Monday, November 05, 2012

A brief political rant.

Political opinion warning. If you've had it up to here, come back tomorrow when I'm sure I'll be back to my usual cheerypaddlebabble, or skip down to the next post (it's about the great cleanup we did at Sebago on Saturday, excellent stuff).

If, on the other hand, you've been wondering how this basically intelligent Froggyblogger can possibly have been oblivious enough enough to just ignore all the politicking of the recent past, well, read on, I haven't been, I just haven't chosen to use it as blogfodder.

Been staying out of the mudslinging 'cause at this point I just don't feel like anything said on a random blog like this one (which started out a little more political, there are some good rants early on, but it really has moved to more just being a blog about being an outdoorsy person finding balance in an indoorsy city) is going to make a SHRED of difference (just piss people off more, more likely), but something Paul Ryan is said to have said finally broke through the political reticence I've been doggedly maintaining on Facebook and what the heck, I'm gonna share that status update here, too. Just this once, before the election. That's all.

This was the headline that sucked me in: "Paul Ryan Says Obama Would Compromise 'Judeo-Christian Western Civilization Values'".

I was actually hoping that the article would somehow put this in a context that would let me let it go, but it sounds like he really actually said that.

So what I said on Facebook is:

When do we get to the part of the movie where the time travellers from 1952 who have come forward to undo five decades of human progress that frighten them so badly are finally unmasked and sent back to their own era?

Really, the 2012 incarnation GOP frightens me. Not that I think they're going to put me, personally, into a nun robe a la "Handmaid's Tale", but they scare me.

I'm saying this now, but it really hit me during the second debate, when I heard Romney talking about how he understands how the problem that women have with work is that they need flexible hours to go home and feed the babies (and sounding incredibly sincere!!!), I thought "This guy does not live in the same century as I do".

I want my country's leader to be someone who does.

I'm pretty square as things go these days, but as an independent single woman who's just for some unknown reason never craved the whole marriage & children thing for myself (although I love my guy very very much, and I support the marriage, with or without children, for anyone who does want it - this is just me talking for myself here), I just feel like there is some group somewhere in the GOP that looks at me and people like me as somehow leading a life that's wrong.

I don't feel like I am and I don't want to wake up on Wednesday morning to find out that that group has somehow been given a new level of influence over my life and the lives of people like me, who just don't quite fall into their version of how things should be.

We now return you to our regular programming. Thank you for your patience.


Baydog said...

So......who are you voting for tomorrow?

bonnie said...

Ha, take a wild guess.

Actually I'm half tempted to vote for Gary Johnson, just as a personal protest to the lockdown our two-party system has on us. I'm not sure either side is doing entirely right by we the people these days.

Electoral college would probably allow me to do that without really making a difference.

In reality, chances are that I will vote for Obama, same as last time though. I was actually never as disappointed in him as some people who voted for him last time have been because although I liked him a lot better than Bush, I honestly don't think that the momentum of something as big as this country can be turned on a dime.

It's like a laden tanker coming down to the Hudson - no matter whose hand is at the wheel, change is just going to take time, and the ship can't just jump out of the channel in which it's already travelling.

Tillerman said...

Good for you.

Baydog said...

I'm half tempted to vote for Gary Jobson.

bonnie said...

(google google google...)

Hey! Me too!

bonnie said...

And thanks, Tillerman. It's weird, I'm such a basically boring, conservative person that it's bizarre to have it sinking in that even MY far-from-swinging lifestyle is looked at as outside the norm, if not beyond the pale, by these would-be leaders (or at least the people they seem to be paying the most attention to).

I'm well-insulated from that attitude by living here in this city, where our Dutch founders gave us this great tradition of tolerance and acceptance that lives on to this day (well, as long as you weren't trying to run the NYC Marathon yesterday - that was another story, but the runners all took the disappointment with such grace, that was really something), but during the past couple of weeks, I've been hearing those attitudes repeatedly, and they do scare me.

O Docker said...

Why don't you women just accept the role that God prescribed for you in the Bible - making babies - so that we men can get on with the role He prescribed for us - making money.

This message paid for by Patriotic God-Fearing Americans For A Patriotic God-Fearing America, who, despite what you may think, are not affiliated with any particular political party but are just closer to God than the rest of you.

bonnie said...

God distanced himself from the religious right. Said so in a perfectly reputable paper. So there.

Tillerman said...

We non-Judaeo-Christian boring conservative types are even more beyond the pale than you boring conservative ladies who won't accept that their Judaeo-Christian god wants you to all have babies.

bonnie said...

Hard to measure who's farther outside, but it's not a very big Pale. Seems to be a lot of company out here. I wonder if they're crowded in there?

Tillerman said...

Well I guess we will find out tomorrow if this is a country just for old rich white Judaeo-Christian men... or for everyone.

This message paid for by Patriotic God-Fearing White Old Judaeo-Christian Male Americans For A Patriotic God-Fearing White Old Judeao-Christian Male America, who, despite what you may think, are not affiliated with any particular political party but are just closer to God than the rest of you.

Pat said...

After all the politicians are done making hot air, I hope we'll still have enough wind for autumn sailing.

bonnie said...

Yup. Hope the balloonists have at least been having fun in the meantime. At least somebody would've enjoyed it all, then.

John Edward Harris said...

Election Day
America waits
The world watches

Will it be four more years hoping for continued change
from the failed policies of the Bush administration
that ill-advisedly involved us in two foreign wars,
and nearly drove our economy into a depression,


Re-adMittance to the 1950s
with rich white men making all the decisions
women having no say over their bodies
and the poor, immigrants, and people of color looked upon with fear and disdain?