The Hillary Baton

So, in order to quell rumors that she faked her most recent pregnancy, Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin decided to announce that her teenage daughter is pregnant. It was one of the oddest crises PR twists in this Presidential election season.

Palin, a conservative social conservative, decided to brand herself as Hillary. In her first remarks she created an image of Hillary running not a race for the White House but rather beginning a relay race, passing the baton to the very fit Palin who will be pushing a baby jogger stroller over the finish line.

There is so much to say about messaging in this moment that it is almost too hard to start. Feminists were first torn at the limbs in a primary race that too often tried to pit racism against sexism, and are now doused with a political tsunami that tries to redefine feminism itself.

I am assuming that one of our nation’s most persistent journalists will put finality on the fake pregnancy rumors. In the tradition of Woodward and Bernstein, someone will unearth credible evidence that will resolve the gossip stalemate that is largely generated by disbelief that a very pregnant person could hide her bulging tummy. Eleven years after giving birth to my son I still can’t hide the bulge he left, but I’d like to believe that Palin and others could have a different physical experience.

Until the investigative journalists comb through Alaska, we are left with a queasy message moment. We’ve got the first Republican woman on the VP ticket who is being accused of faking a pregnancy and who is the political antithesis of the woman she is claiming to succeed, Hillary Clinton. We’ve got the most prominent working Mom in the nation who doesn’t believe in the working Mom political agenda.

On the short list of Republican VP options that had been floated, I am no more or less offended by Palin than any of the other names. I have no more or less confidence in her as the potential President than the entire roster of Republican Presidential aspirants. But I become morose when I see the brand of feminism put into play. What does it mean, in this time when politicians rarely use the term but when the progressive movement lays claim to its ideals, to be feminist?

In this moment as Palin promotes a women’s movement as one about representation and not about politics, who will triumph? In the progressive movement’s efforts to navigate through elections with short-term message strategies, who is building deep consensus about the values and priorities of feminism?

Years ago as a leader in the National Organization for Women, each convention and board meeting and caucus gathering I witnessed was like a feminist branding wrestling match. What were our values? For whom did we stand up? Whose voice was heard? And for many – icons like Del Martin who pushed the organization to embrace same sex issues and Aileen Hernandez who insisted on engaging the intersections of racism, sexism, and poverty – their refusal to have societies most marginalized women sit in the NOW bleachers saved the organization from frivolity. Representation mattered.

Despite the deeply held and often conflicting convictions of the organization’s active members, there was always one moment of brand unity at every convention. Invariably a guest speaker would take the podium –this was usually a politician – and say something like “Thank you National Organization of Women!” To which the crowd would yell back in immediate unison, “for!” The politician always gave a puzzled and forced smile at what they invariably perceived to be some unfamiliar feminist vocal fist jab. The speaker rarely understood they had been reprimanded. The organization is named, very purposely, the National Organization for Women. For women. That was one of the universal brand values. Not a collection of women, like the AARP is a collection of older people. But a collection of people with a common set of values, working for women’s equality.

Representation matters, but in the context of feminist ideology. In 1992, during an election that is now dubbed the “year of the woman,” there was such a national wave of enthusiasm for women’s representation that a man named “Jan” was elected to a local position in southern California because he was smart enough to make no public appearances and thus allow voters to assume that he was a woman. But even sixteen years ago, tripling the number of women in the U.S. Senate wasn’t just about creating the need for a woman’s bathroom, it was about putting women in positions of power who would fight against wage discrimination, violence and sexual harassment, and health care disparities, and so on. It was about dignity – the dignity to have autonomy over your reproductive decisions and sexuality, among other human rights that added up in the end to taking an equal place at life’s table.

“Feminists for Life” counts notables like Sarah Palin and Jane Roberts, wife of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, as its members. They are part of the movement that would like to wrestle the feminist brand away from its revolutionary roots. The full spectrum of organizations persists, from the entrenched and left leaning NOW whose brand of grassroots politics usually keeps it at odds with inside the beltway power structures, to more radical youth movements and diverse organizing efforts whose experience and insight modernizes the feminist brand. Hillary Clinton had built a remarkable coalition that spanned from far left to middle right. She may not have uttered the word “feminism” in her most famous remarks, but her supporters believed in her feminist soul.

The NOW PAC never endorsed Bill Clinton in his bid for the Presidency because of his positions on, among other things, welfare “reform”. NOW’s electoral arm did vigorously campaign for Hillary Clinton, despite some policy clashes. Hillary Clinton inspired everyone from long-time feminist warriors to Feminist for Life supporters.

Now Sarah Palin seeks to pick up Hillary’s baton. In a crowded NOW convention hall she would be hearing “for!” shouted in unison, to which she would smile and wave.