http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/19/tea-party-movement-sarahpalin
Why Tea Party women lead the chargeSarah Palin is an icon, but she's not the reason – women have simply had enough of being taxed and told what's good for us
Tammy Bruce guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 19 October 2010 ________________________
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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin speaks to the crowd during the kickoff of the nationwide Tea Party Express bus tour in Reno, Nevada this week. Photograph: Scott Sady/AP
We are 13 days out from 2 November, a date all observers (with the quaint exception of the White House) admit will be a midterm election political "tsunami", and we are seeing a genuine meltdown of both the media and political elite, two groups not happy at all with the new American revolution called the Tea Party. Especially irritating to American Nobility is the fact that women are in front of this storm, leading the way and calling out the political establishment for disdain and punishment on election day.
On Monday, after over a year and a half of the Tea Party emerging as a political force, a cable television roundtable of "experts" in media wondered why the heck so many women were involved in the Tea Party. CBS's Lesley Stahl baffled her panel constructed of a New York Times reporter, someone from Newsweek and other Anointed Ones, when she asked, "I wanted to ask all the gurus here, why so many of the Tea Partiers are women. I find that just intriguing and don't quite understand why that has happened," Stahl said. Their first answer: "Sarah Palin?"
Actually, the answer is: taxed enough already. Women control the household accounts and we know when spending is unsustainable, threatening the very fabric of our families, or our country as the case may be. As one Tea Party rally sign aimed at big government succinctly put it, "My kid isn't your ATM."
The Tea Party represents stakeholders in the American system; people who were never involved in politics or thought they had to be, yet realised that political corruption and incompetence threatened not only their families, but the future of the nation itself. Economic collapse, the shocking spending by an Obama administration that most analysts agree is in over its head, combined with remarkable contempt shown citizens during the debacle of the healthcare debate and legislation, have mobilised those stakeholders – including women and their families – to take action.
While the Tea Party has no leaders, per se, it is clear to most that (former) Governor Sarah Palin embodies the nature and intent of the movement. An American woman hailing from Alaska (the epitome of the Wild West), Palin accomplished the feminist ideal – leading a life that best suited her, combining work and family while not hesitating to reach for political power and influence as well. Her biggest crime, as seen by both political machines and the American left? She does it as a Reagan Republican and as a woman of faith.
Following Palin's tactical lead and encouragement, Tea Party-supported candidates, many of them women, won their primaries and will likely be victorious in November. While CBS's Stahl was simply confused by the presence of women, others in media have reacted differently. In one of her more bizarre pieces, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times complains about the "Republican Mean Girls", all the while being, well, mean to women who are Republicans. I suppose a little projection is the least we should expect from the narcissists-in-charge. Referring to Palin and a host of Republican women candidates, Dowd writes:
"We are in the era of Republican Mean Girls, grown-up versions of those teenage tormentors who would steal your boyfriend, spray-paint your locker and, just for good measure, spread rumours that you were pregnant."
Is it just me or did we just find out what Dowd's high school experience was like?
Ultimately, attacks on Tea Party candidates and activists are par for the course, but there has been a tactic used against conservative women candidates – they are cast as either sex maniacs or simply crazy and, yes, mean. Sarah Palin, Nikki Haley, Sharron Angle, Jan Brewer, Christine O'Donnell and others have weathered the so-called liberal and feminist strategy of trying to destroy women using the same misogynist tactics they've decried over the years. Americans have seen through those assaults, and grow even more committed to taking this nation back from an arrogant elite who have driven it to the edge.
The liberal feminist movement never imagined that women would take seriously the encouragement to become our own heroes and claim life for ourselves, on our terms, no matter who we are. Pro-choice and pro-life, Christian and not, poor and rich, black, white, gay and straight. It is a dream we all hold dear, and it's called the Tea Party.
