Strange game, professor. The only way to win is not to play.

[flewellyn]

So, McCain has selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who has been governor for 18 months over a state with a smaller population than Chicago, as his Vice Presidential running mate. It's a transparently obvious attempt to garner the votes of women, under the assumption that women are stupid, interchangeable, and will vote for anyone with a vagina, issues and policies be damned. Yet, for all of that, McCain and Palin have been talking about "breaking the glass ceiling" and touting this as a feminist choice.

Such a strange campaign. The Democrats are busy trying to pretend to be Republicans, so the Republicans, in retaliation, try to pretend to be Democrats.

Comments

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

On a purely theoretical level, a progressive who was given the choice between A) a solidly centrist or brokerage candidate who is nominally democrat but who must jockey right to establish centrist/bipartisan cred and B) an equally centrist/brokerage candidate who is nominally republican but who must jockey left to establish centrist/bipartisan cred, would do better to vote for candidate B (assuming that these attempts were trustworthy and not just lip-service). However, this isn't REALLY the case in this campaign, because McCain hasn't done much to establish centrist cred yet- it's all symbolic and lip-service. Obama on the other hand has taken some very concrete steps right.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

See, I don't believe that the Democrats SHOULD jockey right to establish "centrist cred", because I think that centrist electorate/"swing voter" business is nonsensical and a recipe for losing.

I intend to write more of a post about this later, but basically, the Republicans do one thing right: they play to their base. They do not try to chase after swing voters, they continually court their base. Whereas the Democratic party, time and time again, chases after the mythical "swing voter" and abandons its progressive base, which is a recipe for disaster.

As a result, the Democrats have found it very hard to win elections ever since they adopted this strategy. The only time they've done so, in fact, is when they DIDN'T adopt it: Bill Clinton, for all the talk of "triangulation", never forgot that his base was progressive. And in 2006, the Democrats actually ran on a progressive platform (which they ditched once in office, but never mind that). Those times, they won. Other times, in the past 30 years, when they tried for "swing voters", they lost.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

WORDY McWORD WORD WORD. FTW.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

So you're saying I should make that longer post?

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[voyeurprincess.livejournal.com]

"the Republicans do one thing right: they play to their base. They do not try to chase after swing voters, they continually court their base. "

This is why the choice of Palin as a running mate seems to me like a Fail In The Making for the GOP.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure. On the one hand, Palin is highly conservative, anti-choice, anti-gay rights, and all those things that the reichwing base loves. On the other hand, she is a woman, and thus has icky girl cooties.

For a good chunk of the GOP base, the latter outweighs the former. But the GOP is also known for having a large base that loves putting women in power who keep other women down. As long as she is attractive, smart but not too smart, extremely right-wing, and keeps women as a whole from having any power, many Republicans love their powerful token women. It's how Ann Coulter makes her living, and it's how Sarah Palin got elected governor of Alaska.

It's certainly a huge Fail insofar as McCain is hoping to lure former Clinton supporters to his side, though.

[voyeurprincess.livejournal.com]

I'll agree with you (although it mystifies me) about the Coulter-type supporters. But between the potential loss of support from the "omg girl cooties" crowd and the total (can we say total?) lack of support being gained from hard-core Clintonites, I don't see what McCain and Co. were thinking!

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

They were thinking, to quote myself: "that women are stupid, interchangeable, and will vote for anyone with a vagina, issues and policies be damned."

[mcpatti.livejournal.com]

I actually laughed out loud at this choice when I read about it this morning. The best part is the fact that this Sarah Palin woman is a member of the group "Feminists for Life" which is hilarious in and of itself.

It's a transparently obvious attempt to garner the votes of women, under the assumption that women are stupid, interchangeable, and will vote for anyone with a vagina, issues and policies be damned.

Here, here.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

"Feminists For Life"! Yes, and next up, "Chickens for KFC!"

[parrhesia.livejournal.com]

Feminists for Life appears to be a legit independent organization with real roots, not a puppet branch of some larger group. They have a lot to say about protecting the rights of a pregnant woman to work and obtain an education that I doubt you would disagree with.

I also fail to see how being a feminist and disagreeing with abortion are incompatible.

And finally, not to nitpick too much, but I think you're being more than a little cynical about McCain's choice for a running mate - it's almost as if you're saying she's 'no more than a woman' and that's the only reason he chose her. I'm not saying she's a good or bad choice, as I know little about her, but people are people, and it seems rather, well, feminist to judge her as a person based on her abilities and positions rather than her chromosomes.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Feminists for Life appears to be a legit independent organization with real roots, not a puppet branch of some larger group. They have a lot to say about protecting the rights of a pregnant woman to work and obtain an education that I doubt you would disagree with.

I know who they are. They're an independent organization, but their positions are disingenuous, as they imply that other feminists don't care about protecting pregnant women, education for women, and such.

Also, there's plenty that is incompatible with the idea of opposing abortion and calling onesself feminist: the right to choose is based on the right of bodily autonomy, which is so fundamental that it wasn't considered necessary to put it in the Constitution. It's the basis of our entire legal system stretching back to the Magna Carta.

As for cynicism, no, I don't think that I'm saying "she's no more than a woman and that's the only reason to choose her". What I'm saying is, McCain evidently thinks this. There are other prominent women in the GOP who have much better qualifications and much more experience than Palin (Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Condoleeza Rice come to mind), and others who also have the advantage of not being embroiled in corruption scandals at the moment.

[paradoxicalwhim.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with you often.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Really? Me too!

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Strange, isn't it? I don't know what to make of it.

[foma44.livejournal.com]

so she is just a vagina on parade but you have to think of why he chose her vagina over all the other vaginas

1. alaskan oil
2. an unknown vagina is 3x more trustwothy than a rich mormon

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

3. She used to be a beauty queen, and she's pretty.
4. Other powerful Republican women tend to have actual personalities.

[foma44.livejournal.com]

that's funny because i posted before i had talked to any male friends about it...and when i did they were all going on about how good looking she is. i guess i wasn't really thinking about it, but yeah. i can't believe being good looking would really win votes though-if anything i think it would enrage/confuse men with female-hating issues even more.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, but it might. More to the point, being pretty got John McCain's attention; he's known for being a bit pervy.

[shes-not-there.livejournal.com]

"No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

[spooke.livejournal.com]

You always have sane things to say. While that isn't necessarily good for your Malk cred, it does give me hope that other sane people may exist in the States, despite the news.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

In insane times, the sane sound mad.

[cheekyweebisom.livejournal.com]

The important question here is: for how many days will Joe Biden shake with laughter and glee in anticipation of the VP candidate debate?

Is the answer FOR MANY DAYS? I think it is.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I only hope you're right.