Hypocrisy Politics

It's interesting to me that the conservative response to the whole "Bristol Palin is 17 and pregnant" thing is to point fingers at liberals and cry hypocrisy. It seems to me that by doing so, we avoid the real issues, and, at best appear, at worst become hypocrites ourselves.

For example:
Liberal: Having a 17 year old pregnant daughter should disqualify Sarah Palin . She should withdraw.
Conservative: But you didn't care that Bill Clinton was unfaithful, and it was him who was doing it, not his daughter. So, you're a hypocrite, and Sarah Palin rules!
Simulated liberal response: But you didn't like the whole Bill Clinton thing, so why do you still think Sarah Palin rules? Hypocrite!

I've seen many conservatives react this way, even when there's no liberal around. Perhaps we should concentrate on why this issue isn't an issue for us. There are lots of legitimate reasons to forget about the whole thing, for instance:

• It's not Sarah Palin's mistake, it's her daughter's.
  
• Bristol is taking responsibility for her actions and has chosen to act responsibly, and *gasp!* so has her boyfriend. That changes a whole lot. Even the evangelical right believes in forgiveness.
  
• It's not Sarah Palin that's pregnant. (I realize that's redundant, but isn't that the point?)
• It's opening a huge can of disgusting worms to decide that parents are responsible for all of the mistakes of their children. I think most parents, when asked if they would like to take that responsibility would say no thank you. There are loads of good parents whose children make big mistakes. Adam and Even had one.
  
• Bristol is not running for vice president, her mother is, and her mother is neither 17 nor pregnant.
  

Now, those of us fanning the fire of this hot "news" story should be ashamed of ourselves. (I guess this blog would be included in that.) For once the candidates have got it right, and they agree with each other. The media, and the rest of us should leave the children out of it. When I read that Barak Obama had said that, for the first time in my adult lifetime I was really proud of him.