Ranting on...the Hypocrisy of Bristol Palin

Gov. Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin

It's wrong to kick someone while they're down, it's true, and lord knows the Palin household is down right now.  The former governor was just cut by FOX News and her daughter Bristol just announced another pregnancy out of wedlock.  Now, personally I don't care about getting pregnant outside of marriage-you do you, and as long as you're both consenting adults and had access to contraceptives (and not had them denied to you because some Hobby Lobby style company decided to keep them out of your insurance for some bull crap reason), go for it.  Try not to have nineteen children, because that's likely going to end badly, but otherwise who cares if you're not married?

My problem here is hypocrisy.  Bristol Palin has been a mini-version of her mother, who is a constant hypocrite on the campaign trail, sort of transcending the usual double-speak we tend to expect from politicians and creating an entire movement that has largely ruined the Republican Party, and in many ways Congress.  It says something that we're over six years into President Obama's tenure in office and the trade bill this past week is the first bill that both sides inarguably compromised and got something done despite being of opposite parties-neither President Clinton nor Bush had to wait so long, and that's not a slam against Obama, but against people like Palin who threaten primaries whenever someone wants to have a compromise in Washington (people like Sarah Palin don't really understand that word).

Bristol Palin took tens of thousands of dollars for abstinence-only sexual education from the Candie's Foundation, despite previously stating that abstinence-only is unrealistic.  Unfortunately, she was right the first time.  It is unrealistic to teach abstinence-only, as you need a more well-rounded sex-ed in school and in colleges, one that talks about contraceptives, as well as the dangers of STD's and how to prevent them.  Sweeping it under the rug like Palin has espoused (and been paid very well for) is wrong.  Like I said above, I don't care that Bristol Palin is unmarried and having a baby, but I do care that she has made enormous sums of money espousing something that she clearly doesn't believe and that experts have said for years is not practical.

It's also a bit of a joke for Palin to ask for "no lectures" at this time when she and her mother have spent the past decade or so giving us lectures while never quite practicing what they preached.  Putting aside the abstinence for a second, you have Bristol Palin slamming Meghan and Cindy McCain for having so many clothes and stylists (something that someone who has been on Dancing with the Stars can't really cast stones toward, not to mention the fact that the governor's wardrobe budget was a point of contention during the campaign as well).  Sarah Palin attacked Hillary Clinton for using a private email account while in office, when she literally did the exact same thing and did so just so that the emails couldn't be tracked (she literally sent out an email detailing that that was her reason).  And let's not even get started on the ways that both women have attacked gays and gay marriage while espousing moral beliefs in the same breadth, despite also not living up to the abstinence beliefs that they espouse with the same moral fervency.  The reality is that both women have been giving the American public non-stop hypocrisy for years now and thankfully it seems like the media (FOX News finally did something right, though about six years too late) seems to have caught up and are having none of it.  So while this may be a lecture Bristol, it's not because you're pregnant.  It's because your actions have made it harder for other women in your situation to be treated with the same sort of understanding you are now demanding.