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Children copy it all: Palin, our partisan battles

BY JENNIFER WHEARY | Jennifer Wheary is a senior fellow at Demos, a public policy organization in Manhattan.

September 8, 2008

I was overcome with pride when I saw Gov. Sarah Palin first address a national crowd at the end of August, after she was introduced as John McCain's vice-presidential pick.

I was not looking at the television screen at the time.

I was watching my young daughter standing on a footstool with her arms outstretched. She was imitating Palin, speaking with confident words, hearing countless voices cheer at her heartfelt message.

For my daughter, that moment of pretending to be Palin was very real. She wasn't just watching and learning from the VP pick, she was assuming her place.

As Palin finished, my daughter pointed to John McCain smiling in the background and matter-of-factly asked, "Who's that guy?"

It was at that moment that it struck me that my daughter already lives in a different political world than I have. In her less than 3-year-old mind, a confident woman has just as much right running for one of our highest elected offices as an old white man, or a younger black one, for that matter.

(Lest anyone accuse my little one of being partisan, she might well have copied Hillary Clinton's Democratic National Convention address if we had bended the bedtime rule to allow her to stay up to watch it. She also seems to be incredibly amused as of late with saying "Barack Obama" really, really fast, as many times as she can until breaking out into giggles.)

Even before Palin entered the race, this election had already been called historic. Now that description has taken on a much larger meaning.

Come January, we will either have a black president or a female vice president. In many ways, we should be quite proud of ourselves for having gotten to this point. For living in such an open nation full of possibilities where the phrase "anyone can grow up to be president" offers an increasingly inclusive promise.

But while the campaign trail has led us to a historic place, it has also led us to a shameful one.

McCain's announcement happened on a Friday. The following Sunday morning, he was on Fox News telling Chris Wallace that his campaign's cheap-shot comparison of Barack Obama to Britney Spears was all in fun. By Labor Day Monday, the campaign was busy deflecting defamatory comments invoking images of Spears' sister, Jamie Lynn.

In between, left-wing bloggers were aflame with audacious, hurtful rumors and the religious right was claiming moral superiority over a private family matter.

By mid-last week it became obvious that, regardless of the pregnancy of Palin's eldest daughter, Bristol, the rest of the campaign is set to be ugly. The Republican convention and Democratic response only enhanced the atmosphere of divisiveness.

Some called the coverage of Bristol Palin a distraction from the real issues. But in reality, the conservative-right spin and damage control and the liberal left's ruthless counterattacks only served as a warm-up for the heated ideological battles that took place for the rest of the week - and that will continue right up to Election Day.

The election is now heading into its most crucial days, and our passions for politics will only run hotter.

Americans will go ballistic in defending our varying points of view, in what is becoming a no-holds-barred battle for the White House.

That goes for the millions of us discussing these issues at home, those of us espousing our views in the media, and those affiliated with the campaigns themselves.

As I think about my young daughter watching Sarah Palin take the podium, absorbing every moment and imitating every aspect of the experience, I realize that discussions and disagreements are fine. But the no-holds-barred battle isn't.

One of the basic lessons we teach our children is to stand up for what they think is right.

We also teach them not to lie or cheat, or knowingly or aggressively hurt people. We teach them to respect others. Yet in our public discourse, we permit ourselves to overlook all of the latter responsibilities in blind support of the former.

I'm not enough of an idealist to believe that we will change our behavior.

But the realization that our children are watching and imitating it should give us all pause.