DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THE PALINS WHO EXCUSE IT

I thought I had heard everything crazy there was to be heard in the current presidential campaign, but then former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin took to the stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma yesterday at a Donald Trump for President rally and dropped another whopper – President Obama was at fault for the beating Palin’s twenty-six year old son, Track put on his girlfriend on Monday.

If you haven’t heard the news, Track Palin was arrested and charged with assault, interfering with the report of domestic violence and possession of a firearm while intoxicated after he punched his girlfriend in the face, kicked her in the knee and menaced her with his AR-15 assault rifle. Track Palin is an Army veteran, with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt, so when Track decided to “put-a-hurting” on somebody much smaller and diminutive than him, the result was not going to be pretty. Monday’s battering of his girlfriend wasn’t either.

If you thought the story couldn’t get any worse, you’d be wrong!

As I mentioned earlier, Track’s mom, Sarah Palin decided to enter the fray, blaming Track’s physically and mentally abusive, and yes, criminal behavior on none other than the President of the United States, Barack Obama. She told the crowd of Trump supporters in Tulsa that her son’s violent behavior was the direct result of a President who, according to her narrative, doesn’t appreciate our Nation’s combat troops. Yeah, you read that right. Barack Obama is the reason Track Palin beat up his girlfriend. Could domestic violence excuses get any crazier?

According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, a woman gets beaten every nine seconds in the United States. Three women will be murdered by a current or former male partner here every day. Over 4.7 million women are beaten in some manner by intimate partners every year. These are just United States statistics. The numbers world-wide are staggering. Seventy percent of women around the globe will experience physical and/or sexual abuse by an intimate partner during their lifetimes. According to Sarah Palin, all that violence can be laid at the feet of Barack Obama.

Is it any wonder that the violence continues unabated? Can we truly expect people to open their eyes to the immense scope of domestic violence and the suffering it inflicts when people with notoriety such as Palin make such outlandish excuses? I doubt it. Until people like Palin stop placing the blame for domestic violence on anybody but the abuser, the beatings and rapes and murders will go on forever.