Reality intruded the Palin Family Bubble with the ostensibly unplanned pregnancy of young Bristol Palin. Her interview with Fox's Greta van Sustererereren shed further light on the way Republicans view reproductive choice.
Perhaps you recall the campaign season interviews conducted with Republicans by The Daily Show's senior female correspondent, Samantha Bee, in which the Canadian comedienne (and mother) was literally unable to drag the word "choice" from between the lips of several Republican rank-and-filers.
Why is the word "choice" such a scary thing for them until the choice is theirs?
Sarah Palin is nothing if not insistent upon the issue of her family's privacy. She's often railed against people who -- either in reality or in Palin's own view of it -- violated that privacy. And that is what is at the heart of choice, and of Roe v. Wade itself: privacy. The privacy of women, couples and doctors to make the best decision in a hard situation.
Bristol was hailed as a hero for "choosing" to have her baby. Her mother was hailed as a hero for "choosing" to have her kids, including Trig, who lives with Down syndrome.
But if Palin had her way and abortion were illegal, what would be heroic about these choices? They wouldn't be heroic, and there wouldn't be choices.
In a world without choices, how is there any sin or virtue?
Indeed, Bristol herself seemed to chafe at the very notion of choice, once Van Susterereren made a point of bringing it into the interview:
"They thought that my mom was going to make me have the baby, and it was my choice to have the baby, and that kind of stuff just bothered me."
Maybe this is Palin family conditioning, or maybe this is really what she believes. Either way, choice is a dirty word in their household.
On the other hand...
"It doesn't matter what my mom's views are on it. It was my decision. And I wish people would realize that, too."
Ah, but what is the word "decision" if not a synonym for "choice," my dear? Your Mom wants to make it her decision. She wants to remove your opinions on the matter from the equation entirely, by government fiat.
And then came the Money Line, which made hundreds of headline-writers exclaim in their seats yesterday...
"Everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all."
Interesting to bring up realism all of a sudden, after all this wishful thinking. I've been an ideologue on both sides of the political spectrum -- left and right -- and there's one thing I've learned. Reality has a way of intruding upon your rhetoric, and it cares little for how you feel on the matter.
When reality happens, you deal with it. And who is more prepared to deal with reality? Someone who's been taught realistic expectations of family life? Someone whose been adequately educated about their sexuality? Someone who's family situation is such that they can tell their parents anything without risking the sting of rejection?
We liberals get told quite often that our notions are utopian. That the world we imagine is just a dream, and that conservatives are the ones who are brave enough to face the cold facts of real life.
On this issue, I can't see that.
My grandfather-in-law is a former Dallas cop turned Okie. A seventy-something year-old man whose father handed him a pack of cigarettes at age 16 and told him this would make him look old enough to find work, along with men much older than him in the oilfields. Here is a man who lives in reality.
What does he say about abortion?
"Have you ever seen what's left after a coathanger abortion? I have, back when I was in Dallas... The thing people don't get is Roe versus Wade didn't make abortions happen. It just dealt with them. They were already happening, in some very dangerous places and circumstances. And if you take that away again, you put women right back into those places and circumstances. I'm old enough to not have to worry about it myself, but we can't go back to that.
I'll close with this. A reporter once asked the elder Palin a hypothetical. What if it were your daughter with an unplanned, unprepared-for pregnancy. What did she say?
She said, "I would choose life."
And what did her daughter say when the situation became not-so-hypothetical?
She said, "It was my decision."
They were talking about the same pregnancy, whether they both knew it or not.