The reaction to Governor Sarah Palin's selection by Senator John McCain has been nothing short of epic. From the first moment people saw and heard her, most either hated her or loved her.
What made her instantaneously extraordinary to both sides of the political spectrum? It has to be more than the media-driven issues.
This election has turned into an unspoken referendum on human nature and the idea of "gender neutrality," the poster child for the left taught to the past several generations as something real, instead of the imaginary nonsense it is.
Men and women are different - not better or worse, just different. Equal in political and legal rights, but still different. And the radical left doesn't want you to believe this nor even hear it.
Ask scientist Steven Pinker, who was attacked after reviewing massive amounts of research and concluding that "...the theory of human nature coming out of the cognitive revolution has more in common with the Judeo-Christian theory of human nature ...than with behaviorism, social constructionism, and other versions of the Blank Slate."
Or ask Larry Summers about his firing as President of Harvard for just bringing up the issue. Just as the left made Summers "disappear" and tried to make Clarence Thomas "disappear," they must make Sarah Palin "disappear." If unsuccessful, their house of cards, built upon group victimization, collapses.
After Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the convention, her family joined her on stage. John McCain then made a surprise appearance. His first remarks are telling: "Don't you think we made the right choice for the next Vice President of the United States? --- and what a beautiful family!"
While the left exploded in anger, screaming "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore," the rest of America erupted in joy, with a sense of relief that maybe now the country can get back on the "right track."
In Sarah Palin and Cindy McCain they saw real women. And in John McCain and Todd Palin they saw real men. Their G-d-given femininity and masculinity are part of who they are, and they embrace it without embarrassment or explanation.
These spontaneous reactions came from a subconscious realization that there is an alternative to the absurdity of "gender neutrality," and all of its derivatives including the feminization of America and the nurturing of perpetually adolescent males. These "boy men" have neither the emotional nor intellectual maturity to support wives and/or the children of the women they impregnate and abandon. As part of the left's strategy to destroy the traditional family structure, these abandoned women and children, seeking security, are driven into the open arms of a cold and impersonal government.
You gain a glimpse into the McCains' and Palins' view of gender by how they speak about each other.
Prior to her nomination, Sarah Palin discussed her husband Todd who works a week-on week-off schedule:
"My husband... grew up working with his hands and building things and learning how to weld and learning how to produce, and he landed a good job up on the North Slope where he is a blue collar oil field worker."
"They are up there for the week producing for the State and the nation. They come home (and) in my husband's case he is a commercial fisherman, so he can continue that. He is a snow machine racer ... He is instrumental and effective as a father (of five children) and community member, and in our case as Alaska's first dude."
She admires this man because he is a producer!
When Cindy McCain speaks about her husband, she describes him as a hero, not the anti-hero so admired by the "gender neutral" left. Both women admire their husbands, not in spite of their masculinity, but because of it. Unlike Maureen Dowd, they think do not dream of a world without men.
And when John McCain selected Sarah Palin, he selected a "strong woman" similar to his wife. Mrs. McCain maintained her femininity as a wife, a mother of seven, a special ed teacher, a business woman, a hands-on philanthropist, and even a race car driver.
In contrast to the leftist stereotypes of these women as "Stepford Wives" and "Barbies," they each chose to bring "different" children into their families: for Cindy McCain, her daughter Bridget whom she rescued as an infant from a Bangladesh orphanage; for Sarah Palin, her son Trig, born with Down Syndrome.
These are not ordinary people nor are they perfect, but we should not want ordinary people as leaders of our country, and no human is perfect. Instead we should want extra-ordinary people who share the same ordinary and traditional values that we try to live by.
In many Jewish homes, the husband recites a special song in honor of his wife prior to the traditional Sabbath meal. These are the opening and closing verses of "A Woman of Valor" (Proverbs 31:10-31):
10. An accomplished woman, who can find? Far dearer than pearls is her value.
11. Her husband's heart relies on her, and he shall lack no fortune.
29. Many women have amassed achievement, but you have surpassed them all.
30. Charm is deceptive and beauty is naught, but a G-d fearing woman, she shall be praised.
31. Give praise for her accomplishments, and let her be praised in the community, by her very own deeds.
What better description of the strength, beauty, and grace of the women John McCain selected as wife and political partner? He might have never heard this song of praise, but his selection praises them as accomplished women who embrace their femininity; just as they praise him for embracing and not denying his masculinity.
Perhaps, this is the real change Americans have been waiting for.
