Politics

[ellenmillion]

I don't generally follow party politics, and I usually lean slightly more democratic than republican (when forced to choose), but McCain TOTALLY won me with his VP nomination. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our governor Palin. I think I may have cheered out loud when I read that. Go Sarah!

PS: Don't worry, that's probably all the politics you'll get out of me for the whole rest of the election.



ETA: WHY I like Sarah Palin. Disclaimer: I don't generally follow politics, and I base this fondness on not much more than my own personal experiences... you want a fair, in-depth and researched opinion, that's not here. This is the stuff that affects me directly.

Point 1. She's tough and charismatic. She usually has a smile on her face and is upbeat and cheerful. I really like her get-it-done attitude. It's something I respect in anyone.

Point 2. She repealed the fee hikes for business licenses that her awful predecessor levied.

Point 3. She thinks ahead and gets it done. Alaska is going to get a natural gas pipeline someday soon. Not only is she working towards that, she's not considering 'oh, we've negotiated it' as the end of the deal. She's already allotted the money to improve our roads to the point where they will handle the construction equipment needed to make it happen. She's looked at things that slowed the 70's gas pipeline and thinking YEARS ahead.

Point 4. At the same time, she's managed to get an oil relief bill through the red tape so that every Alaskan is getting an extra $1200 with their PFD next month. I dunno that it's the best possible solution to the problem, but it Got Done, and I gotta give kudos to her for that.

Point 5. She doesn't say stupid things. There are so many people in politics that I otherwise like that just up and say Stupid Things periodically and make me cringe to support them. She hasn't done that (that I've noticed).

Point 6. Some folks are saying her 'husband is in oil' like this is a bad thing, but he is an oil operator, which is a far, far, FAR cry from being an oil CEO or an oil executive. An operator is a blue-collar, dirt-under-the-nails job. I like that, too. If we smear everyone who ever works in oil ever with the paintbrush of Slimy Big Oil Execubots, that would include a LOT of good, hardworking technicians I know and would be brutally unfair. I like politicians who come from families that work for a living.

Someone mentioned that she ran on a creationism in school campaign, too, but I honestly don't remember ever seeing that. Like I said, I don't pay much attention to politics.

As with all politics, I do suggest you do your own research and go with your own gut. But I feel GOOD about Palin being our VP.

Comments

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

... Maybe you can explain it a bit more to the rest of us, because before today, I'd never heard of her before. And from what I'm reading, I'm having a hard time accepting her as "heartbeat away from the presidency" material.

[gymnopedie.livejournal.com]

She worries me from just reading about her. Oil and conservative. CNN didn't really give much (since I swear they lean more towards democratic views)

[amanda-now.livejournal.com]

"(since I swear they lean more towards democratic views)"

Sorry, but DUH, lol. That's like saying Fox News tends to lean towards conservative views. A bit of an understatement. ;-D I don't recommend either as an accurate source of information, they put way too much of a slant on their stories.

[gymnopedie.livejournal.com]

which is why i tend to avoid fox. heh. they'd piss me off too much.
it's that or the local news, so i just keep cnn on for background noise, or when they start repeating, i go to the hgtv

[ramurphy.livejournal.com]

You're kidding, right? You seriously want Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency?

[amanda-now.livejournal.com]

That is AWESOME that he picked a woman to be VP. She sounds great. McCain was already going to get my vote but this definitely helps. I think this was a smart move on his part. I like that her husband is in a blue collar field, because mostly politicians (both Republicans and Democrats) are all so "above" that kind of thing.

[wyrdwriter.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this, Ellen!

Amanda, I, too, was leaning toward McCain too and thus far MOST (not all) of what I have read about Palin, I like.

[gymnopedie.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting more :)

I still think this is just a move to snag up the Hillary voters, imo. But, I wouldn't vote republican, EVER, so... (I can't get past them tinkering around with my right to decide if I should have a baby or not, even if it'd kill me)

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

(I realize you've said you don't follow politics closely, and I'm not trying to badger you if you don't want to get into it, I'm just passing through.)


