Thoughts on Sarah Palin

First things first: Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota was inspirational and dead-on-target. She spelled out a lot of what I believe in: deriding the idea of dialogue with Iran, stipulating that America must start providing itself with its own native sources of fuel, emphasizing the strong possibility of success in Iraq, and criticizing high taxes, as well as centering on her own life as a faithfully married woman, someone who clearly feels that monogamy is the only way to ensure a healthy family life as well as a strong soul.
All very well and good, except Mrs. Palin does give me a bit of cause for concern.
1. After my initial relief that John McCain did not pick Southern Fried Baptist Mike Huckabee as his running mate, as some pundits had predicted back in Febraury, I was distressed when he chose a female Alaskan version of him. The ol' huntin', shootin', fishin', dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-with-mankind mindset on Palin is eerily too reminiscent of a GOP that just cannot shake its reliance on the hard-line Christian Right for its survival. Sure, the Democrats may be lumbered by their loony-Left, pea-brained contingent, but the Republicans can't lay claim to a completely normal cross-section of supporters either. I mean, it's good that we don't have the dreadlocked, unwashed, "down with America" types in our midst, but I don't feel any more comfortable in the company of hallelujah-chanting, creationist, Flat Earth Theory-believing cornfeds either.
What the hell ever happened to the middle ground? Or has that always been nothing but a myth?
I still wish dearly that McCain had gone with Mitt Romney. That would have been a hell of a ticket. To pick the heretofore relatively unknown Governor of Alaska seems a tad luckluster.
2. I cannot take Mrs. Palin seriously as a campaigner against teenage pregnancy and out-of-wedlock sexual relationships—which one would expect of her as a conservative—when her own 17-year-old daughter is pregnant by a self-confessed redneck who loves to brag about his loutish behavior online. The younger daughter clearly intends on taking after mommy in terms of having a large family; indeed, she's clearly not wasting any time in her aspirations to become a prolific breeder.
I'm just a little tired of people who claim to be "just a normal family" when, from what I can see, they are anything but normal.
3. Palin's quite big on gun ownership. I'm not against gun ownership myself. The Second Amendment may not have relevance anymore in terms of communities rising up against their own government, but clearly it establishes the right to private gun ownership. Ban private gun ownership and you have defaced and denigrated one of the original Constitutional Amendments.
However, I think if our Founding Fathers knew what was coming—leagues of outcast loners bred on too much violent film, television and videogames who see no other way to express themselves other than shooting everyone in sight when they finally snap one fine day—they would have ensured, as much as humanly possible, that guns did not land into the wrong hands.
Why is it that every time a conservative Republican talks about gun ownership it also happens that they are stolid members of the NRA? National Rifle Association? More like Nihilistic Retrograde Assholes. How insane is it that there is an organization in America, politically active and very influential, which believes that there should be no limits whatsoever on gun ownership, which believes that anyone, anytime, anywhere and under any conditions can purchase a gun?
Why, also, is it that countries that also have significant gun ownership, like Canada and Switzerland, generate so little news in terms of gun massacres? Is it because they have no version of the NRA, telling their people that they must have a firearm even if they're a totally deranged, psychopathic, paranoid lunatic?
No, I'm not against gun ownership. But I'm aghast at the NRA.
4. Sarah Palin is a hunter. Now there are plenty of people who like to test their skills as a shooter with clay pigeons or a stack of cans. Fine and dandy. But actually killing an animal and seeing that as a sport? It's just ridiculous. Where's the sport in that? It's bloodlust, pure and simple. If you're lost in the woods, you haven't eaten in several days, and there's no suitable plant material to eat, then I believe hunting is justified. In any other circumstance, it's bloodthirstyness. Let Mrs. Palin tackle a moose armed with just a stick. If she wins that contest, then I'll be impressed.
Again, Sarah Palin's speech was bold and struck a solid chord with the GOP faithful. That's all well and good. And I'm also very much enjoying the spectre of these liberal hypocrites decrying her existence. You know the types: they believe we need more women, minorities and alternative sexualities in office and influencing American life. Yet give them the likes of Mona Charen, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, or Andrew Sullivan and watch them protest. "But we didn't mean those sorts of women, those sorts of blacks, those sorts of gays," they'll bleat. If you're not sowing the seeds of disgruntlement on the Democrats' plantation, then you're just not acceptable.
Sarah Palin and I both share a respect for history and tradition, time-tested methods of law and order, and a deep distrust of the government.
But I seriously wish that she, and some of these same people with whom I share common ground, didn't think that having less than 20 children is ungodly, that animals were put on earth solely to provide mankind with food and to relieve his feelings of bloodlust, and that the planet is only thousands, as opposed to billions, of years old.
I mean, not to get religious, but God help us all.