Palin and the Culture Wars

Contributed by Maurine Proctor By now it is not news that the mainstream media is working overtime to smear, beat up and eviscerate Sarah Palin. It is so over the top that it is impossible to even pretend that it is just objective journalism or the reporters' chance to vet a vice-presidential candidate. We mention it here because it is a stark reminder of how real the culture war is in this country and how high the stakes. There are those in very high places, who consider themselves the elite of the country, who occupy positions of power in the media, the entertainment industry, government and university, who really despise traditional values and anyone so backward as to hold them. They are looking, not just to trample them, but ultimately to destroy them so that they can remake the nation in their own image. They hate Palin because she is a feisty, vibrant, can-do reformer who represents everything they hope to marginalize. She believes in life, marriage, family and religion. She believes in good and evil, right and wrong and is willing to say it. When faced with giving birth to a Down's Syndrome child that studies show some 90% of parents would have aborted, she not only gave birth to Trig, but says of him, "Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge. And children with special needs inspire a special love." Governor Palin has the Left shivering because she can be such a powerful force to rally the enthusiasm and hope of ordinary Americans who still hold traditional values. She has reignited the troops in the culture war. Examples abound of Palin's shoddy treatment. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd compares her nomination to watching a chick flick. She writes: "This chick flick, naturally, features a wild stroke of fate, when the two-year governor of an oversized igloo becomes commander in chief after the president-elect chokes on a pretzel on day one. "The P.T.A. is great preparation for dealing with the K.G.B.," President Palin murmurs to Todd, as they kiss in the final scene while she changes Trig's diaper. "Now that Georgia's safe, how 'bout I cook you up some caribou hot dogs and moose stew for dinner, babe?" Gloria Steinem offered this in an opinion column, "This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need." Voices like these hope to quiet and cow her. But she answers with the kind of spunk that may fire everybody involved in the quest to maintain a moral America. "Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country," she said. Writing in the National Review online, Michael Knox Beran notes, "The deeper division which Gov. Palin's selection has exposed is religious. Palin has called herself a "Bible-believing Christian." The idea that a person formed in such a troglodytic, pre-Enlightenment school should hold a high place in the government frightens a class that believes, with all the certainty of its Ivy League vision of the world, that Bible-believing Christians are a threat to the republic."

Palin and Abstinence Education After the media learned that Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant, the value of abstinence education has been widely attacked and belittled. The argument, of course, is that here is one of the governors who accepts federal funding for abstinence education in her state, and it is obviously clear that it doesn't work. The laugh is supposed to be on all those who would be so truly daft as to believe that teenagers can learn to abstain from sex. In fact, they may even want to. Now, the Left has one more tool to use in their campaign against abstinence. And make no doubt it is a campaign. Here is a trend that should alarm you and has gone nearly unreported. According to First Things, "The ACLU and Planned Parenthood have teamed up in an aggressive campaign over the past several years-a campaign to pressure states to eliminate abstinence education and to reject federal funding for these programs. And though their work hasn't drawn much attention, it has been remarkably successful. A year ago, only four states refused federal abstinence-education funding. Today the number is seventeen. The goal is to get enough states to refuse the federal abstinence-education funding to the point where the ACLU and Planned Parenthood can convince Congress to eliminate such funding entirely."