You said you tended to lean Democratic usually. I just wondered why you lean Democratic normally, was it sort of a family tradition or was it based on any particular polices...you seem to be a small business owner so I reckon you care a lot about fiscal issues... do you have any social issues you care about?

I guess my feeling is that Palin seems to be a pretty rugged, energetic leader, a "go getter" so to speak, which is admirable, but at the end of the day (for me, anyway), she's still aggressively anti-choice (apparently she feels rape and incest aren't necessarily sufficient justifications for abortion), she still supports teaching creationism in schools, she's against comprehensive sex ed, and her fiscal experience is in Alaska, which has pretty unique economics that don't seem to translate to the rest of the country.

She's a very conservative veep for a pretty conservative ticket, and I'm just having a hard time seeing a Democrat, even a nominal one, voting for that.

[jemstone.livejournal.com]

She's also anti-gay rights (marriage, anti-discrimination, etc), but says she "feels the pain" of her "homosexual friends" - which has been code for "I'm sensitive! Really!" in the conservative crowds for years now. I'm having a hard time justifying her "No, really, I'm progressive, see all the progressive things I've done!" hand waving with her stance on women's rights, gay rights, creationism, education, and the rest.

Actions speak louder than words, and while I can't fault anyone for wanting to support and Rah-Rah for their governor in a Presidential/Vice-Presidential race, I see in Palin someone who will continue the overall conservative and creationist spiral that our country has been pushed down for the last eight years, and frankly, that scares me.

But, hey, I'm biased. Here's her wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_palin) for (hopefully) unbiased.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Actions speak louder than words

Yes they do--she may not be for gay marriage, but she did veto legislation that would stop same sex couples from getting benefits. That's an action.

I think what we need to remember here is that she is a REPUBLICAN. McCain picked a Republican as his VP. Do you really think that anyone he picked wouldn't have conservative values? It would have been a stupid political move to pick someone who was pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, etc, and whatever else you may think of him, McCain is not a stupid man.

The question isn't, does she share Republican conservative values. The question is, how does she measure up against other potentials?

And I think the answer is, she's right in line with the Straight Talk Express that McCain likes to claim as his trademark. She's tough on corruption, even in her own party, she's good on the environment, she gets things done.

PUTTING HOT BUTTON ISSUE ASIDE (and I know that's hard to do, but you have to, because ANY candidate for VP would have shared those values) I am very impressed with her overall.

I don't think there's a question that part of the reason McCain picked her was because of the strength a female VP brings to the team during this historic election. But not for one second do I think that's the only reason why he picked her.

ellenmillion, it's nice to hear someone on LJ actually pay attention to the Palin as a politician and not as a BASTION OF REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE VALUES and a spare vagina for McCain to flaunt.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

It does bother me that if Obama picks a female running mate, that's sensitive, but if McCain does it, that's manipulative pandering. :P

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

But... as a voter, or at least a Democratic one, it's the conservative Republican values that are problematic. If our elected officials didn't shape policy, hire administration staff, pass laws, etc, etc, then it would be easy to just vote for who we found likable or smart (Palin is apparently both).

But eventually ideology matters, policy positions matter, and on that score I find Palin hard to be enthusiastic about, in terms of someone who has stated she leans Democratic. Which is why I was asking what, if any issues or policies she cared about, and if the McCain/Palin ticket actually supported them better than Obama/Biden.

[winterswitchery.livejournal.com]

This just furthers my desire to find a brick wall and introduce my forehead to it. AAAALL of it does.

