that women need to be speaking out for conservative causes - that these women need to play "femball."

Concerned Women for America, arguably the nation's largest women's organization, with local chapters in every state, praised Palin, not just because she opposes abortion but because she is a "woman of accomplishment who brings a fresh face to traditional values and models the type of woman most girls want to become."

Equally celebrated was that she "will bring to the forefront of our cultural conversations an intelligent, realistic, well-grounded woman's perspective." For groups like Concerned Women for America, Palin embodies modern conservative womanhood - she is politically active, personally motivated and decidedly conservative.

Independent Women's Forum has been at times reluctant to say that gender matters when it comes to who we elect. Yet it now touts the significance of Palin's being a woman.

And why not? Palin might be able to bring some undecided, yet moderately conservative women into their fold, especially if she is branded as the "everywoman" as in this observation by IWF President Michelle Bernard: "Sarah Palin might not win the votes of left-wing feminists, but she appeals to average women and men across the country."

That's right, folks. You and me, the left-wing, liberal, man-hating, hairy-legged, baby-killing, and no-doubt lesbian feminists of the country, of course we don't like Everywoman Sarah, because we hate America.

The branding here - what is being sold to the "average woman and man" - is that Palin is a Nice Sort of Feminist. She has a career, but she's a mom! She stands for traditional values! In fact, she doesn't want to upset the patriarchal applecart at all, no sir! She is your ideal woman, because she will make you think you can be all about supporting teh women without having to actually, you know, stop being sexist, or examine privilege, or care about women's reproductive health, or anything disconcerting like that. Michelle Obama may say (hat tip Sciencewoman)

I was raised to believe I could do it all, and that was very empowering. Then I got into the work force and realized there was really no support for me to do it all. ... We either have to fix that or be honest about it.

but you aren't going to hear that kind of honest assessment liberal whining from Palin. Nosiree! 'Cause Sarah Palin knows it's a man's, man's, man's, man's world. And why would anyone want to call attention to that?