Politics and the Coming Election

[rhiannonmr]

Sarah Palin=Tracy Flick.

I was wondering why Governor Palin gave me such a bad reaction and someone else in the LA Times mentioned the comparison.  It makes sense.   Reese Witherspoon in one of her earlier movies played a character named Tracy Flick and the movie was about an election.  A High School election.  I remember seeing it on DVD with my daughter yrs ago and thinking that chick is evil.  The character would do and did do just about anything to be elected.  Listening to Governor Palin at the convention last week I had the same sense of revulsion towards her that I had towards Ms Witherspoons character, Tracy Flick.  The movie is called 'Election' and it was memorable. 

Palin will exploit everything and anything in her life to get elected.  That announcement last weekend about her daughter's pregnancy?  Yep, that was an appeal to the 'base'.  Her son serving in the military and going to fight 'God's War'?  Yet another appeal to the 'base'.  She's a politician, she knows how to sell herself and her message.  The plane on eBay?  Nice story, but that's not where the plane was sold.  It was sold at a loss through an offline broker.  The chef?  Sorry, I don't get that one.  Most governor's mansions come with staff.  They are there to make the governor's life easier.  I really don't expect Governor Palin to nip off from work the day some dignatory is coming to dinner to cook for him.  That's NOT her job.  

Policywise she is good at slanting things.  As a mayor she had her hands out open, eagerly for federal earmarks.  In her speech she's against them.  Yeah right.  She does walk the pro-life walk though.  She could've terminated her last pregnancy, but she chose a different path.  I will say upfront that her choice is admirable.  That she wants to remove that choice from everyone else is not.  Her feelings that abstinance only sex ed is the way to go is definitely a fail in my book.   Knowledge is power and can save lives.  Just telling kids no is not good enough.

Sarah Palin does not speak to me politically.  She has opinions that are pretty opposite of my own.  I am pro-choice.  I prefer gun control, but yes I DO know how to use them and have.  She supports the war in Iraq.  Something I never could do, even though my son will be there by the end of this yr.  I support the veterans, I always will.  They're just doing their jobs.  It's the politicians responsibility to do right by them.  Something the Republican Party has NOT done.  

I support Senator Obama.  But he has a huge negative no matter how much spin you put on it.  He's a black male in a country that while not admitting it, is racist.  I think he can win, and I find myself really hoping he does win.  I was enraged with the dissing of his community organiser experience by both Giuliani and Palin.  Do they NOT know what community organisers do?  A line I saw somewhere was that: Jesus was a community organiser, Pilate was a governor.  Made sense to me.  Community organisers are the guys that help old people get benefits they've worked for.  They help poor people with housing and such.  They help sick people get to their doctors and get meds.  And they do this for little to nothing financially.  The responsibilities of a community organiser are the ones they voluntarily take up. They are to be admired, and respected.  The Republican Party shat on people who did not deserve that treatment.

Now my friends, I do not expect you to agree with me 100%.  No indeed, if you support her and McCain, you have your reasons as I have mine.  I do not expect to be defriended for expressing myself either.  If however you wish to, I will be sad because I will be missing the knowledge you bring with the differences of opinion.  But I felt the need to express myself here and say what I feel.  So I did.

Comments

[sofisticat.livejournal.com]

What sickens me most is the unhealthy mixing of politics and religion.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately that mixing has become a norm in US politics. It bothers me because religion should not be political at all. But in the past 30yrs it has become so. I don't think there is a national election in the past 30yrs where religion hasn't been played as a political card here.

[sofisticat.livejournal.com]

That is unbelieveably sad. I remember a few years ago when I was spammed by a site called "Christians Vote". It was totally grotesque, claiming that if you were a true Christian you would vote for Bush. I'm sure people actually felt bullied into voting for him even if they disagreed with him in the first place. I have no idea how I got on that list in the first place, since I'm not American, but they probably added everyone who was part of a particular e-group.
They tried to create a sort of "Christian Right" here, too, but with no success. People just didn't want it.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

It disturbs me quite a bit because I DO believe religion is a personal thing, not belonging in politics at all. I remember reading in US history classes about JFK's Catholicism being used against him when he ran to the point where he actually had to address it in a major speech to the effect that the Church and it's teaching would not affect how he governed. That was a different era though. Now we have politicians who describe their born again credentials and how Jesus affects everything they do, including governing and I find it more than a bit hypocritical.

[sofisticat.livejournal.com]

Especially when that governing involves going to war based on a lie about weapons of mass destruction!