Posted on 07/17/2009 6:54:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There is a very interesting opinion piece today from the political website politico.com. The piece is written by Gary Bauer and Daniel Allott. Bauer is a former Reagan administration official, the former head of the Family Research Council, and a former candidate for President in 2000. Allott works with Bauer at American Values and has worked as a former community support provider for people with disabilities.
There is probably no more polarizing figure in American politics today than Sarah Palin. A recent poll of Republicans showed that she has a 72% favorability rating within her own party - higher than anyone else who is being touted as a potential candidate for President. But she seems to draw an equally strong response in the negative from her opponents. Ann Coulter, in a recent column, pointed out that the power of Sarah Palin can be measured in one very tangible way: the left can't stop talking about her. Derisively, yes., but they talk about her, and seemingly constantly so.
Bauer and Allot feel that there is one factor above all others that leads to her being so polarizing: her son Trig, who was born with Down Syndrome just a few months before John McCain tapped her as his running mate. In her vice-presidential nomination acceptance speech, Palin described him as "perfectly beautiful baby boy," a phrase that heartened parents of Down Syndrome children all across America. At the end of the speech, she held Trig in her arms and faced him toward the crowd.
To her supporters, she was showing the world how proud she was of her son, how precious he is. To her detractors, she was using him as a prop to garner sympathy. Liberal blogs that deride conservatives for their support of "limited government" - the government that helps support people with disabilities - have no problem advancing and posting articles, cartoons, and comments espousing the most hateful, despicable and anti-disability views towards one special needs family: the Palins. Somehow, they think it's funny when it's about the Palins.
Bauer feels that Trig Palin is inextricably linked to another issue that divides liberals and conservatives in this country: abortion. Sarah Palin knew early in her pregnancy that her child would be born with Downs, and she went ahead and gave birth to him, welcoming him into the world. This puts her in the minority - studies have shown that 90% of pregnant women who learn that their child will have Down Syndrome terminate the pregnancy. In this age of scientific progress and high resolution ultrasounds, disability and birth defects have gone to the top of the list for reasons for a couple to have an abortion. Recently in England, a woman sued the hospital and the ultrasound provider for not accurately telling her that her son would have disabilities. Had she known, the $2 million lawsuit asserts, she would have never let him be born.
Sarah Palin, on the other hand, knew.
In the midst of these powerful trends stands Palin. She understands that discrimination against people with disabilities is fueled by ignorance of what it is like to be, and to care for, a person with a disability.
Her advocacy is validated by the waiting lists of couples ready to adopt children with Down syndrome and other genetic abnormalities. And by the fact that those closest to people with disabilities are among the most vocal critics of universal prenatal genetic testing.
The writers acknowledge that America has written public policies to try and support those people with disabilities who are here. But that is different, they argue, than wanting them here.
Palin is controversial, in part, because America is divided over disability. We’ve established laws and institutions that protect people with disabilities. But we also do everything we can to make sure they don’t see the light of day.
Trig is a reminder of our fierce ambivalence over disability. Every mention of his name is a pinprick to our conscience. Every photo of mother and son is a reminder of concepts — vulnerability, dependency and suffering — our culture no longer tolerates, as well as virtues, such as humility, dignity and self-sacrifice, it no longer extols.
Most - but not all - disability advocates lean more toward the liberal side of the spectrum. This includes many policies (guns, the war, etc.) that aren't related to the field of disability. (I know, wars give us more people with disabilities, they always argue. But wars also give us fewer teachers, firefighters, and police officers. That alone is not a valid reason to support or oppose).
But the issue of abortion does not fall in line with traditional, liberal views, not in the minds of many disability advocates. It's uncomfortable for many of them, especially for those who have disabilities themselves.
And in Trig Palin, what you see is the intersection of these two issues, personified.
Trig is also a reminder of an inescapable truth: Disability is an inherent part of the human condition. At a time of deep cultural divisions, 1-year-old Trig Palin represents the deepest division of all, between a culture that increasingly sees genetic perfection as an entitlement and a culture still rooted in the belief that human beings are defined not by their capabilities but, instead, by the very fact of their humanity.
Ditto to what you said.
It was the same crap the Nazis were advocating. Funny enough, many liberals are starting to show the same tendencies. If nothing else, that shows the righteousness of our cause and views.
