Party of Caring, Dem's attack children

It is a true hint of desperation and viciousness when one must attack children or teens who never chose to run for public office, rather than discussing issues, the virtues of a candidate one supports, or even the vices of the *candidate* one opposes.

Yet this morning, in the second round of attacks on Sarah Palin's children, activists (I ran across it at the Yahoo-Groups based Lone Star Activists List) have now outed the alleged father of Palin's daughter's child, in articles in the NY Daily and gleefully trumpeted over at HuffPo. I link, because the level of hatefulness must be seen to be believed. The NYTimes (membership required, to protect privacy, see bugmenot.com) is doing three page one articles on Palin's daughter.

Attacking children and teenagers is a vicious, gutter-dwelling, low-class approach - one that until now, even Dem's have managed to avoid - leaving the Bush daughters largely alone, leaving Mary Cheney largely alone (although not entirely, and she *was* an adult before the media swooped in fine vulture-like form). Amy Carter and the Reagan kids were left largely unmolested during their fathers presidency, as was Chelsea Clinton.

Why are Sarah Palin's kids suddenly fair game?

This kind of attack on the children of candidates also tends to persuade the opposition that playing nice with one is wholly uncalled for - and either responses in kind or of substantially greater viciousness are appropriate. Folks get funny when their children or teens are under attack, and an awful lot of other folks can be pretty forgiving of truly over-the-top responses to such things.

At 17, most of us made (or if I have any younger readers, are making) no shortage of really bad decisions - and through either divine intervention or dumb luck, managed to miss getting nailed by the life-altering consequences most of the time. We are not often at our best and brightest in our teens and early twenties, at least in terms of decision-making.

But... to suggest that no parent should ever run for office in order to protect their kids is a disservice to the adults, the community, and the nation. To attack those children or teens is equally a disservice to the victim of the attack, to the political dialogue, to communities, and the nation. Palin's daughter and her significant other never chose to run for public office, never sought out the national spotlight, and deserve - much like any other innocent bystander - to be left the hell alone.

I suggest this path is dreadfully ill-advised generally, but for persons identifying as members of the LGBT community in particular, as it could easily equate to jumping up and down and showing "Ooo! Ooo! Can I be the scapegoat!! Please??!!!!" As a special downside, so-called LGBT activists don't even have to originate such unpleasantry - by gleefully spreading it, we embrace the tar baby (look up your Brer Rabbit stories..)...

These attacks on Palin's daughter are wholly uncalled for, and certainly I would have no qualms whatsoever to see an absolutely scorching GOP response doing the equivalent or far worse to Biden and Barack Hussein Obama*.

*Barack Hussein Obama's full name is used here for a variety of reasons. It seems to get the collective panties of the DNC and their fellow travelers all balled up in a capsicum-marinated knot (a worthwhile goal in and of itself) ; so many have made so much of how it's "not nice and not Politically Correct to use the middle name of Barack Hussein Obama (and PC just annoys the crap out of me, bringing out my mischievous side); and if someone is dumb enough to vote against Barack Hussein Obama because they were exposed to his dread middle name - I'm willing to take it in an electoral situation this foul. As for the other? They desperately need their chain yanked - frequently.