The big push to relocate Spinster HQ to points west has begun in earnest. I’m swamped already, but apparently there is a hurricane tearing through the Gulf of Mexico with Texas’ name on it, which really puts a hitch in my gitalong. Everyone in Austin is in a panic. The local news makes sure of that.
“Evacuate! Or stock up on beer and diesel generators!” they warn, genuflecting woodenly before swirling computer graphics with terrifying red centers. “It’s a Level 42 Megacane!”
My sister Tidy called. “I’m off to buy water and batteries.”
This makes no sense to me. Why not invest in umbrellas and rafts?
OK, we might as well get it overwith. Let’s have the blametariat’s views on collaborateuse Sarah Palin, her bridge, and her possible effects on the future of feminism.
In keeping with the natural-disaster theme, I’d rather hang-glide naked over an erupting volcano than see this person in the same zip code as White House.
Camille Paglia (ptui! ack!) calls her a feminist. If this is true, even a stick-finger fire-head bleeding-heart liberal like me can see that in the future, we will call the state-owned uterus “reproductive freedom”, the pink-collar ghetto “equal pay for equal work” and theocracy “separation of Church & State”.
Sarah Palin isn’t going to do anything for feminism. She’s way too pro-life. She opposes policies that will help working women and their children. Yet, she was privileged enough to have a job where it was made easier for her to combine work and family. She cut funding for pregnant teenagers while her own pregnant teenage daughter has access to resources poor teens don’t have. She’s for abstenance only education which certainly didn’t work very well for her own family. When she was mayor of an Alaskan town, rape victims had to pay for their own rape test kits in the emergency room. Ordinarily, I would like to see a woman V.P., but not if she’s going to pander to the patriarchy. She’s a woman who has enjoyed the fruits of the feminist movement, but she wants to put policies in place that will only destroy the progress that feminism has made for women. IBTP.
It’s a pretty common right-wing theme, actually: co-opt words from your opponent and mangle them until they mean something more in line with your point of view. For example, “freedom” becomes “obedience to a stultifyingly oppressive megacorporatheocratic regime hell-bent on killing brown people”. As in, “remember, they hate us for our freedoms, and on this, 9/11 of all days!” Don’t be surprised if Rudy Giuliani gives this exact speech at some point today.
Now they’re taking their turn on feminism. The eventual goal, it would seem, is to corrupt feminism to mean blind obedience to a woman-hating, gay-hating, queer-hating, anything-else-you’ve-got-hating cult that determines what few privileges non-white non-dudes may be permitted through the undeserved generosity of the patriarchy, but which privileges shall never include sovereignty of the body or mind. Evidence of this is Palin’s membership in an organization whose name around which I still cannot wrap my obstreporal lobe: Feminists for Life. To put it in terms her NRA chums can understand, it would be like being a member of Gun Owners Against Ammunition.
I am absolutely terrified that there are people painting her as “the new face of feminism.” There have been a few writers and pundits twisting the definition to suit their conveniences for a while, but I have never seen someone just blatantly take anti-feminism and call it feminism like this.
Being against abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, is not “the new face of feminism.”
Promoting abstinence-only sex education is not “the new face of feminism.”
Someone who said that Hillary Clinton needed to stop whining about unfair criticism and just be superhuman is not “the new face of feminism.”
It is really, really scary the way even the basic tenets of our movement are being co-opted and conveniently defined in ways that help the patriarchy rather than hurt it.
I didn’t like her to begin with but the “victims pay for their own rape kits” thing put me totally over the edge.
Being a woman does not automatically make one a feminist. That’s basic.
Bottom line: I’m scared shitless of this spectre. What better way to squelch feminism that to get a woman to ring the death knell. Men have been making women do their shit work since time began. Why would it be any different with this dirty task? The Republicans want to have their way, and they’ll stop at nothing, including an anti-choice woman on the ticket. What a fun way to overturn Roe vs. Wade!
I have lost all enthusiasm for this election, and I’m even thinking of not voting. At my age, I’ve voted a lot. I have yet to see my vote count. I realized this when Arnold Schwarzenegger became leader of the state I love. It sickens me. I think we’re screwed, and I think feminists all over need to stock up on the metaphorical equivalents of batteries and water. What will we use as a generator when our power goes out?
If she finds her way to the White House (or the vice president’s residence), a broad swath of America will forevermore hold Palin up as a pinnacle of feminist achievement. It’s just a shame that while it is feminism that cleared the way for her to become a mayor, a governor, and a VP candidate, she does nothing but piss all over feminist causes.
Too bad we haven’t heard her ream McCain for his lack of support for the Lilly Ledbetter equal pay legislation. Can you imagine if she forced him to recant on that? But I’m quite sure she won’t. She got hers–so screw anyone else who runs into trouble with sexism.
She’s today’s Phyllis Schlafly.
Palin gives the inattentive observer the message that McCain doesn’t hate women (regardless of his consistent adherence to anti-woman policy and his occasionally calling his wife a “cunt”). But he does, and so does Palin.
If other blamers are talking to wavering “independents,” be sure to point out that a McCain/Palin administration WILL appoint anti-choice Supreme Court justices who WILL overturn Roe v. Wade and we WILL end up with more teen mothers (oh yay let’s marry them all off) and more dangerous illegal abortions.
Not all females are feminists, unfortunately. Does the McCain camp really think that the same people who would like to see a woman in the white house would drop their feminist values for a super right wing-er? Maybe she could do a good job, but I don’t believe she was chosen for her mad political skills.
I ranted about this here if anyone’s interested.
Palin: batshit crazy fundie with as much relation to feminism as a Concord grape. Less.
Her effect on feminism: co-option of the term by batshit crazy fundies. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Me, this stuff worries me. If I hated the press before, I loathe them now. Democrats too. They’re all complicit in our free-fall into a dark, cruel, fascist place that no one believes could ever come about. But no one ever believed a simpleton from Texas could crap on habeus corpus, either.
I’ll hold my nose and vote Obama but I wish there were a new planet we could start anew on, I’d be first in line.
Stay safe. I have nothing good to say about Palin. I’d be happy with the LHC winking us into a black hole at this point.
The problem with what people are posting above is that, yes, it’s true that woman does not equal feminist, but she is a participant in the group Feminists for Life (a distinctly anti-choice group), and this tidbit has been picked up and thrown around haphazardly without anyone checking to see what the group is about.
I think her selection for VP is ominous for feminism; she has made a show of demurring to her husband on several occasions and is frequently referred to as McCain’s ‘cheerleader’ in the press. So here’s a woman who is against women’s right to abortion/cuts funding for social programs/is generally anti-woman and defers to the authority of card-carrying penis owners and is also heralded by moderates and the press as the new face of feminism. I don’t know about ya’ll but that really pisses me off.
Furthermore, she has been quoted in interviews saying that women shouldn’t whine about unfair treatment– that if they want to earn the patriarchy’s respect, they need to work extra hard. This is obviously a lose/lose for women, thankyouverymuch.
