My definition of “freedom” includes my right to terminate a pregnancy, and it includes the right of gay people to marry. How do Sarah Palin’s socially conservative politics square with the concept of “freedom”? I don’t think Sarah Palin is under attack from what is so often patronisingly referred to as “the liberal media” because she is “pro-freedom”. I think she is under attack as a person who has consistently appeared unintelligent, unworldly, and unqualified for any office of international importance.

The definition of “freedom” according to people like Sarah Palin too often refers mainly to the freedom to exploit workers to make enormous profits for CEOs, the freedom to let capitalism run dangerously amok (with results such as the current economic situation), the freedom to stockpile and carry as many dangerous weapons as you like, and the freedom to repress sexual, political and religious minorities.

I could go on at length about the demonisation of the word ‘socialism’ in America, particularly in light of my own very positive experiences of ‘socialist’ policies such as universal healthcare and free university education. Socialism, particularly when it refers to certain policies rather than an entire system of government, is not the same thing as communism or Stalinism, and portraying it as such is deeply misleading. Adopting certain ‘socialist’ policies would certainly be to the benefit of all societies.

I am not by any stretch of the imagination advocating a socialist dictatorship, but to say that people like Sarah Palin stand for freedom in the face of what you refer to as “Marxism” – and I can assure you that neither Barack Obama nor members of his government, even by an extremely loose definition, are “Marxists” – is simply not true. If by “freedom” you mean “unbridled capitalism”, then that may be slightly true. If you mean the freedom to live your life as you choose, marry who you wish, choose when you have children, choose what substances to put into your body, and a genuine freedom from religion in politics, then Sarah Palin is certainly not representative of those who love freedom.

Please excuse me if I sound as though I am being confrontational or if I come across as a raging socialist; that is not my intention. I simply find it troubling that Sarah Palin and her conservative views should be portrayed as somehow progressive and freedom-loving.

From a comrade (I jest!),

Hannah

Meanwhile, the Demoncrats will push someone new to counter her and likely lose.

Not that there’s a difference. Both parties are the same, they just use different rhetoric to explain how they’re going to bend us over.