God bless Trig and all people with disabilities. They are the most vulnerable in our society and they must the protected at all costs.
Sounds like that recurring theme from the Bible, you know, light & darkness - and the darkness not liking the light illuminating whats inside.
God surely weeps.
I don’t buy the premise of the article.
People hate Palin due to the media hit job, the fact that she is a commoner instead of an elitist and that she has socially conservative values....
“studies have shown that 90% of pregnant women who learn that their child will have Down Syndrome terminate the pregnancy”
Most parents do not love their children. They do not want a little being to love, care for, and protect. They want child property, a servant, an heir, a vessel for their genes, a fashion accessory, a symbol of spousal commitment, etc.
This is a new age of selfishness, banality, heartlessness, and cruelty.
It would not take much to make the Democratic party exactly like the Nazis. All that is needed is the right combination of lies.
When one look at Sarah Palin on one hand and the vile hate that thrown at her on the other hand everything seems a bit out of whack. To her credit Sarah Palin has never returned their hate. She perhaps understands the TR line about how those who hate never win unless you hate them back. It’s obvious to me that the most vile haters of Sarah Palin are not liberals. They are totalitarians. I dont know whats in her future but I wish her well and she’s in my prayers.
I believe it - the Libs have produced a culture of death and they cannot tolerate anyone who loves life - all life, and believes that life comes from God.
I love Sarah Palin! I voted for her!
Trig will celebrate his 5th birthday in our WH! And have a party fit for a king!
Wouldn’t it be great if they had “David Letterman” and “Keith Olbermann” piñatas for the kids to hit?
Haven't you heard of that resident in the White Hut...Barak HUSSEIN Obama?
what better expression of her socially conservative values than going forward with the pregnancy when she knew she was carrying a Downs Syndrome baby? The libs can’t stand that about her: that she actually knew and didn’t abort.
She’s the crucifix held up to the vampire. That may seem over the top, but its true .. there is nothing more frightening to pro-choice liberals than a powerful woman who chooses to carry to term a special needs baby. It shows unequivocally that she is NOT one of them, not one of the elite, and never could be.
LOL! The kids won’t know who they are since they both will be in retirement! But Sarah and the rest of the ‘first family’ will! And we can send Trig “Pin the tail on the donkey and push it hard” game.
Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing! I agree 110% about those who attack the disabled.
Sarah displays real love toward her family, and particularly toward Trig. She is the enriched one, more than Trig, but it isn't an exercise to get something from the relationship, it is God's Grace flowing through her. That really pisses off the faux catholics and Barry Lynds of the democrat constituencies.
When I look at Sarah holding Trig with arms and hands that convey only love and security to him, I am reminded that each human being no matter how old at death will 'stand' before God either alone or with an advocate, a deliverer, a 'soter'. Every life lived in the body, regardless of the handicaps associated with that life is precious to The Creator of that life.
Our culture is very much tied up with 'worth' and valuing people by their worth. Even democrats operate on this scale, valuing black people, homosexuals, and rabid feminists for their worth to the empowerment of the democrat party.
We are staring at a monster on worth, with the government run healthcare future. The worth to cost ratio will be uppermost in the dead soul minds of government bureaucrats.
Make no mistake, do not fail to realize that democrats will look at the Trig Palins as a liability for the government funds and will eventually by one means or another make these children pariahs and perhaps do as Barack Obama favored, force premature birth then leave them to die unattended, struggling to try and breath with not yet ready to exchange gasses efficiently little lungs.
As a person whose Mother was raped yet she bore me into the world only to have me come down with polio at a bouncing healthy age two, I can attest to the fact that real love is not a cost to benefit ratio. What the liberal mind flits to, when killing the alive unborn is accepted, is euthanasia, 'improving the cost to benefit ratio' ... if anyone doubts it, that is precisely what Barry Obama advocated protecting while he was a state senator protecting induced labor abortions. That is precisely what is behind the soul killing selfishness of abortion on demand. But democrats don't care for souls, they run cost to benefit ratios for bodies and votes.
The democrat party is a spiritually sick organization. They have been empowering their political capital via protecting and furthering the slaughter of alive unborn children. The current leader of that party went further, working to protect euthanizing alive JUST BORN LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS. Give control of 'healthcare' to such ghouls and slaughtering any class deemed too expensive to care for will be in our national future, if God does not allow us to be wiped out first.
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