@PE: I agree with every word of what you wrote (as I'm sure you know from our FB conversations). I can't shake this feeling that while most Americans have finally become ready for a (half)black president, we still aren't ready for a female president. It just saddens me so much.
I'm not saying, of course, that all Obama supporters chose him over Clinton simply because they're misogynists (that would make me as much of an asshole as the people who suggest that everyone who supported McCain did so because they're racists) but all the examples you gave (and plenty of others I've seen personally), should make it pretty obvious to anyone with the tools to spot sexism that a lot of people (yes, even liberals) still have problems with assertive and confident women, women who are not conventionally attractive, women who
are conventially attractive and just the general idea of a woman having that much authority over men.
(I originally wrote a couple more long paragraphs here delving deep into feminist theory in an attempt to explain why this is, but I deleted it because, dear Christ, who do I think is really interested in reading all of that?)
Berserk wrote:
If you support gay rights, abortion rights, campaign finance reform, etc. this should be the biggest issue in the campaign for you right now.
I wasn't going to get too specific because I really don't care enough to turn this into a high-effort debate and I don't want to start a fight, but I keep thinking about this and it keeps bugging me.
Obviously I support gay rights and reproductive rights but I don't appreciate being told what issues should be the most important to me.
I
reaaalllly doubt Roe v. Wade will be overturned any time soon. It seems like it would've happened by now if it were going to happen. Ever since I've been aware of politics (20+ years), the left has been trying to terrify women into voting Democrat by telling us that if we elect a Republican, we will go back to the days of coathangers and women dying in alleys. But it never happens. Imagine the riots. Sure, half of the country would be overjoyed, but the other half would burn the fucking country down.
As far as gay marriage goes, I feel fairly confident that once it makes it to the Supreme Court, the Court will rule in favor of it because I can't even imagine what kind of crazy mental gymnastics they would have to perform in order to stretch the Constitution into the service of denying gay rights. (Also, they upheld Obamacare so how unreasonably conservative are they really?)
Either way though, the most important issue to me is the economy because I have a mortgage, a home equity loan, two car payments, gas, oil, electricity, insurance, food, medical co-pays, internet, two phone plans, two cats (and some other things I'm probably forgetting right now) to pay for. Oh, and we're trying to have a kid and it looks like we're going to need to go with in vitro fertilization, which is very expensive (and then, of course, we will then have a child to support).
We are also small business owners in the hospitality and restaurant industries (which have been hit particularly hard) and our formerly moderately successful business has been on the verge of bankruptcy for the past 4 years. When my husband is actually able to collect a paycheck from the hotel, the government takes 27% of it.
Additionally, this area has always been shit for jobs, but it is particularly bad these days despite the most recent misleading figures Obama is bragging about. We are doing okay despite how bad this all sounds, but we are nowhere near as comfortable and financially confident as we once were.
So, it's fine for you, as a college student, to focus on the environment, abortion and gay marriage like they are the most important issues because you don't have the same kind of concerns and responsibilities as people my age do, but please don't tell me what should be the most important issue to me and my family until you've been out in the real world for a while. (Sorry if that sounded rude. I tried to figure out a way to say it delicately, but I don't know that I succeeded).
faith wrote:
Romney took one trip to England and pissed them off. That's one of our strongest allies too. It got mw thinking. He also lies and offshores jobs = ruins the econo. I dunno. Obama might have let me down on a lot of stuff and he may be ineffective, but at least he's not a cunt.
I keep thinking about this too though I won't write an essay about it. I just wanted to point out that Obama has pissed off our allies (including the UK) plenty. What about that shit he just pulled with Netanyahu where he said he was too busy to meet with him (despite our important relationship with Israel) and then went on The View to get blown and went to a bunch of fundraisers where he got to hang out with celebrities?* I think he's a pretty big cunt too.
But it's cool if you don't agree. *shrug*
And I can't seriously be the only one who is really disgusted by how the Libya attack has been handled, can I?
*
I wrote this before Berserk mentioned this. I don't know how this is whacky chain-email stuff. It happened. It's not something your crazy conservative aunt made up. It's been reported in all kinds of news media on both sides. Obama said he didn't have time to meet with Netanyahu but he had time to go on The View and make jokes about just being there as eye candy.
XD
