I wish you could be my best friend (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lobsterking) wrote,@ 2008-09-10 14:37:00 |
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Sarah Palin Be Buggin'.
Everyone is apparently very excited about Sarah Palin. She was a model! She's a single mother! Her daughter's pregnant! I don't care about any of it!
The trouble with this election (as I am clearly in a position to point out, being a person who sometimes writes things on the internet for no clear audience) is that it is the culmination of image over substance; a battle of 'who looks the most down-to-earth so that people can identify with them'.
On the one hand, it is encouraging that America is apparently willing to elect people to positions of power who have been previously overlooked - in this case, a single mother (and more importantly a real life woman, with breasts and that) and a black person (well... café au lait. Let's face it, Obama Barack is not all that black. If a person being black is your main concern, elect Michael Clarke Duncan. He is super black and has a voice like porn-funk distilled into a larynx). However, it is unsettling that, especially in Palin's case, that seems to be all that the focus is upon.
What being willing to elect people who belong to previously-under-represented demographics to high positions in government is meant to mean is that the voting populace is sensible and reasonable enough that the demographic a person belongs to doesn't matter a damn. In this election, this is not the case. These politicians are still canvassing votes based on how they look and their pesonal situations rather than their politics. A sensible person shouldn't give a toss whether the person they want to vote for is an old white man or a young black woman - just whether they are going to do a responsible job.
Presumably Palin is there to detract from all the 'old white man' allegations being tossed at McCain like old milk bottles - but considering that she is going to be there for a good 4 years at least, if elected, surely people ought to be looking at her politics, not her personal life. She has done little to dissuade anyone from doing just that, whereas Obama does occasionally at least protest that it shouldn't be about his skin colour (although, let's face it, the media concentration on that aspect at the beginning of his campaign didn't exactly hinder his prospects).
John McCain, while better than Bush, is still too damn Republican in all the main issues for my liking. Although he does endorse nuclear power, which I am down with, yo.
Sarah Palin is still a pro-lifer who wants to bomb people, which is a confusing sentence. I guess that the sanctity of life doesn't apply to foreigners. If you vote for McCain because of her, you are voting with either your libido or your trigger finger.
Barack Obama, while better, is still okay with killing people.
In what shouldn't be but is a two-party system (much like in the UK), I'd vote for Obama. Let's face it, though, they're all pretty mental. I woldn't let any of them into my kitchen.
I'm pretty ignorant about American politics, British politics - all politics, really, and I usually refrain from shooting my mouth off on subjects that I don't know anything about. But today is different. I don't know why.
Everyone is apparently very excited about Sarah Palin. She was a model! She's a single mother! Her daughter's pregnant! I don't care about any of it!
The trouble with this election (as I am clearly in a position to point out, being a person who sometimes writes things on the internet for no clear audience) is that it is the culmination of image over substance; a battle of 'who looks the most down-to-earth so that people can identify with them'.
On the one hand, it is encouraging that America is apparently willing to elect people to positions of power who have been previously overlooked - in this case, a single mother (and more importantly a real life woman, with breasts and that) and a black person (well... café au lait. Let's face it, Obama Barack is not all that black. If a person being black is your main concern, elect Michael Clarke Duncan. He is super black and has a voice like porn-funk distilled into a larynx). However, it is unsettling that, especially in Palin's case, that seems to be all that the focus is upon.
What being willing to elect people who belong to previously-under-represented demographics to high positions in government is meant to mean is that the voting populace is sensible and reasonable enough that the demographic a person belongs to doesn't matter a damn. In this election, this is not the case. These politicians are still canvassing votes based on how they look and their pesonal situations rather than their politics. A sensible person shouldn't give a toss whether the person they want to vote for is an old white man or a young black woman - just whether they are going to do a responsible job.
Presumably Palin is there to detract from all the 'old white man' allegations being tossed at McCain like old milk bottles - but considering that she is going to be there for a good 4 years at least, if elected, surely people ought to be looking at her politics, not her personal life. She has done little to dissuade anyone from doing just that, whereas Obama does occasionally at least protest that it shouldn't be about his skin colour (although, let's face it, the media concentration on that aspect at the beginning of his campaign didn't exactly hinder his prospects).
John McCain, while better than Bush, is still too damn Republican in all the main issues for my liking. Although he does endorse nuclear power, which I am down with, yo.
Sarah Palin is still a pro-lifer who wants to bomb people, which is a confusing sentence. I guess that the sanctity of life doesn't apply to foreigners. If you vote for McCain because of her, you are voting with either your libido or your trigger finger.
Barack Obama, while better, is still okay with killing people.
In what shouldn't be but is a two-party system (much like in the UK), I'd vote for Obama. Let's face it, though, they're all pretty mental. I woldn't let any of them into my kitchen.
I'm pretty ignorant about American politics, British politics - all politics, really, and I usually refrain from shooting my mouth off on subjects that I don't know anything about. But today is different. I don't know why.
