RUTHFULLY YOURS

It’s the political season, and I want to cut Sarah Palin some slack. She and her family have endured disgusting, unjust verbal abuse over the years, and I like her, personally.

But some things cannot be overlooked. I would not be discussing her son’s arrest this week except that, in the highest-profile way, at a Tulsa rally, she did something grotesque and disturbing: She blamed President Obama for the fact that her 26-year-old son beat up his girlfriend this week.

Allegedly, I must say, since he hasn’t yet been convicted. But Palin did not claim that her son was innocent; she instead said that, because he served in Iraq, post-traumatic stress disorder was responsible for his behavior: “I can talk personally about this. I guess it’s kind of the elephant in the room — because my own family, going through what we’re going through today with my son, a combat vet having served in a Stryker brigade fighting for you all, America, in the war zone. But my son, like so many others, they come back a bit different. They come back hardened,” Palin said.

As Politico reported her speech:

“They come back wondering if there is that respect for what their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military have given so sacrificially to this country, and that starts at the top,” she continued, touting Trump as the best choice for president. “It’s a shame that our military personnel even have to question, have to wonder if they’re respected anymore. It starts from the top. The question, though, it comes from the top, the question, though, that comes from our own president where they have to look at him and wonder, ‘Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we’re trying to do to secure America and to secure the freedoms that have been bequeathed us?’”

According to police reports this is what happened: Track Palin and his girlfriend of one year were arguing for several hours about the fact that she would not drop all contact with an ex-boyfriend. They were drinking. Sarah Palin’s son “struck her on the left side of her head near her eye with a closed fist,” dropping her to the ground where she curled in a fetal position while he kicked her. He threw her phone across the driveway. She ran to get her phone and then ran back inside the Palin home where (again, allegedly, according to the girlfriend) Track met her with his AF-15 Rifle: “Do you think I’m a p****?” and “Do you think I won’t do it?” the documents reported he said.

She ran outside, around the house, and then back into the house, where the police found her crying and hiding under a bed.

PSTD is a real problem for vets, and the military should and does offer care. If a wealthy family like the Palins finds that care inadequate, I am sure they can access help. None of which is to say that Sarah Palin is to blame for her son’s behavior. All of us who have children understand we aren’t responsible even when our hearts break for what they do with their lives.

But we are responsible if we condone and excuse the inexcusable. There is no excuse for a man to beat up his girlfriend in a jealous, drunken rage, Sarah Palin. I know you know that. But you should say it.

Because there are other girls being threatened, other young men being tempted by jealous rage. And most of all, because your son’s well-being should be more important to you than saving your family from public embarrassment. Blaming President Obama for your son’s drunken rage is not just wrong. It’s disgusting.

Sarah, you are better than that.

— Maggie Gallagher is the author of four books on marriage and is a longtime contributor to National Review.