If you are already angry because you feel fellow disaffected Clinton supporters are trying to pressure you to vote for the evil empire, turn back now. This post will only serve to piss you off further. As far as I’m concerned, you own your vote, and that’s good enough for me. Good luck with it.
But for those of you who’ve decided on McCain and want talking points, or who are still considering options and are open to any rational argument, allow me to bend your ear a little bit about my own reasoning on this topic. This post ended up being so long that I’ve decided to split it into two or three parts. I apologize for that, but I couldn’t just experience a paradigm shift and change directions on a dime. Intellectual consistency takes time and processing, and above all, paying excruciating attention to details. Look for the follow-up posts this week.
The Logic
I’ve created a Venn diagram to get us started.
The diagram is built around one vote, and the #1 and #2 issues to this particular voter. The sets, then, include Sexism, Corruption, and the major options for the one vote. I have labeled the intersection of sets one and two (the issues) as “Feminist Values,” for I hope obvious reasons.
I have assigned the characters according to their current record and rhetoric. For instance, Joe Biden belongs to the Party that claims it is for women, and he himself claims a feminist mantle because of the Violence Against Women Act, but his history is overtly sexist (see Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas). Likewise Obama. John McCain is currently talking about reform, and has somewhat of a history of it, but he belongs to the party most recently known for blatant corruption.
Finally, Sarah Palin has experienced the political corruption of sexism, and has both a rhetoric and a record of reform (local news links, pre-VP selection, they tend to be more trustworthy, IMO), even though she also belongs to the party most recently known for blatant reform. Remember that party loyalty is not a value of the sets. Palin falls in the shaded “Feminist Values” area because her record, rhetoric and experience match the values more closely than any other major party candidate. That makes her the major candidate most representative of feminist values running today, according only to these sets.
Those are my sets, because they are my values and my #1 and #2 issues. You can substitute your own, and I encourage you to do so.
Arguments
For me, the sexism of this entire year, everywhere I go, has been so startlingly in-your-face and insidious, that I now realize sexism in America is one of the most important issues we’re facing today. Hostility toward women, especially sexually unavailable women with feminist inclinations, is as pervasive as I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime. Because of the events of this election season, American women are currently threatened with an even more serious loss of power than we faced with the conservative backlash that Susan Faludi documented so well.
I also see a global loss of momentum in terms of feminine empowerment. Just as American influence is on the decline, so empowering women, and people in general, is on the decline. It’s all been slipping for some time now. This has given rise to the sort of events that Dr. Socks routinely reports on, and these events will get much worse and much more frequent due to a global trend in aggressive foreign policy, and due to China’s growth and population policy. Many of the events happening outside of America right now were actually foreshadowed at the U.N. Fourth World Conference for Women (1995), which focused on The Girl Child, and at which Hillary Clinton delivered her famous Women’s Rights are Human Rights speech. There is a reason they held the conference on The Girl Child in Beijing, you know.
I have come to the considered conclusion that we cannot afford to lose another inch of power as women in the U.S. Even as we defend ourselves, we may soon be called upon to defend our sisters around the world, and we need to be in a position to do it. It’s akin to a domino argument, if that helps you picture it. If we lose more power, they lose more power, and we will be less effective in driving equality throughout the world. Conversely, people outside of America can achieve that equality faster if we insist on nothing less than complete equality in America. If Democrats win after all of the sexism they have displayed this year against the only two females in the race, it could eventually effect billions of women, regardless of nationality.
Reform is my second issue. Sexism is a form of political corruption, and reform is the cure for it. But corruption also applies to more than just sexism, the same way choice applies to much more than abortion. The Republican Party is in serious need of reform, and has been for a while. Did you ever expect to have the opportunity to reform it? Neither did I. There are many reasons for that, not the least of which is deliberately obfuscating rhetoric on the left, which we will get to later in this series. The Democratic Party obviously needs to be reformed too, and it is much more serious, I think, than any of us former democrats thought. I’ll also go into that in the next part of the series.
Finally, I am an American, and my system of government says nothing about political parties. The founding document, The United States Constitution, uses the word Party five times, not once in reference to political parties. So, when I talk about reform, I’m talking about taking the country back from the parties. I’m talking about unifying with others of all political walks and demanding power be returned to us. I do not intend to simply cast my vote for John McCain, then kick back and wait to see if my bet paid off. I intend to be there to petition him, and other elected politicians, regardless of party, to address our nation’s most pressing issues. I intend to put them on notice that I am on to their rhetorical games, and I intend to continue to tell the truth about what I see and hear.
It does not stop with Nobama. We’ve got to get out of our comfort zones and stop believing all the pretty lies. This is a real political risk to take considering the circumstances, but having considered all of this, and keeping in mind that sexism and reform are my two most important issues, I think McCain, and certainly Palin, have a better chance of offering me something along those lines. They certainly have more of a record of it. Winning alone will help, because a glass ceiling will be broken, and we’ll be that much closer to a party system we can actually tinker with. It will not refute sexism, especially the New Sexism of the young, but it will send a powerful message that women are a valuable constituency, and you can’t play those games in the political realm if you want their votes.
Other posts in this series:
Part 2
September 6, 2008 at 10:16 pm
This actually makes perfect sense. It is usually the party that does not reliably get the votes of a certain demographic that champions civil rights of that demographic. When the Johnson Administration forced the issue of civil rights acts in the 1960s, the Democrats were still the party of segregationists and racists, while the GOP could still claim to be the party of Lincoln, the lesser of two evils when it came to race issues, and thus not interested in pushing the issue.
