A rare political rant
Sep. 30th, 2008 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angharaOkay, couple of things, and then I'll shut up - with great pleasure I'll shut up because so much hot air is already being pumped into the atmosphere and we DO have global warming to worry about - but just a couple of things -
America, GROW UP. Please stop voting on the basis of a limited and thoroughly useless set of criteria that define a candidate as an individual which then determine (based on your OWN identity as an individual) for whom you're SUPPOSED to be voting. Please don't vote for Obama because he is black (and not voting for him would be, God forbit, racist, or (if you yourself happen to be black) traitorous to your kind). Please don't vote for Palin because she is a woman (and not voting for her would be, God forbid, sexist, or (if you yourself happen to be a woman) traitorous to your gender). Please don't vote for McCain out of some misguided notion that because he installed Palin in the VP position he must be this shining example of feminism (forgive me but [SNORT!])
Vote on the damned issues. Vote for the person who believes as you believe. And honestly, make the effort to find out. If you don't, then you dig your own graves and you have no leg to stand on when you whine afterwards what a mess your candidate has made of things.
This has particularly come to annoy me because of the debates and their potential for "racism/sexism" in the sense of finding some in the interaction between the two debaters whether there is one or not.
In the case of the presidential debates (and seriously, people, this two-party thing is painfully obviously not working - how about including some of the other folks out there, just to balance out things...?) we have the racism card AND the ageism card - double whammy. Obama is supposed to handle McCain with kid gloves because he should "respect" age. McCain... well McCain does what he wants, anyway, and somehow somewhere someone always finds excuses for him. But in theory, shall we say, it is "not done" for him to make reference (however oblique) to the fact that Obana happens to be black. Grow up, America. If you have to shut your eyes, dammit, and stop LOOKING at them. Forget what they look like. What are they SAYING? What are their beliefs? What do they say that their actions as potential presidents will be? Do you think they are trustworthy? THAT matters. Not who's white or who's black. Just get over it.
In the case of the VP debates, coming up, I've seen commentaries that both candidates will have their own problems. Palin, apparently, has to tread a fine line between being seen as a passive (=female, woman) debater if she she treads softly, or being seen as a bitch if she does not. Biden has to tread an equally fine line between not saying anything remotely hard-hitting about Palin and her record (in case he is seen as a bully), not being seen to pat her on the head and treat her as a "little woman" (in case he is seen as being sexist) and god forgive him if SHE says something sharp and he defends himself with equal measure, because he will be "not playing fair". Again, IT DOOESN'T MATTER. Really, people, it doesn't. If Palin were a man she would have been laughed out of that position by now - but because she's a woman she's indulged and given leeway because omigod taking issue with some of her stuff is SOOOO SEXIST. Well, I'm sorry if I am offending anyone's feminist principles, but I think that according to the evidence so far she seems to be swinging between an empty-headed dolt (what WAS that crack about Putin all about? And I've lived on several continents, and it doesn't matter that I was a child when I lived in Africa, but in her terms I have enough foreign policy experience to run a galaxy by now...) and a dangerous fundamentalist whose accession to the throne of the United States (and make no bones about that, America, it's a throne) would set back feminism, environmentalism, and science back by a century. She was blessed against WITCHCRAFT, for Ghu's sake. I understand faith, but what is this, Salem? Are there going to be stakes springing in people's back yards any time soon? And if you haven't seen the video that the Defenders of Wildlife have put out on her okaying the aerial shooting of wolves - in winter, chasing them down endless snow fields where there is no shelter until they are exhausted and then shooting them and then leaving them to die slowly and in pain and okaying a $150 bounty for the forepaw of any slaughtered wolf and killing defenseless cubs in dens - oh GOD, it makes me sick to my stomach... And we won't even talk about the whole "pro life" thing. Lady, do what you want, but hands off MY body. Your God did not give you the authority to decide how *I* want to live. This is not an issue that you can legislate for me. So she's a woman. So fricking what? Being a woman doesn't entitle you to votes. Even thinking that, THAT's being sexist. In the extreme. Stand on your principles or fall by them, who cares if you're a man or a woman or a gorilla who has been taught sign language or a tentacled alien from planet Xsoeirghoseurg. Being a woman doesn't entitle you to women's votes - and please note, the legal right to decide what to do with your own body is something that's been fought for, just as the right to vote has been. Start backpedalling, and women will soon be back in suffragette sashes, chaining themselves to fences and being force-fed in prisons. Ladies, your grandmothers fought and suffered for the right to vote. Don't squander a vote on what it OUGHT to be rather than what it SHOULD be. Vote your convictions. YOURS. Not society's, not your man's, yours. They are all you have.
Grow up, America. Forget the cultural/gender/race identity of the candidate and comparing it to your own and figuring out how you ought to be voting so as to cause the least offense to everybody. Go out and offend people. It's time. Vote your principles, not your genes, not your indoctrinations. Vote for us ALL, not just yourself.
That's it. End of rant. I return you to your regularly scheduled activities now.
