Friday, September 26, 2008

Palin's candidacy is a mockery

Well, Doonesbury this morning cartoons much better the feelings that I tried to convey in my story about Palin (which I posted yesterday). HERE is the link to DOONESBURY, the cartoon is SEPT. 28.

Reading this morning in the newspaper about Palin's justification for her lack of interaction in the international scene is demeaning to me, the child of a working class family. A working class childhood is no justification for an adult VP nominee to have never obtained a passport before last year or to never have traveled beyond the US borders. These excuses are pitiful and they suggest that working class people have no ingenuity or abilities. Being from a working class background is no excuse for not being prepared for the job she wants.

I too am a working class kid. My father is a plumber and we had to deal with very tough times in Michigan in the eighties when there was no work for many people in construction. Nevertheless, during those hard times, I not only figured out how to go to college, but I also figured out how to travel overseas. Because my family couldn't afford to send me away to university, and I had to work and get scholarships and loans, I went to our local community college for two and a half years before transferring to a state university. During that time, I managed to travel outside of the US. many times, beginning when I was 20 and I won a scholarship from the local Kiwanis Club to support an educational trip to Greece and Turkey. I have never stopped traveling nor have I ever stopped learning.

Palin's candidacy is a mockery, especially of women politicians, but also of the way in which we select the people to run the White House. It is a last ditch ploy by the Republicans in power to draw attention away from the fact that they have crashed our economy, involved us in a war with no ethical justification, and have nothing except their own self-interests at heart. They are using Palin to present themselves as a party for Every(wo)man, when in fact, they are a party dominated by a white male elites who are more concerned about making quick money (and getting bailed out) at our expense and our children's expense and their children's expense. I have never been so depressed or embarrassed about my country as I am today.

9 comments:

David said...

The most depressing thing is that the Republicans really believe they can get away with this kind of thing because they have in the past. They have learned that trotting out idiots who have a high likeability factor is enough, because they can obscure everything else. It's no wonder that Europeans laugh at American politics. Politically speaking, we're stupid.

Iconoclasticus said...

I'll echo, in a way, what David said. What is truly frightening to me is not the mind-numbing ineptitude of the this particular canidate but that such a large number of my fellow citizens actually admire her and applaud her "freshness".

Judy Redman said...

I think that it's possible to have a broad outlook without having travelled outside your country of birth - mixing with people from other countries who live in your own helps a lot. I get the impression that Palin's opportunities to mix with people from other countries has been serious limited, too. It is deeply disturbing that someone who is standing for Vice President has such a limited experience of the world.

José Solano said...

What’s truly fascinating is that as reactions to Palin’s lack of travel experience, such as those expressed here, come out in the media it could easily gain another million votes for the McCain/Palin ticket. Liberal extremists have a very hard time understanding the common American voter. That’s why they were so shocked when ignoramus appearing Bush so soundly defeated comparatively super intellectual Kerry.

I’m a liberal Democrat and she’s got my vote. There is a lot more to the presidency than international travel experience and whoever gets in will have a huge team of advisors on all sorts of issues.

PAULYR said...

I'm afraid this post re.: Sarah Palin shows the author's political
bias. Am I not correct in saying
that if Palin had lots of international travel experience, the author, Ms. DeConick, would find something else from Palin's background to use to excoriate her. So much for having an open mind.

Jerome said...

It's indeed unbelievable that such an unsophisticated woman could be a heartbeat away from the presidency!

April DeConick said...

Jerome,

I'm not even worried about sophistication. I am terrified at what she doesn't know, and would need to know, especially if she were to become our president. I am beginning to wonder if McCain selected her because of her lack of knowledge so that she can be a figurehead, a puppet for the administration. Perhaps this is too cynical.

Jerome said...

The only reason he chose her was to get elected. He needed such a political stunt to upstage Obama. I'm quite sure (or rather I hope) it'll backfire though.

Trou said...

Jose,
You are a one note wonder. It's all about abortion for you. And I suspect you are not a liberal democrat. Millions of lives could be at stake if Palin got a hold of the presidency. I grew up in her religion an it is all about the last days and end times, and war.
A war to end it all. Nonsense!
Supposedly love infused people hoping for the murder of over 6 billion people just so they can live happily ever after. The irony is sad.
If you are willing to gamble the whole world on the issue of abortion then you are a hypocrite because you almost certainly don't value life at all. If you hate abortion so much you can do several things, none of which involve risking all our lives by voting for an ignorant, uneducated, death cultist.
Heck, you could even try to use the same approach Jesus is said to have used. Love, not casting the first stone, and helping those in need. This would very much ameliorate the problem.
But the fact that you would choose Palin over Obama just because of one issue says a lot about who you are. By the way, McCain has flopped on the issue of abortion and probably because he doesn't really care and only says what gets him votes. Trust me, more people are for women's rights than those who would like to criminalize it like Palin. The fact that she charged rape victims with the cost of their rape kits is despicable. The fact that she fired a police chief because he tried to get grant money to fund rape kits is even more heinous. She is ignorant for sure but as we get to know her more we are finding out that she is vindictive also.
I will vote for Obama and Biden because of their track record and their character. There may indeed be pressures on them to conform to an agenda of greedy rich people but I suspect that, if elected, they will do a much better job at steering us away from the precipice that Bush et al have headed us for and not do a Selma and Louise like McCain and Palin are almost certain to do.