Helen McCaffrey: Palin Deserves Our Respect.

Instapundit points to an interesting editorial in the Phildelphia Enquirer about Sarah Palin, respect, and sexism.

I cannot predict who will win the presidential campaign, but I already know who will lose big: all women.

I realized this when I saw a 20-something male student who attends a class in the community college where I teach, wearing a T-shirt that read, "Sarah Palin is a C-." He wore it in public, in broad daylight, and without shame or even consciousness of what he was doing.

I took the time to advise him of the "error of his ways" and informed him of the consequences if he wore it to my class.

I live near Boulder and the bumper stickers don't just say "Obama-Biden" they say "Fuck Bush!". The environment here is such that common decency is happily brushed aside in the name of unity against the common enemy. And be very clear about it, the common enemy is not Islamic terrorism or African despots. It's not dictators in Iran or North Korea. It isn't Putin and his Czarist activities in Russia. The enemy of the left are conservative Americans--all their energy is spent in fighting, humiliating, and hating them. McCaffrey continues:

I thought Americans would be proud of her nomination, whether we agreed or disagreed with her on the issues. Was I in for a shock.

The sexism that I believed had been eradicated was lurking, like some creature from the black lagoon, just below the surface. Suddenly it erupted and in some unexpected places.

Instead of engaging Palin on the issues, critics attacked attributes that are specifically female. It is Hillary's pantsuit drama to the power of 10. Palin's hair, her voice, her motherhood, and her personal hygiene were substituted for substance. That's when it was nice.

The hatred escalated to performers advocating Palin be "gang raped," to suggestions that her husband had had sex with their young daughters, and reports that her Down syndrome child really was that of her teenage daughter. One columnist even called for her to submit to DNA testing to prove her virtue. Smells a little like Salem to me. I was present at an Obama rally at which the mention of Palin's name drew shouts of "stone her."

"Stone her"? How biblical.

How sad.