Glora Steinem On Sarah Palin: The Only Thing Sarah And Hillary Have In Common Is A Chromosome

The good news, she says is that even the anti-feminist right-wing is addressing the gender gap.  And the better news? It won’t work.

This isn’t the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.

It was women like Hillary Clinton and Shirley Chisolom before her who paved the way.  But putting Sarah Palin on the ticket is no way to attract women.

Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton’s candidacy stood for — and that Barack Obama’s still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, “Somebody stole my shoes, so I’ll amputate my legs.”

Palin isn’t the issue.  The issue is John McCain. He could have chosen someone who knew what a vice president does, or one who understands the Iraq issue.

Palin’s value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves “abstinence-only” programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers’ millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn’t spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation…

So, it is clear that Palin wasn’t chosen just because she’s a woman.  She was chosen because she is a woman who appeals to the far right wing of a party that might wake up after a loss the November and reclaim its more moderate roots.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.