Balkinization: I Remember Doug Flutie

I Remember Doug Flutie

Priscilla J. Smith

Hail Mary passes tend to swell the hearts of the believers, as will McCain’s nomination of floridly anti-choice Sarah Palin who believes in God, “personal responsibility,” cracking the glass ceiling, the sacrificial natures of her children, killing caribou, drilling for oil in Alaska and “ethics” (except when it comes to firing the chief of the Department of Public Safety and head of the State Troopers allegedly for refusing to fire Palin’s Trooper ex-brother-in-law who was involved in a nasty custody battle with Palin’s sister.).

Hillary supporters who were pissed that Obama beat their feminist champion, the one who represented payback for all the wrongs they have suffered, (and let’s just pause for a moment and remember that the 1970s were not so long ago), who saw it as one more injustice and slap in the face, won’t vote for McCain now. Nor will Palin appeal to Hillary supporters who voted for her because she is more experienced than Barack. Wasilla looks like an awesome town for a stop on the Iditarod and reminds me of the little towns Laura Ingalls and her Pa and Ma settled. The weather and whether to risk a trip to the next town for extra wheat during the Long Winter were their major problems (yes is the answer; otherwise they starve). Palin also undermines McCain’s inexperience argument. So what was he thinking?

I don’t think McCain was really after Hillary voters at all. He and his buddies thought they could appeal to 1) the religious right and 2) Republican/Independent women who may be pro-choice but don’t really care about it. Even though 1/3 of all women will have an abortion in their lifetime, most think abortions happen to other people, not thoughtful responsible moms like them; the data show otherwise. Also, remember that many of the Republican/Independent woman swingers are post-menopausal.

If this was what he was doing, McCain’s pick made some bizarre sense to him and his pals. He gets a gung-ho cute wholesome “hockey mom” -- of 5 no less. See what us gals can do if we just put our minds to it, and stop complaining? She proves his pedigree to the Ralph Reeds of the world while appealing to Republican women who believe in their own “equality.” Sure we are for equality! The Republicans know equality talk is necessary. See Michael New, The I’s Have It, National Review Online (April 19, 2007) available at http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTZlYzNmY2M4OTFhMjAzNWI4OGYwMDAyMjViZGI5NjA=#more (arguing that incremental strategy of chipping away at Roe was necessary because Roe “also changed societal sexual and cultural mores in such a way as to make subsequent restrictions on abortion more difficult to enact.”); Memorandum from Samuel B. Casey and Harold J. Cassidy TO Members of the South Dakota Pro-Life Leadership Coalition, et al. re inter-alia a Response to Bopp Memo (Oct. 10, 2007) (“Casey Memo”), also available at http://www.operationrescue.org/?p=769.

By the way, this strategy may sound familiar to students of the anti-choice “abortion harms women” strategy – a strategy that co-opts feminist messages with the goal of enforcing traditional women’s roles. See Reva Siegel, 2007 Brainerd Currie Lecture. The Right's Reasons: Constitutional Conflict and the Spread of Woman-Protective Antiabortion Argument, 57 Duke L.J. (forthcoming 2008); Reva Siegel, 2006 Baum Lecture. The New Politics of Abortion: An Equality Analysis of Woman-Protective Abortion Restrictions, 2007 U. Ill. L. Rev. 991 (2007). After all, what political position has the potential to be more wife-like than Vice President? Does this remind anyone else of those Enjoli ads in the 70s singing “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, never let him forget he’s a man,” from “I’m a Woman”?

But wait, does Sarah Palin appeal to Republican women? Or just insult them. What I hear from Republicans in Arizona is dismay, confusion, dumbfounded expressions of “What was he thinking?” The truth is that Sarah Palin doesn’t appeal to those women. Apparently, the Republican leadership has not yet learned that women are not as dumb as they’ve been taught to look.

But Palin does appeal to the Republican base – the religious right and Republican men. Will this be enough? Every now and then, someone catches the Hail Mary. I’m terrified of the result of a McCain presidency (for my kids – both the girl and the boy variety) and I remember Doug Flutie. So while I think Sarah Palin is great joke fodder – if I could still stay up late enough to watch late night TV I would -- election night may be as nerve-wracking as ever.

Posted 10:56 AM by Priscilla J. Smith [link]

Comments:

"Even though 1/3 of all women will have an abortion in their lifetime, most think abortions happen to other people,"

Is this innumeracy? 2/3 IS "most people".

# posted by

Brett : 11:29 AM

Brett, read the entire sentence again. It makes perfectly good sense (though you may disagree in substance).

# posted by

Mark Field : 12:45 PM

"2/3 IS 'most people'"

Which, I suppose, resolves the question of whether math concepts are created or found.

- Charles

# posted by

Charles T. Wolverton : 1:02 PM

Certainly there is some stereotype in the selection, and the legal invective against reproductive rights is part of that, keeping private morality in the Republican armarium, tabloids having demonstrable affection for the prurient interests. One of the beauties of the victory over Notre Dame by one point at the gun might have a parallel if the putative nominee actually ends up in office, though she apparently has bemoaned the ornamentality of the US vice-presidency; namely, I doubt the AK governor will favor overseeing institutionalizing of torture, though, as she indicated, ex officio she might have little influence to reverse policies that have created that new part of US action in its pursuit of Al-Q et al.

# posted by

JohnLopresti : 1:09 PM

I re-read it, it carries one numerical assertion, (That 1/3 of women will have an abortion during their lives.) attacks two beliefs:

1. That most women think abortions happen to other people.

Yup, when only a third of women are having abortions, "most" women are correct to think that abortions are happening to other people.

2. That those abortions are not happening to "thoughtful, responsible moms" like the 2/3rds of women who aren't getting abortions.

Well, obviously it's possible to be a thoughtful, responsible mom, and still end up getting an abortion. But that ain't the way to bet.

# posted by

Brett : 2:32 PM

Apparently "personal responsibility" means that your high-school age daughter has a baby rather than an abortion, or that, even though you already have 4 kids, you have another with Down's syndrome rather than an abortion.
However, there's a million sites where I could engage in debate or mud-slinging or political analysis, I don't understand what's gotten into Balkanization lately. Maybe because it's summer you've decided to be a beach read.
But C-SPAN had a good show Saturday on judicial nominations, the role of the Senate, and the place of judicial review Saturday night, one that had a lot of points for discussion.
In the show, they mentioned the Caperton case, pending on cert, about judicial disqualification, another topic worthy of discussion. And in that regard, listening to the LBJ Tapes today on C-SPAN, it appears that in 1964 federal judges were serving as corporate directors and ruling on cases involving them. Can you confirm that?

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:00 PM

This comment has been removed by the author.

# posted by

Joe : 4:36 PM

Brett, I think the fairest reading of the post is that if 1/3 of all women have abortions, that percentage is large enough to include within it "thoughtful responsible moms", despite the fact that some abortion opponents think it does not include them.

# posted by

Mark Field : 7:02 PM

Also, remember that many of the Republican/Independent woman swingers are post-menopausal.

You mean "swing voters", not "swingers". I doubt that there is a very big voting block of Republican/Independent woman swingers, whether pre- or post-menopausal.

# posted by

Dilan : 8:14 PM

I don’t think McCain was really after Hillary voters at all. He and his buddies thought they could appeal to 1) the religious right and 2) Republican/Independent women who may be pro-choice but don’t really care about it. Even though 1/3 of all women will have an abortion in their lifetime, most think abortions happen to other people, not thoughtful responsible moms like them; the data show otherwise. Also, remember that many of the Republican/Independent woman swingers are post-menopausal.

Mr. McCain did indeed pick Palin to motivate his conservative base as well as the half or so of the female population who are center right, which he appears to have largely accomplished. McCain's choice was crazy like a fox.

I do take issue with the assumption that that women, like Palin's daughter Bristol, who irresponsibly become mothers before marriage also desire abortions. Some women like Bristol choose not to kill their unborn children and actually get married to the fathers of the children to form families.

Likewise, the leftist nutroots delighting in attacking a socially conservative governor for her minor daughter's out of wedlock pregnancy as some sort of a "hypocrisy" fundamentally misread the women whose votes McCain is targeting. The religious conservatives are thrilled that Bristol is choosing life and marriage for her child. This is living one's beliefs.

# posted by

Bart DePalma : 8:20 PM

"Bart" DePropagandist:

Likewise, the leftist nutroots delighting in attacking a socially conservative governor for her minor daughter's out of wedlock pregnancy as some sort of a "hypocrisy" fundamentally misread the women whose votes McCain is targeting. The religious conservatives are thrilled that Bristol is choosing life and marriage for her child. This is living one's beliefs.

Oh. IC. So the mantra of the right to their kiddies is "screw around, get knocked up, and then get into a shotgun marriage with the guy that had the poor sense (or the selfishness) not to wear a condom". Glad you made that clear, "Bart"; I never would have guessed.... ;-)

Cheers,

# posted by

Arne Langsetmo : 2:06 AM

fundamentally misread the women whose votes McCain is targeting. The religious conservatives are thrilled that Bristol is choosing life and marriage for her child.

If McSame had to use his VP pick to target religious conservative women, he is screwed. Their votes should have been locked up long before now.

This is living one's beliefs.

Wasn't NOT having sex before marriage also a conservative belief?

# posted by

Bartbuster : 9:16 AM

I write again only to point out that, despite the comments coming in on my post, I made NO reference whatsoever to Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy, the allegations that maybe it’s not her first pregnancy and her mom dissembled about that, etc. None of that was floating around the news at the time I wrote or posted about what I hope is serious discourse – McCain’s nomination of a rabidly anti-choice VP, and Republican strategy that mirrors anti-choice legal strategy using equality talk to mask inequality work, etc., and the question of how women will respond.

Moreover, I have never made assumptions about what any one particular person is going to do when she gets pregnant, nor do I make assessments of what it was “responsible” for her to do in a given situation. This is because I know that I can never know what is going on for her in that situation or all the issues involved.

In my career representing them, I have also spoken with too many women facing unplanned pregnancies, planned pregnancies that are making them sick, planned pregnancies where the fetus is sick, about what they are planning to do. These can be hard, sad, and desperate conversations and women, including teenagers, sometimes make choices they never thought they would make. I recommend that before anyone makes a judgment about what was responsible in a given situation, you stop and step back and consider that you are not in that situation.

This applies equally to pro-choice people who might judge someone else’s decision to carry a pregnancy to term as it does to anti-choice people who judge women who choose not to carry to term.

I also don’t think that the fact that Sarah Palin’s kid got pregnant has much to do with anything about whether Sarah Palin is cut out to be VP – there are so many other things that show she is not. Nor do I think a man would be similarly judged. On the other hand, it might be relevant -- in an anecdotal way -- to a discussion of abstinence-ONLY education policy, and Sarah Palin's support of it. I don’t know since I don’t know if the kid got any contraceptive counseling. And besides, who needs anecdotal support when you have so much data saying abstinence-ONLY doesn't work!

Finally, the point of the reference in my original post to one-third of American women who have abortions was to point out, thank you Mark Field, that any given American woman is much more likely to face the decision whether to have an abortion, and perhaps to choose one, than most of us think. Yours, Cilla

# posted by

Priscilla Smith : 12:10 PM