[mon-enfant.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting. I was hoping you would, since most of us haven't a clue who she is or what she has done, other than the sound bytes.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

She's charismatic and I don't doubt she's done a lot of good for Alaska. It's possible she'd be a good VP. But I just can't get behind the pro-life thing, no matter how smiley the candidate is.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Forgive me for intruding, I'm not even American, But I fail to see how being pro-life is bad. As somebody said once: 'try asking a veterinarian how far along during pregnancy a phoetus becomes an horse and hear what he tells you'.
One has right of choice, *before* and in case of rape or incest...there are other ways, nobody is forcesd to raise the baby.
killing them after birth is homicide but killing them before is a right? There's something there I don't quite get.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

A lot of the trouble is in the labeling - how could "pro-life" ever be bad, if all you look at is the label? And how could a baby be only a choice, and not a life? The issue is much more complex than the labels.

Basically, though I don't know that I could ever choose, myself, to have an abortion unless the situation were dire (in the case of a Trisomy 18 baby, for example) and even then I'm not sure, I wouldn't know what I would do until I were faced with it ...

Even so, I resent like hell the idea that any part of my government thinks it can legislate that situation. That people out there think that they can tell me what is right and what is wrong for me under all circumstances regarding my reproductive choices.

I don't *care* what people think in their own heads. What I care about is what they try to pass as laws.

[rhiamon.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY - I consider myself 'pro-choice', but that does NOT make me 'pro-abortion'. I do not believe abortion is birth-control or should be used as such. Like you, I don't know that I would ever choose to have an abortion, but I don't like the idea of big government gettin' all up in my koolade, if you see what I mean.

Another thing that bothers me about Palin is this: http://www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm and, I really found her 'we'll demolish that glass ceiling' (paraphrasing) speech to be a bit 'pander-y' (if that's a word).

ETA: I'm not too keen on the fact that the website is painting Alaskans in broad strokes (ie: "Like many Alaskans, Palin believes that bears – and all Alaskan wildlife, exist for the sole purpose of serving humans" - surely not?!), but some of the things there make me pause - especially points 4, 6, 7, and 10.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

But even passing a law allowing abortion is a choice and a message on the part of the governement, there's no neutrality on this matter.

[steppinrazor.livejournal.com]

This is where the labels become silly.

I'm pro-choice, but I'm also certainly very pro-life. I'm not anti-life, for certain. I believe, that even though abortion wouldn't be MY personal choice, it should be available and protected for women who have NO other choice. There are plenty of unwanted children in the world as it is, and people aren't exactly clamoring to adopt. I should also point out that when abortion was illegal, people still found ways to have it done - ways that were dangerous, inhumane, unhealthy, unsafe... It's not going to magically go away when the government stops protecting it.

When "pro-life" rhetoric becomes downright dangerous is when it's coupled with the current "regulations" being passed that give doctors the ability to be "conscientious objectors" to medical procedures or prescriptions they disagree with. Down to a pharmacist being within his rights to reject supplying birth control pills. Add to that, that Palin doesn't seem to support sex education, and you've got a really, really bad mix, in my opinion. If you're going to outlaw abortion at LEAST give people the proper tools to avoid getting pregnant.

As well, if you were raped, or molested by a family member, would you really want to carry that child to term?

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

As a side note, Palin doesn't support a woman's right to choose even in the case of rape.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I empathize greatly with your attempts in this thread... I just wanted to say.

Unfortunately, I suspect many of the women who argue for maintaining abortion do so out of fear: they're afraid they will need the option because of violence or the possibility that their lives might be consumed by the raising of a difficult child (or burdened by the sorrow of a child lost young to a crippling disease), and so they are speaking from emotion, which cannot be argued.

[pixiewildflower.livejournal.com]

I don't really know anything about her but what you said. Thanks for letting us know what she is like!

[strangelightart.livejournal.com]

That is the only reason McCain, who looks like the Emporer from Jedi and whom I believe is totally evil, chose a woman to get women to mindlessly vote for him just because they are desprate for a woman in the whitehouse and don't care necessarily about what is good for the country.

McCain is a bible thumping, evangelist f**king, war mongering, ignorant, 'good-ol-boy' who wouldn't mind continuing to allow the christians to run the government until we all have no more rights and are living in Jesus-land.

We can't let the Reverend Trasks, Dark Shadows refference, of the world govern the world.