The Republicans have really, truly, lost their marbles.
There is speculation out there, with teasing from some McCain insiders, that a plan is in the works for a Bristol Palin shotgun wedding prior to the election, to be used as a campaign distraction to bring voters back to McCain. How exactly they calculate that, I'm not sure.
I guess these totally loopy wingnuts think the American people will develop a case of wedding fever and come rushing back to support Sarah Dolittle and her dysfunctional - but all American according to her followers - family when her 17 year old pregnant daughter marries an 18 year old hockey bum who said he never wanted to have kids.
Now I've given this some thought and I am of two minds.
Part of me would love to see this - it would give the late night comedians fodder for weeks and the SNL skits would be priceless. It would be the final chapter in the joke that was once Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, and would-be vice president. It would, of course, ensure the election of Barack Obama, as even the least informed voter would see through this charade. I can't even describe how disgusting such a political ploy would be. Never again could the Republicans say Palin's family was off limits. And by ensuring her total defeat, it would mean the first female president or vice president would not be a total numbskull. (The first female president or vice president must be eminently qualified, or it will surely be a long time until we elect another.)
But the other part of me is not looking at this politically. The other part of me is looking at this from the perspective of a mother and a psychotherapist. No one who marries at the age of 17 or 18 will have a good and a happy marriage. Those few shotgun marriages that endure are frought with disappointment and pain. Most, however, end in divorce, and many are characterized by spousal abuse. Obama talks about being born to a teenage mother, but his parents were divorced after two years, and he only remembers seeing his father once, when he was ten years old. Furthermore, it does not appear that young Levi, the father of Bristol Palin's baby, is very mature. I doubt he wants any part of this, and thus such a marriage will not be good for Bristol or the baby. It is one thing to become pregnant at the age of 17 and decide to have the baby - that is to be admired. It is quite another to compound one problem with another. And getting married at this young age will add an enormous problem to Bristol's already large burden.
Were I Bristol Palin's mother, I would give her love and support and a home for her and the baby for as long as she wanted to stay with the family. I would urge her to wait and see if in two or three years time she still thought marriage was a good idea. If young Levi proves his devotion over that time and becomes a responsible young man, willing to work hard and even educate himself, willing to remain faithful to the mother of his child, then the marriage might have a chance. But it has no chance now, and Sarah Palin - if she has any common sense at all, which is becoming increasingly doubtful - should know that.
The second part of me wins out. I really hope Sarah Palin takes her role as Bristol's mother seriously and tells her not to get married. I certainly hope she doesn't further humiliate her daughter with a politically motivated spectacle of a wedding.
I know she doesn't have the smarts to be the vice president, but I certainly hope she has the smarts to be a decent mother. I'm not at all sure, however, that she does.
