Rick Santorum, Gold-Star Feminist
Oh, this is rich. The latest in a series of right-wingers to adopt a faux-feminist stance is Rick Santorum:
SANTORUM: Sarah Palin is the Clarence Thomas for feminists. The civil rights community, the African-American community obviously should have rallied behind Clarence Thomas an his achievement, but they hammered him because he was a conservative. And the civil rights establishment was first and foremost liberal and then for the liberal rights of -- as liberals saw it, what blacks should have in this country. And the same thing with the feminist community.
Because if there's anyone who has long been an ally of both the civil-rights and feminist communities, it's Rick Santorum. This is a man who thinks that birth control is harmful to society, that feminists tricked women into working outside the home, and that abortion rights are comparable to slavery.
And on a related note, Dahlia Lithwick has a great retort for conservatives who invoke "feminism" as a reason to support Palin:
The "new feminism" may include uncritical support for women who oppose teen pregnancy programs and for women who force rape victims to pay for their own rape kits. But I just don't see where support for women who persist in fabricating their own records is a feminist principle.
Amen to that.
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The logic, it burns. Sarah Palin=woman, therefore all women should support Sarah Palin. In addition, Clarence Thomas=African American, therefore all African Americans should support Clarence Thomas.
Guess that means I don't have think about politics anymore.
So Rick Santorum now is not only a feminist, but a social movements historian? Is that the Twilight Zone theme I hear faintly in the background?
He just thinks that because he supports everyone just like him, so we should too. I mean obviously straight white conservative males should always support straight white conservative males.
Talk about identity politics.
Wait...
So if Sarah Palin is to sexism
as Clarence Thomas is to racism
does that mean
Sarah Palin is to racism
as Clarence Thomas is to sexism?
I love the picture of Santorum, smarmy looking bastard.
I agree with FashionablyEvil in this regard, the logic here... sets the rational and reasoned mind on fire.
Santorum thinks African Americans should fall in line without considering where Clarence Thomas stands on the issues.
Santorum thinks women should fall in line without considering where Sarah Palin stands on the issues.
This, in co-ordination with the feigned outrage today with the "lipstick on a pig" comment, is just one more attempt by the Republican party & McCain campaign to distract voters from issues.
It's bothersome that they'd attempt to cluster all women together of a single mind, and attempt to conflate Sarah Palin with Hillary Clinton.
Sarah Palin isn't Hillary Clinton.
One almost all the issues this election, Sarah Palin stands to the far right fringe and against the majority of women in this country.
Learn the difference, vote smart.
www.SarahPalinISNTHillaryClinton.com
Well, we sure do appreciate your guidance, Mr. Santorum.
You know, I read this and swallowed the rising taste of vomit and said to myself, "This prick finally, finally, finally got voted out of office; who the fuck is still giving him interviews?" So I clicked on the link. Oh. Laura Ingraham. Of course. Thank you.
Hey, SarahPalinISN'THillaryClinton, we already know this stuff. Can you do anything besides shill?
Haha, Mr. Frothy Biproduct has an opinion. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Go ahead and Google his name!)
"How DARE feminists question Sarah Palin!!?!? I mean, she's like, a WOMAN!!! And she's like, in a powerful position, kinda!! So that means you can't say anything, even if all her positions are in direct contradiction with woman's rights! Nyah-nayh! *sticks tongue out*"
Sorry, but this is really what these pundits sound like to me now.
Isn't it amazing how many "feminist" converts we're getting all the sudden? Hmmm, mysterious mysterious.
isn't this guy a former senator named after a frothy mixture of... um... well, you know the rest.
Actually, James Fallows made that same comparison the day of the Palin announcement, albeit for different reasons. He said that the Thomas and Palin picks were each "an unbelievably obvious but potentially effective attempt to jiu-jitsu the standard identity politics of the moment in a way that flummoxes the Democrats."
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/08/the_palin_pick_is_not_like_the.php
Santorum 1. n. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex. 2. N. Senator Rick Santorum
How was this guy a Senator? Leave it to a staunch Republican to see things as such a black or white issue. How can anyone take his simplistic logic seriously?
It is interesting that he uses Clarence Thomas in his example. He wasn't just disliked by some members of the African American community because he is a conservative, but also because people were taking sides in the Anita Hill sexual harassment case. Which, of course, ignited the third wave of feminism.
As annoyed as I am with him fr saying this, I am quite amused by his last name! It would e perfect for a gay sex scandal!
Yea. It is painfully obvious that his guy is off the charts. But, what is more troubling are those in power that are much more subtle.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/lest-we-forget-obama-flipped-off-hillary
After watching the video, "wolves in sheep clothing" comes to mind.
