I get lots of email and so do you. Much of it lately has consisted of long lists of shocking or mocking commentary on Sarah Palin. Or Palin joke. Or photoshopped pictures. Some of it has been anguished complaints about the blatant lying from the McCain campaign,
Okay -- but can we stop throwing these bones to each other now? There's a vital Presidential campaign to work through...
John McCain has found no agenda to run on, except continuing in a muddled way with the failed policies of the Bush era. The Palin selection is just a reckless, attention grabbing ploy by a washed up candidate. McCain has nothing to run on. He gives us an attractive, slightly vicious, bauble to distract us.
Then he touts the only asset he's got: his personal history, his past honor. POW, POW, POW. But since he has no real agenda for the country, all he has done is drag his own moments of pain and courage through the campaign season mud. It's kind of sad.
Those of us who want something else need to help voters turn away from McCain, to understand that he has had to trash his own best moments because he has no vision, and to explain that Obama does offer the possibility of hope and change.
I like this from Jeffrey Feldman:
More and more people are getting hammered by a financial system that treats the work and wealth of our people as a giant casino for the flashy and greedy. Can we afford more of the same? Of course not.John McCain lies because he does not know how to solve real problems, because he has no faith in the American people, because he wants to force the country backward instead of lead us together into the future.
We want better and fortunately someone is offering better. With Barack Obama, we have a chance to hope again in our country. Yes, we can.
1 comment:
Actually, I don't get all that much email. But I do read a lot of blogs. And a lot of what I'm reading on feminist and progressive blogs these days is, as you put it, "shocking or mocking commentary on Sarah Palin."
Mostly, I agree with you that we should do our best to ignore McCain's attention grabbing ploy. (Although I'm glad I read this thoughtful post by Latoya over on Feministe.)
However, I do think that Palin's selection does bring up some important public policy issues concerning the separation of church and state.
A lot of progressives seemed to get freaked out by Palin's ties to pentacostalism. Sometimes the analysis degenerates to the level of, "ooh, ick, those people speak in tongues."
But it's also true that Palin has ties to folks with pronounced theocratic tendencies. This post on AlterNet and this post onTalk to Action document this.
Chip Berlet, also writing on Talk to Action, has a slightly different perspective.
I think that the place of religion in US public life is a fitting topic for discussion during a presidential election year. What I'm struggling to sort out is how to separate the public policy discussion from the sensationalism.
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