disrespect

Disrespect is such a slippery notion -- both for those who feel disrespected as for those who disprespect because it is seemingly very subjective -- do you feel disrespected? was it your intention to disrespect or was it just a sad by product of some action??

Like disrespect, offense is another one of those eye of the beholder issues. Maybe it's like porn, you know it when you feel it?

Well I can say that I feel equally disrespected and offended by John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Oh where to start? You think that because she has ovaries that those disaffected Clinton voters will decide to vote for you -- regardless of her politics? Um... you think that you can sell all the evangelicals that you are serious by putting her on your ticket even though she doesn't believe we need to do anything about the environment? You want us to believe that this is MAVERICK decision making? Try drunken soldier decision making. Maybe pompous ass decision making.

It is disrespectful to all those who ever believed you when you said that you wanted a different kind of politics. It is disrespectful to all women, all people who care about the environment, all people who would like their children to learn about science and not religion in school, etc. And worst of all it is disrespectful to the many QUALIFIED women in your own party.

There are many other women who would have been more interesting and less disrespectful as choices for veep: Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorino, Olympia Snowe, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Libby Dole, and on and on and on... there are EXPERIENCED Republican women out there both from inside and outside the beltway.

I am not the only one who feels this way. Of course, adding any of these other women on the ticket would not have made me change my mind on voting for Obama. It needs to be said because so many who defend the Palin choice would be defending any choice. Biden was not my first choice for veep, either, but it had nothing to do with my decision to vote for Barack...

Here are the issues that I have with Governor Palin:

1) Her politics are just not in line with mine, actually they are, on my points, in direct opposition -- having ovaries and/or children doesn't change the way I feel about her politics, I happen to believe in the existence of green house warming, in the teaching of evolution, that sex education should go BEYOND abstinence only and that women have the right to CHOOSE what should happen with their bodies. And that is just the beginning... we can go to the guns and drilling and the beholden-ness to certain industries... but really, the first four are deal breakers for me, so the rest is just gravy on why I don't like her. There is no way that I would vote for this woman under any circumstances.

2) She is a wolf in sheep's clothing -- she lies (says things that are untrue) about things that relate to ETHICS and MORALS... she presents as one thing and then is another. Yes, that is exactly what politicians do. However, if you are going to campaign as the "other" kind of candidate, the ethical one who has morals and lives by them, then you can't be as slippery as the rest of the bunch. There are the personal lies (eloped because she didn't want her poor, hard-working -- read working class -- teacher parents to pay for her wedding when in fact she was pregnant and "had" to get married), but more importantly there are the political lies. These are not things dredged up from 20 years ago -- she hasn't been in politics that long; listen to this from NPR.

3) I respect all women's right to have a career and a family -- I think it is doable (though challenging at times), and a perfectly acceptable goal. When Governor Palin insisted that she would continue to serve as governor as the mother of a disabled child, I applauded her for finding the strength and for using her personal and professional network to make this possible. When she told the world that her oldest daughter was FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT and about to get married, I wasn't moralistic about it. Things do happen, though the question of abstinence only as a successful strategy did cross my mind. I have to say I can't really see how choosing to put her daughter and son-in-law-to-be in the spotlight along with the rest of her family is the best choice.


What she does with and for her family is absolutely her business and I applaud Barack Obama for saying it will not be dragged into the campaign, however, I am just not convinced that at this time in our country's life is the best time to have as role models the teenage mother, the non-college educated First Man (Dude) who urges kids in high school to consider working in the oil industry instead of going to college, and a vice president who doesn't think that conservation for the sake of the environment is really necessary especially if it might interfere with the free market.

Basically, hate her. And now I hate him too.