Wake up, America
I don't often post about politics. These days I admit that I don't often think about politics--I've got enough on my mind keeping track of my little corner of the world without worrying about things that are largely out of my control. But the fervor over Palin has broken into my little politics free bubble and so today I donated to the Obama campaign. Oregon has a neat little tax credit for political donations, so in some ways it is no sacrifice to support Obama, and it's something I've been thinking about doing for a while now, but Palin was the final straw.
She is designed to appeal to the base, so as expected I don't agree with her on just about anything, which I'll admit does not increase my fondness for the woman. Fundies have had way too much influence in DC for the last eight years, and I'd really like the White House to, ya' know, at least pay as much attention to scientific experts as it does to one particular interpretation of the Bible. But it is not her stance on various issues, as distasteful as I find them, that have spurred me to vote with my wallet. It's the way the entire discourse in the country has been derailed to talking about pregnancy--as a mother, I'm really interested in pregnancy and can talk about it at length, but I wish it would stop being an issue in the political sphere. Mostly picking her feels like a great diversionary tactic, and I'm really worried that it's going to work. That the media won't get back to talking about issues of substance. That they'll get so hung up on sex (as our media is wont to do) that they won't properly investigate how she has a habit of abusing power. I want more talk about how she wanted to ban books from the town library when she was mayor, and then tried to get the librarian who won't go along with her plan fired. I want more people calling her on it when she claims to have cut taxes when she was mayor, because she left that little town $22 million in the hole. The only thing worse than a tax-and-spend liberal is a don't-tax-but-still-spend conservative.
I'm not very articulate about this, but I wanted to say something and urge anyone whose been thinking about donating to Obama. McCain has raised something like $10 million since putting Palin on the ballot--so she certainly is helping to mobilize the base. I just hope it's not enough to win.
She is designed to appeal to the base, so as expected I don't agree with her on just about anything, which I'll admit does not increase my fondness for the woman. Fundies have had way too much influence in DC for the last eight years, and I'd really like the White House to, ya' know, at least pay as much attention to scientific experts as it does to one particular interpretation of the Bible. But it is not her stance on various issues, as distasteful as I find them, that have spurred me to vote with my wallet. It's the way the entire discourse in the country has been derailed to talking about pregnancy--as a mother, I'm really interested in pregnancy and can talk about it at length, but I wish it would stop being an issue in the political sphere. Mostly picking her feels like a great diversionary tactic, and I'm really worried that it's going to work. That the media won't get back to talking about issues of substance. That they'll get so hung up on sex (as our media is wont to do) that they won't properly investigate how she has a habit of abusing power. I want more talk about how she wanted to ban books from the town library when she was mayor, and then tried to get the librarian who won't go along with her plan fired. I want more people calling her on it when she claims to have cut taxes when she was mayor, because she left that little town $22 million in the hole. The only thing worse than a tax-and-spend liberal is a don't-tax-but-still-spend conservative.
I'm not very articulate about this, but I wanted to say something and urge anyone whose been thinking about donating to Obama. McCain has raised something like $10 million since putting Palin on the ballot--so she certainly is helping to mobilize the base. I just hope it's not enough to win.