I have said that the source of some, perhaps much, of the irrational, seething hatred on the Left for Sarah Palin was her decision to give birth to Trig (who has Down syndrome) and openly love him unconditionally. (This isn’t the same thing as believing she isn’t of presidential material, which one can believe and not descend into venomous loathing).
Here’s another example. The leftwing blog known as Wonkette has a despicable hit on Trig and the Palins because Sarah posted a poem to Trig on his birthday. From “Greatest Living American: A Children’s Treasury of Trig Crap on His Birthday:
Today is the day we come together to celebrate the snowbilly grifter’s magical journey from Texas to Alaska to deliver to the America the great gentleman scholar Trig Palin. Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.) It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are privileged to live in a time when we can witness the greatest prop in world political history…What’s he dreaming about? Nothing. He’s retarded.
Even more than intimating incest. Vile. And the nonsense about Trig not dreaming: Have you noticed the undercurrent of bigoted eugenics and anti disability loathing among certain elements of the Left? I sure have.
A pernicious type of “Birther” are those who charge that Palin’s daughter Bristol is Trig’s real mother (hello, Andrew Sullivan), which I disproved on 9/2/08 when it first reared its ugly head during the Republican Convention. Let me again show the ludicrousness of these the vile libels:
First, Trig was born on April 20, 2008, one month premature. I reported it here in May 08, as a pro lifer walking the walk.
The photo to the right proves that Bristol is not Trig’s mother, as she is clearly about 5 months pregnant in the picture taken right after Palin received the VP nomination, 41/2 months after Trig’s birth. Bristol gave birth to her son on December 28, 2008 full term, meaning for the lies to be true, she would have gotten pregnant with her son while still pregnant with Trig.
Next, the photo below is of a clearly pregnant Governor Palin being interviewed.
Disagree with Palin. Fine. Think she’s a twit. A lot of people will agree. Work democratically to make sure she is never president. By all means. But such blind and unreasoning hatred and outright defamation tells us nothing about Palin and very much about Wonkette and its ilk.
April 20th, 2011 | 12:20 pm
Palin may may be a lot of things. I do not believe she is presidential material. [And she may not think it either.] But one thing stands out: she is not despicable, unlike many of her detractors.
April 20th, 2011 | 12:23 pm
While I don’t believe that Sarah gave birth to Trig, the blog written in Wonkette is vile. That poor baby did nothing to deserve that. My cousin is mentally retarded and a gift from God just as Trig is to this family. It really doesn’t matter who his mother is, the fact that he’s being raised in a loving home is the most important fact here. Leave this baby alone.
Leticia Velasquez Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 5:51 am
@Lisa,
Lisa, if you don’t believe that Trig is Sarah’s son, they you are buying into the vicious slander. Did you give the photos in this post a careful look. Would Sarah be faking that she had a son with Down syndrome? Why would she, when it causes such a visceral reaction from her detractors?
I agree that children are a gift from God, regardless of their abilities. My three daughters, one of whom has Down syndrome, have made that abundantly clear to me. I am delighted to have Sarah Palin breaking old stereotypes for people with Down syndrome. Yet the hatred persists which ascribes sinister motives to a mother who loves her son and is not ashamed of him in public.
I can only assume it is the collective guilt in this culture which comes from ignoring the emotional and spiritual consequences of aborting perfectly healthy children. Sarah’s unconditional love for a child this culture rejects at a rate of 92% makes them seethe with guilty rage.
May God have mercy on them!
pentamom Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 3:53 pm
@Lisa, Do you also believe in the Tooth Fairy? Do you realize not only that there is conclusive evidence that she did in fact bear this child, but that there is absolutely not one shred of compelling evidence that she did not — it’s all based on some theory of how it “could have happened” that never had any basis in fact whatsoever?
April 20th, 2011 | 1:54 pm
Hate mongers are dispicable. What have the handicapped ever done to you? This is one reason I’m not as keen on the left as I used to be, although I’ve known good people on both sides of the political aisle.
