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Actually, comparing Sonia Sotomayor to Sarah Palin is kind of insulting

Jill

No, Sotomayor is not getting Palin-ed.

I’m the last person who is going to stand up for the media’s crappy treatment of Sarah Palin during the Presidential elections, but I do think intelligence and achievement are fair issues to bring up when considering an elected official or a Supreme Court justice. And while I don’t think Sarah Palin is dumb, do think it was pretty clear that she did not know the necessary basics to fulfill the role of Vice President (I also think it’s pretty clear that Bush didn’t know the necessary basics to fulfill the role of President).

It’s ridiculous to compare someone like Sarah Palin to someone like Sonia Sotomayor. Yes, they have both endured sexist attacks. But suggesting that they’re being attacked in the same unfair way? No. It’s a little more complicated than “Sarah and Sonia are both being called dumb.” The reality is that Sarah Palin was a governor with very limited political experience who sold her candidacy on her “values” and attacked intellectualism as “elitism.” Sonia Sotomayor has more experience than nearly any other current member of the Supreme Court at the time of their appointment. She got into Princeton by the sheer force of her hard work and intelligence — not an achievement that many (or even most) college students can claim. She graduated at the top of her class, and went on to Yale Law, where she was an editor of the Law Journal. She was appointed to the federal district court by George HW Bush, and then to the Second Circuit by Bill Clinton, where she penned hundreds of opinions and heard thousands of cases.

It’s a slap in the face to mention her name in the same sentence as Sarah Palin, let alone argue that the two women are intellectual equals. I have no desire to discuss Palin’s intelligence or to bring her down, but I’m confused as to why we’re bothering to bring her up here.

Add into that the fact that Sotomayor isn’t being attacked just on gender lines — the right-wing assault on her has been deeply racist. The argument that she’s “stupid” is both gendered and racialized — no white man with her legal pedigree would be called “stupid,” but you can bet that a man of color would.

She’s not being “Palin-ed.” She’s being subjected to racist, sexist attacks. We can address and respond to those on the merits without bringing Sarah Palin into it.

32 thoughts on Actually, comparing Sonia Sotomayor to Sarah Palin is kind of insulting

  2. This passage is great:

    “Add into that the fact that Sotomayor isn’t being attacked just on gender lines — the right-wing assault on her has been deeply racist. The argument that she’s “stupid” is both gendered and racialized — no white man with her legal pedigree would be called “stupid,” but you can bet that a man of color would.”

    At face value, the “stupid” line isn’t racist. You know, like maybe people just think she’s stupid. But once we compare her stats to Justice Alito (same college, same law school), an appointment that was never referred to as “stupid,” we see the malicious nature of the attacks on Sotomayor.

    Nice post.

  3. In one of those inversions that makes politics so agonizing, the right has abandoned its pre-November narrative that “experience” is the most important thing, and now admits that one has to look at the merits of that experience. Pre-election, it was accepted wisdom that Obama’s lack of executive experience and very short federal record wouldn’t prevent him from being a great president. Now, of course, we’re all singing the praises of Sotomayor’s years on the bench. Sometimes I feel like a goldfish. In this instance, the left’s inversion isn’t as bad, because it was never argued that experience wasn’t relevant, just that it wasn’t determinative…

  4. There is, however, a troubling connection between Palin and Sotomayor.

    Republicans wanted women to support Palin even though she was not pro-choice or much good on any “women’s issues”. We don’t know everything there is to know yet about Sotomayor’s positions, but it does seem that her record on abortion rights raises cause for concern. (See “On Sotomayor Some Abortion Rights Backers Are Uneasy”, NY Times May 27)

    I can’t help but think back to last year, when Obama supporters were pressing Hillary supporters to get in line behind Obama on the grounds that any division in the Democratic Party would open the way for a Republican victory that would lead to a Supreme Court nomination ending the right to choose.

    Wouldn’t it be ironic if Obama appoints the nominee who shifts the balance of the court and overturns Roe?

    I’m not sure why I’m not hearing more concern about this possibility. It seems pretty real right now.

    Is it just that we all want to get in line behind Obama again, no matter the stakes or the cost? Did I miss a memo?

  5. @Contrarian,
    I think it’s a good point, but in the end, public support of Sotomayor’s nomination is not very related to her appointment. That doesn’t really change the dynamics of what you’re saying, but it is a reminder than in fact you don’t have to ‘support’ Sotomayor at all, because it isn’t up to you. You can call your senator about it, for sure, but the link is much more attenuated than your vote for Obama.