How about you?
moni,
are you out of your mind? he didn't flip hillary off... he was definitely rousing folks up against her, but he scratched the side of his face... she wasn't even in the room. how could he have flipped her off?
i mean, really, if we scour the hundreds of hours of video footage we have of these folks, you could probably find something that, out of context, looks like something else, but that one's just stupid.
also, the "lipstick on a pig" thing, while i have no idea from whence the idiom came, has been used by Obama before and even by John McCain (in reference to a policy proposal by Hillary Clinton):
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/obama_did_not_call_sarah_palin.php
So, come on... there's enough drama and stupidity without having to make shit up.
"Sarah Palin is the Clarence Thomas for feminists."
He's right. They have the same position on women's rights. They are equally sexist. She's also a positioned candidate hoping to cash in on identity politics.
I just finished "Right-Wing Women" by Andrea Dworkin because I wanted to understand more clearly what motivates these women. She argues that right-wing women see both parties as hypocritical when it comes to women's rights, and they don't see the institutions changing, so they stick to the game playing that they feel helps them to survive in such an unfair world. They see that women have the deck stacked against them, so they don't believe feminists will have any real power to change things. They don't want to back a losing horse. (This was written in 1978).
I can't wait until these women feel that they can comeoutcomeoutwherevertheyare, when things are safe, and they can actually identify as feminists and be honest about it. But until then, it's on our backs, and we have to carry the load. We are the little red hen for these women, but we won't be denying them the bread when it all comes around.
distractedbyshinyobjects- You must have gotten a great SAT score! :p
But this would be like saying that I shouldn't HATE Ann Coulter because she's a woman...who talks...about...stuff. (When really every time she speaks she's kicking the history of women's lib in the ribcage, but I guess that's besides the point!)
I wonder if he'll be embarrassed when someone successfully explains to him exactly how racist and sexist his comment was!
But anyway, by that logic, does that mean any Black people who don't vote for Obama are race-traitors? Am I a sex-traitor if I don't vote for Palin? And what about voters of other races? Oh how will they know how to feel unless the candidate is the same race and gender as they?! I could keep going...the logic gets more stupid the more you try to make sense of it...
I love how he is all Like "Im all for women" now. He had a change of heart pretty quickly. He is sexist and should not try to lie he way through.
I love how he is all Like "Im all for women" now. He had a change of heart pretty quickly. He is sexist and should not try to lie he way through.
I love how all of a sudden he seem sinterested in the women's point of view. He doesnt really care about when women think. He is sexist.
Oh, I really like the little red hen metaphor. Very good!
It's too late for Santorum. I saw his name on the site and I burst out laughing. Santorum makes me giggle... because poop jokes are funny.
Oh, he actually said something? Sorry. I'm still giggling about the poop. And the use of the word "frothy."
The content of what he said... I'm trying here... hehe.... frothy.
puckalish:
No I am not crazy, thank you very much.
But I am aware of people's body language and double meaning of words. Obama is a master of words and is passive-agressive. A simple statement can be used to mean something totally different under certain circumstances. Do you really think that I am sincere when I used the words "thank you very much" in my opening statement.
Take a look at both videos and if you are paying attention to the audience, your definitely see their reaction to Obama's gesture in the Hillary video as soon as he scatches his face. Also look at the wome's reaction behind them and see the laughter and whispering. Of course, they caught the gesture and responded accordingly.
The same goes for the Palen video. The audience responded to his comment about pigs with immediate laughter. We have all heard the expression before, however, there was an undertone that was realted to Palen's comment last week regarding hockey moms.
I am a sales professional and am very keen to words, inflection, and body language. There is no doubt in my mind regarding Obama's meaning.
But, who am I to challenge your wisdom and knowledge. Bless your heart.
"the Palen video"???
He wasn't even talking about Sarah Palen. You watched the video excerpt to which you linked, right? The entire context was about McCain's platform... he's saying that McCain is repackaging Bush's politics and calling it something different... he goes through a list of McCain platform points for which there's no significant difference from Bush. Obama doesn't even MENTION Palin in the clip you sourced.
and, i don't know about you, but my middle finger is the longest one on either hand, so i often use it for things like scratching my face or head... and if i want to flip someone off, i like to keep the rest of my fist closed... which, clearly, Obama did not:
http://impiousdigest.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=346
he had his pointer finger extended as well... but, yeah, you know... Clinton wasn't in the room, Obama was scratching his face, his pointer finger was extended, but... shoot... if you can invent drama, why not?
you are, after all, a sales professional... and, as a creative, I've got to say, you guys are really good at inventing stuff that doesn't fit, doesn't work and just plain doesn't make any sense.
bless your heart, moni, bless your heart.
by the way, feel free not to read the actual article, just check out the photos and stills in that link... i was just reading through it and it's got some pretty juvenile language and whatnot, which i hadn't noticed the first time around.