(no subject)
Welp, I watched it. Twice, actually. And tried to keep an open mind. But frankly... some of the prospects she listed were just... sort of... terrifying to me.
She's a good speaker. She knows how to appeal to the Republican mentality. She's clever and has an interesting background, and speaks as a small town mother of five with a snow-machine racing husband. She was on the PTA. She has a son with special needs. She can relate to a LOT of different types of people.
But a lot of it didn't sit well at all with me. All this stuff about how "a REAL leader wouldn't back out of a war they had almost won", and "we have a surplus in our economy", and... possibly the WORST was her position on drilling. "We need to stop going to foreign importers when we have plenty of oil to go around in America... and as someone who lived in Alaska my whole life, I know that for a fact". I was pretty disgusted by that. Not just because UUUU I'M A TREE HUGGING HIPPIE WHO WANTS TO HEAL THE PLANET (which I do, thanks very much), but the fact that they are delusional enough to think that continuing to drill is the right way to go. That's putting a band-aid on a pretty permanent wound. She did say "we'll research alternative energy", but there's a big difference between researching and using it.
And between her speech and my parents' reaction to it, I've come to realize one of the main reasons I struggle with many Republicans. It seems like a huge theme of her speech was "don't you want someone who loves our country?" As though glossing over all our social, economic, environmental and political problems with big 'ol I LOVE AMERICA stickers is going to make anything better. As if wanting change and being unhappy with the dismal state we're in means we BOO HOO HATE OUR COUNTRY. News flash: A lot of the world hates us right now. I don't feel like antagonizing people is an even vaguely good call EVER. Not to mention a lot of US hate us. Now what does that tell you about our country? Is turning a blind eye to peoples' cries for change something to be proud of? I believe America has had a lot of great victories as a country, and has so much potential... but I worry that power will go to our heads so much that we'll eventually fuck ourselves over.
She and Rudy Giuliani (whose speech was tasteless and made me really sick, as a side note. His tactics were complete bullshit. "Maybe they cling to religion there". Grow up, please.) both really freaked me out, though. I can't help but admit that I'm pretty worried. If she succeeds to get all the small town folks on her side, we're done for. That's like... all of the midwest. Which is a lot of America.
So great, let's all elect McCain, so he can ban gay marriage, drill in all our national park reserves, push for more war, and dig us even DEEPER into this shithole that Bush has rounded out so nicely for us.
On a final note... oh my god, the media is flipping a shit. I mean, I know it's expected, but there is so much open-ended, slanted, biased reporting on BOTH sides in ages. If it isn't Fox in favor of McCain, it's MSNBC in favor of Obama. I personally... really don't want to hear about any of the candidates' personal lives. It's nice to get a bit of background, but all this bullshit about What McCain, Palin, Obama or Biden do or did. I don't care about what their kids do, what their husbands/wives do, any of the skeletons in their closets. Unless they're psychopaths in their spare time, just SHUT UP and get back to the politics. I'm not electing someone because they've got a flawless personal record. I'm electing someone because I feel like they will improve the state of the country and the lives of its people.
All I know is, Obama's supporters better fucking VOTE. It worries me that a lot of them are young, and cry for change, but then don't vote. I missed the preliminary democratic election, but there's NO WAY I'm missing this one.
Apart from that, school is school! I'm really liking all my classes so far, especially Voice and Philosophy. We're picking dialects to learn in Voice right now, I'm between Scottish and Irish (I'd take either, because I feel like they're my weakest and I'd really like to improve!). I really wanted Romanian, but they don't offer it anymore. :< I'm still thinking about some other european dialect, as well. I can't decide! But it'll be something in that area.
Philosophy is like candy for my brain. I am so hooked and I've only had a couple classes! Psychology is really interesting, too, and I have them within two hours of one another, so a lot of concepts carry over and it's just a really cool learning experience. My Philosophy teacher is AMAZING, too. Really witty, smart, and theatrical. Every class is really entertaining. It's a lecture class, but everyone spends the class laughing, contributing, and staying awake, for christ's sakes. He also has a speech pattern almost IDENTICAL to Dark Knight!Joker, which makes him even MORE awesome to listen to.
I'm also really excited about photography, but my teacher is a little "eeeeh". He's young, and really cocky and kinda full of himself, and super uber technical, which is a difficult combination of qualities to have in a teacher, because types of that sort don't always tend to keep an open mind about creativity. But we'll see. :3
Anyway, I'm off to finish my notes and watch McCain's speech.