I am sitting at home this morning, doing what I don't do so much anymore, watching Morning Joe. He (with Andrea Mitchell) is interviewing Ruth Markus, who has a column in the Washington Post this morning entitled "Palin hits the Motherload" (link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/... and they are giving progressive women a BAD RAP.
But they have a point, more after the fold...
UPDATE: This is a small one, I am enjoying the discussion, but one thing I forgot to add...a lot of the polling is showing that women, especially, white women, are the ones giving McCain his big bump after the GOP convention, women are key!
I am proud to wear the label (although I don't yet have the t-shirt) PROGRESSIVE WOMAN. I am also a mom. Actually, I am pretty much a stay-at-home-mom. Joe, while interviewing, Ruth Markus, kept saying that moms like me (progressive moms) are the ones critiquing Sarah Palin for running for VP while she is a mom to five kids. Joe is saying that WE are saying that she can't do it, or shouldn't do it, or we are questioning her ability to do it. In short, he is saying that WE are saying that maybe she's a bad mom.
Are we? If we are we need to stop. If any of us (any moms, progressive or not) are doing it, we need to stop. Its a major distractor (from the issues), that's one reason why we need to stop. But there's another reason. We need to stop because if there's one thing I've learned in my (almost) nine years as a stay-at-home-mom, its that we need to stop judging each other. If there's one thing I've learned as a mom, its that we all have our bad mom moments and our supermom moments. But you can't judge people because you never stand in their shoes. What we need to do is support each other. And we need each other. That's true in my town, its true in the state, its true in the schools, its true on the soccer fields, or the basketball gyms or the hockey arenas, its true in the workplace too. Its true in the Country. Everywhere in this country, it takes a community, a village, to do right by our families. And we need to remember that.
Ruth Markus in her article, comments on the following,
"I don't question whether Palin can pull off the most impressive juggling act in the history of working moms, balancing, as she told People magazine, BlackBerry and breast pump. But I do wonder -- somewhat to my astonishment -- why she'd choose to, and I suspect many mothers feel the same."
A Palin candidacy, it appears, makes us all reevaluate our choices and that's great. But that's not the same as critiquing her, its not the same as saying she's a bad mom, its not the same as saying (as the old debate goes) that stay-at-home-moms care more about their families (we don't) or that stay-at-home-moms don't do anything all day (I know that's not true, just ask my childrens' schools). Both choices can be great choices for families and both choices should be supported. Every mom is a working mom and every mom supports her family in umpteen ways at home.
However, I do think its disengenuous for Joe to keep saying that progressive women are the ones doing it. There have been a few voices which have talked about Palin as a mom, and the media is blowing those voices out of proportion (as they always do). Not that Joe specifically read my previous diary, but I was very careful to articulate what I thought the issues were with McCain/Palin and they weren't about attacking Palin as a mom.
Here's what I wrote the day before yesterday...
I don't need to know how Sarah Palin balances work and children. I admire THAT she does it but the proof is in the pudding. Not every family in America has the support system she does. Not every family is in as good of a position as hers is. And so we can't and shouldn't vote as a referendum of how in awe we are of her. That won't put food on our table or gas in our car, that won't help all of us be able to pay healthcare expenses, that won't prevent us from engaging in unnecessary military action and sending our children into harms way, that won't make our neighborhood schools better, that won't get like-minded Judges on the federal courts.
(Not trying to pimp my diary but it appears to have some relevance here so here's the link... http://www.dailykos.com/... )
Despite all our independent blogger voices, the MSM still controls so much of the messaging. Let's not give them anymore distracting fodder on how Palin is as a mom. This election is not about that. We need to do what we can to hammer that home.
Moms everywhere (and dads, and other adult-types) should be focusing on where the candidates stand on education, on poverty, on the environment, on energy, on The War and other foreign policy issues, on healthcare, and on civil rights. Moms everywhere SHOULD know, that matters more to their families than how Sarah Palin chooses to run hers.
Ruth Markus, in her closing, seems to understand this...its about looking at reality and where the rubber meets the road for our individual families.
I would not, in truth, have it any other way. Wondering about Palin's choice does not make me less of a feminist -- just a realistic one. When I got home, I took the day off to clean the kids' closets and get some meals in the freezer. Like Sarah Palin ditching the executive chef, I felt much better.
Hammer them on the issues, all the issues, all the stinking issues. We all (progressives and non-progressives) need to stay away from attacking Palin as a mom.
Thanks for listening.