Palin and the Christian Persecution Syndrome

            I have been wondering amid all the evidence on Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications, questionable dealings as governor, and her big-spending, sales-tax raising and debt-ridden mayoral tenure, why in the world the Rovian Republican machine picked her.  Yes, I know she was selected to appeal to the hard core Christian dominionists and their somewhat less fanatical ilk.

            That, however, does not explain signing off on a pregnant minor daughter in a candidate being sold on family values, abstinence only education and the principle of much of modern right-wing Christianity that parents are absolutely responsible for their children’s walks as Christians.  Seems like a sexually active 16 or 17 year old daughter would reflect poorly on the very Christian worth of the mother.  (I do not believe this, of course, but I have enough personal and research experience with this movement to know they do.)  At least one would expect such a moral issue to play negatively among the same crowd that would be excoriating Michelle Obama as a mother every minute until the election were this her 17 year old daughter.  (BTW, the daughter and her behavior are absolutely off-limits; Sarah Palin is not – how politicians apply to their own lives the rules they seek to impose on others is a fair issue, especially when they seek to impose government prohibitions on the same family issue they claim should be a private matter.)

            The McCain camp explains that the pregnancy does not disqualify an otherwise highly qualified person.  But Palin’s utter lack of qualifications and questionable record in office call this explanation into question.

            No, we are dealing with the Atwater-Rove Republican propaganda machine here, and a candidate vetted and approved by the highest leaders of the Christian right, as reported on this site and elsewhere.  I do not believe they saw Palin’s daughter as a potential negative outweighed by her positives.  I believe they see it as an asset and a winning issue.

            Their protestations aside, the Palins and Republicans made the pregnancy political with their first statement.  Yes, they did.  Maybe not to you and me, but to their audience they sure did.  Here is the statement.

We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
 
"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates. Emphasis added

Saying her daughter plans to keep the baby and marry the father are absolutely political statements in this context.  They are announcing to the entire Christian Right political movement their commitment to Christian principles and Christian politics (no abortions here).  They could have simply said their daughter was pregnant and they would appreciate it being kept a private family matter.  But they went on to announce birth, marriage and child-rearing plans.  That the father is named after an Old Testament hero did not hurt (presumably the Palins had the father’s or his parents’ permission to make his name public).

            Consider also the many other extremely religious statements and positions that Palin has taken, such as those being circulated today (e.g. on DailyKos) on the Iraq war being a mission from God and for God’s role in arranging funding for an oil pipeline and the need to pray for same pipeline.  Of course, we know she is as extreme as it gets against abortion rights, supports teaching intelligent design in schools, and thinks the Founding Fathers put God in the Pledge of Allegiance (that was not even written until 1892).  Now you have one serious, hard-core political Christian. OK, you know that, so how does Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy work as an asset?

            Conservatives know full well that the mainstream media, which the Christian right believe to the core is the anti-Christian liberal media, and progressive political groups will seize on the pregnancy for various reasons, from questioning Palin’s parenting to the example of the inefficacy of abstinence only programs to prevent unwanted teen pregnancies.  Each instance, regardless of how respectful and how distanced from Palin’s daughter, will be cast by Christian dominionists and Republicans working behind the scenes as an attack on Palin’s and her daughter’s Christian decision to keep the baby and marry the father.  It will further be characterized as an attack on Christianity itself and the ability of Christians to base their public and private decisions on Christian principles.

            Add to that the existing and clearly proper attacks on Palin for her other extreme, religious based statements and positions, and you have yet another way to attract Christians to the Republican ticket:  the need to protect the very legality of religion in America, which is under attack by Democrats as shown by the awful slurs against this lovely Christian family and their devoted Christian daughter and soon to be son-in-law.

            Yes, as strange as it seems for a religion that claims as its members the two most powerful people in the world and all four major candidates running to replace them, the entire Congressional leadership and the Supreme Court, Christian Dominionists do indeed believe that Christians in America are under siege from the Democrats, liberals and other secular humanists who really run America behind the scenes and who are especially powerful in the American media and educational systems.  Christopher Hedges writes about this in his must-read book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.

            One of the main columns of the Christian right’s attack is stoking fear of persecution, fear that the secular humanists in the liberal establishment and media are literally working to make Christianity illegal, or if not illegal, are trying to force it completely out of the public square.  The odious movement leaders, such as James Dobson, argue that, unless Christians take over America and “return” it to its Christian “roots”, the infidels will prevail and Christians will have to hide their faith.  I call this Christian Persecution Syndrome.

            Sounds crazy, but it works like a charm to get Christian voters to the polls.

            So, I would bet that the Republican cynics took a look at Palin’s pregnant minor daughter and saw neither a weakness overcome by other strengths nor a private family matter, but an ultra-cynical opportunity to use a child to rally the Christian troops against the God-hating liberal political, educational and media establishment.  The War On The War On Christianity.  Goddess help us all.

            That’s my conclusion for this piece, but I also think Palin shows us how wildly mistaken many have been who predicted or pronounced the demise of the hard-core right wing extremists in the Christian political movement and the Republican party.  I will post in the next couple days some more evidence for this and some suggestions on how we avoid becoming either a corporo-theocracy or a wholly dysfunctional society divided by money and a false God.