Tag: Politics

Joe the Plumber Wins American Idol

~ Deb ~ Leave a comment

On the campaign trail on Friday, John McCain introduced Joe the Plumber as “an American hero” and “my idol.”  Oh, where do I begin?

First, what has this guy possibly done to warrant “American hero” status?  Perhaps over the course of his life he has rescued a cat from a tree or coached a Little League team or bought Girl Scout cookies.  He might have even done truly brave and heroic things that we don’t know about, though I doubt it; I’m sure the GOP would have dredged up that bit of information and played the soundbite over and over again, ad nauseum, perhaps with Hank Williams, Jr., singing yet another poorly rewritten version of “Family Tradition” as the background music.  Joe the Plumber might just be a decent fellow, but lying about a fake company he’s going to purchase doesn’t exactly qualify him for a Congressional Medal of Honor.  (Oh, how many tangents could I go on here?  The who-ever-thought-putting-Hank-the-Neanderthal-Williams-Jr-on-stage-at-rallies-would-improve-the-Republican-image tangent?  Or perhaps the why-do-so-many-white-men-who-make-$40,000-a-year-vote-like-they’re-CEOs tangent?  But I digress. . . )

The worst part of this particular piece of McCain Campaign hyperbole is that while we have tens of thousands of true American heros risking their lives in a Middle Eastern Vietnam, our great senatorial war hero is giving similar status to an unlicensed plumber.   Mothers of soldiers all over this country should be put off by that.  (Including Sarah Palin and Cindy McCain.)

And “my idol“?  Forgive me, but, are you shitting me?  Now Joe has been elevated above the legions of service men and women, firefighters, police officers, and Good Samaritans.  Apparently, he has joined the ranks of Mother Teresa, Gandhi and, in McCain’s personally acknowledged pantheon, Ronald Reagan.  (Pardon me while I recover from the fact that I just put Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Ronald Reagan in the same group.)   At this rate, Joe needs more than just a publicist and a record deal; he needs disciples.

While Barack Obama campaigns with Bill Clinton and Al Gore and receives the endorsements of Colin Powell and a whole slew of Republican defectors, John McCain is laying the groundwork for Joe the Plumber: American Hero as the next Lifetime movie of the week.  And McCain wants to question Obama’s associations?

I’ll write more later.  Right now I’m late for a meeting with my publicist.

Warm Regards,

Deb the English Teacher

Black to the Future

~ Deb ~ Leave a comment

A woman in my evening composition class told this story last night.  After leaving the polls for early voting in Nashville yesterday, she happened upon a man she works with.  He asked an interesting question.

“Did you vote right?”

She looked at him a little puzzled.  “Well, I suppose ‘right’ would depend on which side you’re for.”

“What I mean is,” he said with a knowing southern grin, “did you vote black or white?”

As we are approaching the summit of that mountain top Dr. King saw 45 years ago, it must be noted that some Americans remain stuck in a valley of immense ignorance.  For a long time now, we have lived in the delusion that racism was disappearing.  As Barack Obama edges closer to the Oval Office, our baser elements seem to be crawling out of the ooze.

But don’t think for a minute that I would advocate the impossible (and unnecessary) concept of a colorblind election.  This election IS about the economy and the war and education and health care, etc.  But, this election is also about race, and it should be.

The civil war ended 143 years ago and with it the national sin of slavery.  In those 143 years, we have experienced Reconstruction, Jim Crow, lynchings, Plessy v. Ferguson, segregation, Brown v. The Board of Education, lunch counters, sit-ins, fire hoses, police dogs, and church bombings, not to mention the death of a thousand cuts that shows up as that subtle, systemic, sinister, subconscious bigotry that insinuates itself into everything from jobs to jokes.  To a sociologist studying cultural change, 143 years is nothing.   We absolutely cannot elect a black man to the most powerful office in our nation in 2008 and not recognize how profound that moment would be.