Personally, I think Sarah Palin would make a cool president. She has a heart for the handicapped. That would be cool in the white house, someone who sticks up for the little guy. Anyone who still believes the long disproved story that Sarah didn’t give birth to Trig, either has cotton for brains or they’re such a pathological liar that they can’t give it up for anything.
[Donald Trump opinion deleted as irrelevant. Thanks. Don't want to get that can of worms opened!]
April 20th, 2011 | 2:28 pm
I don’t understand why anyone would attack children. Disgusting.
April 20th, 2011 | 2:44 pm
Wesley:
You’re right to be angered by Wonkette’s nonsense, just as we supporters of the president are angered by outrageous and unjustified statements made by some of his opponents. However, it’s wrong to make equally nonsensical generalizations about Palin opponents whose politics might be to the left of Atilla the Hun. We moderates have more than enough good reasons to oppose a Sarah Palin candidacy without stooping to Wonkette’s level and dragging Trig into it.
The implication of your piece, that Wonkette is representative of all who despise Sarah Palin, is patently untrue; but I think you already know that.
HW
Don Nelson Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
@HistoryWriter, Sorry HW but you don’t qualify as a moderate. I think you don’t qualify by definition. You actually believe something. Crazed as the things you lefties believe seem to me, you believe them and don’t qualify as a me too go along to make everyone like me moderate.
April 20th, 2011 | 3:18 pm
I can only speak for myself, as the sibling of a person with Down Syndrome. If I were at a social event at the Palin home (yah, yah, fat chance), ten minutes after I got there I guarantee you Trig and I would be best buddies, chasing each other around the house and laughing our faces off. I’m glad Sarah chose to have him.
But I do not like the public Sarah Palin. I think she is manipulative, self-promoting, and contributes mightily to the divisiveness of this country, and she does it so that she can personally benefit. She has a high public profile despite her holding no official office, and having abandoned her most major office after contributing little to it but her absence.
As you point out, there are some who loudly condemn her because they feel she uses Trig as a campaign prop. You can safely ignore them, they’re essentially extremists. There are still plenty of people that dislike Palin for plenty of reasons that have nothing to do with Trig, or for that matter the rest of her family.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
padraig: We both said basically the same thing, although I tend to like her (but not for POTUS).
padraig Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 2:19 pm
@Wesley J. Smith, No, you’re attributing her broad unpopularity to Trig. That’s false. Frankly, until this stupid book came out, Trig had dropped off the radar. As is proper.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 3:04 pm
No, I said much of the hatred was about Trig, not opposition to Palin politically.
Raven Chukwu Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 3:23 pm
@Wesley J. Smith,
“I said much of the hatred was about Trig . . .”
There’s no evidence for even this limited claim. It’s analogous to saying that, because we are able to find bloggers and Tea Partiers who make racist jokes about Obama, most of the conservatives who hate him do so because of his race.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Plenty of evidence. I have presented some examples here.
Raven Chukwu Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 5:07 pm
@Wesley J. Smith, You have presented evidence that certain individuals are willing to sink to crude depths while expressing their antipathy towards Palin. This crudity has been roundly condemned by other liberal bloggers and by virtually everyone who has bothered to comment on the issue.
There is no evidence at all that most, or even many, of those who dislike Palin do so because she chose to have Trig or place him on the public stage. There is, after all, a great deal to dislike about the woman (just as there is, I am sure, a great deal to admire). Her “haters” criticise her accent, choice of words, purported ignorance, shameless self-promotion, political opportunism, polarising rhetoric, “dysfunctional” family, affectations of folksiness, etc If one were to rank the probable causes of Palin-hatred in order of importance, her treatment of Trig would almost certainly be way down the list.
April 20th, 2011 | 3:20 pm
There is not a candidate, presently declared or still hedging, worth a moment’s thought, so beating on Palin has become intellectually juvenile.
