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Female conservatives and libertarians are backing Palin, threatening the myth of monolithic female victiminization on which the left relies.
I never realized how many female libertarian and conservative friends and acquaintances I have until all of them last week were simultaneously struck by the same lightning bolt: Sarah Palin.
An important political demographic is being unleashed: intelligent, hard-working women who consider their gender to present not limits but choices. Some are socially conservative, others are culturally libertarian. Some are stay-at-home moms, others are accomplished professionals, while others balance both. None of them disparage the choices that other women make. All of them reject the notion of women as victims. Those are traits my wife exemplifies and that we hope to nurture in our young daughter.
Many of them in the past have backed candidates like Ronald Reagan and Rudy Giuliani, and some supported Hillary Clinton despite differences over politics, but with nothing like the intensity they are exhibiting for Sarah Palin. She is a hockey mom with traditional values who demonstrates it is possible to be smart, tough, and feminine, all at the same time. She proudly personifies her own philosophy, as expressed in her convention speech: “This is America, and every woman can walk through the door of opportunity.”
That means she is dangerous to the political left. Just as Clarence Thomas some years ago terrified many on the left because he is an independent-thinking black man, so too does Palin threaten the myth of monolithic female victimization on which the left relies. Those who fear what Palin represents will try to destroy her just as they tried to destroy Clarence Thomas.
They won’t succeed because Sarah Palin has an army of impassioned and powerful women behind her. Those women never before have had a national candidate of their own, but they do now. I have no idea if Palin is ready for what lies ahead. But regardless, her supporters are likely to be an enduring political force.
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