She scares me. And the worst part is that no matter how much I hate her, I still have to speak up when I hear “blah blah MILF”, “blah blah she should stay in the kitchen”, “blah blah spankings”. It pisses me off to see it in liberal forums because damn, her politics alone give us plenty to bitch about. Do they have to make fun of her for having the temerity to have a vagina?
Honestly. It sucks to defend someone you’d gladly see exiled back to the tundra.
/soapbox
Here is the Paglia quote: Palin has “made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment.”
Time to put my head in an oven.
Yup.
Hate women enough and anybody can be a runaway success.
I’d put my head in the oven, but it’s electric.
Politics are one thing, but she’s absolutely ruining it for the brown-haired glasses-wearing women of the world. “What are you going to do?” people keep asking me, “You should at least get new glasses.”
As usual, she’s being examined under a mega-microscope due to her being a women and identifying as a mother. We sure do like to tell moms what to do, and publicly judge them on their parenting decisions and style. I even find myself having an unreal obsession with every bit of her life. I hate her guts, yet every piece of data I can gather about her terms as mayor and governor is utterly fascinating to me. I’m sure my own internalized misogyny factors in somehow. I don’t care as much, for example, about the details of McCain’s imprisonment, although on paper that sounds like it would be much more interesting and research-worthy than Palin’s career.
Palin is a lap cat of the patriarchy, plain and simple.
No truer words were ever typed. “Palin is a lap cat of the patriarchy.” - Medbh
Twisty, the panic meter down in Houston has hit the “frantic insanity” mark. Should I duck tape the windows or make cocktails? The cocktails would quell the nausea that I feel when I have to think of Palin in the White House. Think that I’ll go with those cocktails.
that Paglia quote is the most rapist thing I’ve heard in so long.
like beauty and sex aren’t shoved down my prissy throat every day..
it doesn’t seem like there’s anything shocking at all about Sarah Palin. it is disturbing to watch her be a right-wing ventriloquist doll. the entire election is so irrelevant to anything real people are dealing with, and I don’t expect her to be any more in touch with real issues than the other status-quo douchebags wandering around stages in Illinois college towns preening for votes. It would be nice if she were pro-choice, because then at least we’d have reproductive solidarity.
p.s. hey Twisty? if you ever feel like it and have time between hurricanes, would you post some video of your band that once was?
Sorry about the hurricane, here in sweden it´s been depressingly grey and rainy for 3 weeks, is that any consolation?
I think it is now time to officially change the name of the Republican party to the “Jerry Springer” party.
They´re going to win, makes me wish at times that I`d overdosed when I was a hippy.
Palin’s as much a feminist as she is a member of Van Halen: she might like the attention, but she still can’t play guitar.
The thing I can’t get past is how obvious the whole thing is. She is so blatantly anti-feminist. Tremendously, incredibly anti-feminist. Her stances are cruel and often nonsensical. She has sold her daughter’s privacy to the media for her own shot at- something. She belongs to a cult that hates their own private parts. She lies so effortlessly, and so often, that I wouldn’t believe her even if she was only ordering dinner.
And all anybody can say is how fresh she seems.
It’s painful.
From what I hear from every near dear friend of mine, all of whom lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit, swimming through rat-infested, toxic waters past dead bodies was apparently preferable to what happens when you evacuate.
And if Palin gets elected, I want to evacuate to Canada. “Feminists for Life” is an oxymoron, given that “life” means, in political terms, “denying the humanity of pregnant women in favor of the eyeless parasite implanted in her womb”.
When does life begin, they demand to know. As if the pregnant woman isn’t ALREADY alive, unquestionably.
I bring this up because Palin is a member of that disingenuous organization. In the Palin Mccain world, once they make abortion illegal (as well as all types of contraception which can cause “abortions”, since they, contrary to medical opinion, decide “life” starts at pregnancy and pregnancy starts at conception and not implantation), why men will just find themselves MORALLY OBLIGATED to step up and support those lil gals they “seduced” and knocked up, you know, do the right thing. Just like they always did before it was made legal in the first place.
Oh wait. There were homes for unwed mothers then because they wouldn’t. Never mind.
She reminds me, like Schlafly, of Serena Joy from a Handmaid’s tale. The irony of their position is, as happened to Serena, that if they get what they ask for they will lose what they have appointed for themselves as exception to the rules governing all women. They forget they are, or believe they can win a pass out of, being a woman. Serena Joy in the novel is a woman who advocates for women to return to the home, and to live as traditional wives. When the revolution achieves exactly this, she is relegated to her home and out of the public eye. She once made speeches but: “She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn’t seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word.”
I heard a UK politician say he was reminded of a “young Margaret Thatcher” when listening to her big speech where she called herself a hockey mom. His voice sounded as if he meant it as a compliment.
May the Flying Spaghetti Monster have mercy on us all, if those words of ill omen turn out to be true.
I am terrified of this woman. I already have had to switch pharmacies because I dare to want to control whether or not I have any more children. I can only imagine what draconian measures this traitor to her country and her gender wants to start implementing. The religion she is, is one I am familiar with. They want to replace the government with a theocracy. (Seriously.) She’s not just dangerous to we women she is dangerous to anyone who wants this country to progress instead of falling back into the dark ages. (I need a drink, now.) :(
I’ve taken my fear and channeled into a pathetic attempt at humor.
http://ishouldntlovesarahpalin.blogspot.com/
BUT in all seriousness, besides agreeing with all the above posts (How scary IS Camile Paglia’s statement?), I certainly want to echo Lemur’s point about how it is still annoying to hear liberal/democratic/progressive men talk about her in sexist terms no matter how anti-feminist she is.
The Sarah Palin thing is making me lose sleep. I am scared to death that she will become VP and reign Atwoodsian horror upon us all. Actually, said fear might’ve been responsible for last night’s heartburn as well.
What frightens me is that the term ‘feminism’ is now being corrupted. Sarah Palin is being called one. (Yeah, and I’m June Cleaver. Fuck that noise.) Everything I stand for is slowly disappearing from underneath my feet. And it scares the everlasting fuck out of me.
Palin: Talk about giving the P a blow job (can’t remember which commenter came up with that one; I love it)!
If they manage to steal yet another election, I’m praying for a nearby gamma ray burst to annihilate us all and put us out of our misery. Moving to New Zealand will not help, since they’re destroying the whole world.
I see no reason to defend this woman. She is hypocrisy personified. She and McPain are pathological liars, even rivaling King George II. I wish we could say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” to HER. Even if “progressive” men (who are complete phonies if they reject feminism) make sexist remarks about her, I wouldn’t try to clue them in by defending her. Maybe we should say, “Yeah, she should stay home in the kitchen and let a real woman, who knows what’s going on, run the show. Not clueless woman-haters like Palin and that dirty old man she’s campaigning with.”
Perhaps we should all stock up on Plan B now, while it’s still legal (though difficult to obtain).
lemur, I’m right there with you on the unending annoyance of having to speak up at the onslaught of bullshit from people who are allegedly at least within shouting distance of being on the same side. Shut the fuck up about her vagina, or how she must be a monster for not wanting to stay home and raise her five kids. There is so much hideously wrong with McCain-Palin administration, so much wrong with both candidates, so much wrong that has absolutely nothing to do their respective genitals and hormones.
