Merovigan

My first draft of this post was not nearly as well-composed as I hope this one is. There was cursing, there were insults, and the screen filled with capital letters. Please know that if you discuss this issue with me in person, I will once again revert to the aforementioned excesses. However, I hope this post will be far less emotional while clearly articulating my opposition not only to Sarah Polin’s Vice Presidency but also to the notion that any parent of a newborn is unfit for the highest offices of elected life.

I, as a parent of a three year old, am offended by Sarah Polin’s career choices. It is one thing for a parent of a young child to work in a demanding private-sector job. Many individuals make this choice and are capable of balancing a work-life with their personal life while producing well-adjusted children. Private, and even most public, sector jobs provide numerous benefits including the Federal Medical Leave Act, sick/vacation days and flexible work-weeks. These tools are given to parents in order to facilitate the creation of a well-adjusted, well-rounded, healthy child and a happy home in which that child can live.

However, the highest offices in our country are not private sector jobs, nor are they cushy do-nothing federal jobs with casual Fridays and “call in sick” Mondays. These jobs, specifically President and Vice President, are the most demanding positions our country has to offer. There are no vacation days, no days off, no “I’m not feeling up to it” or “maybe tomorrow” moments. There are no negotiations you can easily afford to lose, no decisions that won’t have dramatic repercussions across the country and across the world. These offices are the pinnacle our country has to offer and they must be filled with people who have only this position on their mind.

How can we expect a mother of a two-year old to fill this position? How can we elevate her to this position in good conscious, knowing full well that we would be depriving a small child of its mother? How can a vote be cast for this woman knowing there will come a time when her child needs, not wants, not “would really like” but NEEDS to hear her mother’s voice on the phone? How can we, as a country accept that this child may go a week or more without its mother’s hug?

This is cruel, unnecessary, and insulting. It is cruel because it deprives an innocent child of its most basic need – two parents doting on it. It is unnecessary because there is an infinite wealth of talent to draw upon in this country, capable of doing this job. And it is insulting because it places public office above the job we, as parents, must place before all others – the protection of our children.
Clearly women should be in positions of power. Clearly equality is of vital importance. But also clearly, this is not an issue of gender but of priorities. I do not trust anyone who would look upon the face of their two-year old child and say “I have a higher calling.” If that is not an immoral decision, then I don’t know what is.

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