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My 12 year-old daughter asked why I am afraid of Sarah Palin.

That is a smart question from a smart girl to a smart mother. I’m not sure how she could tell, but she could tell.

I answered, “Because she doesn’t stand for anything that’s good for women, for little girls or for any Americans.”

“What does she stand for?,” my wide-eyed daughter asked.

I told her that’s exactly the problem. “What scares me is that we don’t know so much about what she stands for at all, but a lot about what she stands against.”

I told her she’s dangerous because while she certainly believes in her own power and the position she’s now in, it is at the cost of women who might find themselves in positions that are uncompromising and even dangerous.

She is scary because she does not believe that women have a say about their own bodies. Without the graphic details, of course, I told my daughter that she would one day understand far more than I might ever want her to.

And I told her more.

She is scary because while she is attractive, articulate and clever, she uses these talents to confuse the issues, distracting our nation from what is most important and leading us all into a nation of more disconnect.

She is scary because she believes that war is not only necessary but also something we celebrate as she sends her son off to war, as one would send off their kid to summer camp.

She is scary because she thinks that everyone thinks as she does, and that everyone came where she came from. She cannot see are many Americans are depressed financially and morally and broken spiritually.

She is scary because she while she has certainly done all right for herself and all of her children, healthy and not, that it is tough shit for everyone else if they are not where they want to be in life.

She’s scary because although she continually brags about how she is not part of the Old Boy’s network, that is exactly who she is, even if she has to become one of them in spite of all other women.

She is scary because the sound of her voice is soaring, loud, pronounced, clear and effective, and when I hear it I am reminded of all of the women I have ever known who told me I was not good enough, that I did not belong, and that I could be out-mothered, out-careered, out- smarted and out of luck.

Watching me close my eyes while I watch Palin’s interview on CNN, my daughter said,“You’re right, that is scary.”

 

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Editor: Waylon Lewis

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