Lisa–who cares what you believe? Wes nailed it and still, you are following some conspiracy theory that was invented to tar and feather Palin. She is a semi-socialist, like every other potential candidate, and thus unfit to be POTUS, but you really need to examine why you believe the way you do.
HW—you are contrary to be contrary. Had one of you on my original site years ago. And, there is no such animal as a moderate. That is a invention of the marxists who wish to appear mainstream.
What’ll be funny is . . .
April 20th, 2011 | 3:49 pm
HW-You’re a MODERATE???? although, I guess I have to give you a point for decrying Wonkette’s lack of civility.
April 20th, 2011 | 4:16 pm
Lets see:
Obama not born in the US = idiotic
Palin not the mother of Trig = enlightened
Forgive me, but I’m more convinced by the evidence for the latter (and for the record I do believe Obama was born in Hawaii).
The Trig conspiracy theorists are just as bad if not worse than the birthers.
April 20th, 2011 | 4:34 pm
David—
Forgiven in advance.
Before you go too deeply into territory of which you are unaware, wait till this comes out.
Enlightenment is a multi-faceted thing. It does not necessarily equal knowledge.
I am not a birther. I don’t have to be. Mr. Occam took care of that problem.
I don’t give a flying flip since no voters have given a flying flip since 1913 or thereabouts. I have been a student (degreed) of history, political science and theology, and while I try hard not to portray myself as any kind of final authority, which I freely admit I am not (though you will get my opinion!), I must admit it is mind-numbing to read the self absorption (read that–idiocy) I do online every day.
You have no more idea about Trig than you do Obama. No one does. Acting as if you do is kinda well . . .
Kinda well. That’s all ya really got loaded in the chamber.
April 20th, 2011 | 10:07 pm
It requires massive levels of cognitive dissonance to believe yourself “the party that is fair” (or kind, or just, or in favor of human dignity and worth, or equality, or call it what you like), while the same party behaves this way toward Palin.
I wonder if liberals view Palin-haters the way conservatives view Fred Phelps and family?
April 21st, 2011 | 4:35 am
If the hatred of Sarah Palin, is due to her admirable (to my mind) decision, to keep her baby, Trig, this is unconscionable.
I disagree with many of her positions (especially her hunting), and I wonder if she possesses the intellectual neural power, to be president, her choice, a very courageous one, I might add, to not have an abortion, and choose to raise a child with Down’s Syndrome, makes her “redeemed” in my eyes.
Those with Down’s syndrome, can live happy lives, and may even, with their sweetness, teach the rest of us, what matters, in life. Frankly, the notion that, one must not raise a child with Down’s Syndrome, looks suspiciously like bigotry, and snobbery.
April 21st, 2011 | 7:29 am
Many advertisers have pulled their adds from Wonkette. I encourage everyone to write to advertisers that you see on Wonkette and encourage them to pull their ads as well.
April 21st, 2011 | 9:41 am
[...] and anti disability loathing among certain elements of the Left? I sure have,” wrote Smith on his blog [...]
April 21st, 2011 | 10:00 am
Think of the opposite scenario, if Palin kept Trig shut away but let her other children be photographed.
Then you’d have these blogs screaming hysterically about her ”being ashamed of her own child” etc.
You just can’t win with these people!
April 21st, 2011 | 11:27 am
[...] Wesley Smith concurs: I have said that the source of some, perhaps much, of the irrational, seething hatred on the Left for Sarah Palin was her decision to give birth to Trig (who has Down syndrome) and openly love him unconditionally. (This isn’t the same thing as believing she isn’t of presidential material, which one can believe and not descend into venomous loathing). [...]
April 21st, 2011 | 6:26 pm
It’s a really basic brain response: to recoil from what reminds us of disease and death. What makes us enlightened is how willing we are to recognize it, and move past it to the recognition of human value.
I think that the hatred of Trig– simply for being disabled– is evident in the sneering way that people say, “Look at how she uses her baby!!”
It seems obvious to me that nobody would notice the baby if it weren’t for the fact that Trig has Down Syndrome. Even if she carried him with her everywhere (which, by the way, was a criticism of her in the beginning:”Why isn’t she with her CHILDREN??!!”) the fact that the baby is always there wouldn’t be noticed so much. It’s his disability that makes him stand out, and people’s natural discomfort with the fact of it makes them feel emotionally “manipulated” by his very public existence.
Palin may be a craven opportunist or whatever other sneering thing you could say about her (I really don’t know, nor do I care because she is effectively a non-issue for president) BUT to say that people have a “cult of Trig” ON ITS VERY FACE belies disgust with the disabled. People can’t stand to see love being given to somebody “like that.”
April 22nd, 2011 | 10:12 am
If you don’t like his mommy fine. But saying he’s Trig Crap? And saying he can’t dream? If you don’t like his mommy fine. But don’t take it out on him. Trig can’t help it if ppl don’t like his mommy. I hate when kids get dragged into “Big Ppl Problems”.
April 22nd, 2011 | 5:39 pm
Shame on you–you’re as guilty of ugly mudslinging and idiot attacks as anyone who’s taken after Sarah Palin. You’re worse, in fact, because you generalize the bad behavior of a few across an entire group to condemn a whole ideology.
I am so liberal you might just shrivel up and poof into nothingness in my presence–and I would never condemn a woman for choosing to bear a child with a handicap–it’s all about CHOICE for me, and that includes respecting the choice to bear a child who is sure to have as wonderful a life as he can. I can’t stand Sarah Palin–I believe she has, again and again, shown herself incapable and ill-suited for public office. That said, I have NO doubt that she is a mother who adores her children and hopes to do the best possible for them. Trig is a beautiful child as ALL children are beautiful, and I am sure that Sarah Palin will do all in her power to give him every opportunity in this life.
Your attempt to characterize liberals as people who hate parents who have disabled children is nothing short of willfully dishonest. Considering the right’s repeated attempts to kill special education programs and the left’s continuing dedication to the support and nourishment of children, your attempts at characterizing the ideological sides is absolutely backwards.
And I so hoped for Terri. I did, I wrote letters, I made calls, I screamed with the horror and injustice of her death. And look how you’ve painted me. Again, shame on you. You do this garbage in her name? You debase her memory.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
April 22nd, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Kris: Get a grip. This is the game that some play. I criticized certain elements of the Left as possessing seething in hatred for Palin over Trig. I covered this when it first happened, with examples, and brought it back up here because the attack was renewed by Wonkette, a very notable left wing blog. I am then accused of saying an ENTIRE political sector thinks that way, which I never said. As in this sentence: “Have you noticed the undercurrent of bigoted eugenics and anti disability loathing among certain elements of the Left? I sure have.” I wrote CERTAIN ELEMENTS, not ALL.
Dennis Miller is sick of this hypersensitivity, too. He notes that if you criticize, say Islamists, then you are accused of saying all Muslims believe…It’s a way of deflecting criticism.
I’m glad you fought for Terri. Some liberals did, e.g. Ralph Nader and Jesse Jackson. But outside of them and the disability rights community, most liberals were for dehydrating her to death–New York Times editorialists, for example, and many continue to demonize the Schindler family. And look at how she was used by the Democratic Party to try and tar the Republicans in the 06 and 08 elections. Howard Dean, when head of the Dem. Party said he was going to shove that vote down the Republicans throat and run on her case for Democrats. Note how Obama said that voting to save her was his worst mistake as a senator.
I have documented that, too. So your righteous upset is both overstating what I said, and understating the problem for people with profound disabilities face regarding their inherent equality on the political Left. I understand your defensiveness. It is hard to see political co-believers take such a wrong turn.
Raven Chukwu Reply:
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:10 pm
@Wesley J. Smith, Here’s what you wrote in 2008:
There’s no qualification there.
