McCain Running Mate Prefers to Walk
So the US presidential campaign is kicking off and McCain has chosen Palin as his running mate. The problem here is that they are conservative and by definition should be pretty strict on the likes of, say, teenage pregnancies. Everyone knows that when you start dating, things can get out of hand and young women are particularly at risk as their knowledge of contraception is limited and they are inexperienced in these matters. Hence why good parenting is important to help a young adult navigate this minefield. So how can the presumptive Republican presidential candidate choose as his running mate a mother who arguably may have failed her daughter to a certain degree - teenage pregnancy is a blight on Western society and conservatives normally look down on this sort of behaviour.
In today’s world, normal people accept that teenagers can get pregnant and accept that even with the best parenting, ‘accidents’ happen. However, we are talking about normal people, and bible-bashing, god-fearing conservatives may not fall into this category. The question is, will the religious folk (you know, those who voted in George W.Bush two times) expect McCain to publicly flog Palin and banish her to Devils Island? Or will they forgive McCain for choosing a 44 year-old grandmother, with little experience in public life who encourages her teenage children to have babies?
More to the point, why am I writing about this on this blog. Well, the connection is that conservatism and reality are not always good bed-friends when it comes to relationships. McCain has highlighted the flaws and contradictions in conservatism when he chose Palin. Why does this matter? Well, I believe politics and the beliefs of an individual in this area are actually quite fundamental to how compatible couples are. The Governor of California, a Republican, is married into the Kennedy clan - I find this how to digest and think this sort of marriage of people across the political divide is not as common as those successful relationships within their own borders.
Here is an article by the BBC on teenage pregnancy in the UK.