I so need to work on a list of contemptuous adjectives, other than my pathetic selection so far (jerk, meanie), so we can have at them without getting bogged down in stupid old shit like “cunt, bitch, prick”. One of the interesting particulars of those epithets is that the implicit threat is so different for each sex. The underlying threat for men isn’t so much that their dicks will get chopped off, though god knows it’s happened. Instead it’s that their dicks will be shown to be flaccid, limp, or miniscule. But with women, the imagery is never that her vagina is weak or unimpressive or inefficient. It’s that it is vulnerable, always, always vulnerable, even as it’s also rank and disgusting and icky.
Sigh. Okay, there are also the epithets like ball-buster or dyke (which only is useful against straight women, really). There’s no direct line between either of those and the threat of being taught a lesson via one’s vulnerable vagina. But I know the threat is there. We all know it’s there.
My brain is starting to hurt. I know that because (a) it hurts, and (b) it just occurred to me that no one should ever have to pay for her rape kit, and that the work-around is that we’re all armed and we kill our attackers, and drag their bodies to the police station and point and say, “Test that”. I swear we’re never going to get any credibility until it begins to sink into the minds of the predators that they might not live to tell the tale.
Oops. OT. In conclusion, Sarah Palin is a horrible addition to a disastrous ticket. See “church and state, separation of”, for starters. There’s nothing hormonal about that potential catastrophe.
And good luck, Texas. Stay safe. Pet Stanley and the dogs for me, Twisty.
My Andrea-DworkinBot has not stopped motoring around the apartment, making alarm noises, and issuing warnings. This is one of the things she says:
“More than anything else, it is antifeminism that convinces right-wing women that the system of sex segregation and sex hierarchy is immovable, unbreachable, and inevitable—and therefore that the logic of their world view is more substantive and compelling than any analysis, however accurate, of its flaws. It is not the antifeminism of the Right specifically that keeps the allegiance of these women: it is the antifeminism that saturates political discourse all along the political spectrum, the antifeminism that permeates virtually all political philosophies, programs, and parties.”
She says, “It is the pervasiveness of antifeminism, its ubiquity, that establishes for women that they have no way out of the sex-class system. The antifeminism of Left, Right, and center fixes the power of the Right over women—gives the huge majority of women over to the Right—over to social conservatism, economic conservatism, religious conservatism, over to conforming to the dictates of authority and power, over to sexual compliance, over to obedience—because as long as the sex-class system is intact, huge numbers of women will believe that the Right offers them the best deal: the highest reproductive value; the best protection against sexual aggression; the best economic security as the economic dependents of men who must provide; the most reliable protection against battery; the most respect. Left and centrist philosophies, programs and parties tend to vicious condescension with respect to women’s rights; they lie, and right-wing women are quite brilliant at discerning the hypocrisy of liberal support for women’s rights. Right-wing women do not buy the partial truths and cynical lies that constitute the positions of various liberal and so-called radical groups on women’s rights. They see antifeminism, though they call it simple hypocrisy. They are outraged by it.”
Then she says, “That’s from my book, ‘Right-Wing Women,’ pages 233 to 234.”
Then she says, “For crissakes, why don’t you get a Virginia-WoolfBot so I have someone intelligent to talk to? Or at least a Rhoomba to clean this filthy floor and be my pet?”
Sarah Pallin is scary for her extreme views wrapped in a warm fuzzy Mommy. She can hunt the beast, kill it, skin it, cook it and make jerky out of it and still look like a beauty queen after birthing and (raising) 5 babies. She is The Ultimate Survivor.
If only it were not Master Rove and Master Cheney whose bidding she is doing.
I hear her kids party HARD. The Bush girls and the Pallin kids probably have too much in common for my good sense. Because I (used to) party hard. I was a juveniloe delinquent and I know what kind of fucked up parenting it takes for a kid to get to that special place. Thanks, Mommy & daddy.
What I don’t get about is why on earth John McCain picked her. Seriously, were there no other female Republicans who might actually have some, oh, what’s the word, experience? Aside from appealing to the extreme right wing of the party and having fetching ankles (which the old boys’ club might appreciate), what does she bring to the ticket? And moreover, she takes away any argument the Republicans could have used against Obama regarding his “inexperience”, so how can she possibly add anything to the ticket? There’s a cynical part of my brain that thinks it’s because they figure they can’t win against Obama, so they’ve put a scapegoat in the vice presidential spot who can be blamed when they lose the election. Or is that too paranoid?
Nah, you can’t blame the vice-president. They didn’t blame Lieberman (remember?)
Why does any man prefer someone with few ties, less experience, influence, clout?
So she won’t interrupt him when he’s talking.
” It would be nice if she were pro-choice, because then at least we’d have reproductive solidarity.”
It would be great, but she’d never have been picked as McCain’s VP candidate.
“What I don’t get about is why on earth John McCain picked her. Seriously, were there no other female Republicans who might actually have some, oh, what’s the word, experience?”
There are a million and one excellent political reasons why McCain picked her. That lack of “experience” to which you allude is a political asset. She’s an anti-politician. She’s going to “clean up Washington” just like she “cleaned up” Alaska - she sold the Governor’s jet on EBAY for chrissakes. She’s the ultimate in populism. She’ll appeal to “hockey moms” because she is one, the freaky Republican right-wing base because she’s pro-forced pregnancy, pro-Jesus, pro-teaching bullsh*t creationism in schools, anti-decent sex ed and pro-FAMILY (in the right-wing sense of the word). She shores up that base, shores up the (non-feminist) female vote, increases the chances of getting the disillusioned-with-politics part of the right out to vote and helps to lock in the Hillary followers who are claiming they’re going to vote for McCain because Hillary was robbed (logic, not).
In my opinion putting her in that spot was a very, very savvy move for the Republicans, and her inexperience is an asset. Plus, she’s a natural performer - her speech to the convention (while she needs a little more practice with the autocue) was brilliant (not from a policy perspective, obviously, but from the pov of a performance to her audience) and my prediction is that she’ll perform very well throughout the campaign. My money was on Obama until McCain brought Palin on board. Now I’m thinking of having a punt on McCain.
Like Amananta, I am having bad flashbacks from A Handmaid’s Tale. I cannot read much of what is being published by left-wing blogs and other media sources because the sexist crap that most of them are flinging at Palin is making my stomach turn. I don’t agree with any of Palin’s positions either, but attacking her on the basis or her genitals or parental status is way off base. Between the vicious beatdown that Hillary received and the woman-hating vitriol directed at Palin, I just want to put my head in the sand. Sadly enough, despite the sexist crap directed at Palin, I think McCain-Palin will still win in racist America.
