Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Watching the RNC

Watching the RNC -- and I am wearing my American hat



Because I don't really ever take that off. Sorry that some Republicans apparently have to switch hats.

You know? I am not feeling uplifted.

And WTF? Fred Thompson last night and Romney and Huckabee tonight.

you know? I don't care about:

- Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter, although I truly feel sorry that it appears that she and young Levi are heading towards the altar. That's probably compounding the mistake.

But, I do care about some things:

- I care that she advocates things I don't believe in, like the death penalty, the overturning of Roe, home schooling, drilling in ANWR, and few (if any) restrictions on guns

- I care that she doesn't seem to really have a grasp of the job of Vice President

- I care that she is under investigation for abusing her position as Governor

- I care that she hasn't denounced her pastor of now, when Obama was excoriated for not denouncing something his pastor said some time ago

- I care that she really doesn't have any experience on a national or international scale

- I care that she will travel with codes to nuclear weapons

- I care that Palin and her supporters -- and the Religious Right in general -- have convinced people that they own morality, and especially things like abstinence and the value of human life. On abstinence, I don't know any parents who hand their kids birth control pills and condoms and say, 'oh, great! go have sex, because you're safe now!" Not so much. Most of the parents I know pretty much try to get their kids to abstain for a long while, because it is part of what they consider being sexually responsible. On the sanctity of human life, well, when life starts is a question of religious teaching to a certain extent. Most of the people I know who are pro-choice agree that some limits are sensible, and I've never met anyone who thought abortions were something women went out and got for fun. On the other hand, the death penalty kills people who are clearly people and alive. I don't know how you can preach the sanctity of human life when you aren't consistent about the death penalty, and when you aren't consistent about killing innocent non-Americans.

- I care that the speakers at the RNC are carefully blaming the Democrats for many of the problems this country faces at the moment, Romney even implying that things like the mortgage crisis have nothing to do with a loosening in regulation over the last 8 years.

-I care that so much of what the GOP speakers are saying is implying that people who feel as I do are not real Americans.


Well, I've read the Constitution, and I support it. I pay my taxes, I have voted in almost every election, from federal to local (I think I've only ever missed three elections for which I've been eligible to vote -- not all that bad for almost 30 years of voting), and I show up for jury duty. I read all the campaign literature I've been given. And I'm old enough to remember when all of those things counted. The people speaking tonight are old enough, too, but they seem to have forgotten them.

10 comments:

~profgrrrrl~ said...

-I care that so much of what the GOP speakers are saying is implying that people who feel as I do are not real Americans.

Amen.

Anonymous said...

I'm pro-life and against the death penalty, so that really leaves me pretty much out of political luck. I felt just as alienated by the DNC as I do the RNC.

Another Damned Medievalist said...

My state governor is pro-life and anti death penalty. He's also pro-choice. Being pro-choice does not mean being pro-abortion.

Anonymous said...

Oh... what does she say about homeschooling? And why is that automatically bad? My sister and I were both homeschooled for years (me since second grade, my sister the whole way), for nonreligious reasons, and we turned out just fine. It really REALLY bugs me that people now (though, admittedly, with some reason) equate homeschooling with fundamentalist religious whackjobs.

Another Damned Medievalist said...

She is pro-homeschooling. And I admit that, in some parts of the country, or if people have some lifestyles, there can be good arguments for homeschooling. And I would trust a lot of the people I know to homeschool their kids. But IMO, because the majority of people who homeschool arepulling their kids out of the public schools to home school are doing it for religious or social reasons (in WA state, I knew many students whose parents had pulled them because there were too many ethnic minorities moving into their school districts), I am willing to ban home schooling, or at least regulate and restrict it much more.

I think overall, it encourages divisiveness and does not reinforce the ideals of US citizenship and its concomitant responsibilities. In fact, it demonstrates that one can pick and choose what one wants -- to opt out of the public schools, instead of working to make them better, and yet demand that one's kids get the benefits of the music and sports programs. That seriously pisses me off.

heu mihi said...

On abortion--Obama recently said something that I thought was really sensible and was basically the answer I've been *waiting* for someone to give. I can't remember his exact phrasing, but the gist was that he is against overturning Roe because he trusts women to take decisions that affect their bodies very seriously, and does not believe that women are having abortions without thinking it through as thoroughly as possible. He went on to argue that what we need to do is to fix the causes of abortion (i.e. reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and provide better social services to pregnant women). The interviewer--that CA evangelist, I can't remember his name--didn't seem to understand that this was different from overturning Roe, but whatever.

Obama's position on abortion isn't totally perfect, but I practically applauded the television when I heard him say that. I am *SO* tired of mainstream pro-life arguments that basically posit two kinds of women: those who understand the value of life and therefore don't have abortions, and those who'd gladly kill their babies without giving it a thought.

MET said...

Hi.

I'm a big fan. I just became a bigger fan.

I hope you don't mind - but I linked to this post. I felt you said many things other people should hear.

Another Damned Medievalist said...

Heu mihi -- that's it. I think abortion is a crappy choice, but I've never had to make it, and I won't make it for someone else. What I would like to see is a health and support system that would reduce the number of women who feel forced to choose for economic reasons. And I would like to see better birth control options and see them more available -- again, we don't have an adequate health care system.

MET -- welcome, and thanks.

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree with you on your stance that homeschooling promotes divisiveness and does not reinforce US citizenship ideals (did you know, for instance, that most of our founding fathers and many great Americans since were homeschooled?). Divisiveness from/against what or whom? One's peers in the area? Hardly; many counties have groups where homeschooling families can come together for resources, information, social time, etc. The school system itself? One might as well ban private schools (religious or non), then, and force everyone to go to the same public schools.

Yes, homeschooling pulls kids out of public schools, instead of working to better said schools... but what about the kids? I learned SO much more as a homeschooler than I ever would have in the public schools - I wasn't challenged at all. By being homeschooled, I learned at my own pace (which, with the exception of math once I hit algebra, was generally at least a grade or two ahead of my peers). I also retain a love of learning and did not suffer much depression during adolescence, both of which would have been different had I been in public school.

I will note that not all counties allow homeschoolers to participate in school-sponsored sports and music programs. Mine didn't, and I believe it's that way for most of West Virginia. Two of my older homeschooling friends eventually went to a public high school specifically so they could play sports, in fact.

Another Damned Medievalist said...

If there were no options but public or well-regulated (in the sense of requiring the same or better credentials as public schools), don't you think that people might be encouraged to make sure that public schools were better for all students?

Sorry, but I'm old enough that I remember good school systems where standardized testing was used to track kids who were moving at a quicker pace into classes with other such (or older) kids. And the founding fathers thing doesn't cut it -- they lived in a society where community was understood in an entirely different way -- and their societies were on an entirely different scale.

I just think the goods to society outweigh the good to any individual kid. The trick is to work harder to make sure that parents don't feel they have to pull their kids out of the public schools for intellectual reasons. The ones who want to do it for ideological reasons? they can send their kids to some other accreditated school.