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Why I’m (Finally) Supporting Sarah Palin by Paulie Abeles
Since John McCain announced Sara Palin as his running mate, like many of you I suspect, I’ve been constantly asked: “What do you think of Sarah Palin?”
The struggle that I’ve been going through in trying to answer that question honestly, is that all the things I find compelling about her:
that she’s attractive and charismatic, has a great personal narrative, is eloquent, a 'breath of fresh air'--yes, even "tokenism" (for lack of a better word)
were also true of Obama. And, I, like many Clinton supporters, decided those were not sufficiently strong reasons to support him.
So, in one sense, I would feel like a hypocrite supporting Palin for any of those reasons.
Although I think she is more experienced than Obama—(She, has, after all, directed a budget of over $10 billion, supervised 24,000 employees and negotiated with foreign governments -Russia and China over fishing rights); she is lightly credentialed in terms of the possible field of socially progressive Republican women McCain could have chosen (Snowe, Whitman, Hutchinson etc.).
And, although I respect her integrity, there is virtually no social issue on which I share common ground with Sarah Palin. Unlike John McCain, who has never been ideological; Sarah Palin is, and unabashedly so.
However as I’ve struggled with these issues since her selection, I keep coming back to two points.
Of all the basic rights—human rights-- that Democrats have stood for---there are two that seem to me to be the most important:
the right to vote (and have that vote counted fairly) and the right to free speech.
The right to vote, it seems to me, is not simply about exercising your franchise—but actually having that exercise tied to a result. Whether we look narrowly at Florida and Michigan, or broadly at caucus and convention intimidation and fraud—what becomes clear—crystal clear—is that the delegates—both in number and composition-- did not accurately represent the ‘will of the people’ that voted for them. And, as a tribute to their organizational skill, if not their integrity, the Obama campaign did everything in their power to ensure that that would be the case.
Just as importantly, throughout the nomination process, the Obama campaign did everything possible to curtail the free speech of those who opposed him. Whether it was as simple as harassing supporters at the local metro, or as brazen as intimidating delegates at state conventions and threatening members of the Black Caucus---opposition to Barack Obama put people at risk—to be taunted, insulted and harassed in a way I’ve never before experienced in a political campaign.
So, I come down to this. Do we believe that the Obama campaign curtailed the freedom of speech of those who opposed him? Do we believe that Clinton’s supporter’s votes were not counted fairly? If we answer ‘yes; as I have answered, than it seems to me that the fact that we disagree with Sarah Palin on reproductive choice, or creationism, or even protecting the Polar Bears—is the human rights equivalent of small potatoes. There are two basic rights that make us a democracy; two essential rights that keep us free. If I have my voice—and my vote—I can work for all the other issues. Without them, I can do nothing.
So, this fall I will vote for John McCain and, yes, Sarah Palin. I will vote as a protest, and as a promise. A protest at what took place; a promise that it will never happen again. I will vote as a democrat.
Paulie Abeles is co-founder of Real Democrats (www.RealDemocratsUSA.org)
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