Demagogue

(snort, snort, cough, cough, ahem)

I think this blog just woke up. Or at least I have.

There have been so many things over the past year (and more) that have nearly prompted me to start blogging again. Yet somehow I managed to get through the whole Dem primary without picking it up again. I came close many times but managed to get no futher than just logging in.

Then the Bristol Palin story happened.

I am incredibly pissed off.

I also feel as though I am having a reaction to this story that no one else seems to be expressing. I'm 32 (almost 33) but my inner 17-year old is RAGING on Bristol's behalf.

There is something deeply unsettling about the way the campaign and Palin herself handled the news. I'm pissed on that her mother told the world about this-- why didn't her mother try to protect her a little? Why did they voluntarily put Bristol in the spotlight this way? Why didn't she respect her daughter's privacy and leave her back in Alaska instead of putting her on stage holding her little brother to conceal her "baby bump"? Why not leave her in Alaska to quietly get married ASAP and then announce that she's married and having a kid soon?

To me the answer to these questions are one-- Palin herself appears to be exploiting the young woman's pregnancy to score points with the "pro-life" crowd. The GOP talking heads are already claiming that it makes Sarah Palin seem like a "regular" person. It's all about Sarah Palin and not at all about treating her daughter and her life with a little diginity, with a little respect. I think it makes Sarah Palin seem like a pretty shitty mother, frankly. She seems to treat her kids like political props in ways that are above and beyond the way that most pols do.

The McCain campaign and Sarah Palin propped Bristol up there and put out a press release about her pregnancy and then have the nerve to say that the media is invading their privacy. Seriously? They did it first. They can call it a "pre-emptive strike" against the media all they want but they could have handled it completely differently.

I find the whole thing truly sickening.