That said, I am dying to hear what Twisty makes of Palin, the media and public’s embrace of Palin and what her candidacy means for women and feminism. I keep checking this blog because I am chomping at the bit to hear Twisty’s take on all of this. I had to sit through Camille Paglia’s insane blustering. I am hoping that I’ll have the pleasure to hear about Twisty’s undoubtedly more sane and sensible point of view.
I don’t think she’s the ingenue everybody’s making her out to be. She lacks political experience, and she’s most certainly a too-too-tool of the patriarchy, but that doesn’t preclude her from being a powerful aggressive jerk. My own prejudices lead me to assume that any anti-choice uber-Christian woman with several kids is quiet, subservient, and totally under her husband’s thumb, but of course that’s not always the case. Watch out for her. She scares the crap out of me because she contradicts those expectations.
Rove, or one of his disciples, is behind this brilliantly stupid move. People are lapping it up. They love that she’s “like one of us.” I suspect it stems from the suspicion shared across the political spectrum that politicians are corrupt, that it’s a puppet show run by the PACs and corporations and rich families, so it doesn’t really matter who we stick in any given government slot. Or, they believe the Mr. Smith Goes To Washington outsider narrative. Otherwise, why would people be so pro-Palin, knowing that she has done jack shit to earn the spot? I really can’t think of another reason. Maybe they like her folksy gutsy character. You know. The one she plays on TV.
@Rev. BDL: right on target as usual. Right Wing Women is a really important book, in part because it exposes–for anyone willing to pay attention–that the male “Left” is just as deeply patriarchal as the male Right. So given a choice between being oppressed by one right-wing godbag patriarch–who may, just possibly, stick around and support the kids–and being shared among a batch of irresponsible left-wing patriarchs who’ll head for the hills the moment the word “pregnancy” is mentioned, the Palin option makes a kind of grim sense.
I am terrified and heartbroken at the same time. How wonderful would it have been to finally vote for a woman on the national ticket, and instead I am horrified.
“Palin is a lap cat of the patriarchy.” - is right (sorry - forgot to copy who said it above, bad form I know) She has entrenched herself so deeply with playing with the boys that she forgot that they don’t give a shit about her. Does she actually believe she was chosen on her merits? She was chosen as a strategy; to be used because she is, after all, only a woman, and therefore does not count, other that how can she help the Reps.
Yeah, abstinence education really works, eh? And to put your daughter on the national stage like that is heartless. The young girl has NO CHOICE in her future (of course not, the dirty little tramp having sex before her vagina was deeded over to her husband? - she deserves what she gets), and is being used to dare Dems to say anything. Pure evil. I am pissed ~ and horrified; or did I say that already?
I read an article on Salon the other day about Palin (”Pissed About Palin” by Cintra Wilson) and it was full of choice invectives about her. It started my morning off right. This one was particularly spectacular:
“I don’t want Sarah Palin being the representative leader and custodian of my rights, my Constitution and my country any more than I want polygamist compound leader Warren Jeffs baby-sitting for my preteen goddaughters.”
Over the years, I’ve had my theories about women who willingly brand themselves as conservative and/or vote Republican, and I think I’ve figured it out: they’ve all got some fucked up strain of Stockholm syndrome.
How the hell else can you explain it?
On a totally unrelated note, Twisty, I loved your IKEA rant video from a few posts ago. Just when I thought you couldn’t be any more badass than you already are…
I’m outside of the US and I’ve been watching this whole thing unfold in horror. Now, after reading all of your fears, I’m even more alarmed.
She is like the ideal poster girl for patriarchy. I know women like her; they’ve learned the rules of patriarchy so well they start turning them on the rest of us and get rewarded for it. No wonder the guys are so excited. She helps them justify their own woman-hating attitudes.
Yippee! Discussion of the neopentacostal crazy woman who is the repugnant nominee for VP. The repugnants are offering 2 insane people on their ticket…he has a temper worse than a mad hornet and an obsessive desire to hit a red button that will shake Mother Nature to her core.
When do we get to wake up from this nightmare? I have to laugh or I will cry like a baby.
Twisty…get a flashlight, batteries and a raft! Get ice and put it in the freezer just in case. And lots of alcohol..pot would be better.
Will be thinking of you. Send some of that rain to Ohio so to cleanse the filthy, stupid repugnants up here. I am constantly reminding them of how stupid they are. I can bully with the best of them! I was nice in ‘04…didn’t work. Nice is over.
Take care! As always, I blame.
Despite Maggie Thatcher standing for everything I disagree with, and then some, comparing her to Sarah Palin is an outrage. However horrible Thatcher’s policies were she was successful in her own right. She was no one’s token. Governor Palin’s willingness to be used as a pawn by male Republicans is shameful and bears no resemblance to Margaret Thatcher’s career.
Sarah Palin is another Republican Weapon of Mass Distraction. They knew they needed a spectacle to distract from Obama’s celebrity status (especially since calling attention to it backfired spectacularly). Palin provides such a spectacle. Suddenly, the conversation is about her. That’s what the Republicans are great at - distraction politics and framing the conversation. They lost that in the primaries, when Barack was able to establish change as the defining issue of the campaign, but in the primaries, fortunately for the Republicans, it didn’t matter (although arguably McCain’s nailing the nomination was a ripple effect, since he was the change candidate of the Republican party). But now, Barack Obama has lost his novelty, and we’ve been hearing about change for over a year, and people want to talk about Sarah Palin. She said “Thanks but no thanks” to a “bridge to nowhere;” sold the governor’s private jet on eBay; fired her personal chef. And it doesn’t matter that none of these things are actually true, and that Sarah Palin is a liar and a hypocrite, because the damage has already been done, the disinformation is already out there, and the conversation can now be presented as petty, sexist, unchivalrous Democrats bullying Palin because she is a woman. How dare they, for example, attack the sacred institution of motherhood by calling into question Sarah Palin’s parental decisions - or any of her decisions, for that matter?
And the country is falling for it. The Republicans are getting the media attention and the more anyone tries to debunk the Palin mythos, the more sympathy Palin gets simply because she presents herself as maternal.
And lest we think that the McCain campaign is trying to secure the votes of people who want to see a woman in office - what they’re really trying to do is comfort the people who find women threatening. They’re presenting a contrast with HRC - a woman who many people find very threatening. By selecting her as VP, they’re not saying that women are qualified to lead; they’re saying, “we know what a woman’s place is, and that is as a man’s subordinate, his accessory, something nice to look at while us menfolk do the hard work of making all the decisions.”
And I say again, the country is falling for it. Our media is discussing moose-hunting and beauty pageants rather than the eight years of catastrophic failures we’ve just endured.
When McCain picked Palin he relied on the hope that the vast majority of Americans would be sufficiently sexist to a) hyperfocus on Palin’s gender to the exclusion of even Obama’s star power, b) resent any and all attacks against her positions because it is unseemly to be seen publicly bullying a woman, especially a mother, and c) experience comfort at the idea of a woman in a subordinate position that is famously without responsibilities or decision-making power. So far, the American people are not disappointing him.
Twisty: be sure you have sturdy shoes and a walking stick.
Best.
Okay, I think everyone needs to take a deep breath.