  6. To me there is a comparison to be made, because the expectations for women are contradictory. You can be too pretty (sarah palin), too ugly (hillary clinton), etc. It just shows that women can be attacked for doing anything at all period. The stuff being said about sotomayor hasn’t been nearly that bad (yet), but i fully expect her to be picked on in a hardcore gendered/racial way very soon.

  7. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Obama appoints the nominee who shifts the balance of the court and overturns Roe?

    It would be more than ironic, it would be a bombshell substantively, and an extremely volatile event politically. Thus far Obama has not shown himself as the kind of politician who takes large and unpredictable risks, which is why I am still skeptical that he would appoint a nominee who could overturn Roe. But I don’t think it is wise to take anything for granted. Even an administration and Senate predisposed to be friendly needs to hear the obvious as much as possible, because at the end of the day politicians always have at least one finger in the wind, and they are definitely getting it from the other side.

    As for Palin-ed, unfortunately a tendency has emerged to compare any woman struggling in politics to Sarah Palin. I noticed the same analogies with Caroline Kennedy and Kirsten Gillibrand. As for the article, it does acknowledge the differences in accomplishment between the two women, and it seems to be mostly an analysis about how it’s unwise to launch sexist attacks on women- a meme that isn’t such a bad candidate for CW.. is it?

  8. she did not know the necessary basics to fulfill the role of Vice President

    Joe Biden????

  10. The comparisons of Sotomayor to Palin are coming from the right, though, aren’t they? And since they’re blind to race and gender—in the good way, in that they prefer purely egalitarian arguments—they see their reaction to what they consider evidence of Sotomayor’s stupidity as equivalent to the attacks on Palin during the last election. It’s the left that’s being racist and sexist by calling attention to her race and gender, which two topics don’t even concern the right…

    …and yet somehow these people can tie their shoes. The mind boggles.

  11. The comparison is accurate in the sense that each women is/was getting criticisms she wouldn’t get were she a white man. That’s all the basis you need for validity. Certainly it cannot be claimed that Palin has the academic achievement or is as well read or eloquent as Sotomayer. One could also argue that Biden, who was in the bottom half of pretty much every class he was ever in, isn’t as academic or well read or eloquent as the Sotomayer or any of the existing Justices on the Court. But VP vs S.Ct. Justice is a different comparison as well.

    The comparison isn’t about who has the most progressive policies or the “better” policies from the social perspective — obviously, Sotomayer — but who was treated in a certain manner based on not being a white dude. I don’t see how that doesn’t fit.

  12. Octo, I agree that there are similarities, but the piece argued that Sotomayor was getting “Palin-ed” — which to me suggests that she was being treated in a manner that mirrored a specific kind of treatment that Sarah Palin received. Just because there are similarities doesn’t mean that what happened to Palin is really all that similar to what’s happening to Sotomayor, beyond the basic sexism aspect. And if that’s the case, why don’t we just call it sexism? Why is Palin the reference point?

  13. Why is Palin the reference point?

    Because the right has a Palin fetish. I hate to be so crass, but when you read conservative blogs, it’s difficult to draw any other conclusion.

  14. But looking at the text of Lafferty’s article, rather than the subhead which she didn’t write, she specifically distinguishes the two women on the grounds of academic achievement and skillset. So that’s not the argument she’s making. Lafferty states:

    “Neither woman came from an ordinary middle-class background, and both worked hard to achieve their current positions—Sotomayor a federal appeals judge, Sarah Palin the popular governor of Alaska. Both endured more than their share of life’s challenges, from Sotomayor’s childhood diabetes to Palin’s midlife pregnancy with a special-needs child. No silver spoons anywhere near them, no rich Daddies or easy roads. Scrappy Sonia and scrappy Sarah made it on their own.”

    Lafferty then discusses “questioning a woman’s intelligence” specifically in a context in which a similarly situated man’s would not be questioned. Those are different contexts for a VP vs a S.Ct. Justice.

    Why not just call it sexism? Because analogies exist for a reason, they’re a better way to make a point, and often to convey a particular message. Here, Lafferty called the aspects of Palin’s treatment that went overboard a “stupid mistake” that hurt those who did it politically and will hurt those who do it to Sotomayor now. Lafferty, who says “Sotomayor is The UnPalin,” isn’t trying to equate the two, but to equate the treatment. And say it was ineffective to question Palin on non job requirements and it’s similarly ineffective to do so to Sotomayor.

