Really? Palin is a surprise pick? When the Obama camp announced Biden, it became obvious the only thing for the Republicans to do now was pick a woman running mate. It would of course also have to be a woman who wouldn’t trail far from the party line, a sidekick, not someone well-known.
I’ve gotta say that as a feminist and former Hillary-supporter, I had a big twinge of jealousy to have the Republicans be the ones to represent both sides of humanity on their ticket. But I was quick to remind myself that Palin is the portrait of right wing hackery. It is yet another way John McCain is completely out of touch, in not realizing women aren’t manipulated so easily.
And with Palin comes an added challenge for the McCain campaign: finding something of substance to argue about. Now that they’ve given the number two spot to someone with even less experience than Obama, they’ll either have to pull those frivolous attack ads, or be laughed off the air.
For me, it’s now down to what the candidates believe, and which direction they’ll take our nation: Obama believes that those imposing the No Child Left Behind law are responsible for its utter failure, unlike McCain who postures that the problem is teachers needing to simply "Join us in trying to improve education in America rather than, apparently, being resistant to change." Never mind the fact that the dedicated teachers at the most underprivileged, underfunded schools in the nation bear the brunt of the policy’s sanctions.
Obama thinks that being pro-family means more than forced-pregnancies and pretending sex doesn’t happen with abstinence-only education. Sarah Palin and John McCain want to tell me how many babies to have rather than trusting me choose what’s best for my family.
The Republican ticket also wants women to continue being paid less for the same day’s work as a man -- which Obama and Biden have vowed to rectify. McCain wants to push the health insurance companies, but only so far as to cover his boys with the erectile dysfunction drugs they want, yet doesn’t think it matters much if needed birth control is covered.
Obama thinks all Americans deserve the dignity of comprehensive healthcare without being at the mercy of a private corporation.
Obama freaked out when he saw the abysmal conditions at Walter Reed Hospital and did something to change it. But McCain thought it was fine to treat fellow veterans with little regard, as he voted against Democratic proposals to increase funding for military and veterans' hospitals. Perhaps he thinks they should’ve just married into money like he did, so they’d have too many homes to count, instead of being evicted after foreclosure when they’re not able to work after battle injuries and crappy recovery care.
Obama wants to pursue Bin Laden and get our troops out of Iraq (but please President Obama, leave Halliburton there on their own), and McCain wants my grandchildren to serve multiple tours still fighting insurgents a century from now.
Palin would make a superb sidekick for McCain and his cronies in plundering our wildlife refuges and making sure the oil companies get every last penny from our oil-addicted pockets, rather than helping us toward energy independence. In fact, maybe his plan for creating new jobs is an army of people pushing around our big American SUVs once the oil finally runs out instead of developing alternative fuels in the meantime. Oh wait, he doesn’t need to create new jobs, the fundamentals of our economy are strong , remember?
The news will be focusing on the RNC and McCain for the next several days, but I’ll be focusing on my newfound support for Barack Obama and his progressive agenda for America…which I truly hope includes him joining many other world leaders in making his cabinet fifty percent female. Not only will we then be closer to a representative government, but he’ll get some balanced advice.
So, no dice McCain, I’m not voting for more of the same and my vagina isn’t voting for your anti-women woman, Sarah Palin. Your contrived, condescending attempt at manipulating us into choosing you because of her was a pretty slick (yet predictable) move politically, but isn’t fooling me.
___________________
by Kim Mance, writer & co-editor of Galavanting
cross-posted on the Huffington Post
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: No Dice McCain, My Vagina's Not Voting for Palin.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/8967
I was horrified when I learned of McCain's choice for the VP, although not all that surprised. She is a filthy misogynist just like most conservatives, but the fact that she is a woman, brain-washed into supporting misogynist traditions and beliefs, as opposed to a man, might just give the impression that McCain isn't as bad as he really is to women.
Maybe it's overly cynical of me, but it is hard for me to imagine a person who is pro-life because they actually see a fetus as a person. Aside from religious extremists, I think pro-lifer's are just people who enjoy asserting their power by taking another person's rights. In this case, it's an extremely fundamental right; the right to control your own body. I think the biggest source of support for right-wing radicals is their undertone of "Let's put men in charge!" Everyone likes to feel their power, regardless of their gender, and having someone with less freedom than you do, in this case, women, probably suits McCain and many of his male supporters quite well. I don't think half of the people who vote pro-life do it from some sense of righteousness.
The very notion of a pro-life, traditionalist woman, however is deeply disturbing to me. Pro-life can't possibly have that power appeal to her as it could to a man. At the same time, though, it raises another thought. While pro-life men far out-number pro-life women, there are probably just as many men as women who are pro-life for whatever twisted reason Palin is pro-life for. If we assume that the group of people that is pro-life because they have it in their head that a fetus is a person is half men and half women, then there are only as many true misogynists as the the amount by which which pro-life men outnumber pro-life women. This means that a little less than half of the typical pro-life men are trying to be sexist, and the rest are probably as brain-washed as Palin. In a way, that's encouraging to me, because at least some aren't doing it out of pure need to control other people's bodies.
the first thing i do when i get up, after making a cup of coffee, is i go to the bbc's website. i was an anglophile during most of my teen years, and i still have a soft spot in my heart for the u.k.
the first headline i noticed was, "mccain picks female for v.p." before i even clicked on the article, before i even knew who this "female" was, my reaction was:
i picked up my cell phone, and i text my best friend this message:
"that bastard mccain thinks women are stupid!!"
and that's all it really comes down to. clearly, both mccain and his republican advisors are under the impression that women are so dim, that a great majority of us would go, "oh wow, mccain picked a woman as v.p. oh gee, he must really respect us! his record on abortion? his record on birth control? his record on equal pay for equal work? oh, nevermind! he picked a girl - and a pretty girl at that! i'm all for mccain!!"
i am thoroughly disgusted. and i've gone from a vocal supporter of obama, to a woman who will spend the next 2 months convincing everyone i speak to that obama is the ONLY intelligent choice for president this november.
What women need to remember wheter dem or rep is that this president before he leaves office wants to take away the rights of women for birth control of any type and that includes the pill. If anyone wants to read Griswold vs CT it will enlighten you all. Just goole it and read all about it. Ladies wake up read the article make copies and pass it to every women who is thinking of voting for republicans. The president is trying to get this done now. I live in a rural TN community and I found it on the net you all can do it too. SPREAD THE WORD LADIES.