Not All Peas Are Alike in the Pod

I don't usually write about politics, but when I thought about the rather obvious connection between being senior and being interested in what happens to the national programs such as Social Security, into which I have paid all my working life, I decided that perhaps it was time.

The catalyst for me to do this is the recent nomination of Sarah Palin to run as vice president on the Republican ticket with John McCain Ordinarily I would just shrug and say if the Republicans really want to send a lady to Washington who opposes sex education and abortion in all cases (including rape and incest) and who said in an interview that God intended us to be in Iraq, well that's their thing. Most of our leaders can afford to send their wives and daughters to Europe for abortions anyway. But what gets me—certainly enough to write this blog—is the assumption in the highest circles (Republican) that because I was (and still am) a Hillary Clinton supporter that I would immediately transfer my vote to someone just because she is a woman and never mind that she stands against everything I value, including freedom of religious thought.

I was born British and the values still flow through my veins. Britain has a well-founded suspicion of religious conflict. We fought a civil war over religion (Catholics versus Protestant) and we weren't afraid to create a new religion because one of our kings wanted to divorce his queen. We think discussing religion in public forums, let alone letting it guide national policy, is not good manners and is rather a bore. The closest we've come to religious activism is when the countrykicked out the Puritans and sent them to America—they were too enthusiastic for British comfort and made themselves a nuisance.

Given that moderation, I am particularly annoyed by having Sarah Palin offered up as a substitute for Hillary. I grew up alongside Hillary. Like her I was a Goldwater fan at first. Like her I faced all manner of professional discouragement. Like her I put up with the comments—like the time when I, a very junior untenurable instructor, stepped onto the elevator in my university's English department and heard one of the male senior profs say to his colleague, "There's getting to be a lot of women in the department." He was a polite man who was just stating what he saw as a fact. He just didn't get it. I put in the same category the graduate school dean who, at the peak of the Viet Nam war, said that if the draft continued taking students and faculty, universities would be filled with "the lame, the halt, the blind, and the women." Hillary would have understood what I felt.

When Hillary had to deal with her husband's very public embarrassment, she did so both with class and sad resolution. People said she was too cold and reserved—they wanted to see her mete out public punishment reflecting their own disappointment in her husband. Instead she thought it through carefully. I could imagine her making a column withpro on one side and con on the other. In the end, she decided that though he was an idiot, she valued who he was and his companionship. She decided in other words that they were better off together. The religionistas pillored her for it. They said she was calculating and self-absorbed. They either wanted her to judge him and throw him out or play a public roleof anguished, long-suffering wife. She didn't do either. She showed herself to be an independent lady not given—as she once let slip—to making cookies.

Expecting me to immediately transfer my vote to Ms. Palin just because she is a woman begs the whole question of qualifications. That assumption insults my intelligence. I agree with the Founding Fathers of this country about wanting good sense in government. I haven't seen enough of Ms. Palin's decisions to know if she has it.

When I vote for Hillary, it will be for her and not for some substitute whose opinions are scary in their absolute judgment on people. Hillary will get a very nice post in an Obama administration if she wants it. If she doesn't, she will be one of the major movers in Congress. She will still be eligible to run for president next time—and she will be even better prepared. I trust her to be pragmatic about the human condition and compassionate to those of us who stumble along the way. I trust her to weigh up a situation as she did with her husband and decide in all of our best interests rather than impose herreligious views on me. And above all, I trust her to continue to be the class act she is. My vote for Obama is as much a vote for her.