Until recently, I've avoided taking public political stances. This is in keeping with my personality, generally, since I have a hell of a time ever making up my mind, as anyone who has ever had the unfortunate experience of asking me "So where do you want to go for dinner?" can attest to. I lack the courage of conviction because I, having lived in this body for thirty-six some years, know full well those convictions will probably weaken and sway and shift in possibly the opposite direction. Then I look like an idiot for publicly announcing that the show "Survivor" is signaling the end of western civilization when it it discovered that I have gone way out of my way, and spent quite a bit of money, to watch EVERY SINGLE EPISODE of the seminal reality series. Yes, even the reunion episodes. (More on this later, probably.) So anyway, this post is not about the weakness of my character, but rather about a rare moment of strength.
So here it is:
I strongly doubt I will change my mind about Sarah Palin. I imagine she's a nice lady even if the nickname "Barracuda" is a bit troubling. I'm sure she's a good, loving wife and mother, although I'm reasonably certain I'm glad she's not MY mother. I think her husband is kinda hot. I don't necessarily believe that she's an alien-baby-carrying, pork-chewing, secessionist, flat-earth book-burner on a mission to restore three thousand year old values to the other forty-nine states, just because some trigger-fingered journalist said so. Nope, I'll form an opinion about her policies when she actually tells us what they are, but I can say without equivocation, that her selection for potential Vice President was a shameless and cynical move by the McCain campaign. Yes, I'm certain she was chosen for her executive experience, and not for the fact that she is young (balancing the ticket against her grandfather, um, I mean Mr. McCain), female, (possibly capturing angry Hillary supporters, disgruntled that the democratic process actually might have WORKED), and much more right-wing than her running mate, who either has no firm opinion on anything or just can't remember what that what opinion is. The funniest explanation of her selection can be found here. I definitely could not have said it better, and given my personality, probably wouldn't have even tried.
Oh, and whle I'm off the topic, here's an interesting post by my brother that makes this entire seem thing seem irrelevant.
Yep, I totally agree on Palin. There really are not enough moderate voices over at Crain, ya know? Not so much the bloggers (Chris, Kevin, Andoni), but the commentors ... so many of them are freekin' crazy. They're all rabid, foaming at the mouth neocon kooks or angry liberal nutcakes.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I'm a little sympathetic toward the liberals because I understand their anger. Bush and the Republicans basically stuck their finger in our eye for the past 6-8 years to say nothing of the gratuitous character assassination against the Democrats.
Still, the tone on both sides is a little over the top. So kudos to you for being the voice of reason and sensibility over at Crain.
I'm glad you have the energy to engage NDT and some of the other kooks -- frankly, they exhaust me. Yeah, I've spent many and hour replying to NDT's flawed arguments and insane commentary, but I couldn't make headway, so I just decided to ignore him. I'll leave it to you and that other guy (Santos?) to take him on...and the other kooks. Well done.
Cheers,
TL
Oh yeah, PS:
ReplyDeleteI did that quiz thing you posted and turned out to be a Utilitarian. I'm not sure what that means, but there you have it.
Yeah .. what's changed for me is that I no longer have the patience for the "liberal nutcakes" in the same way I NEVER had patience for the neocon kooks. I'm essentially a liberal in a lot of ways, but one, that does not make me a democrat, and two, living in SF has exposed me to some of the excesses of liberalism gone rampant.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten a little braver, lately. I used to post hesitantly, thinking, gosh golly, who really wants to hear my opinion? I'm not terribly informed. But then I realized that, well, no one there is, except for NDT who usually does his homework at least (admittedly his homework ignores ANYTHING that might support a liberal viewpoint, but at least he bothers.) Being called the "voice of reason" is greater compliment than I can express, but we'll see how long my patience holds out.
My view on the world, and maybe this comment deserves its own post, is one of eerily endless compassion. Even though I've been accused of being self-absorbed (but c'mon, what gay man hasn't?), I have an empathetic nature, and while I try to block it out sometimes, it will always kick in eventually, and I cannot help but try to wrap my head around other people's actions and viewpoints, trying to figure out how they arrived at them. A great example is that I was able to find a great deal of sympathy for Jeffrey Dahmer. I think what he did was gruesome and vile and he certainly deserved to be punished, but when it's all said and done, I think I understand why he did it. Strangely, I have a harder time getting inside the head of someone like NDT than I do the head of a serial killer. So anyway, fairness sort of rules for me because I just can't have it any other way.
Yeah, this comment should be re-worked into its own post. Stay tuned...
K -
ReplyDeleteNice analogy, except I hate swiss cheese (and, actually, most cheeses.)
My patience is already wearing thin with commenting. I want my OWN show, damnit. Yes, please play in my sandbox and I promise I won't use any Holocaust analogies. (Turns out I'm descended from people who experienced the Holocaust, but I suppose my mysterious heritage also warrants its own post one of these days.)
Congrats Charlie,
ReplyDeleteLooks like you're attracting some pretty bright people to your blog. Maybe some of the more moderate folks over at Citizen Crain will start wandering over here to "chill out" after a long day of contentious commenting.
And Kevin,
Nice to see you here. I find that the posts here at 324 are a bit less intense than over at CC, so it's nice change of pace.
Yeah, I totally get why you've stopped posting (although I hope my comments weren't the reason you stopped!) You get good marks from me for both the tone and the content of your posts, even though I kinda disagree with you on a lot of stuff. But, hey, that's what makes it interesting, right?
Cheers,
Ted