    I have a ton of respect for your analytical chops, but this struck me as an immediate emotional reaction to reject seeing an analogy of something you like to something you don’t like, rather than a reasoned analysis of whether the analogy works.

  15. Pingback: Sonia, Sarah, Dealergate, Obama & 2010 | The Pink Flamingo

  16. it does seem that her record on abortion rights raises cause for concern.

    This I don’t get. I’ve read each of the supposedly “suspect” opinions and I find no cause for concern. In CRLP she made the legally correct decision. I hate the global gag rule as much as anyone, but the precedent was clear and recent. The case was a non-starter to begin with.

    As for her comments regarding forced abortions in China…I don’t think the idea that those comments make her pro-life have any merit. We’re all against forced abortions for the same reasons we’re against forced birth.

    If anything, I think her choice of language in Maloney…specifically using “wanted pregnancy” and “desired pregnancy”…is [very] slightly encouraging. At no point in the opinion did she discuss abortion or termination without specifically clarifying that we were talking, not about abortion in general, but about forced abortion in the specific. Its hard to know how much of the opinion she penned herself, but that’s true of all of these cases.

  17. Something about the fact that the first search Google suggests when I type in ‘Sonia Sotomayor’ is ‘sonia sotomayor husband’ bothers me.

  18. Sotomayor wont go higher after the nomination. Governor Sarah Palin if she run in 2012 or in 2016 can win the presidency and after being the first woman
    governor of Alaska, second vice president woman candidacy in the history of the United-States ,be the first woman at the head of the United-States… And the first woman to name a judge at the supreme court ( … )

  19. I didn’t think Lafferty was claiming that Palin and Sodomayor have comparable intelligence, but that they both have their “Story” that, in addition to being a political device, reflects real hardships both have faced, AND serves as a target for attack in the media. Don’t deny it, many liberals thought poorly of Sarah Palin in the back of their minds because of her hillbilly 5 kids gun totin’ Alaska lifestyle. I think Lafferty is saying that we should respect Palin for the difficulties she’s faced in her childhood and as a mother, not hold them against her as though they make her stupid. Just in the same way that we want Republcians to respect Sodomayor for her academic work and judicial record instead of holding her race against her and charging her with being stupid.

  20. …..I don’t know if “many liberals” did–many of the liberals I know (including myself) adored her life story and really wanted to like the woman. She just persisted in being an offensive idiot.

  21. Let’s be real here. There’s no comparison intellectually between Sonia Sotomayor and Sarah Palin. It took Sarah Palin five years and 4 schools just to graduate ‘thank you lawdy’ with her journalism degree. Sonia Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and excelled at Yale Law..

    And wingers are dreaming if they think Sarah Louise Heath Palin has a chance in Hades of getting elected president in 2012. The LA Clippers have a better chance of making the NBA playoffs than Palin has of getting the 2012 nomination.

  22. Female centered Politics is ( thankfully ) on the rise in America. I applaud Secretary Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor and Governor Sarah Palin. Governor Sarah Palins speech at the Indiana Right to Life Dinner on April 16 was AMAZING. for women. I have watched it three times. No matter where you fall politicallly I reccomend watching this speech on you tube. Governor Sarah Palin is one of the most accomplished women in America today. Her continuing rise in Politics from PTA to City Council to Mayor to Governor by age 42 ( with FIVE children ) is not over, its just begun. She’s unstoppable. Her ” little engine that could ” attitude is not only admirable and refreshing, it will take her all the way. Sarah Palin will shatter that glass ceiling. She will be President one day. She will be President one day. She will be President one day. What a wonderful role model to girls and women of all ages.

  23. Don’t you get it yet? The DC guys, aka organized crime, GOP, DNC, find fault with EVERY woman. Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro, Sarah Palin, Sonia Sotomayor, it doesn’t matter what they have achieved or what they say, there is always “a major problem.” Did you not find it odd that Hillary and Gerry had not one bad word to say about Sarah Palin? (Worked her way through college, started and ran two successful small businesses, paid taxes, raised kids, balanced the checkbook and was vaulted into politics because the system had crashed?) Do you not find it odd that Sarah Palin has not one bad word to say about Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro or Sonia Sotomayor? Wake up, folks, women work their own way through the system, guys are recruited, groomed and financed. Sonia Sotomayor deserves all our respect but the guys won’t care, they never do. When she sits on the Supreme Court, which she will (hooray!), it will be wonderful that at least one woman’s character wasn’t successfully assassinated this past year.

