Smart Is Beautiful

THIS IS A PRE-ELECTION POST BUT IT’S STILL RELEVANT REGARDING WOMEN IN POLITICS: 

It’s no surprise to the people who know me that I was a huge Hillary Clinton fan…and a fan of a woman in the White House in general. I think it’s high time there were more women holding political power, not only so that our gender, which makes up 51% of the US population is equally served, but also so that we take that crucial step toward true equality.

Until our daughters, and their daughters, can point to a woman in the oval office and say, “we truly are equal in every way,” then there will always be a discrepancy in the power between the genders.

The ideal that we hold so dear - the one that says we are of a government who considers all human beings to be created equal - will never be an authentic one until we are both gender and color blind. And that won’t happen until we can all say that there’s someone ”like us” in power. Until then, there’s a subtle, though powerful, truth that whispers in our ears every day that says we’re not as important.

So, though I’m disappointed – though not terribly surprised – that Hillary is out of the race, I’ve resigned myself to voting my party and casting my vote for Obama. I suppose it makes sense, historically, that a black man should be elected to the Presidency before a white woman. After all, they were given the right to vote in 1867, a full 53 years before women were allowed the same privilege in 1920.

This means that while typically uneducated, newly freed male slaves had the right to vote (at least on paper), there were women so intelligent and accomplished that they’ve become household names who still weren’t afforded the same privilege during their lifetimes: Louisa May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Mary Cassatt, Emily Dickinson, Florence Nightingale or Harriet Tubman.

But hope springs eternal and I was delighted to see that John McCain made such a savvy political choice in choosing Governor Sarah Palin for his Vice-Presidential running mate.

And then I heard her acceptance speech….

I could run on for hours about how my brain felt like it would explode while listening to her smart mouth, but instead I’d like to discuss how her being a “pit-bull with lipstick” does not mean that she’s a good choice to be the leader of the free world, should that occur.

First, if she wants to use the fact that she’s a mother as a qualification for her ability to lead, she can’t pick and choose which child she’d like to highlight. Yes, she deserves respect because her son is on his way to Iraq and yes, I’m sure she’ll be a fierce advocate for children with special needs due to her own son’s Down’s syndrome.

But then again, the majority of Americans are proud of the soldiers fighting on our behalf, even if they don’t agree with the reasons they’ve been deployed. If nothing else, Vietnam taught us to blame the politicians for bad decisions in war-mongering, not the soldiers themselves. And there’s not a politician alive who would oppose the advocacy of children with special needs so having one doesn’t really change things.

On the other hand, her daughter Bristol, who’s still in high school and is too young to even vote for her mom, will herself become a mother in a short nine-months.

I wouldn’t dare go after this one, since I don’t believe that all the great parenting in the world can control what teenagers are likely to do, but it seems that the Republicans have decided that they’re the only ones who have “family values” of any kind, and that the liberals are nothing but fetus-killing, anti-marriage heathens. Therefore, I feel like this makes it open season on the irresponsible daughter of any Republican candidate.

Obviously, the Alaskan school system’s teaching of abstinence was ineffectual in this instance, and I’m sure in countless others. Would the teaching of the use of birth control have prevented this pregnancy? Could it have been avoided if the school had provided condoms or the birth control pill to its students?

Well, I certainly don’t think it would have hurt matters, now could it?

But I think the worst moment for me during her speech was when she spoke about her husband, “We met in high school and two decades and five children later, he’s till my guy!”

While all politicians, male and female, talk about their spouses, I can’t imagine ANY male candidate saying, “She’s still my girl,” and not have the statement bring up the question of his marital fidelity or lack of masculinity. But since we’re the weaker sex, I suppose we need a strong husband to help us though (hope you don’t slip on all that dripping sarcasm).

This makes me nearly sick at my stomach. If Sarah Palin was interviewing with me for a job and started talking about her children, giving me their names and descriptions, and followed it up by telling me how her husband is still “her guy,” I would be tossing her resume!

Her family – healthy, happy, or not – has absolutely NOTHING to do with her ability to do a job, which is what the Vice Presidency is – A JOB!!!

Hillary continually asked us to look at her resume for the job of President and I don’t know why the American people can’t accept that modern politics is, in fact, a long interview process that we use in order to determine if these are the people we want for the job of public office.

And since it’s OUR tax dollars that pay their salaries, why wouldn’t we want to choose the person with the most experience since they will be the one most likely to be effective in working for us, instead of the one that looks best on TV or seems like the one we’d most likely have in our circle of friends?

Here are some other ridiculous things she said:

“I accept the call (to help our nominee for president) to serve and defend America.”
- As a Republican, her party doesn’t even support a woman’s right to fight on the frontlines during battle. Therefore, this seems a bit hypocritical since, as a woman, she’s seen to be unable to defend anything where it counts.

“This is America, where every woman can walk through every door of opportunity.”
- Since Republicans are against Affirmative Action, I sure hope the doors she’s talking about are ones where women are actually welcome.

“People in small towns love their country in good times and bad and they’re always proud of America.”                                                                                                                                 - It was dissent that gave birth to this country. I always thought the idea that we’re free NOT to be proud of America – and be willing to say so in order to advocate change – is what made this country great in the first place.

“I guess a small-town mayor if sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
- Let’s start with the fact that “Community Organizer” was Obama’s very first job out of college when he was 24-years-old and it was for the Developing Communities Project in Chicago’s far South Side which is made up of white, black and Latino blue-collar neighborhoods.

- When Sarah Palin was 24-years-old, she was serving her community as a “plucky” sports broadcaster on KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska. When Hillary Clinton was in her twenties, she finished law school at Yale, was appointed to the Nixon Presidential Impeachment Staff, taught as a law professor at the University of Arkansas and became the first female partner in a major Arkansas law firm, which is no small feat for a Illinois female to pull off in a southern state.

- As Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin is responsible for 670,000 people. As an Illinois Congressman, Obama is responsible to 12,832,000. That’s 19 times the number of people, i.e. 19 times the responsibility.

- By the way, Sarah Palin’s experience is on par with that of Sheila Dixon, the mayor of my own little Baltimore, whose population is 637,500.

“I stood up to the special interests and the Lobbyists and the Big Oil Companies and the Good Old Boys.”
- Holy crapoly! Doesn’t she know that she’s seeking to fill the shoes of the Patron Saint of Big Oil’s Lobbyist-Loving Good Ol’ Boys?

On a lighter note, I couldn’t help but notice that the ex-beauty queen has adopted a style that harkens back to a blend of Holly Golightly and Jackie Kennedy, the poster girls for classic American arm candy. And while this is fine by me when it comes to Cindy McCain – a Republican First Lady is usually always seen as nothing more than an adornment for the President – that’s not okay by me when it comes to someone who will be visiting foreign heads of state.

Can you imagine how well she can negotiate with someone from an Arab or African country, where they think women should be hidden away in burkas and still perform clitoridectomies? Will they take her seriously in her Chanel throw-back skirts or would Hillary, who was continuously berated for wearing pantsuits, have proven to be more effectual? After all, as the saying goes, “who wears the pants in the family,” could apply to countries as well.

I put together these photo comparisons, some of whom are simply meant to be funny, but most I hope are thought provoking. Let me know your thoughts, thanks!

PS: I thought I would PUKE when she blew a kiss to her family during her speech! This was supposed to be a serious speech made to the American voting public, not a touchy-feely mommy moment!

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