The far right has largely embraced Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) choice of Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as his vice presidential running mate. But as the St. Louis Beacon recently wrote, few Republicans have been “more gleeful” than Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly:
“The more Democrats talk about Sarah Palin’s lack of experience, the more it hurts Obama,” Schlafly says, “because it makes us realize he (Obama) doesn’t have any executive experience. Also, I object to him because he’s a guy who has never worked with his hands. He’s just an elitist who has done nothing but community organizing.”
Schlafly has also called Palin a “breath of fresh air.” “She’s right on every issue,” she added. In fact, two months ago, Schlafly had already asked Palin to speak at a Republican National Coalition for Life session at the convention this week. At the last minute, however, the McCain campaign pulled Palin from the event.
Schlafly’s embrace is hypocritical. She is so eager to endorse the Republican vice presidential choice that she’s abandoning her long-held conservative beliefs. In the past, Schlafly has railed against working women:
The flight from the home is a flight from yourself, from responsibility, from the nature of woman, in pursuit of false hopes and fading illusions.
Focus on the Family’s James Dobson has similarly jumped away from the ship of conservative values. Dobson has accepted the choice of Palin, a mother of five, to run for vice president, calling it “a personal matter.” In the past, however, he has blamed “the supposed crumbling of ‘moral values’ and [the] ‘anarchy that is now rumbling through the midsection of democracy’ on working mothers and ‘permissiveness.’” “A little push in any direction and she could go over the edge,” Dobson said about working mothers in 1998.
One of the few conservatives who has stuck to her ideology is Dr. Laura, who has expressed disappointment in the pick of Palin. “Marriages and the welfare of children suffer when a stressed-out mother doesn’t have time to be a woman, a wife, and a hands-on Mommy,” wrote Dr. Laura earlier this week.