When I cast my vote a few weeks ago for Barack Obama, I did so because I believe in his plan for America.  I agree with his economic vision, his policy of diplomacy first and war last, his devotion to equality for all Americans, and his recognition that our diseased health care system must undergo surgery.  But I also felt a personal thrill and undeniable swelling of patriotism that I lived to see the day I could vote for an African American for president.

He shouldn’t be president because he’s black.  But it still does mean something that he is.  And regardless of whether he accomplishes that task or not, we can’t put this genie back into the bottle.  Our national racism has once again come up for healing.  And our national prayer should be that we eradicate this cancer once and for all.

Why I am a Democrat

~ Deb ~ 3 Comments

I wasn’t sure I wanted to get political on this blog, but this is on my mind so it’s showing up here.  I will refrain, however, from delving deeply into the pros and cons of the various candidates.  I will hold myself back from saying that Sarah Palin is a strident, smug, sarcastic woman whose speeches sound more like angry stand-up comedy than problem-solving ideas.  I will resist the urge to point out that John McCain’s “straight talk” is about as forward moving as the Teacup Ride at Disneyworld.   I will not discuss Joe Biden’s place in my heart as one of my all-time favorite politicians, smartass though he may be at times.   And I certainly will not be writing about the way Barack Obama makes me believe he really can heal the world, with our help.

No, instead I want to speak in more general, philosophical terms.  Who is running is somewhat secondary to the ideas behind the two sides, and never before in my lifetime have the two sides been more (pardon the pun) black and white.

I am a Democrat because of my values.  The principles which I hold dear and, yes, would fight for are the same ones espoused by Democrats.

1)   I value civil liberties.  It literally brought a chill to my spine when Sarah Palin thought it was some kind of punch line to state that Barack Obama wants to make sure we have read terrorists their rights.  It brought an even deeper chill when thousands of Republican delegates applauded in response.  There is a little concept called “liberty and justice FOR ALL” which I (call me old-fashioned) still believe is at the core of American values.

2)   I value the people of America over the government, industries, and institutions of America.  The Republicans have a foundational belief that if they take care of business, business will take care of the people.  The Democrats believe that if you take care of the people, the people will take care of business.  You only have to compare the booming economy under Democrats with the floundering economy under Republicans to see which idea has proved true.

3)  I value the Constitution.  Never in my life have I seen our Constitution take such as beating as it has over the past eight years.  The Patriot Act was the most grossly misnamed bill to ever cross a President’s desk.  It is not patriotism to infringe on the basic rights of privacy and due process afforded us by a system that has held strong for 230 years.

4)  I value human rights.  The Republicans seem hell-bent on restricting rights while Democrats would expand them.  Republicans want to tell people how to live.  Democrats want to help people live their best lives in their own unique and creative ways.

5)   I value the separation of church and state.   Regardless of what a person thinks their bible or their preacher tells them about gay marriage, the issue of marriage in our society is a civil issue.  So many issues – abortion, gay rights, faith-based initiatives, gun control, the death penalty – seem to be influenced heavily by the bellows of the religious right.  In the same way that we do not let a Koran or the Tao determine who gets the benefits of our society, neither should we allow the Christian Bible or the Torah.  America seems to have arrived at a point where all presidential candidates have to undergo a religious vetting process.  Our increasing flirtation with theocracy scares the hell out of me ever so much more than any of my grandfather’s sermons ever did.

6)   I believe in the strength of diversity.  All you have to do is recall the audience shots from the two conventions to see who has this area covered.  During the Democratic convention, CNN ran little tidbits of trivia across the bottom of the screen.  These included what percentage of Asians, African-Americans, Gays and Lesbians, Hispanics, and people with disabilities were included among the Democratic delegates to the convention.  Those statistics were glaringly absent during the Republican National Convention.  Perhaps it was too embarassing to announce that “0.03% of delegates are (fill in the blank with something other than white).”

There are more reasons why I’m a Democrat, but these are the biggies.  And they are among the reasons why I will proudly cast my vote for Barack Obama and Joseph Biden this November 4th.