Sarah Palin supporters, I feel your pain

Sarah Palin supporters, I feel your pain, and I will do my best to comfort you, wipe your tears and offer you a nice chamomile tea. They are mercilessly picking her apart in the media. They have attacked her and her family (sniff).

Take a few, deep cleansing breaths and repeat after me: Get over it!

Have you forgotten about the longest vetting process in the history of vetting, that of Barack Obama? He faced question after question about his faith, religious affiliations, African heritage, friends, his time as a community organizer, as a state senator, as a U.S. senator, about his wife, mother, stepfather, his patriotism, his blackness and his American-ness.

But Obama was virtually unknown. People have the right to put every speck of his life under the microscope. They also have the right to know just as much about his running mate, Joe Biden, who would be a heartbeat away from the presidency if elected, right?

So what is the difference with Palin? Think objectively; who knows anything about her, personally or professionally? She, too, is now potentially a heartbeat away from the presidency. Given the state of things, I want to know everything there is to know about Sarah Palin.

I’ve heard that it isn’t fair to look into her family, or her record as mayor of Wasilla (then populated by 5,000 people), or her brief time as governor of Alaska. I’ve even heard people say that she has greater foreign relations experience than Obama because “Alaska is right next to Russia,” and I don’t think any of us will ever look at lipstick on pigs the same.

If I stood up every time someone asked a question about Barack Obama and said that it was racist, I’d be accused of playing the race card. Now we have the shrill claim from the right that those who are unsure of Sarah Palin’s qualifications are sexist – applying a double standard to working moms, or are against women’s advances in society, heck- against women period.

I cry foul. To all of you throwing the gender card into the fire, knock it off. Sarah Palin’s biology is not the issue here. Let’s have a real conversation about sexism and issues facing women in this election.

Despite what the founding documents of this country say, I was not born equal to all human beings, and I have not had the same rights as men throughout history, and it continues to this day. I am in a unique position in the country as a woman, and I feel a special bond to other women.

I understand there are things that women go through that few can begin to grasp, things for which this country gives no consideration: rape, incest, domestic violence, the right to make decisions about one’s own body, equal pay for equal work, and equal protection under the law.

They impact every aspect of family life and society. The efforts of women – and some well-intended men – have brought rights and protections under the law to give us the freedom we as women are denied from birth.

But the struggle is far from over.

By joining with John McCain, Palin gave a hint about where she stands on women’s issues. McCain opposed the Violence Against Women Act – penned by Joe Biden – and has consistently voted to reduce its funding. He also opposed laws to ensure that women are paid equally to their male counterparts in the workplace. In the fight for women’s rights, these are issues that are relevant today.

As mayor of Wasilla, Palin never opposed the requirement that victims of sexual assault pay for their rape exam. What if they don’t have insurance? Do they need to have permission from your HMO for that procedure? What if they don’t even have a medical coupon?

Does not having the cash to afford the procedure mean a woman or a teen girl is expected to go without emergency medical care and preventive treatments for sexually transmitted diseases? Does not having a rape exam increase the likelihood that the aggressor walks free to rape again, always out of the law’s grasp? How could such a law be allowed to stand in the state with the highest rates of rape and incest in the country?

Every two minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted. Sixty percent of rapes go unreported to law enforcement, and only 6 percent of rapists spend time in jail.

Palin is against a woman’s right to choose, even in cases of rape or incest. If my daughter became pregnant as a result of rape, I would consider it my parental duty to make sure she had every resource available that would help her live with, and recover from, that violation, including abortion. As a woman and a voter I consider it my duty to cast my ballot against anyone – man or woman – who would attempt to force their moral authority on my daughter’s uterus, or anyone else’s uterus for that matter.

Don’t forget, our next president could appoint as many as three new members to the U.S. Supreme Court, either protecting or revoking a woman’s right to choose.

If we really want to tackle the issues of sexism in this country, let’s stop looking at Palin’s choice of dress, her hair, her style of glasses and her beauty-queen charm, and instead focus on where she stands on the issues that every woman you know is impacted by.

Sarah Palin isn’t riding in on Noah’s Ark to take up the issues that concern us most; instead, she is riding in on her Trojan moose trying to pull off the greatest bait-and-switch since Dubya took office eight years ago.