Eve Ensler has long been a source of inspiration for me but her recent piece in the Huffington Post on September 8 articulated what I feel deeply in such a moving way that I had to read a second time aloud. Ensler connects Palin’s aggression toward the planet, women, and women’s bodies in a way that brings forth Palin’s support for the model of domination and intolerance lucidly. These connections and her serious call for solidarity and action parallels my own feelings of urgency and vigilance at this critical juncture.

“I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.”

One blogger responded to Ensler by asking, “Is the feminist movement liberal-only? I encourage feminists to be proud that a woman has finally received a place on the GOP ticket. Use your vote however you want, but don’t dismiss an achievement within the women’s movement simply because she has conservative views.”I don’t view Palin’s presence in the political stratisphere as even a remote victory for the women’s movement as it in NO way supports the tenants of the women’s movement.

In Feminism is for Everybody bell hooks states it clearly:

“…let’s take the issue of abortion. If feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression, and depriving females of reproductive rights is a form of sexist oppression, then one cannot be anti-choice and be feminist. A woman can insist she would never choose to have an abortion while affirming her support of the right of women to choose and still be an advocate of feminist politics. She cannot be anti-abortion while affirming her support of the right of women to choose and still be an advocate of feminist politics. She cannot be anti-abortion and an advocate of feminism. Concurrently there can be no such thing as “power feminism” if the vision of power evoked is power gained through the exploitation and oppression of others.”

Enough said.