John McCain’s decision to pluck Sarah Palin from her strategically Russian-facing igloo to run as his VP has left both campaigns wondering how the selection will play out for different demographics. A lot of virtual ink has been spilt on how White, non-Latina women are increasingly showing support for McCain since he brought Palin on board. But what about the impact it will have on voting Latinas? Surely, they’re not voting for some Black man! (Except, you know. When they are.) Will they be wailin’ for Palin in the high-pitched, fiery yelp so characteristic of Latin women? Writer Ruben Navarrette Jr. muses that Palin’s ability to shoot live children out of her body might have some sort of effect on voting Latinas:

I haven’t seen any polls on how Latinos feel about Sarah Palin, but I have received plenty of feedback from readers, friends and family members. With that all important group of Latina voters, many of whom supported Hillary Clinton and may be open to supporting McCain, their measure of Palin and her character may come down to what they consider her most important job: mother. In a community where family is everything, some Latinas feel strongly that she shouldn’t be running for national office and instead should be paying more attention to the home front. Others, who have worked hard to juggle work and family, empathize with her struggle, take pride in her accomplishment, and cheer her on.

However, the woman who wears the other half of Guanabee’s broken-heart-charm friendship necklace, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, thinks that, if Latinas vote for Palin, it’s not because she shares certain values associated with Hispanics, but because she’s has a particularly notable pair of great big bouncing ovaries. Alisa, she writes, believes many Latinas in the United States have faced more discrimination based on gender than on ethnicity:

I realized something very important in the shift of my two friends to McCain. I realized that for many Latinas, the No. 1 discrimination they have battled is not racism, but sexism. Both of my friends are in their 40s, and grew up in traditional households. One of them was expected to serve her father and brothers before sitting down to eat herself, and only then once the men were done. The other was told not to question the patriarchal authority of the Catholic Church. Both of these amazing women have had to fight very hard to be where they are now, and both of them grew up in communities where Latinos were the majority population - in other words, they did not have a “minority” racial experience. It was their sex that set them apart, that made life harder for them.

That’s definitely been our own experience. But what should that have to do with the way we vote?

What bothers us about these sort of discussions on voting and demographics is how people are simplified and made to fit into categories as if these were mutually exclusive and immutable. What bothers us even more though is how, often enough, these simplified categories tend to actually function predictably. Sometimes voters really do vote according the boxes in which they’re placed. Women really do plan to vote for Sarah Palin because she’s a woman, without — as Alisa notes in the case of her friends — any real understanding as to where she stands on certain political issues. Some people do vote blindly along party lines, without regard to how that choice might conflict with their personal stances on issues like the economy, the environment, health care, etc. It’s all about the brand ©, people.

So take one moment, put down your ubiquitous rosary and rolling pin, and let us know what determines how you vote:

Palin could help McCain with Latino vote [Tallahassee]
Latinas and Palin [Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez]