aaryn belfer.

You expressed many of my feelings about this choice. In particular you highlighted a way in which she functions strategically that I am certain no one will talk about–until after McCain wins. She is an unknown and intended to be dismissed. Then, all she has to be is functional, and she comes off as a genius. Just. Like. Bush. Perhaps youre the genius for articulating it.

And, thank you, for illustrating the imbedded hypocrisy of an anti-choice mother of five–six months postpartum to a child with special needs–volunteering to leave her home and move 4000 miles away. Yes, it’s always important what happens to children in the womb, but once they’re out, whothefuckcares.

It’s not anti-feminist to question the timing of her choice to run for national office. But I guarantee, if anyone (pundit, Democratic leadership, etc.) goes there publicly, they will be labeled sexist and the conversation will shut down. But it’s a valid question. And Rove is a genius (evil, but genius) for crafting another candidate who will force people to bite their tongues.

Posted by Yolanda on 31 August 2008 @ 8am

I’m 23 and relatively new to the political process. McCain’s choice of Palin set off a fair amount of red flags for me, despite that, but I also think it was a pretty brilliant move on his behalf. Yes, it’s calculated. Yes, it’s pandering. But maybe it’s just my cynicism and inability to ever get excited about any candidate in either party because my ideals, beliefs, and assumptions about life won’t fit into either ideology, no matter how hard I try to sand down my edges, but I can’t help but feel that the Obama’s choice of Biden was just as calculating. What move by anyone trying to become president isn’t? Biden, on the surface, is everything Obama isn’t, and he seems like he will placate the people who are still weary about the black guy with the funny name. So, just like the trotting out of Palin was a parade of ovaries and breasts, I felt like the choice of Biden was the same: Look, he’s white and old and from Delaware and has been a senator forever! *Cough Cough* HIS NAME IS JOE FOR GOD’S SAKE. LOOK HOW WONDERFULLY STATUS QUO HE IS.

Aren’t they all just keeping up appearances?

It’s probably because I don’t identify myself as a Democrat that my enthusiasm for Obama hasn’t translated to Biden, and even my excitement for Obama has dwindled lately because what appealed to me in the first place has slowly morphed into what I’ve never liked — same guy, different name.

And I think McCain capitalized on that with the choice of Palin. People who would have never voted for McCain in the first place will see through it and will be offended. But a lot of people (and their thoughts and opinions are just as legitimate as anyone else’s — it’s a democracy, we buy into the system, we have to put up with how and why our fellow citizens vote) who are undecided will be intrigued by her, I think. McCain, not Obama, was the guy who shook things up, though. He’s the one we’re talking about. Crafty move, indeed, Johnny.

Maybe the saddest thing is that I get to participate in this election where history will be made either way, but I cannot foresee either candidate or party really doing all that much for me. Maybe I’ll get to say someday that I got to see a black man be president or a woman be vice president, but what does that really matter to any of us when all we’re going to truly be offered is the same old thing. Obama hasn’t even made it to November yet, and I already feel like he’s just becoming who he needs to be so he’ll get elected, and I can’t see him as the person I was inspired by and believed in just a few months ago. I still am desperately in love with Michelle, at least.

Maybe I’m just a sad result of coming of age in the time of Bush, but I feel pretty hopeless when it comes to government. I’m a girl without a party or a candidate, currently. I really thought Obama would change all that. I can’t even narrow it down to “issues” because I want someone to change the damn system.

And I’m sorry to write you a novel here with no real plot, but you made me think so whatever.

//2cents

Posted by Amanda on 31 August 2008 @ 11am

I have been reading the Internets the last few days and am absolutely stunned that many of the PUMAs are hailing the choice of Palin.

A feminist Democrat who will vote the McCain/Palin ticket in spite of the number of anti-woman stances that ticket stands for just boggles my mind.

When I express concern about having a McCain White House making judicial appointments, I am mocked. There is no way Roe v. Wade will ever be overturned? As difficult as access to abortion has become in many states, it may as well be illegal.

The thought of 4 more years of any Republican administration, but especially this one, makes we nauseous.

Posted by Jenn @ Juggling Life on 31 August 2008 @ 1pm

Thanks for all the great comments, ladies. One thing I didn’t articulate but meant to (it was late and I was deep in the throes of an allergy attack when I wrote that post) was that Palin CHOSE to have her baby which she knew had Down Syndrome. How lucky is she that she lives in a time in which she got to be in charge of that decision rather than having our government dictate what she would do. Another woman and family benefits from choice. Imagine that!

And to Amanda, sweetie, I SO hear you! I do. I am equally as cynical. I didn’t give myself over to Obama because, like you, I have felt like he’s moved ever so slowly away from who I thought he was and toward some undefinable middle. It wasn’t until I heard Michelle Obama speak last week that I decided I wasn’t going to live in that place of negativity and curmudgeonly pessimism. I’m not accusing you of this in anyway, just saying that’s what I’ve been doing.

This election is so important for our country on so many levels. And despite his shortcomings—which ALL of our politicians have—I believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate for our time. We’ve been brutalized by George Bush for 8 years now and if we don’t do some damage control, if someone can’t put a finger in the dam, I believe the United States will cement it’s place in it’s current downward spiral from which there won’t be a recovery.

I also was not very enthused by Joe Biden. But I do not believe he was chosen to balance out the color scheme on the ticket. I think Obama chose him—smartly—because Biden has a very, very long history with foreign policy and is an amazing diplomat. If you’ve followed this election cycle at all, which I have (barely), you know that one of the most frequently lobbed criticisms of Obama is that he has no experience. That argument is now deflated with Palin on the Republican ticket (she makes Obama look like a 20 term senator by comparison) and I think Obama’s selection of Biden is a very clear indicator of the kinds of people he will surround himself with should he be elected. Personally, I want to know that he’s going to build his cabinet with people who have the experience he lacks, even if those people are lackluster. Know what I’m sayin’?

They might be old, they might be white, they might be women. I really don’t care, as long as they represent me somewhere in there and work to give me and my daughter a better future. The reality is that no candidate will ever truly represent me because I’m too progressive. But I’ll take a man who values compassion, education, womens rights, health care, and diplomacy any day over a mean, old chameleon who thinks that it’s okay for women to earn less than men in the workplace, who thinks I can’t make decisions about my own womb, who wants the Iraq war to continue endlessly, who thinks that the solution to high oil prices is to drill for more, who thinks that workers paying taxes on their employer’s contribution to their health plans is the way to fix our healthcare system. McCain is out of touch. And. AND! I don’t think that a person—woman or man—who was the mayor of a town with a population of roughly 9,000 people and then governor of a state with just over 600,000 folks is qualified to step in should something happen to the president.

Will Obama deliver on his promises? Probably not on most of them. He isn’t a dictator or a cheat like the current sitting prez and he’s going to need some innovative thinkers in congress to back him. Change is slow and takes courage and I think Obama’s got it. Whatever his faults, he’s got an amazing ability to communicate and a willingness to reach for greater heights than any leader I’ve seen in a long time. He must be determined in his convictions because, as the first black president, he will definitely be in the crosshairs both metaphorically and literally speaking. He knows this and is willing to risk his life for a better future for our country. I think I can stand behind him. I have to stand behind him. So for me, I’m trying to bring myself to a place of positive thought and will vote for him. And, of course, Michelle Obama. She’s magnificent and this speaks to the kind of man her husband is. Clearly, she is no Laura Bush or Cindy McCain, for that matter. We should all be very grateful.

And you? Maybe you can think of it as voting for the lesser of two evils, which is usually how I vote. I think it’s fantastic that you’re involved because it would be so much easier to throw up your hands. We’re all very lucky to have been born in this country and it’s important, I believe, to fight for what makes this country great. In posting your comments here, it’s evident your willing to go down fighting for what you believe.

Thanks for stopping in. Come back and write your novels anytime! ~a

Posted by aaryn b. on 31 August 2008 @ 1pm

Thanks for the response, Aaryn. I sincerely appreciate everything you said.

I think my state of mind right now is one of great frustration that I have to do the “lesser of two evils” thing (hey, at least I get a choice, though). However, as you said, Obama is the guy most likely to bring forth SOME kind of change. Maybe three decades from now I’ll see a government and leaders that I feel more comfortable with because of the things he does. Sometimes it’s so hard to be patient and not just want some kind of revolution (hah); like you said, though, change is slow. But it’s completely worth waiting (and voting) for.

Posted by Amanda on 31 August 2008 @ 3pm

Hey, I love smokin’ Joe. I know the choice was calculated but Joe B. knows his shit and I believe with his foreign affairs experience, we might actually restore some of our country’s dignity and respect around the world-more fellowship, less bullying.

Now as for Palin? She does more to strengthen Obama’s chance at the White House than McMethuselah’s ardor for Bush and significant memory gaps.

And, FYI, Republican horndogs: if I required some girl on girl action, Hillary (not Sarah) would put the hitch in my gitalong. I need some meat with my potatoes. Plus Talbots makes me hoooootttt.

Posted by Mrs. G. on 31 August 2008 @ 5pm

It amuses me how often times your posts are strikingly similar to the things running through my head!

I’m so disgusted with Palin for VP that I had to forcibly avoid all the commentary of it in the news because I’m afraid if I get any more pissed off my head might explode. That move was a put down to all the women of this country, and yet I know some who will blindly play into it and fool themselves into thinking that their party is so “progressive” and “hip” that they have a woman on the ticket! I honestly have no respect for any woman who would vote for McCain just because Palin will be VP. Can anyone really see her as President should it come to that?

Biden was a sound choice IMO. Sure, he’s older and has been in Washington a long time, but he brings many assets to the ticket and speaks volumes about how carefully the rest of Obama’s administration will be chosen.

In the end I always end up voting for the lesser of two evils. I’m so far out in left field politically that no one comes close to being that “it” candidate for me. But Obama is far more likely to change things in Washington than McCain. Even if he only achieves a small percentage of what he says he intends to it will be a huge step in the right direction. And how can anyone not love Michelle Obama? That woman is awesome and the two of them together says something about them both.

Posted by Tiara on 31 August 2008 @ 5pm

Aaryn, forgive me for jumping in here without reading your entire post or all the long and well-thought-out comments, first. I just got online and saw the news about Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter being PREGNANT (and, of course, planning to keep the baby AND marry her boyfriend, the father of the child), and I knew just who I wanted to share the schadenfreude with.

The CNN article on this news is disturbing in myriad ways (Internet rumors that the Palin baby with Down’s was the daughter’s? Who knew?), but as much as I’d like to shut down your previous “It doesn’t matter, we’re gonna lose anyway” argument, the quotes they included from Republican delegates make me just want to go crawl into a corner with a stiff drink and an enormous spliff. To wit:
Delegates to the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, said the disclosure of Bristol’s pregnancy would not hurt the Republican ticket and may make Palin “a real person like all the rest of us.”

“I have a 17-year-old daughter, and they start making choices without us,” said Annette Ratliff, a delegate from Texas. “I appreciate the choice she is making to have the baby, but it just makes her a real person. It happens every day in America.”

“I think, if anything, it shows the Republican Party is a real American party,” said Rex Teter, another Texas delegate. “Every family has to deal with children, and sometimes children make decisions that parents wish they would not have been made, and things happen. But I think children are a blessing from God.”

If I think too much about the rampant hypocrisy and doublespeak these people and the rest of the Republican machine will have to go through to make this seem completely innocuous and irrelevant to the campaign, my head will explode. So I’ll leave the commentary to you, my friend.

Let’s get together with our girls soon. You never know which foreign country we’ll choose to move to if things get much worser around here.

Posted by Yiftach on 1 September 2008 @ 8pm

It’s all so sad. Just a big game being played. And yes, it boils down to choosing the “lesser of two evils.” But maybe there is hope. Great post and great comments, all of you!

Posted by annie on 2 September 2008 @ 7am

Whilst perusing the various accounts of her speech tonight, i decided to swing on by to see what YOU thought of Ms. Palin, even though I was pretty sure we’d agree to disagree on issues. However, your post truly suprised me…

” But the packaging of her as Every Woman, as the one whose going to “shatter that glass ceiling,” as if she’s even remotely in Hilary Clinton’s league, is condescending and deeply insulting.”

Instead of taking each candidate in the context of the ‘packaging’ the various commentators from each side and campaigns themselves give us, i’m trying to analyze their records and personalities myself….

All 4 candidates have children. Why are we only asking if Sarah Palin has the time to be both a parent and a P/VP?

That, to me, is what is sad about sexism’s persistent prevalence.

Posted by Mike of Mikentiffy on 3 September 2008 @ 9pm

Great post. It and the comments prove I need to get off my arse and read more about politics. Or maybe you and I can sit down over something alcoholic and you can impart your wisdom.

Posted by Melanie @ Mel, A Dramatic Mommy on 4 September 2008 @ 10am

[...] Thematically Fickle: I struggled with these thoughts, which run counter to my belief system that women can do anything [...]

Posted by Palingenesis « The Callipygian Chronicle on 5 September 2008 @ 10am

I too am enraged over the very idea of the “woman who shall remain nameless.” I am a professor of history howver more importantly one who acheived this status later in life while raising four children. Never once did I use my children my sexuality, or lies in a blatant attempt to acheive status. And let us not allow them to insult Hilary. Senator Clinton NEVER sold her self out. He is HiLARY! I am voting for the Obama/Biden ticket because I believe for once we have candidates that will attempt to undue the horrors of the past five years. Biden is not a politician. He is a statesman and exactly the right person for the job.

McCain is not a maverick. He intends to only serve one term. That leaves us with a possible replacement who is a right wing extremist.

I honestly believe that McCain only wants to be a president period. He has not intention of governing in the name of those who need it. “Mommy!! I jus wanna be president!!! Waaa!!!

Glad to see other women are outraged. I hear too many of us exclaiming over the cheerleader.
Curdles the blood.

Posted by Christine on 10 September 2008 @ 10am