She is a distraction that will blow over; she has to.
Did you see her interview?
My kids know what the Bush doctrine is. She’s on the way to being over. Let her run her course. McCain has stumbled, badly.
It’s true the race might be frightfully close. But these white Republican men (who are truly, deeply sexist to their core) are not going to let this neophyte take over. While they might think “well, her handlers can handle her” I think that deep in their hearts they also know that:
1. She could toss out her handlers if she became president, and they know that they really can’t control her, mostly because:
2. She is truly the religious wingnut that GWB pretends to be. Her allegiance to God is absolute, first and foremost.
She is an inexperienced wild card and I can’t believe people at the end of the day will go along with this.
Sorry for commenting more than once on the same thread, but this morning I accidentally overheard part of her interview with Charles Gibson, and she pronounced nuclear “nuke-you-lur”. All I could think of was “Know-Nothing She-Bush”. And just the fact that she was saying the word gave me a bad wiggins.
I’ll c/p what I posted on another feminist board a bit over a week ago.
“I think she’s a sacrificial lamb. Inadequately vetted, lots of shadows in her past AND present. Get both sides talking like mad about her, just on the heels of Obama’s amazing speech at the convention. Get all the news on the GOP VPILF choice.
Then, all the talk about her being a “beauty queen”, her attributes as a mom, her perceived strengths and weaknesses as a representative of her gender. Women all over the country are insulted that McCain thinks we’re really that stupid. Got news for you. He knows we aren’t. The neocon machine knows we aren’t.
Do you really think they’re going to let someone with 1.5 years gubernatorial experience in a state that has less than half the population of the COUNTY I live in debate Joe Biden? Not a chance.
There’s something else coming that will be worse-no idea if it’ll be Romney, Huckabee, but you can bet your asses it’ll be some stolid white man with an impeccable neocon score, preferably with a highly religious background. Palin will be out in less than a month. The masses will have forgotten Obama’s brilliance and only remember that the GOP put up a woman candidate who failed to qualify. Ergo, in their books, women can’t qualify. We tried, right? We tried to give you a woman, but the little dear just couldn’t handle it. Right.
They’re so amazingly manipulative and the majority of people are so amazingly stupid that they get away with it every time.”
I can’t bring myself to watch the interview from last night but by most accounts, she was both scary as shit (war with russia? seriously????) and squirm-inducingly naive.
If Palin is a feminist, Twisty is an MRA.
I am terrified and pissed off by her, with her “my daughter made a choice that I want to take away from all of you” stand.
I am in love with this thread; I am in love with each of the posters on this thread. It’s like 42 smart cells in my brain suddenly downloaded onto the screen in front of me. I’ve been mute with terror and outrage over Palin and it’s calming to see some of those thoughts articulated.
I’ve got to go get my own Dworkinbot to get me through this, I think.
Also, she makes me think of fembots and the scary feminized men in Joanna Russ’s _The Female Man_.
(To clarify: Palin makes me think of those characters - not of transgender folk.)
Utterly off-topic, but I couldn’t resist pointing the blameteriat at this story. A man faced with divorce proceedings stabbed two of his children to death… and left a note telling their mother not to blame herself. Boggle. Gape.
I guess I don’t really get it. She’s a female W. pure and simple. This does not seem particularly surprising or interesting to me. Yet everyone I know is going batshit over this. “Sarah Palin is the end of the universe blarrrgh!”
I mean, yeah, she’s a crappy right winger. So is McCain. So is everyone else in a position of power in the GOP. In know they’ve been spinning this as a huge vote getter, but we’ll see.
It is a shame the Dems can’t find and run a real progressive with some smarts, convictions and charisma. If they did, the GOP wouldn’t stand a chance after the last 8 years.
le sigh
Blametariat:
I don’t want to bug Twisty with this question, as she must have big problems with Ike. Could someone please explain to me why it says, “Never view this blog with Internet Explorer.” I have been using the AOL browser, which I have heard is based on IE. My recent comments have been stuck in moderation forever, and I swear I’m not some dickhead trying to argue with her - I agree with everything she writes! I’m extremely pro-feminist, though due to early brainwashing and low self-esteem, am not really a very good feminist.
So I figure it must be a problem with the AOL browser, and am now trying to comment using Firefox. But I really like the way I have AOL set up, with the toolbar for my fave sites to visit. Also, in the past I have been able to comment from the AOL browser. I’d really appreciate anyone who could clue me in to the relatively recent problems this blog has with IE and apparently with AOL.
I’m frightened that I am not the only one to envision the Atwood universe in ‘Handmaid’s Tale” when thinking of Palin and what could happen if we went on for a third Republican term.
Thanks, blamers, for putting into words what is making me crawl under the bed and hide for the next four years. Or maybe I’ll jsut make some cocktails and move to Canada. Ugh. Double ugh. Triple Ugh.
Cathy - I always assumed, though I tremble to presume to speak for Twisty here, that she simply dislikes IE. The moderation filter / spam detector can play up for all sorts of reasons, like if you include links or particular keywords.
Love you too, baboon.
I’m not all Arrgh! OMG end of the universe!!!. And I do think she’s her own person, not a cipher. I do think her selection by McCain was fueled by arrogance, cynicism, and a crass play for the religious fundies. (And an expectation that she’ll sing and dance on cue.) So the combination of her unsuitability for national office, along with what it says about McCain’s judgment - well, I think it warrants an Arrgh! and an OMGWtF!.
I picture them getting sworn into office, and I’ll be thinking, “Oh yeah, great, fine. It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. (Substitute “eye” with “economy” or “Bill of Rights” or “infrastructure” or “half of Whatthefuckistan”, etc….) McCain Palin might actually be rilly rilly sorry about it afterwards, but we haven’t got that kind of time.
Thank you blametariat.
I’ll tellya why I’m so scared by Ms. Palin - cause she’s gonna get McCain elected and our country’s standing in the world is going to slide further downhill, culminating probably in lots of little wars everywhere (or perhaps one big one all over). That, and her desire to oppress women, gays, non-Xtians,et al. The situation would be hysterically funny if I weren’t so petrified.
I can’t work out what people mean when they say Palin is inexperienced or unfit for office. She’s no less experienced than Obama and in some ways is more, as she has actually had executive experience. I can understand any Democrat thinking that a Republican is unfit for office, but as it isn’t being said about McCain, I’m wondering if it is because she’s a woman. The only other alternative I can think of is that her lack of an Ivy league degree is figuring in people’s opinions about her.
What’s interesting about Palin is that her candidacy has kept the sexism of the progressive left (both from men and women) front and centre. From that point of view her running for VP has been a good thing for women, whether she’s a feminist or not. Also from McCain’s point of view it was a terrific political move - he’d be nowhere if he hadn’t included Palin. Women being insulted by McCain choosing her are missing the point - they are being treated as a real political constituency rather than a group that can be taken for granted and ignored.