  25. Actually, in Alaska, governor Sarah Palin is already making nomination
    at the Alaska supreme court.

  26. It is refreshing to read intelligent debate and responses about both of these women. Whether or not people think they were/are qualified for certain roles, they have both obviously worked very hard to get where they are. The insults, snide comments, hysteria and downright lies that feature in so many articles about women in politics (and especially Sarah Palin) reflect on the integrity of their authors rather than the skills, qualifications or strengths/weaknesses of their subjects. The media continue to lose credibility when it comes to covering women in politics. Sadly, many of the worst offenders are women themselves.

  27. The stuff being said about sotomayor hasn’t been nearly that bad (yet)

    Seriously??!!??

    The woman has been compared to David Duke, a civil rights group that she has ties to was compared to the Ku Klux Klan, and claims have been made that her mentrual cycle would affect her jurispendence. All of these things have been said by nationally recognized figures with microphones.

    How the fuck much worse can it get? Do they need to come out and call her a worthless lowlife stupid spic cunt for it to be “that bad”?

  28. she did not know the necessary basics to fulfill the role of Vice President

    Joe Biden????

    You can’t be fucking serious.

    Biden’s chronic foot-in-mouth syndrome aside, are you really claiming that a first term governor of Alaska whose foreign policy credentials were the ability to “see” Russia from her home state compare in anyway to a six-term US Senator who spent many years chairing the Foreign Relations committee, making numerous diplomatic overseas trips, authoring numerous pieces of important legislation (including the extremely pro-feminist Violence Against Women Act)?

    Did you bother watching the VP debate? Did you see any of the polls afterwards?

    Wow. Just wow.

  29. I’d like to make three points:

    1. Rising up from the hardscrabble life out in a remote Alaskan village, Sarah Palin is every bit the success story as Sotomayor. Alaskan politics is a blood sport…and the fact that Gov. Palin was tough enough to take on the corrupted “good ol’ boys club” that existed within her own party, says a lot about the mettle of this woman.

    2. Sarah Palin is in the process of making her third State Supreme Court appointment. She has made bipartisan selections all of them…and has proven that she does not use abortion as a litmus test (her last appointee served on the board of Planned Parenthood.)

    3. Yes, I watched the VP debate. The polls clearly showed that the American public, as much as they wanted to claim Sarah lost, felt she’d more than held her own.

    4. How many of you know that after decades of bickering and conflict between industry and enviromentalists, Gov. Palin, was able to accomplish something no other Governor (all men) were able to…bring both groups together and hammer out the Alaskan Pipeline…which will be the biggest infrastructure project in American history. Yes, the biggest.

    5. Not every American feels that Obama was or is qualified to be President.

    6. You so-called “feminists” need to shake off the media brainwashing and realize that Obama’s team (with the MSM) conducted a sexist, demeaning and degrading campaign against Clinton. I was a H.Clinton supporter and was disgusted by the way she was treated…and it is half the reason I think Obama is a thug.

    7. As for Russia…the Alaskan National Guard has to deal with Russian military flying into their airspace quite a bit. The last incident was in Jan of 2009. As Russia is becoming more aggressive in staking claims to natural resources in the arctic (within the Alaskan coastal borders)…these encroachments will only increase (indeed, Russia has also been toying with Canadian airspace as well) The US’s most strategic and biggest Defense Shield is in her state. This winter she hosted a delegation of ambassadors from all over the world (including Russia) and has a very close economic relationship with Canada (she has teamed Alaska up with Canada for the Pipeline.)

    8. Don’t believe anything you have heard or will hear about Sarah Palin in the media. Go to her Governor’s website for the official news about her governership…or join her Twitter. We women, whether we are on the Left or Right, need to stop letting our thinking be manipulated by a media that has an agenda.

    9. I still support Hillary, and hope she can bring some sanity into Obama’s White House, but after doing my own research on the enigma which is Sarah Palin…I definitely will support her if she makes a bid for the presidency.

  31. Also, SEK, the right would like us to believe that “sexism” as a phenomenon does not exist, that unfair discrimination against women on the basis of sex/gender occurs only as occasional isolated incidents rather than as a near-universal practice rooted in patriarchy. They want us to believe that the overwhelming preponderance of (white, straight, able-bodied) men in positions of power and influence is because (white, straight, able-bodied) men really are the pinnacle of humanity and no one else can make the cute.

    Saying that Sotomayor is getting “Palined” is a way of dismissing the phenomenon and making out that sexist discrimination is so rare that it doesn’t have a name, just the potential for comparison between individual incidents.

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