Desperate conservatives fooled by Palin?

As America prepared to celebrate Independence Day, Sarah Palin declared her own independence – as a woman. By announcing she was resigning as governor of Alaska 18 months before the end of her term, Palin shocked adversaries and friends alike. While the media fireworks temporarily pushed Michael Jackson coverage off the front page, Palin naysayers like NBC's Andrea Mitchell opined that perhaps she was missing family life after a tiring stint of politics.

Fat chance of that.

Palin is an avowed feminist. As such, her husband and children have to fall in line behind her career goals. If everyday actions speak louder than words, then she holds more affinity with her pro-abortion feminist sisters than with her conservative sisters nursing babies at home.

When John McCain introduced Palin as his running mate last September, she praised both pro-abortion Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton, saying, "It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America, but it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."

Palin is aiming for far loftier targets than mere wolves and moose.

At a news conference, Palin made her priorities clear: "We've got to put first things first. I love my job, and I love Alaska." And in a later Facebook entry, Palin said she's leaving the governorship for a mysterious "higher calling."

It came close to sounding as though Palin's family was a priority when she said, "…every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it's right for all, including your family." She also stated, "…we know we can effect positive change outside government" and "actually make a difference."

Was Palin talking about "the hand that rocks the cradle" kind of difference that celebrates motherhood and the value of children, not only inside the womb, but outside as well?

Palin's history over the past 17 years tells another story. Three years after the birth of the first of her five children, she entered the rough-and-tumble world of Alaska (and eventually national) politics and has never looked back.

Has America become so emasculated that our only hope of getting another Ronald Reagan into the Oval Office is to idolize Palin as a political Madonna? Hardly.

Do we have no men who can match her intelligence, charisma and leadership skills? To the contrary, we have better.

Have conservatives become so desperate for a passionate leader that they forsake their most basic values of home and hearth? Yes, but it's more than that.

Sarah Palin represents the empirical self of millions of women working outside the home. They live vicariously through her supposed success. Seeing such a woman extolled gives credibility to their frantic lifestyle juggling job, children, husband, church, and housework.

It has been said that part of Palin's appeal is that her family is like so many other families. She is today's American woman, who works outside the home and does it all. Whose daughters get pregnant out-of-wedlock. Whose husbands wear the aprons.

Have we gone insane? Is this something to celebrate?

There are certainly some valid reasons to support Sarah Palin. Her passion for the unborn is refreshing. Her strong support of Second Amendment gun rights is vital to our personal and national security. But her easy dismissal of the value of being at the center of a home and her children's lives seems antithetical to true, conservative "family values."

Our society has so twisted the distinctiveness of womanhood that we no longer recognize it. If our Founding Fathers could see their country now, what would they say about women fighting in combat overseas? What would they think about a mother of a young baby being the commander in chief of America's military? What would they say as she walked the line exchanging salutes with soldiers? They would hang their heads in shame.

There was a time when society understood that some responsibilities are best handled by men and others best handled by women. It has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with cherishing our differences. Diversity is in vogue everywhere except when considering the innate distinctions between a man and a woman.

There was a time when people had common sense.

Those on the left have correctly noted that Sarah Palin is as revered and idolized in conservative circles as much as Barack Hussein Obama is worshipped by his followers.

It is a tragedy that many Christian conservatives today have so lost their spiritual moorings that they no longer see the womb as sacred. They no longer place the wellbeing of children ahead of their own careers, their own pursuits, their own pocketbooks.

Recently, prominent feminist Erin Pizzey changed a position she had held for decades. She now believes women should stay home to look after their children while the fathers work outside the home. In a BBC2 documentary, "The Trouble With Working Women," Pizzey said, "I think the traditional way the family was run has been going for thousands of years and it works. What I see now is men disenfranchised from their roles. Women are lost because they now have to work full-time…There is no proper child care, there's nobody home when the children come home."

Convinced that the paragon of the working woman is a myth, Pizzey says, "I don't think anybody foresaw what that freedom of choice would do. It's imprisoned many women … I just see an exhausted generation of women trying to do it all."

It has been said that the sin of homosexuality precedes judgment on a nation. Yet, the first instance in Scripture where we see a curse enacted was in the Garden of Eden when a woman took the lead and a man followed. Does this not describe America today? "As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them," says Isaiah 3:12.

As conservatives continue chanting Sarah Palin for president, are they disenfranchising the men capable of stepping up to the plate in 2012? There are many strong conservative men better qualified to lead the greatest nation in the world.

I pray these men rise to the fore and that Sarah Palin begins to turn her heart toward her home.

I pray America wakes up to realize once again that the hand that rocks the cradle truly rules the world. That is a mother's highest calling. That is Sarah Palin's calling.

Olivia St. John is a freelance writer with almost 20 years of experience as a home educator. Her work has been featured in several online publications, and she is seeking a publisher for her book promoting home education.