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So if I’m going to watch any Republican convention coverage, I’ve realized that I have to wash it down with some Daily Show right afterward.
There’s not really much of substance I can say about the whole thing that isn’t articulated better by millions of other bloggers and folks having conversations all across the country, but I’m just going to say this: You can’t make the debate about experience and then try to elect some chick that hasn’t been governor for more than two years. You can’t be up Hillary Clinton’s ass since 1992 and then play the gender card now that you’ve got a pair of tits on your side of the ticket. You can’t say, Rudy Guiliani, that if we “loose” the war in Iraq then bin Laden and Al-Qaeda win, because they were never fucking there. You can’t say “Hey, leave her family alone they’re off limits,” and then parade them around in a speech like they’re vice-presidential accessories and set up all their bios. You can’t, as Jon Stewart said tonight, say that you have to respect Bristol Palin’s choice and then try to govern the choice of others. You can’t also play the sexism card when you have delegates wearing pins that say “The Hottest Governor from the Coolest State” (no matter how true that may be). And you can’t say that she has foreign policy experience because she’s near Russia, because that’s fucking stupid. You can’t turn your nose up at someone for being a “community organizer” like Obama was (and in fact have conventioneers raucously laughing at it), and then be indignant if people suggest the town you were Mayor of was too small (because I think the communities in Chicago he was organizing probably had about 9,000 people in them).
You can’t, you can’t, you can’t, and that is why you fail.
I hope.
It’s funny and frustrating because I know I can’t really change people’s minds about politics, and that in a lot of ways debate is pointless and just causes raised blood-pressure and hurt feelings (and I have delicate feelings, and according to the blood pressure machine at Wal-Mart I’m pre-hypertensive), but we do it anyway, and often find ourselves in places where we just have to throw ourselves against the unmoving wall of “fair” and “right” and common sense. I had an incident at work the other day that left me very shaken and angry in a way I’m not used to feeling, and so much of that came from the fact that I was (and still am) right, and this person was wrong. Not only wrong, but hurtful and offensive and completely and happily oblivious to that. The “you don’t even know who I am” card was played, as well as the “I bet you’re not even from here” card, both while on the way out the door, leaving me with either letting the thing drop and not be able to rebut (you are no one special, which is true of any person who ever uses the phrase “Do you know who I am?” and I’ve lived in this town for almost 15 years) or chase her and her 11 year old on to the street to continue it.
I stayed inside and I fumed, sick to my stomach and angry at my powerlessness to change that persons mind or to make them see that they were being unfair and unreasonable. It’s a weakness of mine that I’m painfully aware of, that when I encounter something that’s unjust and not right that I cannot abide it. I will throw myself against it until I’m sick, and usually until I make those around me sick.
There’s no help for it, there’s nothing you can do, but I persist and it frustrates me beyond all rational thought.
Just like politics, I guess.
What a great entry. And I ‘m not saying that just because I agree with you! I feel a lot of the same way. So I have not been watching the conventions, and opting out, and then feeling vaguely guilty. But in a way I feel I’m not opting out of political discussion, but the marketing of it, which makes me nauseated. I opt out of a lot of cultural marketing — so much better for me and my sanity. Not the same as being oblivious; I hope to never reach that point.
The hypocrisy of this Palin thing is what could drive me to a frothing fit if I partook.
I do have hope — I mean, my dyed-in-the-wool Republican parents aren’t drinking their koolaid; one of them (at least one) voted Dem in the last presidential election. I have faith that some people will see through the bs. And that ongoing faith often leads to great disappointment, as your passions do. But that’s part of why you’re such a good guy – you care and it affects you and you let others know!
Thank for the kindness. I find myself occasionally getting into the “political debate” at the shop sometimes, especially with our UPS guy (not Rob, but just as fun sometimes), and its nice to be able to have some discussion with people about it and have it be civil and kind of smart (maybe) but just having it with people kind of brings us all together. Even if we don’t agree. I’m glad to hear that your folks are still on the listening and paying attention side. Because I think if more Republicans were like that, this would be a slam dunk.