Real Women Need Political Icons Who Understand Their Daily Struggle

Rebecca Furtado
Is Sarah Palin the now ex governor of Alaska a sacred cow? Late night media icons and the supposed liberal press are beginning to think so. All criticism of Sarah Palin's policies or personal life are being viewed a some sort of barrage sexism on the left. The whole affair of comedians not being able to take a shot at saint Palin was blown out of perspective. American comedians are not known for their political correctness or good taste.

The right has been the first to throw stones at the whole idea of being civil to traditionally oppressed groups. Now ex republican governor's are the lastest oppressed group according to the right's prespective. It is the old case of the pot calling the kettle black or excuse me, the white bread calling the bleached white hamburger buns multigrain

My suggestion to folks on the right to do something actually more radical than sending their representative in congress Lipton tea bags, turn of fyour TV. They might try not talking about the unseemly jokes at the water cooler at work. Sometimes the best response to things said in poor taste is no to say nothing at all.

Sarah Palin seems to want the public to view her as a victim of those good ole boy liberals who do not respect the soccer mom intellect.

Stories of Sarah Palin buying a expensive designer purse for her teenaged daughter made the news when she was running for Vice President .Excuse me no "soccer mom" or "hockey mom" would even consider doing such a thing. People are having problems finding a few extra dollars to send their kids to school with lunch, let alone the lastest Prada bag. If she was so intellectually adept she would have realized that women voters' first concern is not designer hand bags for American school girls.

Sarah Palin was a fraud that the right tried to pull on the majority of American women. She was a character who may have fit nicely into the rather odd landscape of Alaska politics, but she was not a role model to the American housewife who is struggling to keep the lights on because her husband's automotive job no longer exists.

In all fairness neither is Michelle Obama. She is a not an elected political official but she is the darling of the left and sort of a progressive family values gal.The Midwestern housewife is shopping at Goodwill and Wal-Mart these days not at trendy upscale boutiques where a bargain is a $150.00 sweater as opposed to a $400.00 dollar sweater. Our first lady's willingness to wear low end designer clothes does not make her,"one of the girls."

As a Midwestern housewife ;if we ever have a women run for Vice President or President I want a women who has stood with her husband at the store trying how to figure out how to stretch the family budget to cover all the needed groceries. I want a women who has meet with other mom's and dad's and really looked at ways to improve their neighborhood public school ;so that their kids might have the education they need to go to college.

I want a women who has lived in the real day to day world that real women struggle in. Sure they can be successful business or professional people ;but they need to be women who have worried about how to keep the lights on and pay for those baseball cleats they know their son needs to play ball.

I want someone who has had to put down the beloved family pet because they could not pay a high vet bill and fill the car with gas and get to work for the next week. I want someone who has had to explain the hard facts of life to their kids ;and not just plant organic garden with the her purebred Portuguese Water Dog at her side.

Women can bring a unique prespective to the American political scene and it does not matter if we are liberal, conservative, or somewhere in between. The average women not only defines family values by what she does every day from dawn to dusk ,but she makes sure that the family stays a float even if they are in a row boat that has holes plugged with gum.

We get the job done with amazingly few resources. Yes, we may have the support of men in our lives. Yet, it is us who finds the money in the family budget to take the sick five year old to the doctor. It is us who comes home from work and cleans the house and fixes dinner. It is us who reminds our spouse gently and sometime not so gently to not sit in front of the TV when the lawn needs to be mowed with a dilapidated lawn mower. Yes, it is us who laugh when our spouses say, but "I worked all day.'" The day for the average American women ends when she goes to grave or the nursing home. We should have 'our day" understood by women political figures that have walked in our not high heeled not designer shoes.

Published by Rebecca Furtado

I live in a small city in the midwest. I am the pet parent to four cats, two birds , and one lonely dust bunny dog named Nigel. I have two human children. They are both teenagers and I occasionally see them.  View profile

1 Comments

Post a Comment
  • Steve8/5/2009

    You forget we pick exceptional people becasue they are exceptional.

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.