We may be in a similar situation today. The Democrats plainly take the votes of women and other demographics for granted. This has contributed to their lack of interests in defending their rights–after all, why bother spending precious political capital if they’ll vote for us no matter what (“they have nowhere else to go”)? For the GOP, these votes are a prize worthy of fighting for especially since there is no counter-constituency within the GOP actively interested in women’s disenfranchisement. The surprisingly warm embrace of Sarah Palin even by the most conservative wing of the GOP is an indicator of that.
September 6, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Hahahah. Sexism? Okaaay. You do know that scrutinizing a woman DOESN’T make it sexist, right? That’s like saying every scrutiny of Obama is racist – it’s pathetic. There is NO sexism. (I was a Hillary supporter, too.)
But, if you just forget completely about the issues, forget about Palin’s TERRIBLE record, forget about the fact that John McCain has a history of womanizing and voted against equal pay for woman, forget that McCain’s economic plan has NO change from the current one, forget that McCain is just a warmonger who GUARANTEED there would be more wars . . . if you do all that, the Republican ticket looks greeeeat.
McCain HAD a record of reform – yes. Until he ran for president – then he quickly fell into the Republican aisle so that conservatives would vote for him. Palin took $27mil in earmarks for Wasilla and left a town of 6,000 with a $22 mil debt and 33% tax increase . . . only got elected governor because the others running were HATED, and hasn’t really done anything as governor except get involved in corruption scandals (most of what she accomplished was already set in motion – she just finished it off). Her and McCain fit nicely in the pocket of Big Oil. They are just a Bush-Cheney clone. *shakes head*
September 6, 2008 at 10:34 pm
denny, you can post here, even with your shrill, sloppy rhetoric, as long as you don’t lie. And you did lie in the 3rd paragraph. To wit:
We can disagree here, but I insist on respect and an attempt at intellectual consistency. If you lie again, I’ll just delete you. If you persist, I’ll begin to fuck with you. I can edit your comments to say anything I want them too.
September 6, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Thanks for the feedback and the comment, Mike.
September 6, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Greetings,
I just wanted to let you know you will be welcome to any conversation, party or event with me.
Though I am sure our political views are opposite in many areas, we probably agree more on the social issues you express so clearly.
This has been my experience in many conversations with true rational thinkers from any party.
That said, being a very conservative small gov liberal socially i find it both sad and very disheartening to see the liberal party take this path of personal destruction. Even more so in that a few of us on the right have watched this in the past leveled at many that do not deserve such attacks – and sadly the media refuses to recognise it for what it is…
I wish you the best of luck and fully support your free expression of ideas. This article should be written up and sent to every major media outlet for all to read.
Take care,
B
September 7, 2008 at 12:19 am
Here’s more food for thought:
Barack Obama is a freshman senator, he’s inserted 53 special earmarks, totaling almost $97.4 million.
Senator John McCain — a longtime staunch opponent of such earmarks – had no requests for pork barrel spending.
Currently, Senator Obama has voted 94 times to raise taxes.
Senator McCain has NEVER voted to raise taxes.
Senator Obama has announced that he wants to be judged by his deeds. Unfortunately, the press isn’t talking about his fiscal deeds for us to “judge” him.
http://willnevergiveup.wordpress.com
September 7, 2008 at 2:58 am
You’re a brave woman, annabelle.
September 7, 2008 at 9:03 am
Great post anabelle!
I too will vote McCain/Palin. First and foremost as a protest vote against the corruption of the Democratic Party. Secondly because while I do not agree with Sarah Palin on some issues there are others where we are not so far apart.
The absolute hysteria about this woman from the left is ludicrous. You would think she was the devil incarnate if you read some lefty blogs. Jeralyn at TL has a Palin Jihad going on that makes her look like an idiot. She lost her mind to the point where she had a post about what Palin’s mother-in-law had to say against Sarah. Things like this make me wonder why I didn’t become an Independent a long time ago. Too many people, left and right, have their identity so tied to their party that they have lost all ability to see reason.
I will vote down-ticket for Dems I consider worthy of my vote. Others must do as they see fit.
What I see, and I don’t like seeing it, is that the Republican Party, that repository of all evil, has put a woman on their ticket while the so-called woman’s party, the Democrats did not.
Pandering? Perhaps. If so keep on pandering until I get all that I want. Pandering is good for me.
September 7, 2008 at 9:15 am
GO Annabelle!
This argument is exactly what I wrote about (in a less detailed way!!), too. People just don’t seem to get that by electing Obama/Biden ticket, you are enabling that behaviour. And it sends a dangerous message around the world.
September 7, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I’ve been on the way to the same concusions myself, that we will never advance until women in high office are commonplace. If we have to start with a Republican, so be it. The dems haven’t lifted a finger for us in a long time; why should we expect anything from them after the leadership tried to crush Clinton?
Women before party, because women’s rights are human rights as Hillary said.
September 9, 2008 at 5:46 pm
‘Women before Party, because women’s rights are human rights as Hilary said.’
Holy Shit!
Vote for a candidate even though she stands for the exact opposite to what you believe in simply because of her gender.
“Abstinence? anti-gay? Speaking in tongues?” WTF?
I have to give it to the Rep.’s
I guess I gave the voters of this country more credit I guess.
The Rep.s sure can run an effective campaign and God, the Dems. sure suck at it. (last presidential one was a good example).
Vote Rep and get 4 more just like the last 8. If that makes you all warm and fuzzy go for it.
October 26, 2008 at 1:26 pm
[...] Voting for the Republican Ticket in 2008, Part 1 Filed under: 2008, Election, Part 1, Politics, Voting for the Republican Ticket in 2008, WalKnDude, internet, israel, media, news, press, reform — walkndude @ 5:26 pm Tags: Part 1, Voting for the Republican Ticket in 2008 Voting for the Republican Ticket in 2008, Part 1 [...]