Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan and Barack Hussein Obama and Colin Powell....
The image above is referenced in Powell’s endorsement which can be heard in the YouTube link in this post and The New Yorker article it came from can be found here. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan was an American soldier who died in the current Iraqi War-and a Muslim.
Click to viewI never have posted on politics, and I’m still not sure doing so is a nifty idea. We’re all here for the fic after all, and politics is an inherently divisive subject.
When in my prior fandom, I asked on a Yahoo group if we could keep politics (and Republican bashing) off the group, I was banned from the group and then given a decidedly cold shoulder by many having outed myself as a Republican. I’m a New York City native who has lived my entire life on the very liberal Upper West Side. I was once told at a pizzeria that they would not serve me because I had on a campaign button for a Republican. At my gym on the last Presidential election day, I overheard someone working out next to me saying they wished they knew if anyone there was a Republican so they could "beat them up." On the streets in my neighborhood an advertisement for renting closet space asks if your closet "is scarier than Cheney's agenda." IOWs, I’m used to encountering hostility and condescension for being on the right, and that just makes me resistant to even admitting to being on the other side on some issues at times-as if I’d be trying to pander to the other side to get a pat on the head saying, "It’s OK, I know you’re not like those Republicans." Nor do I get the feeling that expressing anti-Republican or anti-Palin sentiments with my f-list is particularly brave. And I absolutely get why many Republicans might be touchy on the subject of politics, and take attacks on McCain or Palin personally.
It was a Republican-George W. Bush in fact-who by appointing Powell Secretary of State raised him to the highest Federal Office a black had ever held before that time. The Republican record on race and diversity is hardly as simple as the caricature of the party among many Democrats would have it, and there are principled reasons why a Republican might not support affirmative action or other liberal policies that have nothing to do with being a racist. Nevertheless, I’m no more happy about the tenor of the recent McCain campaign and the implication by some within the party that to be Muslim is to be "other" than Powell is. Just like right now I’m furious to read remarks by *some* Republicans that Powell’s endorsement of Obama or his remarks explaining it are inspired by race.
I don’t believe that because I agree with every single comment Powell made above-and with his conclusion-loathe as I will be to pull the Democratic lever on Election Day. And I’m not black. That’s not why I’m voting for Obama. I do happen though to be a lot of things Republican fund raising letters and emails and robocalls sent to me seem to be defining as "other." I’m urban, not rural. I have *gasp* an eduction at one of those elite institutions which somehow is put down as some reason to not trust Obama.
What bothers me about Palin though isn’t her background or a lack of an elite education. What offends me the most isn’t even those many views of hers I strongly disagree with (especially her decided lack of support for freedom of speech in terms of trying to ban materials she deems inappropriate from public libraries). It is that she is utterly unprepared and unqualified to be president of the United States. And I come to that conclusion not because of her resume or education. I come to that conclusion because her own remarks and performance in the debate shows that she has no idea what she’s talking about. People who run for office or make politics a career usually have a deep interest in politics and policy. They read widely (Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Reason Magazine were among my subscriptions) and think deeply about issues for years. Palin is so obviously to me faking it, parroting talking points in response to questions.
And McCain picked her. That’s an insult to Americans to whom he promised he’d put country first. Those like Malkin and Limbaugh who claim Powell made his endorsement because of race seem to ignore the obvious-that McCain chose Palin because she’s a women. But the sad thing is there are plenty of accomplished women in Republican politics who are far more qualified than Palin: Condoleezza Rice, Libby Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Christine Todd Whitman, Olympia Snowe. Yet McCain didn’t choose any of them. Instead he chose a woman that made it impossible for me, or imho anyone who takes the office of president seriously, to ever pull his lever.
So, why care about my opinion? Why even give it? I guess because I don’t want all Republicans tarred with the McCain/Palin brush. We’re better than that, we’re more diverse than that. We’re the party of Powell too. And of Goldwater. I saw a quote about him recently in a Slate article:
Two years ago, Zeitgeist Films released Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, a documentary produced and narrated by C.C. Goldwater, the senator’s granddaughter. In it, Joanne Goldwater tells the story: I was getting engaged. ... It was actually in the Christmas of 1955. And in January, I-I found out that I was pregnant. And I had planned-I had planned this engagement party and a wedding. And-we had-we had planned to have children. We both were still in school. I was getting my degree. And I-I wasn't ready to have a child. And I got an abortion. ... And this was when it was just totally forbidden and very, very dangerous. And young girls were dying by trying it themselves. My father, being conservative, he felt that the government should not decide what women do with their bodies or anything else, you know. The government should stay out of all that. My mother started Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the '30s. And that’s why I felt that it was easy to go to them and tell them. And they were very, very supportive.
Note the connection made between being a conservative and supporting the government staying out of people’s personal choices. There are a lot of different ways to be a conservative-and a Republican. So I guess I’m saying, if you’re a Democrat, remember people who vote Republican constitute about half your fellow Americans-don’t stereotype or demonize us. And if you’re a Republican, try to understand why not all of us can fall into lockstep or support what’s been going on in this campaign-sometimes not despite, but because we’re conservative (even if in my case I might prefer the label "libertarian.")