Although soundly criticized for the remark, Barack Obama’s slip of the tongue about small-town Americans who cling to guns and religion rang true to more than just his inner sanctum. To feminists, Sarah Palin is the embodiment of that “small-town American,” and while she may be a woman, she is not “their kind” of woman.
Even more to the point, the idea that a conservative woman may be the one to finally break the ultimate political glass ceiling is met by many Democratic women with particular dismay.
Columnist Barbara Amiel has compared Palin to Margaret Thatcher, a fellow conservative who bucked feminist sentiment in her rise to power in Britain. While it is way too early for such a discussion, no one should be surprised if Palin vaults to the top of the ticket in four or eight years, leaving more seasoned male GOP bigshots in the dust. If she does – as was the case with the similarly middle-class Thatcher – liberals, and liberal women in particular, will never forgive her for it.
Just as Palin’s working-mother persona has surely compelled some religious conservatives to rethink their beliefs that a woman’s place is still not in the governor’s or vice president’s office, so, too, should liberals examine some of their overarching generalities.
She is from an overwhelmingly Republican state where independence is paramount. She, like many others from Alaska, hunts. She’s an evangelical Christian. Liberals may insist on smearing her as a yahoo coming in to trample the rights of the few remaining freethinkers, but they’d be kidding themselves if they deny that Palin is independent, unequivocating and a political natural whose talents should not be underestimated.
On the strength of one remarkable speech, Sarah Palin has risen from obscurity to become a political star. Her critics may hope she never catches the brass ring just as Bryan ultimately failed to do. On the other hand, it is possible we have been introduced to the woman who may become our first female president.