Several groups on campus plan to protest at Sarah Palin’s upcoming GOP fundraiser and rally appearances in Orange County.
“Our goal is to bring awareness to women about Sarah Palin,” said Yvonne Moore, a coordinator of the protest. “Our main opposition to her stems from her stance on feminist health care, abstinence-only programs and abortion. Anybody who cares about women should come to the protest.”
According to the O.C. Register, Palin is scheduled to be featured at a GOP fundraiser on Oct. 4, with a rally to follow on Oct. 5. Palin’s fundraiser has changed locations twice due to overwhelming demand for tickets and lack of space. The dates and locations for the fundraiser and event may still change.
Student groups from Cal State Long Beach such as the Women’s Studies Student Association(WSSA), the Feminist Organization Reclaiming Consciousness and Equality and the La Raza Student Association(LRSA) plan to protest the event. They’re inviting like-minded voters to join them and bring signs, banners, flags, kazoos and drums.
“Even Jesus will be there,” said women’s studies major Erin Hale, regarding her friend’s Messiah costume to protest Sarah Palin’s recent statement that the war in Iraq “is in God’s hands.” Hale, also an executive board member of WSSA, eagerly anticipates the protest.
Marina Wood, a senior women’s studies major and executive board member for WSSA, said Palin is not only a danger to women’s rights, but also to animal rights and foreign policy. Wood touched on the delicate issue she called “women-vote-women,” and said the Republican Party is trying to appease women by parading as ‘progressive.’
“We don’t vote with our vaginas,” Erin Hale said.
Wood said the issue of Sarah Palin cuts across political party lines for women because many are offended by the Republican Party’s carefully cultivated decision to choose a largely unknown female.
“There were so many more qualified, well-known Republican women,” she continued, “like Senator Elizabeth Dole or Condoleezza Rice. It’s like [they] had this wipe-board criteria that the V.P. had to fit — like outdoorsmanship.”
“I’m nervous to think that if [Sen. McCain] was to pass away she would take over,” said CSULB undergrad Megan Brushey, “She doesn’t seem ready to take over because of her ignorant comments.”
A counter-protest is also in the works. Jason Aula, president of the CSULB Conservative Student Union (CSU) and leader of Youth for McCain on campus, is organizing a counter-event to coincide with the Palin protest.
Aula also wants to organize a Barack Obama protest following the Palin protests. He said the protest would point out some of the deficiencies of the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden.
“Sarah Palin is the greatest example of what a conservative Republican should be that we have this election year,” Aula said, “the closest we’ve had resembling Ronald Reagan’s policies. I believe she will get us into the White House — I’m pretty confident.”
Aula said there is no difference between Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton, except political beliefs.
“I think they’re just mad that the Republican Party got a female on the ticket before the Democrats,” he said. “It sounds like they’re just whining — don’t get me wrong, I’d be whining too if Hilary got on the ticket.”
There are also women on campus who do not object to McCain’s running mate.
“I don’t take offense at all to Palin’s camp,” said CSULB alum Monica Ly, “I think McCain was smart to pull the ‘woman card’ in this election. Obama can’t have all the attention.”
The only thing worst than censoring ideas in the university marketplace is having it done as the 49er did with my prior posts. It could have only been deemed offensive by the 49er editors if it were true, so it must have been spot on.
Just as I figured, the 49er can’t stand publishing criticism of its coverage. Jason Aula must be on your editorial board of directors. Censorship is his style, but I thought the 49er could rise above such childishness. Guess not.
McCain supporters are grasping at straws for some ray of hope. Picking Palin was a desperate move and shows McCain’s camp is sexist by nature. McCain cheated on (an act of spousal abuse) for years, but all of a sudden he turns into a second-wave feminist when his opponent uses a term he himself has used repeatedly in Senate hearings. She’s sold as one who fights bureaucracy, yet abused it to try firing her ex-brother-in-law. Then she put the clamp on her administration to refuse testifying about the investigation into her abuse of power, claiming it was a personnel issue. Will she do the same if she is chosen as VP? Absolutely. Will she sell our souls to big oil and destroy her own state’s most natural resources? Undoubtedly. She claimed to have bucked the status quo by refusing to use money on the Bridge to Nowhere, but she kept the money at a time people in Louisiana were dying from lack of federal monies. She has been the largest recipient of pork barrel money in the U.S. She took $27 million in earmarks for potholes and street lights as mayor of Wasilla, for a town of 6,500. How many poor people could that have fed in the contiguous states? Anyway you look at this Republican “beauty,” this is a dangerous person. America needs to scratch the surface and evaluate what lies beneath the smile. If her and McCain win, look for a rapid erasure of decades of suffragette victories for minorities and women.
Since when are Nazi’s and Communists the same thing?
To the last comment quoted “Obama can’t have all the attention” I believe that states a major issue in this election. Senator Obama, quite frankly, possess less experience then Gov. Palin in government issues and yet is being touted as a great leader in politics and social issues. In my view this is a gross double standard on the part of both ‘liberal’ media as well as socialist advocacy groups. I also believe that the selection of Gov. Palin as a running mate was strategically cunning due to the likelihood that the Democratic party would have already gathered ammunition against Rice and other more widely known Republican women.
re: Roberta’s comment
…what?
True, those other Republican ladies are more well-known….like when I heard they picked [her] it felt so sneaky, like they were trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
“I think they’re just mad that the Republican Party got a female on the ticket before the Democrats”
I believe he needs to read up on the 1984 presidential election.
i’m guna be there? news to me lol
I am a woman and a major in Art History at CSULB. The WSSA and La Raza are NOT talking for the majority of the students, nor supporting their interests. They are just political hacks masquerading as “feminists” or “minority rights activists”. Their tactics of smears, lies and unhinged vitriolic language is disgusting, troubling and extremly closely resembling with the tactics employed by the Nazi or Communists to discredit and eliminate their political opponents.
“Aula said there is no difference between Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton, except political beliefs.”
Yep, just that teeny tiny little difference.