gwytherinn.com

I am floored that

• 1) The media is actually talking TO us for once, instead of lining up the typical role call of men to talk ABOUT us and
  2) THAT THEY EXPECT IT TO WORK. (One pair of ovaries is the same as any other, and we’ll be voting on that basis amirite?)

What dimension am I in?

McCain chooses a woman as his Vice Presidential candidate and now we have entreaties from them that the war on the glass ceiling doesn’t have to end with Hilary! Ahem. Drafting a woman to prop up your misogynist policies, when you pay attention to issues that affect women AT ALL, will not get me to vote for you. It’s a slap in the face. Nor can you pat yourself on the back for being so “progressive” as to choose a woman and proclaim that you can finally overcome the glass ceiling. I will believe this when women have TRULY REPRESENTATIVE numbers in government. The white hetero male monopoly on government will not be transformed into a place that all of a sudden welcomes women and minorities thanks to a woman Vice President, or EVEN a woman President. But yes, she really does expect us, as someone chosen by a man for a very specific purpose, to believe that she can “shatter the glass ceiling once and for all.”

And sending Huckabee - Mike Huckabee as an ambassador to tell women that there’s a PLACE for us with the Republicans is probably the MOST LAUGHABLE THING I have heard all week. This is a man who signed a 1998 FULL PAGE USA Today Ad advocating that a wife “submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”

This is the man who pardoned a rapist during his term as governor because he felt the man was put away for “political” reasons. This was despite NUMEROUS letters from the women(sluts) he had raped, including one of Clinton’s cousins(democrat sluts less deserving of justice). This rapist then went on to RAPE AND MURDER TWO MORE WOMEN. I wonder what kind of judgment your god has in store for you Huckabee. And yet, he has the gall to try and appeal to us (The article on this circus is here.):

“Sarah Palin is a pleasant surprise for those of us who had hoped that Senator McCain would pick a principled and authentic conservative pro-life leader,” former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said.

Huckabee also used the Palin pick to reach out to women.

“Governor Palin … will remind women that if they are not welcome on the Democrat’s ticket, they have a place with Republicans,” he said.

Pleasant surprise… so lukewarm! Kind of makes me snicker to think how he must feel about a woman being appointed over an oh so godly man like him. Lovely invitation but I won’t be accepting, as I’m not interested in fulfilling your vision of woman as faithful servant to husband and fetus incubator, only for you to want to trot me out when convenient. Don’t try to sell me on a candidate who thinks the antidote to sexism is “work harder, don’t say anything”. (PLEASE say this to the women working at Wal-Mart with a straight face.)

I really like the way Melissa McEwan put it at Shakesville:

You know, there are a lot of reasons I’m feeling pissed about John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin.

I’m pissed at the Dems because it feels like they let Clinton get beat to fuck against that glass ceiling until she was black and blue only for the fucking Republicans to make use of her sacrifice, while the Democrats gave us a total dipshit who made fun of his wife being educated in his acceptance speech.

And I’m pissed at the GOP who, chief among them John McCain, have made patently clear while going after Obama that the experience threshold for a national ticket is beyond what he has, and that said threshold is non-negotiable, but nonetheless chose someone who failed to pass that threshold, ergo heavily suggesting that Palin is merely a token.

And I’m pissed at everyone who’s using the nomination of a woman to a national ticket to unleash yet another torrent of misogyny, whether to demean or to “honor” her.

But mostly I’m pissed that John McCain and Karl Rove and the GOP shat all over a historic moment in our nation’s history and couldn’t give Obama one. goddamn. day. to be rightfully celebrated as a candidate of national historical significance. Everyone should be talking about that speech today. Everyone should be contemplating what it means to have that barrier broken, should be thinking about fucking bookends.

Edited to add: Some of this may be construed as an attack on Palin herself. Don’t mean to characterize her as a mindless borg, but I do think that the men of the Republican party are using her for a very specific purpose.

Other posts I really enjoyed on the matter:
McCain Chose Palin?! >> Karnythia at The Angry Black Woman
Colluder of the Week: Sara Palin >> Renee at Womanist Musings
Firedoglake: Sarah Palin Broke the Law to advocate the defeat of environmental initiatives.
Jump off the Bridge: My Problem with Palin

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