I’m sorry, but I’m mad today. I don’t usually talk about politics online (there are more than enough people doing that already), but today I just can’t help myself. I wanted to title this post “Americans are so stupid”, but I figured that would just get me on some kind of watch list (if I’m not already).
Here’s the thing- voting for a candidate just because they’re a woman does not make you a feminist. It does not make you a ‘strong woman’ or part of a ‘sisterhood’. It just makes you a gullible idiot. The whole point of feminism is that women should be treated as EQUALS of men, not given special favors or special attention just because they have a vagina. That’s not feminism, that’s pandering. John McCain has chosen a woman as his running mate assuming that all of the discontented Hillary supporters will automatically jump to his side. If they do that, then they were never true Hillary supporters in the first place. As she said herself in her speech Tuesday night “did you vote for me, or did you vote for (what I stand for)?” And if you just supported her because she’s a woman then it is a sad, sad day for women and feminism in the United States of America.
I agree that it’s about time we had a woman in the highest office. I agree that women need to hold more public offices in general, especially in an era when we make up more than half of the US population yet hold only 17% of the seats in Congress. BUT- it should not mean that the Republican party (or ANY party) should be able to throw any woman on the ballot and assume that other women will vote for her, regardless of her viewpoint, experience, or political/personal beliefs. I don’t know very much about Sarah Palin, but I do know that she’s no Hillary Clinton, and in fact stands at the complete opposite side of everything Hillary was fighting for. If you were going to vote for McCain anyway, fine, be my guest. If you were a Hillary supporter and you can’t stand Barack Obama, fine, then sit this one out if that’s what you feel you need to do. But if you have ever considered yourself a democrat, or a Hillary supporter, or in favor of alternative energy, abortion rights, gun control, universal healthcare, and an end to the war in Iraq and America’s international policy of fight now/talk never, and John McCain’s adding a woman to his ticket has changed your mind just by the very virtue of her being a women, then don’t talk to me- you’re not worthy of your gender, as far as I’m concerned.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I hope I’m wrong, I hope Americans- and American women in particular- aren’t stupid enough to fall for this ploy. But then again, this is the country that brought us George W. Bush. TWICE.
inching forward 