The Right Wing Meltdown Continues

What in the world has been happening to the far right wing of the conservative party over the past couple of weeks? And what’s up with choosing good old American holidays to air their dirty laundry? First Mark Sanford disappears on Father’s Day weekend to go on a hiking trip through the Appalachian trails that turned out to be more like a sex romp through Argentina. He tells no one where he’s going, leaves his state without a governor, and then, once discovered, turns the media into his own personal confessional. For days afterward, the rest of us had to endure every single news channel being turned into the Mark Sanford Reality Show as he gave us sordid detail after sordid detail of his star-crossed love affair, whether we wanted to hear about it or not.

Now Sarah Palin chooses 4th of July weekend to inform the American public (or at least folks who somehow for some reason still find her relevant) of her decision to not only forego running for a second term as Governor of Alaska but to step down halfway through her first. The reasons she gives? Well, something about not wanting to waste anymore of the Alaskan people’s money and resources because she would never do that to a state she loves so much (but doesn’t love enough to continue leading). . . or . . . something like that. "I know when to pass the ball for victory," she has declared. Yeah, ok Sarah.

So what is the deal with this behavior? Is it erratic? Scattered? Bizarre? To use one of Palin’s favorite quips, “You betcha!” If the words and deeds of the far right wing of the conservative party were not such a destructive force in this country I would almost (almost!) feel sorry for them. Do left-leaning politicians get caught in affairs and make weird political moves out of the blue and for seemingly no good reason? Absolutely. But they also tend not to publicly castigate, denigrate, rail against, throw the Holy Bible at, and attempt to legislate the private sexual and personal choices of others. And therein lies the hypocrisy.

So go ahead and have your hot Argentinian love affair, Mark Sanford, but don’t you dare tell the rest of us that we’re Godless sinners if we find ourselves in the same situation. And please, PLEASE don’t try to pretty up your dirt and turn it into some kind of Danielle Steele Lifetime channel movie of the week, because no matter how you spin it, you’re a straight up “Playa.” And you, Sarah Palin, go ahead and make excuses for your daughters as they engage in unprotected sex and get pregnant by boys who turn out to be total losers. But don’t you dare point the finger at other young women who make the same mistake. If a young black single mother in the ghetto is a “baby mama” then guess what: so is your daughter.