Back to the Abstinence Issue

Supergoober, I figured that you would agree with me, and I do not want you to think that I am trying to advance/advocate Palin's position, just wanted to enumerate my own. In response to the statement that you made about education and the removal of the parent and/or values from the equation, I do not just blame the Left. Yes, it has been part of a secularizing agenda on their part, and removing morality in any sense from education has long been a pet peeve of the Left, while trying to replace traditional moral teaching with a moral sense that is excessively ambiguous at best, I do not remove the Right from their fault in this discussion.

And this takes us back to civility in political discussions. Back in the day, when politics was civil, and people met and had drinks and cigars after a long day debating in the senate, a great many back room deals took place. The two sides were not really far of from each other in perspective, and, in many ways, they were much more elitist then than the are now. Politics was for the moneyed left and right (still is in many ways), so most perspectives were elitist and authoritarian. It wasn't so much about advancing any cause as it was about advancing personal power and, since information was not as readily available, convincing people that you had their best interests at heart. There were racists and sexists equally inhabiting both sides of the aisle, and they were comfortable with one another. As the information age progressed, this became less and less possible, because people could easily find voting records, background info, etc. It became more likely for politicians to actually have repercussions for their voting records. All this led to the current divisions we have (there are obviously many, many other factors, but I don't have time to discuss those now).

Digression aside, here is the problem. The Left looked at schools as indoctrination centers for their perspectives, and worked on getting their agenda in place in curricula across the nation. The Right did not care to try and stop this. That is where I find that both sides are at fault. While I condemn the Left for the efforts (despite best intentions) I equally condemn the Right for not trying to stop the process. Instead, they adopted a "wait and see" approach, and are now using a catastrophe that they could have prevented to mobilize their base. Obviously, I do not necessarily blame the new Right for this perspective, they are trying to make up for the screw ups of the older guard of the party, but the Left still clings to its idealized secular humanist agenda that is patently silly.

I do think that you are a bit on the judgemental side, however. A person can provide a good environment, a good message, support, and that person's kids can still screw up. Indicting an entire system of beliefs based on one incident is ridiculous - should your parents or mine receive blame for all of our actions as youths? I remember a car surfing incident that I had at 16, my parents would have been horrified (at least my mom, anyway), they did nothing to encourage me to do this, I was an intelligent kid, but it seemed like it would be fun at the time. That is the dilemma of the teenage years - they are going through transitions to adulthood, making decisions on the spur of the moment, and dealing with the consequences. In many ways, I think that the message Palin sends by helping her daughter through a pregnancy is more important than the fact that her daughter got pregnant. But either way, it is a bit much to attribute her political views to direct results of her children's actions. We don't know how she is as a parent, she could be wonderful, she could be an abusive bitch. We will likely never know this, and to make assumptions based on the fact that you do not like her politics is the height of folly. To discount an entire movement based on the actions of one child is as foolish as trying to institute a policy of creationism in schools. You are reacting viscerally to your distaste for what she represents to you - she embodies everything you dislike about the religious right, and you make sure that she fits your idea of the perfect symbol for everything that is wrong in politics. I would warn you against that, because it is almost as silly as the religious right's belief that Bill Clinton is the Antichrist or the religious Left's belief that G.W. Bush is the incarnation of evil.

Not that I am accusing you of that, supergoober, but I would warn you that this is the path that you are travelling on, and if you do not wish to become that which you loathe, I would warn you to take a couple of deep breaths, find out what it is you don't like about Palin and disentangle it from your personal baggage about religion. It will help you in the long run.

About the teen pregnancy, abortion, etc controversy with education, if you look up the stats, teen pregnancy peaked in about 1991, and has been dropping ever since, except for a rise last year. The right would have you believe that the increase was due to the advance of condom programs and sex education, while the decline has to do with their efforts and excellent parenting. The left would have you believe that the repressive nature of the Reagan/Bush 1 era led to the increases, and the education and condom distribution efforts have worked. I used the numbers from the Guttmacher Institute (even though there have been questions of their methodology - they are closely associated with Planned Parenthood, and have some biases in these matters) because they are, while not completely reliable, at least internally consistent.

The reality of the situation is much more complex then either side believes, and I would contend that there are a huge number of societal issues invested in these trends. From conservative backlashes to socioeconomic situations, to the psychological nature of human beings. If you want my assessment, there are probably aspects of both sides that are correct. Condoms, education, abstinence, and good parenting have all contributed. But the nature of humanity is such that as people feel safe they engage in riskier behavior - I wouldn't be surprised if teen pregnancy and abortion rates start to rise again, and after several years of that begin to fall. It is the same thing that happened with AIDS - as consciousness rose, people took steps to prevent the transmission, and once the tide appeared to be stemmed, people engaged in risky behavior again. The microcosm of this was the homosexual community, but they provide a psychological insight into the human condition. When the perceived risk is high, we avoid stupid behaviors, when the risk appears low, we engage in stupidity again. Couple this fact with the consumption of disinhibitors among the teen population, and the natural tendency of teenagers to underestimate risk, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a cyclical trend establish itself.