This article by Rebecca Traister at Salon about what Palin means to feminism may be the best thing that I’ve read on the subject:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/11/zombie_feminism/
I share with everyone here a sense of absolute terror about what is unfolding before our eyes. I didn’t think it could get any worse. I didn’t think that even rabid evangelical pro-war anti-choice wackos could possibly look at the last 8 years and vote Republican. And now? Palin casts a coy look over the top of her glasses and they all melt? I don’t get it.
I had been planning a Take America Back party for Nov. 4 but now I’m afraid it might be a Leaving the Country, Greenland or Bust party.
P.S. Twisty, hope you don’t have to spend the weekend in Plano (hack, spit).
Delphyne, you missed a part of one sentence, so I have edited it in:
“Women being insulted by McCain choosing her are missing the point - they are being treated as a real political constituency that votes as a homogenous block based only on identification with other vagina-havers rather than a group that
can be taken for granted and ignoredhas essential dignity and common sense.”There.
Twisty - perhaps I am naive to be swayed still by fear-mongering news, but Ike sounds terrifying. Take care?
Josiesourceofmyfrustation - thank you for that link to Salon. Two paragraphs on the first page perfectly sum up my current deep, black depression - that Clinton’s competence is unpalatable in America, and that Palin’s “utterly digestible . . . feminism without feminists” is popular, and being defended by the last political party on earth I would expect to do so.
I think Palin is the Brandeis Brief of politics (apparently Wikipedia now hails it as a groundbreaking legal brief full of policy). The Brandeis brief accomplished the goal of permitting legislation that reduced women’s working hours, but it was chock full of sexist BS about how women were completely incapable to do much of anything except pump out babies.
If you believe the ends justify the means, then Palin is a good thing - a woman who has an excellent chance of entering the second highest political office in the nation. Once she is in, and the US populace is convinced we are all NOT going to die by having a female leader, then Palin’s VP paves the way for future women, those who are more feminist, to enter the Whitehouse.
However, I think the Brandeis brief is a load of crap (legal gods smite me now), and that the first and second waves of feminism accomplished a hell of a lot more than a bunch of white old men reading briefs that stroked their egos did. Therefore, Palin, McCain, Obama, and Biden have finally convinced me to do something I have not considered since I have been old enough to vote - stay the hell home. And I live in Ohio. I hate all of the candidates enough that I honestly do not care who gets into office.
Before someone brings up Palin’s anti-choice stance - go read the HHS regs for Aug. 20 (effective Sept. 21). Choice is over and dead.
Palin is a colonized woman (term coined by Anne Summers, if you haven’t read Damned Whores and God’s Police, do. Specifics are about Australia, but the premise applies everywhere). Every colonizing power co-opts support from members of the colonized class by extending to certain of its members privileges usually only available to the rulers, while making sure to find opportunities to remind them that their membership is honorary, and contingent on their assisting to opress others of their class.
At least if McCain/Palin were to win (and I’m not for one moment suggesting that it would be anything but a disaster for America and the world) no one would ever again be able to say that a ticket with a woman on it is unelectable.
(Aside: I would also like to register my fanship of the Rev BDL.)
Otherorange, I wasn’t only responding to your remarks - the McCain is insulting us because OMG he chose a woman! complaint has been everywhere. Does being a woman in the republican party make a woman a more insulting choice whenever she’s picked than the equivalent man would be?
Obama was also considering a man who has only been in his governor’s job for two years - would men be being insulted because he was planning to pick someone as equally inexperienced as him? (Are men insulted because they are being expected to vote for someone with as little experience as Obama even?) The answer to that is no they wouldn’t because voting for the penis isn’t seen as icky or wrong as voting for the so-called vagina (you do realise that the people who are using that phrase are just finding another way to call women cunts don’t you?).
McCain chose Palin because he needed someone to appeal to his evangelical base, he needed someone with charisma to unite the Republican party (do you really think there are many women or men who could make than nomination speech to the RNC as a rookie and rouse the troops the way she did?), he’s planning on driling in Alaska and Palin knows the political territory there, he needed someone with so-called maverick credentials to match his which she has whether people like it or not, and he chose her because yes a woman this year would be an electrifying choice - which it is because everybody is talking about her and Obama has even stupidly turned his campaign around to go against her which makes him look weak. She has talents, she has abilities, she has a track record, she has a base to appeal to but for some reason a whole lot of people can’t see past the fact that she is female so automatically she must be useless and she must be an insult. It’s a double standard.
She is not worse than any equivalent republican man on the ticket so the hoo-ha and *outrage* about her are down to misogyny. There is nothing wrong with picking a woman candidate even when it is the republicans doing it.
I hope everybody read that Traister article BTW because it’s a textbook example of getting in touch with your inner sexist. Traister wants a bitch-fight between Hillary and Palin and finds herself unaccountably shaken to the bones by her and wants to see her destroyed. Bet she never felt that way about Dick Cheney and that’s because of misogyny. We’ve still got a long way to go.
“I can’t work out what people mean when they say Palin is inexperienced or unfit for office.”
Have you been awake the last eight years?
“What’s interesting about Palin is that her candidacy has kept the sexism of the progressive left (both from men and women) front and centre.”
For some of us, its kept the sexism (both from men and women) of charging rape victims for their own exams, and forcing them to carry their pregnancies to term “front and centre”. But I guess that’s a subjective thing.
“Women being insulted by McCain choosing her are missing the point - they are being treated as a real political constituency rather than a group that can be taken for granted and ignored.”
I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for our very own Clarence Thomas.
You know, I see Delphyne’s point. To say that the only people Palin appeases are women who only vote with their vaginas is a point uber-sexist Jon Stewardt would make:
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think she’ll get some Hillary delegates?
JON STEWART: The ones that were voting for her purely on gynecological reasons, maybe, but I think politically, no.
Fact is, Jon may think of women as vaginas, but the angry McCain-Clinton voters aren’t about that.
After hearing the Palin interview last night I am very upset, but what really made me upset was, Obama could have picked a woman. One who is in solidarity with women, there are so many in the democratic party, with tons of pull and clout. The fact that McCain found (albeit anti-woman) one and Obama didn’t does hurt.
And anyway, I can understand people getting scared and frustrarted, but it’s not like the Democrats are really that much better. They’re not that pro-choice, the democratic platform even has a statement about needing to “reduce” the number of abortions, ceding the moral stance to the replublicans. Reproductive rights were severely curtailed during the Bill Clinton years, so was international aggression. He bombed and invaded too, I have reasons to believe Al Gore would have killed 2 million Iraqis too.
I don’t need someone to list all the points where the democrats are better; I know, But I’m still not impressed.
So I’m not married to the Obama ticket. I’m voting Mckinney. Hey that’s TWO women, and actual pro-woman women, so yeah, jon, to you I’m voting with my vagina. Just like you do everything with your penis.
If Palin’s soon-to-be grandchild is a girl, maybe she’ll spring for the wee princess’ first ever bikini wax before kindergarten.
http://andromeda.qc.ca/?p=1155 . Yes, it’s rather unrelated to the topic. If anything, it ranks with the high heel booties for crib dwellers.
“Have you been awake the last eight years?”
