A Palin Theocracy

By Marjorie Cohn

John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin
as his vice presidential running mate has invigorated a lackluster campaign.
The media can’t stop talking about her. Given McCain’s age and state
of health (his medical file was nearly 1,200 pages long), Palin would
indeed be a heartbeat away from becoming President. But what would a
Palin administration really look like?

Palin is a radical right-wing fundamentalist Christian who would love
to create a theocracy. She believes we are living in the “end times”
which will result in a bloody inferno from which only true Christians
will be saved. Palin recently attended a service in her Wasilla Bible
Church run by David Brickner, who runs Jews for Jesus, a group the Anti-Defamation
League criticizes for its “aggressive and deceptive” proselytizing
of Jews. Those who don’t accept Jesus as their savior will burn in
Hell, according to Palin’s brand of theology. 

As Governor of Alaska, Palin asked her congregation to pray for the
natural gas pipeline, which she characterized as “God’s will.”
She thinks the war in Iraq is a “task that is from God.” Palin has
pushed for creationism to be taught in schools, and she opposes stem
cell research. 
 
Palin’s choice to have a Down syndrome child and her teenage daughter’s
choice to continue her pregnancy have made right-wing evangelical Christians
ecstatic. But while she chose pregnancy, Palin would deny a woman victimized
by rape or incest the right to choose abortion, and then criminally
punish both the woman for having one and her doctor for performing it. 
 
McCain would also love to inject a heavy dose of Christianity into his
administration. A year ago, he declared, “The Constitution established
the United States of America as a Christian nation.” Just about the
only issue on which McCain has not flip-flopped is his opposition to
abortion rights. The next president will almost certainly make at least
one appointment to the Supreme Court. McCain has pledged to appoint
judges in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel
Alito; these would also be Palin’s preferred judges. Another conservative
on the Court would mean that Roe v. Wade will be overruled. That will
return us to back alley abortions with coat hangers.  
 
Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, said that “this election
is not about issues . . . This election is about a composite view of
what people take away from these candidates.” The Republicans know
they will lose if they really focus on issues such as the economy, the
war, healthcare, education, and the

environment. They are hoping that pro-choice
women who supported Hillary Clinton will gravitate to Palin because
she’s a feisty – albeit anti-choice – woman. They are also banking
on support from people who cannot bring themselves to vote for a black
man. 
 
But those non-evangelicals who back the McCain-Palin ticket do so at
their peril. Not only will they continue to suffer four more years of
the disastrous Bush policies; they will also find themselves living
in a Christian theocracy.