Interesting Slate piece on why the right-wing conservatives are going nuts over the Palin family.

"The larger Palin clan, meanwhile, reflects a different trend among evangelicals. The stereotype we associate with evangelicals—intact marriage, wife at home, teenage daughter saves it for marriage—actually applies only to the small minority who attend church weekly.

The rest of the 30 percent of Americans who call themselves evangelical have started to slip in their morals and now actually poll worse than the rest of America on traditional measures of upstanding behavior—they are just as likely to live together and have kids out of wedlock, and their teenage daughters lose their virginities at an earlier age than the girls of most Americans. University of Virginia historian W. Bradford Wilcox blames this partly on class differences and particularly on a lingering "redneck" Appalachian strain in evangelical culture. (I'm a "fucking redneck," wrote Levi, the father of Bristol's baby, on his MySpace page, before it was taken down.)

In that way, Bristol's pregnancy can be spun as just another one of the Palins' impeccable working-class credentials—salmon fisherman, union member, DWI, hockey mom, soldier son, pregnant teenage daughter. "

The only thing "new" about this is that it is being discussed publicly.

Yep, messy, fucked up and totaly irrisponsible!!!! Thats the people we all need to run this planet of ours :-)

"salmon fisherman, union member, DWI, hockey mom, soldier son, pregnant teenage daughter. "

:-) And they will all fit nicely into the White house won't they. It will be like one of those funny old soaps. Poor staff they wont know what hit them !!!

sweet dreams darlings xxxx

Not here in Texas! It's "bass fisherman, non-union worker, multiple DWIs, football mom, soldier son, pregnant teenage daughter" around here! (No salmon, no unions, no ice, no class--the DWIs apply to anyone, of course:)

"why the right-wing conservatives are going nuts over the Palin family."

Just bear in mind that true conservatives tend to mind their own business as long as their leg is not broken nor their purse taken. Modern social conservatives tend to be big government "nanny staters" who want Big Brother to protect them and others from temptation in all forms.

I tend to use right-wing conservatives as code for 'modern social conservative'. A laissez-faire conservative (aka a genuine libertarian) cannot really be a right-winger in my book, because laissez-faire ones wouldn't want the govt to be the pseudo-theocracy.....

konark_girl:

I tend to use right-wing conservatives as code for 'modern social conservative'. A laissez-faire conservative (aka a genuine libertarian) cannot really be a right-winger in my book, because laissez-faire ones wouldn't want the govt to be the pseudo-theocracy.....

Agree. I use "pseudo-con" for the Reaganites; big government, fiscally irresponsible, borrow and spend socialists redistributing wealth from people 30 years in the future, international interventionists, and domestic busy bodies.

I'm not a full libertarian, just about halfway between Eisenhower and Goldwater, economically more comfortable with Ron Paul than John McCain.

BTW, so now what's your take on McCain after the Palin pick ?

My darling husband grumpily stated something about the old man finally losing his marbles and caving in to crazy right,.... and when I said if this meant he was finally going to support Obama, he grumbled something that sounded like "whatever-maybe-we'll-see-but-­his-campaign-manager's-smirk-s­till-bugs-me" , and then said but it was all the fault of the independents that McCain had to fall back on massaging the right-wing egos.....

How's the husband after John's speech last night? I think the Republican 'faithful' would desperately like to flip the ticket right about now. At least they looked like it last night.

Given their ultra-high divorce rate, their rate for teen pregnancies, their support for war, capital punishment, the military, and harsher laws, you have to wonder if these people are "moral" at all in any real sense of the word.

But Sarah certainly wil have her share of supporters out there. Seems likely, though, that McSame will be sorry he went for the nutty right and blew off the middle-of-the-road vote, which will now likely go with Obama.

They're also foreign interventionists rather than borderline isolationists as they were before WWII. Of course, Neocons are an unholy blend of conservatives and Cold-War liberals, so that's understandable. In terms of the 1964 election, it's kind of as if Johnson and Goldwater married and gave birth to a political movement...:)

"it's kind of as if Johnson and Goldwater married and gave birth to a political movement.."

Now that is very funny!