Vol. 73/No. 25      June 29, 2009

Class-conscious workers reject any demeaning of women or girls as sex objects regardless of the target or the source. Such “humor” is aimed at reinforcing stereotypes about women as weak and vulnerable and not equals in the workplace, the union, or society as a whole. Far from being “jokes” or even “jokes in bad taste,” as some liberal papers delicately described them, Letterman’s vile rants were a political attack on working women. He got away with it because Palin is a conservative Republican. Had he “joked” about a baseball player having sex with one of Michelle Obama’s daughters, or said the president’s wife looked like a “slut,” he would be out of a job right now. Instead, his ratings are going up among viewers within a certain social layer of the “sophisticated, urban, liberal elite” that votes Democratic.

It comes as no surprise that no one in the entire Obama administration, beginning with the president himself, has uttered a word against Letterman. Nor have the most prominent leaders of the National Organization for Women or other feminist organizations. By their silence they have allowed the conservative forces—who are every bit as antiwoman and anti-working-class—to pose as defenders of working women’s rights.

Such silence also emboldens those who seek to intimidate women and their supporters in the fight for women’s rights. After a rightist gunned down Dr. George Tiller for providing abortion services for women, Obama issued a feeble two-sentence statement saying he was “shocked and outraged.”

Class-conscious workers also reject any social engineering by those self-appointed to tell working people when to have or not have children and how many children is “too many.”

In his “apology” for his remarks, Letterman escalated the attack, saying he wasn’t joking about Palin’s 14-year-old daughter Willow but her 18-year-old sister Bristol, who, he added, did get “knocked up.” Letterman’s statement reeked of the contempt many middle-class liberals have for teenagers—most often working class—who decide to bring a pregnancy to term, rather than have an abortion so they can better plan their “futures.” Who are the liberals to decide if Bristol Palin is ready to have a baby? Or to dictate how many children Sarah and Todd Palin or any other couple should have?

Letterman has complained on his show numerous times that Palin reminds him of a flight attendant, a woman behind the bakery counter, or a waitress—she reminds him of a worker. She brings out the contempt, and the fear, he and other liberals have for workers, especially for the prospect that working people might someday run the country.

In fact, Palin was a businesswoman before she became governor. Her policies are no more pro-working-class than those of the Democrats. But that is not the issue here. What is at issue is whether it is acceptable to whip up antiwoman prejudice under the guise of attacking an unpopular political opponent. On that question the working class takes the moral high ground and rejects both Letterman’s behavior and that of the liberals who apologize for him.  
 
 
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