All the Hoopla and Confetti
Whew! The conventions are over. I managed to catch Michelle's and Barack's speeches last week, and this week, with James's folks, we watched Sarah Palin's and McCain's speeches. I also happened to walk through a sports bar while Giuliani was giving his speech--were those the flames of hellfire behind him? Weird background, but it sure fit his fiery rhetoric.
Brimstone aside, I honestly liked elements of all the speeches and all four of the candidates, but I didn't learn anything about the McCain-Palin platform or policies that swayed me. I'm an independent, but my beliefs run toward the very progressive, so most of my friends turn out to be Democrats, and the Democratic candidate usually ends up getting my vote due to his platform and policy record. This year, that will definitely be the case. For me, torture, economic injustice, global warming and the environment, and the preemptive, unjustified invasion of Iraq are key moral issues, and Obama's positions on all of these issues largely mirror my own. (I'm a little more hardcore than he is on clean energy.) The U.S. and the world are responding with enthusiasm to the promise of his campaign, and that's exciting.
After Sarah Palin's speech, though, I felt strangely depressed, because I saw clearly how appealing she would be to certain segments of the population. When Democratic commentators were being asked afterwards, "Was she effective?", they hemmed and hawed, focusing their comments on her inaccuracies and misrepresentations. I was like, "Come on, guys! Of course she was effective." To her intended audience, she was wildly effective.
Have I lived in red states too long? While I disagreed with her, I saw how her pomposity-puncturing shots at Obama (his memoirs, his styrofoam columns) would resonate with and delight a lot of people who don't really care for his Harvard education or elegant hand gestures. There's such a thick band of anti-intellectual, anti-liberal hostility that runs through this country. I heard a lot of that hostility in my seven years in College Station, Texas and my ten years in a small town in Indiana (a long way from Senator Evan Bayh!). It's there, and it's powerful.
People with little education and little experience of the world resent being reminded that other ways of being might be more effective in handling complex challenges and negotiating with a multiplicity of worldviews from around the globe. I empathize. Who likes being reminded that they're small or ineffective? Who likes having it implied that they're ignorant or inadequate, when they work so hard? It's infuriating, and Sarah Palin tapped into that rage. In that context, her sneers felt like wit; her spunk felt like courage. Her delegate audience was ecstatic, and I could imagine the many, many similar people I've met becoming equally thrilled.
This got me down, because it reminded me of Bush in 2004. A snappy, wisecracking persona, a terrible agenda and record--and success nonetheless.
So I've been relieved to see that a lot of people aren't buying it. Obama's campaign saw $8 million in new donations overnight after her speech, and I read a lot of comments online, not just from Democrats, not just from hardline Obama supporters, but from Independent and Republican women saying, "Come on. Do you think we're that dumb?"
I exhaled.
Brimstone aside, I honestly liked elements of all the speeches and all four of the candidates, but I didn't learn anything about the McCain-Palin platform or policies that swayed me. I'm an independent, but my beliefs run toward the very progressive, so most of my friends turn out to be Democrats, and the Democratic candidate usually ends up getting my vote due to his platform and policy record. This year, that will definitely be the case. For me, torture, economic injustice, global warming and the environment, and the preemptive, unjustified invasion of Iraq are key moral issues, and Obama's positions on all of these issues largely mirror my own. (I'm a little more hardcore than he is on clean energy.) The U.S. and the world are responding with enthusiasm to the promise of his campaign, and that's exciting.
After Sarah Palin's speech, though, I felt strangely depressed, because I saw clearly how appealing she would be to certain segments of the population. When Democratic commentators were being asked afterwards, "Was she effective?", they hemmed and hawed, focusing their comments on her inaccuracies and misrepresentations. I was like, "Come on, guys! Of course she was effective." To her intended audience, she was wildly effective.
Have I lived in red states too long? While I disagreed with her, I saw how her pomposity-puncturing shots at Obama (his memoirs, his styrofoam columns) would resonate with and delight a lot of people who don't really care for his Harvard education or elegant hand gestures. There's such a thick band of anti-intellectual, anti-liberal hostility that runs through this country. I heard a lot of that hostility in my seven years in College Station, Texas and my ten years in a small town in Indiana (a long way from Senator Evan Bayh!). It's there, and it's powerful.
People with little education and little experience of the world resent being reminded that other ways of being might be more effective in handling complex challenges and negotiating with a multiplicity of worldviews from around the globe. I empathize. Who likes being reminded that they're small or ineffective? Who likes having it implied that they're ignorant or inadequate, when they work so hard? It's infuriating, and Sarah Palin tapped into that rage. In that context, her sneers felt like wit; her spunk felt like courage. Her delegate audience was ecstatic, and I could imagine the many, many similar people I've met becoming equally thrilled.
This got me down, because it reminded me of Bush in 2004. A snappy, wisecracking persona, a terrible agenda and record--and success nonetheless.
So I've been relieved to see that a lot of people aren't buying it. Obama's campaign saw $8 million in new donations overnight after her speech, and I read a lot of comments online, not just from Democrats, not just from hardline Obama supporters, but from Independent and Republican women saying, "Come on. Do you think we're that dumb?"
I exhaled.
fayepoet said:
Exhale!
What a wonderful concept...I have been holding my breath and was glad for your thoughtful perspective.It's clear that many people leave logic at the door when they enter the voting booth.Palin tapped into an enormous void in Republican pride and handed them a cheer-leading bucket full of "we can do it." What she and McCain will do is another matter.I don't trust a man and woman nominated by and imbedded in the Republican party to dig us out of the mess of the past eight years.We've had enough knee jerk , "gut" leadership.
Like yourself, I do trust Obama's values and his thoughtful ability to articulate the issues. He needs to do more, especially on the economic front, but there is time. Did you know he did an interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News last night and stood his ground on the surge? That's "coolness" under fire!
September 5, 2008 5:28 PMFaye said:
Sarah Palin terrifies me. I can't think of a candidate more against everything that means anything to me, and more for most things I'm against. Anti-choice. Life-long member of the NRA. Bear-skin rug in her office. Wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times against listing polar bears as an endangered species. Pro-offshore oil drilling...and for drilling even in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge. Apparently has a little corruption going on in her own state in the less-than-two years that she's been in office. And her international experience? Well, as Cindy McCain said, she's from the U.S. state that's closest to Russia. That should do it. I am sure Hillary Clinton was mortified when Palin dared to compare herself to her by thanking Hillary for helping to break the glass ceiling.
And G-d forgive me, that perky, beauty-queen look of hers annoys me to no end. She's my political nightmare. And I think it's a total insult to women to think that just because Palin is a woman, any woman will vote for her. I do think there are a lot of women who sadly will identify with her for the reasons you noted, but I'm certainy not one.
The only thing that keeps me sane right now is watching Stephen Colbert. He makes me laugh amid the fear and the chaos.
September 6, 2008 4:18 PM