TheRealJFM's Journal: Sarah Paln and the Mystery of Teenage (Forced?) Marriage

What would you do if you got pregnant at 17? You might consider an abortion, or adoption, or try to keep the child. Fair enough, that's your choice.

But what if your mother is Sarah Palin, the US Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, and gun-loving religious nut? As a statement, quoted on the BBC website, says (emphasis mine):

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realise very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family."

I'm sure there are plenty of anecdotes of this sort of sudden marriage working out OK. I'm also sure there are plenty more stories of this failing. But what is sad is that this child has no choice in the matter. Politically, the Republican set will accept nothing other than a hasty marriage, lest their whiter-than-white-or-at-least-they-like-to-pretend image is damaged by the awful scare of unmarried sex. Genius guys, really.

For a group that professes to believe in the family, it's this attitude that breaks most of them up. Why don't we just turn off the internets and roll-back fifty years? That's what social conservatism seems to mean - turning off our values one decade at a time. Hold on everyone, casual racism will be back next, and they'll start harvesting under-developed countries for resources within the... oh.

So, I feel sorry for Bristol Palin. She could never do anything other than this, whatever she wants to do. Hopefully this won't take-over her life.