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Um, politics?
Apologies for my only post in ages being about politics but, um... wtf, McCain? Your vice presidential candidate's credentials are apparently being a "pro-life woman who is the governor of our northernmost state. She is conservative and a mother of five" who was an "aggressive basketball play[er] on the state championship basketball team...And she was runner-up for the Miss Alaska title, won Miss Congeniality in that contest and plays the flute." I... um, did I miss something here, where people are actually supposed to be qualified for this sort of thing? Like, other than being a soccer-mom? Yes, I'm annoyed because McCain is playing politics hardcore with this. Yes, I'm annoyed because she's a pro-life woman (what the crap?). But mostly I'm annoyed and offended that he clearly thinks this is going to win him women voters who are disenfranchised after Hillary's defeat.
Guys (or really, I should say girls), if we are voting for someone just because she's a woman, there is something very wrong. I really hope the bloc of old-school feminists (like my mom, who I had many an enjoyable debate with during the primaries), who I think are the target here, isn't so easily swayed. I'd be embarrassed to be the offspring of one if that was the case. To me, this isn't some sort of empowering thing. Voting for her wouldn't help anything. At most, she'd be a footnote in history (unless McCain died) as the first female vice-president... who was given a leg-up by an old-establishment white guy. If there's one thing Hillary proved in her campaign, it was that women don't need some old-establishment guy to pull them up (in fact, her old-establishment guy kind of caused more trouble for her.) I mean, I guess Bill did get Hillary into the spotlight in the first place, but he didn't pluck her out from out of his party as some kind of... I don't even know how to classify it. It doesn't seem like she brings anything to the ticket. She seems like decoration. And that isn't a step forward for anyone.
I'm honestly crossing my fingers, though, and hoping this makes enough of a mess of things to make this election about ideological differences, rather than who's playing the race card and who's playing the gender card or whatever. And this, as well as the convention speeches, successfully made me less apathetic to this election again. Yay. Here's hoping I don't let myself get hot-headed at work about this stuff, though, because my office... oooooooh boy. (I vowed today to wear an Obama t-shirt on election day just to see if I'd be sent home to change my clothes, even if it didn't technically violate the dress code.)
And, because I'm not asleep yet... O hay guyz, wat duz uh VP doo? ... Whaaaaaat? I mean, what? Sure, it's before she was picked, but, er... sounds like she'd be lobbying for Alaskans? And also the "I'm used to working hard" thing just sounds like something someone would say in a job interview that wasn't going too well.
La la la politics. Also I'm moving this weekend. It's crazy.
Guys (or really, I should say girls), if we are voting for someone just because she's a woman, there is something very wrong. I really hope the bloc of old-school feminists (like my mom, who I had many an enjoyable debate with during the primaries), who I think are the target here, isn't so easily swayed. I'd be embarrassed to be the offspring of one if that was the case. To me, this isn't some sort of empowering thing. Voting for her wouldn't help anything. At most, she'd be a footnote in history (unless McCain died) as the first female vice-president... who was given a leg-up by an old-establishment white guy. If there's one thing Hillary proved in her campaign, it was that women don't need some old-establishment guy to pull them up (in fact, her old-establishment guy kind of caused more trouble for her.) I mean, I guess Bill did get Hillary into the spotlight in the first place, but he didn't pluck her out from out of his party as some kind of... I don't even know how to classify it. It doesn't seem like she brings anything to the ticket. She seems like decoration. And that isn't a step forward for anyone.
I'm honestly crossing my fingers, though, and hoping this makes enough of a mess of things to make this election about ideological differences, rather than who's playing the race card and who's playing the gender card or whatever. And this, as well as the convention speeches, successfully made me less apathetic to this election again. Yay. Here's hoping I don't let myself get hot-headed at work about this stuff, though, because my office... oooooooh boy. (I vowed today to wear an Obama t-shirt on election day just to see if I'd be sent home to change my clothes, even if it didn't technically violate the dress code.)
And, because I'm not asleep yet... O hay guyz, wat duz uh VP doo? ... Whaaaaaat? I mean, what? Sure, it's before she was picked, but, er... sounds like she'd be lobbying for Alaskans? And also the "I'm used to working hard" thing just sounds like something someone would say in a job interview that wasn't going too well.
La la la politics. Also I'm moving this weekend. It's crazy.
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*grumblegrumble*
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On the bright side, I've had a lot of really interesting, non-angry political conversations with people about this, so at least it's making people back up a little with their ideas and actually think about them. Or lately I've run into more people who are actually conscious of what they say and how they think (which, unfortunately, is probably the case, because I've been around the UofC more). (-;
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Oh, but I do think the U.S. would need an Alaskan beauty queen in office. Clearly it'd improve things. ()
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aggressive basketball play[er] on the state championship basketball team...And she was runner-up for the Miss Alaska title, won Miss Congeniality in that contest and plays the flute
This is so insulting. I didn't feel particularly hostile towards McCain before (although I still wasn't planning to vote for him), but now I kind of want to give him negative votes.
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I so, so wish it worked that way. So all the indifferent, uninformed people could just cast one vote, and after a test, the rest of us could qualify to cast one negative vote each depending on whether we could support our views well. I think we'd have a decent case here. (-;
*fumes*
Re: *fumes*
People who don't give any thought to their political views frustrate me more than people who have the complete opposite views to me. I can still sit down and have interesting discussions with people who don't agree with me. People who just don't think about it, though... it scares me. It really does.
I'm really glad that, from my new apartment, I should be able to bike over to Obama's house and serenade him when he's not around. Or just hang around and let the security guards get suspicious of me or something. (-;