You’ll have to explain what you mean. I’ve already said that if they are saying she’s unfit because she’s a republican then why aren’t people saying the same thing about McCain? She has about the same amount of experience as Obama, yet somehow because she’s female this makes her singularly unfit.
“I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for our very own Clarence Thomas.”
Yeah because Palin is a porn-using sexual harrasser. That’s such a good comparison.
If you want to look for a woman-hating candidate look no further than Obama. His campaign used misogyny as a political tactic.
We need a new book after “Right Wing Women” - “Liberal Women who ignore the sexism of men on their side”. Both seem equally a problem for women’s liberation.
Delphyne: I think you are willfully misinterpreting the point here. Palin is not unfit because she is a Repubilcan. She is not unfit because she is a women.
I acknowledge my lefty bias, but even taking that bias into account, Palin has not demonstrated that she has what it takes to be a vice-president and possibly a president, things like judgment, historical perspective, Constitutional scholarship, or simply a real solid sense of some fundamental tenets of American government, history, or society. She hasn’t learned enough about the things that matter to be a prospective head of state.
It doesn’t sound like she has been a very good executive at either the town or state level, either, although I’d be willing to reassess that with more information. She seems to have exploited her position in ways that are materially damaging to her electorate. She is intellectually incurious. She reminds me of George W. Bush in many respects.
Delphyne, I don’t know if you really want to consider my point of view. I have responded as though you do. If you are simply venting or soapboxing, well, hell, my friend - have a nice day.
Sarah Palin is a self-hating tool of the patriarchy.
Camile Paglia is a fuckhead.
IBTP
I’m tired of the simplistic comparisons of Obama’s and Palin’s experience in terms of counting months and years, and of estimates about executive experience based on average assumptions about mayors and governors. We already know that being a governor in Texas is nothing like being governor of NY or Ohio, because it’s a weak executive position and the State Lege is part-time. So you have to look at specific cases.
Sarah Palin’s executive experience is minimal, when you consider that she was forced by the party to hire an exec. admin. to run Wasilla for her. The interview with Charles Gibson showed me once again that she does not know anything about the world, and she lacks curiosity as well as information. We’ve gone down that road before, and it took us to hell. That’s the real problem with her. Well, and her anti-feminist position on things like reproductive justice and rape kits.
“We need a new book after “Right Wing Women” - “Liberal Women who ignore the sexism of men on their side”. Both seem equally a problem for women’s liberation.”
Sing it, my sister!!
The Democratic Party allowed Scalia, Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Court, and all without a fight. They don’t fight for choice although they are more than happy to use it as a battering ram against women voters every 4 to 8 years. Their own sexism drove them to push for the defeat of HRC in the Primary and their arrogance led them to dismiss her out of hand as a potential VP candidate.
They opened the door for McCain and Palin themselves and –IMO– they are about to lose another Presidential race.
So go ahead and be “terrified” and “horrified” and whatnot. Just don’t forget who got us here.
A deeply disturbing thought has occurred to me that, since HRC dropped out, the closest thing we have to a feminist on either major ticket is Joe “her doctorate is a problem” Biden (see VAWA).
I’m Palind out and past caring. I’m numb I tell you. Numb. I’m resigned to snoozing until Nov 4, when I’ll vote for McKinney and hope the Greens make a big enough showing this time to get a mic at the debates next time.
(I lie. I’ll be watching all the debates and tearing my hair out at all the logical fallacies, deflections, and tone-deafness from either side. But I’m still voting for McKinney.)
I’m sorry about the pain-in-the-ass scary hurricane, Twisty and all other gulf-coasters. I blame the P and its megatheocorporatocratic affinity for climate-changing pollutants and wetlands destruction.
The problem with Palin is that she doesn’t ignore sexism as much as co-opts it. If turning other women into broodmares is what it takes for her to get all the way to the top, she’ll do it. Not because she’s “evil” or whatever, but simply because she suffers from the same delusions as George W. Bush - she is the Decider, you see. She can do no wrong, since God is on her side.
In this sense, she isn’t a surprising pick for VP at all. Basically, she’s Dubya, with a coating of “down-to-earth regular American” on top.
I hope that the American public can see through that facade quickly enough.
The past 8 years have been disastrous. Time for a change. It’s as simple as that.
Gayle you are so RIGHT ON that they must have invented the phrase in your honor.
Don’t forget what women did — feminists did not support Cinton! Feminists supported Obama. They could have forced him to pick Clinton for VP, but instead they set it up for McCain to make a master chess move.
“Terror” “horror” abortion used once again to scare women into supporting the people who could care less about feminism, who don’t give a damn if their followers are RABID sexists — I used to keep count of the number of times male Obama supporters used the word “bitch” to describe Clinton. After they went over 100 with the “b-word” I’d had it. I am indeed voting for McCain now, and I believe in punishing the democrats for their sell out of women! Bottom line, get the woman in the White House, stop whining and get the job done, because that will open more doors for more women.
Is it time to head for the cave in the Ozarks now?
Twisty (and other horse people) - you might enjoy this blog:
http://www.fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/
I wanted to clarify re: the rape kit issue. Is this something Palin would have had control over as mayor? Where I live (in canada) that is a provincial, not municipal, issue.
Don’t these guys (and I include Palin) realize that if they get rid of abortion there will be more liberal, feminist babies who will vote their asses out of office for all time?
Ah, sanity in the feminist blogosphere (but I admit I’ve stopped reading most feminist blogs).
My take on the Palin question is here:
Palin as an insult to feminists.
Money quote: Palin is one of the women who helped to make Offred a slave.
And here:
Women, Power and Feminism.
Money quotes:
Women are not always our friends.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, survivor of female genital mutilation, did not suffer that mutilation at the hands of her father. Her grandmother mutilated her against the express wishes of her father.
Palin is no Thatcher. She isn’t even a Bhutto.
And today:
A Double Standard?
Money quote: I personally wouldn’t bother to talk about Palin at all if liking her was not being made out to be feministically acceptable (even desirable) by certain feminists I used to like.
(I think I’ve managed to get Palin out of my system now though… sorry to spam Twisty’s comments with links. I hope, Twisty, that you are well and safe.)
No Heather, there won’t be if the Republicans have their way. Those impoverished, disadvantaged, neglected babies if they don’t grow up in prison or spending all their adult time trying to get one foot out of the gutter, they will be near illiterate, easily malleable and ready to be ruled.
We’re getting closer to that ideal everyday. The average American who goes graduates high school and either moves directly into the workforce or first to a third or second rate college, will have developed no critical thinking tools to discern what the hell is happening to them.
All news stations will merge into one giant conglomerate that will soothe the confusion and frustration of the masses with simplistic scapegoating and misinformation. Its already happening, we just haven’t reached the pinnacle yet, but we’re getting there.
Pretty soon the internet will no longer be a place of free discourse, Homeland Security will be monitoring peace rallies and “liberal” groups (they already do to some extent) and people will be shuttered away to jail without hope of representation or even knowing the charges against them. We’re getting there.
