Yesterday, I gave liberal and Democrat writers a hard time for obsessing about Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy and urged them to, instead, focus on substantive issues. Yet, when Sarah Palin herself had the opportunity to raise the discourse she failed miserably.
Palin's acceptance speech was a collection of barbs, one-liners, and soundbites that lacked substance and specifics on the issues. For instance, after touting her cred as a "hockey mom" (which, I suppose, is the female politician's equivalent of "family man") she leveled this barb at Obama: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities." Hardy-har-har, right? Not so much. Community organizing, of course, is the antithesis of elitism and is how disenfranchised populations make change when their politicians have failed them. Unless you're as well-off as the sea of rich white faces at the Republican National Convention, you're nothing but a sucker if you chuckled along to that little "joke." Then, Palin lied, "Our nominee doesn't run with the Washington herd." Except, of course, that their nominee voted with President Bush 90% of the time.
That's okay. Maybe in the McPain world, "maverick" doesn't mean what we think it means. Maybe voting with the Republican Elite is "mavericky" and organizing with the working class is "Elite." Who knows.
What is clear is that those who believe Palin truly represents "change" in politics, solely on the basis of her appealing personal narrative, are deluding themselves. The only thing unique about Palin in politics is that she's a woman in a good ol' boys club. The Obama campaign was right on when it said that her speech, which was written by George Bush's speechwriter by the way, "sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we've heard from George Bush for the last eight years." Obama responded aptly when he said:
"This is what they do. They don't have an agenda to run on. They haven't offered a single concrete idea so far in two nights. They spent the entire two nights attacking me and extolling John McCain's biography."
Seriously. I hope those who voted for George W. Bush because they fell for his Crusading-"Cowboy"-Who-Would-Be-Fun-to-Grab-a-Beer-With Act take note that the McCain/Palin "maverick" ticket is really offering us a repeat of the past 8 years.
Good luck with that, suckas.
2. Happy Heterosexual Pride Days, Everyone!
On to more happy news, who else thinks it's hilarious that the odd "Straight Pride Parade" had a whopping turn out of.... 0? I hope all you heterosexuals out there can make it through another oppressive year without your one day of celebration.
But seriously, I guess the "organizers" didn't get the memo that every day is straight pride day and that fact, therefore, necessitates a month to celebrate "Gay Pride."
Some people are so clueless.
3. Not a Mommy Blog in Sight
The Political Voices of Women site has compiled, and continues to compile, a list of women political bloggers. (Yeah, this isn't exactly rightwing news, but I'm guessing rightwing female political bloggers are and could be included on this list).
This list is an answer to the question "Where are all the women political bloggers?" Apparently, we're all over the place. Oftentimes, however, political writing from a woman's perspective is seen as less "objective" than political writing from a man's perspective. This is especially true of feminist bloggers. Those of us who regularly write about feminism, sometimes have the experience of someone informing us that that the feminist perspective is not as "objective" as analyzing politics through the (invisible male-centric) lens of "objective" thought.
Neat.
What is truly revealing is the large number of men who have either commented or emailed me saying that they didn't notice a particular male-centric aspect of society until I wrote about it.
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