America, GROW UP. Please stop voting on the basis of a limited and thoroughly useless set of criteria that define a candidate as an individual which then determine (based on your OWN identity as an individual) for whom you're SUPPOSED to be voting. Please don't vote for Obama because he is black (and not voting for him would be, God forbit, racist, or (if you yourself happen to be black) traitorous to your kind). Please don't vote for Palin because she is a woman (and not voting for her would be, God forbid, sexist, or (if you yourself happen to be a woman) traitorous to your gender). Please don't vote for McCain out of some misguided notion that because he installed Palin in the VP position he must be this shining example of feminism (forgive me but [SNORT!])
Vote on the damned issues. Vote for the person who believes as you believe. And honestly, make the effort to find out. If you don't, then you dig your own graves and you have no leg to stand on when you whine afterwards what a mess your candidate has made of things.
This has particularly come to annoy me because of the debates and their potential for "racism/sexism" in the sense of finding some in the interaction between the two debaters whether there is one or not.
In the case of the presidential debates (and seriously, people, this two-party thing is painfully obviously not working - how about including some of the other folks out there, just to balance out things...?) we have the racism card AND the ageism card - double whammy. Obama is supposed to handle McCain with kid gloves because he should "respect" age. McCain... well McCain does what he wants, anyway, and somehow somewhere someone always finds excuses for him. But in theory, shall we say, it is "not done" for him to make reference (however oblique) to the fact that Obana happens to be black. Grow up, America. If you have to shut your eyes, dammit, and stop LOOKING at them. Forget what they look like. What are they SAYING? What are their beliefs? What do they say that their actions as potential presidents will be? Do you think they are trustworthy? THAT matters. Not who's white or who's black. Just get over it.
In the case of the VP debates, coming up, I've seen commentaries that both candidates will have their own problems. Palin, apparently, has to tread a fine line between being seen as a passive (=female, woman) debater if she she treads softly, or being seen as a bitch if she does not. Biden has to tread an equally fine line between not saying anything remotely hard-hitting about Palin and her record (in case he is seen as a bully), not being seen to pat her on the head and treat her as a "little woman" (in case he is seen as being sexist) and god forgive him if SHE says something sharp and he defends himself with equal measure, because he will be "not playing fair". Again, IT DOOESN'T MATTER. Really, people, it doesn't. If Palin were a man she would have been laughed out of that position by now - but because she's a woman she's indulged and given leeway because omigod taking issue with some of her stuff is SOOOO SEXIST. Well, I'm sorry if I am offending anyone's feminist principles, but I think that according to the evidence so far she seems to be swinging between an empty-headed dolt (what WAS that crack about Putin all about? And I've lived on several continents, and it doesn't matter that I was a child when I lived in Africa, but in her terms I have enough foreign policy experience to run a galaxy by now...) and a dangerous fundamentalist whose accession to the throne of the United States (and make no bones about that, America, it's a throne) would set back feminism, environmentalism, and science back by a century. She was blessed against WITCHCRAFT, for Ghu's sake. I understand faith, but what is this, Salem? Are there going to be stakes springing in people's back yards any time soon? And if you haven't seen the video that the Defenders of Wildlife have put out on her okaying the aerial shooting of wolves - in winter, chasing them down endless snow fields where there is no shelter until they are exhausted and then shooting them and then leaving them to die slowly and in pain and okaying a $150 bounty for the forepaw of any slaughtered wolf and killing defenseless cubs in dens - oh GOD, it makes me sick to my stomach... And we won't even talk about the whole "pro life" thing. Lady, do what you want, but hands off MY body. Your God did not give you the authority to decide how *I* want to live. This is not an issue that you can legislate for me. So she's a woman. So fricking what? Being a woman doesn't entitle you to votes. Even thinking that, THAT's being sexist. In the extreme. Stand on your principles or fall by them, who cares if you're a man or a woman or a gorilla who has been taught sign language or a tentacled alien from planet Xsoeirghoseurg. Being a woman doesn't entitle you to women's votes - and please note, the legal right to decide what to do with your own body is something that's been fought for, just as the right to vote has been. Start backpedalling, and women will soon be back in suffragette sashes, chaining themselves to fences and being force-fed in prisons. Ladies, your grandmothers fought and suffered for the right to vote. Don't squander a vote on what it OUGHT to be rather than what it SHOULD be. Vote your convictions. YOURS. Not society's, not your man's, yours. They are all you have.
Grow up, America. Forget the cultural/gender/race identity of the candidate and comparing it to your own and figuring out how you ought to be voting so as to cause the least offense to everybody. Go out and offend people. It's time. Vote your principles, not your genes, not your indoctrinations. Vote for us ALL, not just yourself.
That's it. End of rant. I return you to your regularly scheduled activities now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-30 06:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-30 07:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-30 07:57 pm (UTC)Huzzah! I am *so* bloody tired of some politicians waffling and dodging and candy-coating and just plain lying in order to present themselves in the best light possible. I want them to stand on their own two feet and take a stand, dammit.
And I'm disgusted by some voters who are so afraid to choose a side because they're worried about how they'll appear. This election should be about _issues_ and not _appearances_ and it's about time voters started asking tough questions and expecting tough answers so they can make tough choices.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-30 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-30 11:51 pm (UTC)