“Mrs. Palin’s marriage actually makes her a terrific role model. One of the best choices a woman can make if she wants a career and a family is to pick a partner who will be able to take on equal or primary responsibility for child-rearing.” Cathy Young
Re.: Thanks to Jay Manifold’s argument below and link to Young. Heinlein’s women seemed to me (and I wasn’t a fan and read them long, long ago) a bit how a man imagined a strong woman to be. He is no Michelangelo but both capture energy. David’s beauty is power & grace, the swirling power of God awesome. Of course, his women, too, are muscular. But, then, I’ll take Manifold (and Heinlein’s) model – I’d like to be someone who pulls her weight. Most women would.
The attraction of Democratic largesse for a woman who wants the government as mate is countered by self-reliance (and family-reliance) when a woman takes a fallible & loving, flesh & blood partner. Governor Palin values her husband, which is not submissive but mature. Franklin’s belief that “God helps them that helps themselves” is seldom more true than in marriage. This understanding eliminates the synthetic and sentimental drama of the Lifetime channel, “women’s issue” politics, and daily bitching sessions that resemble spinning car wheels deep in mud. But that understanding, that engagement – not consciousness raising – liberates.
