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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.
Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!
Same difference these days.
The definition fits them to a T.
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Yet those on the liberal side are so passionate about ADA.
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Exactly. Trig is a slap in the face to the pro-choice crowd and the rest of the liberals. It's a reminder, rubbing it in their collective faces, that life is precious and worth living.
There is no gene for the human spirit.
“It would not take much to make the Democratic party exactly like the Nazis”
Maybe that is why George Soros, self admitted Nazi collaborator, is so attracted to the Dem Party. Most people don’t know that Soros converted to Christianity in order to save his own skin, then worked with the Nazis identifying Jewish owned property so that it could be confiscated in his native Hungary.
Bless you, MGH. What a marvel of God’s grace!
I am an adoptee, so my story is somewhat similar: Unwed teen, her father would have killed her (literally) if he’d found out about pregnancy, etc..
Edisto Joe
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