Palin is only the part of the cancerous rot that we can see, the real mastitis is hidden deep within the psyches of the powerful and the functioning of the government it feeds.
I know I can’t leave the country, so I’m stuck here, waiting for the day when we all live in fear of our neighbors, when the national guard roams the streets and takes people in the night.
Yes, I’m concerned on a feminist level, but I’m also deeply concerned for our future as a civil and stable society in general. I really am.
To those of you who, like me, were sorely disappointed when Hillary Clinton did not secure the democratic nomination, I’d like to gently remind you of some relevant history.
The 1968 DNC was held in Chicago: Hubert Humphrey won the nomination over Eugene McCarthy by a large margin. Humphrey was a fairly progressive person, and had a history of championing civil rights. However, many of the most liberal parts of the Democratic Party were pro-McCarthy, including much of the anti-war movement. McCarthy was an excellent person; I hated the goddamn war and desperately wanted him to win.
Significant numbers of these liberal Democrats were so angry they decided to support the Republican presidential candidate rather than have anything to do with Humphrey.
The snag was this: the Republican candidate was Richard M. Nixon. A strong statistical argument exists saying the liberal Democrats that voted for Nixon were a deciding factor in his victory. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!
The next president will almost certainly select 3 replacements for elderly liberal-voting Supreme Court Justices: the impact on Roe v. Wade is obvious.
I don’t want to vote for Obama, but it seems that he is by far the less evil of the two. There’s no way in hell I’m staying home on Election Day, and I don’t want the modern-day incarnation of Richard Nixon to be the next president.
Thanks for reading; please be careful.
David
David, the overwhelmingly male U.S. Congress/U.S. Senate have done SQUAT to protect Roe v. Wade for the last 8 years. It’s hilarious that all of a sudden, after dragging Hillary Clinton through horrific misogyny not just during her campaign but since Bill Clinton was president, the left is wringing its collective male hands and urging WOMEN, for dog’s sake, to “please be careful” and do the right thing by voting for Barack Obama — no friend to women at ALL, he.
YOU please be careful, David. YOU make rape a CRIME instead of a shameful mantle to be borne by its victims. YOU stop letting women be public property. YOU start dismantling the patriarchy. Women always do the clean-up work. How about if YOU do some of the ugly, dirty work instead of admonishing us little gals to watch our step and not put The Fate Of The United States Of America At Risk By Not Voting For Obama.
When Obama EARNS my vote, he’ll get it.
Monika–
She signed off on the law. Here ya go:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-alperinsheriff/sarah-palin-instituted-ra_b_125833.html
“So go ahead and be ‘terrified’ and ‘horrified’ and whatnot. Just don’t forget who got us here.”
Lots of things have got us here, most especially the politics of accomodation that that the Clintons and their friends in the Democratic leadership have preached for years. And nothing in the Democratic primaries demonstrated that Hillary had seen the error of her ways, from her refusal to apologize for the war vote, to threatening nuclear war, to race-baiting among the rubes in Pennsylvania and Indiana. A Clinton-McCain matchup would’ve been, I suspect, drearily predictable: she would’ve tried, vainly, to convince Middle America that she loved patriarchy too, and John McCain was a wonderful, honorable man, and she was just as ready if not more so to slaughter foreign innocents without a second thought. The Republicans, meanwhile, would’ve portrayed her as a atheist, Marxist, radical feminist America-hating witch. And given the choice between Republican and Republican Lite, America would’ve gone, as usual, for the real article, and we’d have been stomped.
All of those were reasons, right or wrong, that myself and many other feminists chose to cast our votes for Obama or the other alternatives. I’m very aware of the misogyny used against Clinton in the campaign, but I don’t buy the argument it was any more egregious than the racism employed against Obama. And while I can understand women still being very angry about this misogyny (I understand it, in fact, very well) I don’t get your sense of entitlement. Whatever gave you the idea the primaries were supposed to be a coronation? How could so many of you put forth the argument that my vote, and the votes of the majority of Democrats should’ve been nullified just because you happened to think your candidate was better? And finally, who the fuck are you to tell me or anyone else that I’m some depraved anti-feminist simply because I didn’t vote your way?
“I wanted to clarify re: the rape kit issue. Is this something Palin would have had control over as mayor?”
Yes, her hand-picked police chief instituted the policy, unique in Alaska at the time, after she got rid of the previous chief. She signed off on the new policy every year.
www.eschatonblog.com/2008_09_07_archive.html#4448862878393645250
Alaska has, by far, the worst rape and sexual assault rate in America.
Furthermore, have you seen her policy on wildlife? The whole shooting wolves from the air issue? Polar bears? Her attitude toward science? Her abuse of power? How she used her religion to get elected? This isn’t just an anti-woman candidate, this is an evil candidate. I don’t care whether you’re a democrat or a conservative, you should be against her.
“I’m very aware of the misogyny used against Clinton in the campaign, but I don’t buy the argument it was any more egregious than the racism employed against Obama”
“I don’t get your sense of entitlement.”
And what about your sense of entitlement. You say you recognize the sexism against Clinton, but you choose to ignore that said sexism was widely tolerated by the mainsteam media while the racism was not. The racism against Obama was condemned outright, and the sexism against Hillary was either ignored, or if it was pointed out, they acted like feminists were making a mountain out of a mole hill. Anything to benefit your candidate I suppose. Why don’t you vote for Sarah Palin? After all, you seem to agree with her that Hillary should stop “whining” about sexism. You can both be in denial.
“Why don’t you vote for Sarah Palin? After all, you seem to agree with her that Hillary should stop ‘whining’ about sexism.”
What I said was:
1. I personally didn’t think she was the best candidate.
2. As appalling as the sexism was, I think she lost, legitemately, to Obama for many reasons aside from sexism.
3. I think think the candidate who wins the most delegates and the most votes in the primary system should be the nominee.
4. I don’t believe I’m an anti-feminist for having chosen vote for Obama.
If you want to argue one of those points, go right ahead, but I’m not going to play the straw woman for you.
“Palin has not demonstrated that she has what it takes to be a vice-president and possibly a president, things like judgment, historical perspective, Constitutional scholarship, or simply a real solid sense of some fundamental tenets of American government, history, or society. She hasn’t learned enough about the things that matter to be a prospective head of state.”
I think what you’ve described would mostly qualify you to be a law professor (or lecturer which Obama was). Is that what you are getting at? All those things are part of what would qualify someone for vice president, but they aren’t the full story by any means. Palin has other qualifications, like her executive experience, like her knowledge of the oil industry in Alaska, like her ability to lead which do make her fit for the job. Being a governor is a qualification for even higher office - Reagan, Clinton, Carter all demonstrate that. On the other hand you don’t get many constitutional professors jumping straight from that occupation into the White House.
I knew it was the lack of the Ivy league degree that was getting to some people. Classism rears its ugly head once again.
As for the supposed smallness of Alaska, Howard Dean was Governor of Vermont, a tiny state with a population similar to Alaska’s. Nobody thought that that limited experience meant that he was somehow unqualified for being president.