We keep hearing that this campaign is about change: "What this country really needs is a change -- the "change" candidate."
Influenced, eager, and ready, we hit the polls.
It's America, and your voice is your right. A nominee is going to be elected as a result.
Please make sure you've educated your voice; if not this round, the next, important one.
The change rhetoric has its appeal, but next January, results will be the reality, and we'll all have to live with the decision.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Goodbye to All That Shit
So many thoughts swirl in my head when people I respect, like Bill Maher, endorse Barack Obama. He's one person I never expected to use soundbites to justify his choice ... but alas, he did.
On last Friday's show, he went so far as to say that America has a greater debt to slavery and racism than women. Though I don't disagree that America is full of shame and wants to repent, I don't agree with his comment that women are "ok" now because of the women's rights movement.
Slavery's over; discrimination against women in America and around the world isn't.
Think it's untrue or I doth bitch too much about it? Just compare the headlines of CNN and the Post -- when about Obama, they have a positive spin; when about Hillary, they have a negative spin. And that ain't just coincidence or paranoia.
Robin Morgan makes great points in her essay, "Goodbye to All That #2." She's a feminist, but don't let that scare you; because contrary to popular belief, feminist isn't a dirty word.
Here are some highlights:
"GOODBYE to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which whites—especially wealthy ones—adore), while she has to pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and then found unforgivable)."
"GOODBYE to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?"
"GOODBYE, GOODBYE to . . .
—blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys—though unlike them, he got reported on).
—the notion that it’s fun to elect a handsome, cocky president who feels he can learn on the job, goodbye to George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance."
"GOODBYE to the phrase “polarizing figure” to describe someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the last century and are poised to make in this one."
"GOODBYE to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of "yucky" power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her."
"And GOODBYE to ageism . . ."
How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on history, papering over real inequities and suffering constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to rouse U.S. youth from torpor it’s useful to triage the single largest demographic in this country’s history: the boomer generation—the majority of which is female?
READ THE ENTIRE ESSAY
On last Friday's show, he went so far as to say that America has a greater debt to slavery and racism than women. Though I don't disagree that America is full of shame and wants to repent, I don't agree with his comment that women are "ok" now because of the women's rights movement.
Slavery's over; discrimination against women in America and around the world isn't.
Think it's untrue or I doth bitch too much about it? Just compare the headlines of CNN and the Post -- when about Obama, they have a positive spin; when about Hillary, they have a negative spin. And that ain't just coincidence or paranoia.
Robin Morgan makes great points in her essay, "Goodbye to All That #2." She's a feminist, but don't let that scare you; because contrary to popular belief, feminist isn't a dirty word.
Here are some highlights:
"GOODBYE to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which whites—especially wealthy ones—adore), while she has to pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and then found unforgivable)."
"GOODBYE to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?"
"GOODBYE, GOODBYE to . . .
—blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys—though unlike them, he got reported on).
—the notion that it’s fun to elect a handsome, cocky president who feels he can learn on the job, goodbye to George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance."
"GOODBYE to the phrase “polarizing figure” to describe someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the last century and are poised to make in this one."
"GOODBYE to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of "yucky" power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her."
"And GOODBYE to ageism . . ."
How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on history, papering over real inequities and suffering constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to rouse U.S. youth from torpor it’s useful to triage the single largest demographic in this country’s history: the boomer generation—the majority of which is female?
READ THE ENTIRE ESSAY
Sunday, January 27, 2008
This Race Is Not About Race -- Nigga, Please!
Obama won the South Carolina primary. And according to the Media and the voters they interview, this race is not about race.
But if that's the truth, then why can't I find one African-American voter who isn't voting for Obama? Why then did African-American voters come out in record numbers to vote? And why did Edwards, who won South Carolina -- his home state -- in 2004, place a distant third this time around?
The Media consistently feeds us the view that voters believe the three top Democratic choices all maintain similar positions on the issues.
Obama, however, seems to have a stronger likeability factor that resonates with voters.
But have these voters done any serious research into the issues that the new president will inherit? If voters did this, I think they'd find that what's needed is something that goes far beyond likeability.
A reporter recently commented that Obama "will learn" foreign policy; but I don't think that the global community is going to wait for him to come up to speed. And is this a risk we should take?
In today's culture, sound-bite character is infectious. But sound-bite character does not a successful president make.
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