You have also, in the past, written broadly of “the Left’s eugenic prejudices” and repeatedly advanced the idea that “the Political Left believes in power, not freedom”. These are broad accusatory statements and many of your faithful readers hear them bleeding through even when you later qualify your condemnation with phrases like “some elements of the Left”.
You yourself have noted elsewhere that headlines matter. When written by the author, they give us a context in which to interpret the text which follows. Your headline here is “Seething Hatred of Sarah Palin: Yup, It’s Trig”. The impression you’re trying to create is not that some individuals will stoop so low as to attack a three year old child but that most people who express a hatred (or intense dislike) of Palin are ultimately moved by hatred for the disabled, even if they do not acknowledge this.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Raven: You seem obsessed. I am flattered, frankly.
First, I clearly put a modifier in the post being criticized. So, that settles that.
But there was a a modifier in my 2008 statment, as in “I cannot prove it, but I suspect the ultimate cause…” That isn’t even an assertion of fact, and moreover, it was a general statement that did not mean EVERY liberal journalist felt that way. What Dennis Miller said.
My headline is about “seething hatred,” which isn’t the same thing at all as intense dislike. The former is irrational. The latter could be politically motivated, personality driven, etc. And the evidence of the irrationality is the assertion of a clearly factually impossible slander, mixed with intimations of incest–from one of the most popular and influential Left Wing blogs in America. It would be like, say The Corner, accusing Barack Obama of being Louis Farrakhan’s love child and a secret Al Qaeda sympathizer. Besides, I have given other examples of this phenomenon on the Left on this blog, which were tied specifically to Trig and/or his denigration. And the Left has developed distinctly eugenic tendencies. And the defense is that NOT EVERY LIBERAL feels this way? Conceded. Good grief.
Pathetic, really.
HistoryWriter Reply:
April 23rd, 2011 at 8:28 pm
@Wesley J. Smith,
C’mon, you know what you meant and so does everybody else who reads your stuff.
You’re a master of the broad generalization, with the occasional modifier (“I think …”) that you believe will get you off the hook. Raven’s not obsessed. She simply has a good memory — something you wish most of your critics didn’t have.
HW
Raven Chukwu Reply:
April 24th, 2011 at 1:23 am
@HistoryWriter, Actually I just typed “liberal eugenics” into the site search box at the top of the page. If that counts as being “obsessed” then I have a long list of obsessions.
Wesley deliberately or inadvertently flagellates entire movements with the failings (real or imagined) of a few: He finds it impossible to speak of environmentalists without referring to “anti-human” radical environmentalists. All acceptance of man-made climate change is “global warming hysteria”. Animal rights activists are to be forever seen through the lens of Ingrid Newkirk’s words and the antics of PETA. The field of bioethics is just Peter Singer writ large.
In each case the majority is treated like a minority. Passing reference will be made to animal rights activists like Gary Francione who abhor violence, or to a bioethicist who “supports human dignity”. These, Wesley invariably assures us, are the exceptions. They are not.
It’s a question of fairness really. With regard to Palin-hatred, the defense isn’t that some liberals do not hate her because of Trig. it’s that the overwhelming majority of liberals do not “hate” Palin at all, especially if we’re distinguishing “seething hatred” from “intense dislike” and even those who do have a great many reasons to.
And I’m male, by the way :)
May 13th, 2011 | 11:21 am
[...] And it was done with malice aforethought. The hatred continues unabated. And while it has been indisputably proven that Trig is Sarah’s son–some still refuse to believe it, the ignoble Andrew Sullivan, for one–and he remains at the core of the Palin haters’ seething cauldron of bile. [...]
May 28th, 2011 | 7:01 pm
[...] is bigotry unvarnished and raw, as we’ve seen in other left wing attacks on Trig Palin, which I have repeatedly reported here. I will be watching to see how Mr. Flynt is received by [...]
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