He's been into politics twice as long as I have, and 100 times more, so I feel like he could really tell me if the circus has always been this bad, or if I'm really witnessing a turning point. A new McCarythism. Which is what it seems like. Is this the internet's fault? Now that more and more uneducated, selfish, biased hacks are able to find a free voice? I want to launch into rants about the general populace's stupidity, but then I have to remind myself these assholes aren't the general populace. And I blame that squarely on the media, online and other.
The smaller people get to be louder now, but I can't let myself forget that most people in the country don't just glom onto one extreme side or the other, that they are otherwise decent people who aren't great people, but who are trying to survive and get by and don't spend half their waking hours on the internet reading about this stuff. That most Republicans aren't fire and brimstone gay beaters, and most liberals are not...well...me. If there's one thing watching my dad as a child taught me, it's that you have to speak to people as individuals and figure out what their immediate needs are, because that's what they care about and what they will act on. And if you care about people, you should work on those things first. Some people make lots more money than me, so they care about taxes. Lots more people make less money (or just about as much money as me), and they care about public education, and potholes, and healthcare.
Believing what the tv tells you is how The Fear starts.
And if I care more about the needs of the moderately poor, then I just have to get them to vote. Never forget the lesson about voting. The whole point of this fucked up system is that whoever gets the most votes wins, and then they run things for a while, until someone else wins. This should be the accepted rules of the game. Unless you are from Texas and you are this guy. Who wants to repeal the 17th Amendment and allow states to APPOINT their senators. WHAT.
So anyway, here are some of my political feelings today:
1) Of course the Health Care bill is not what we wanted. There's no public option, and that was a large part of what some of us were pushing for. But it's a compromise, and it makes things somewhat better. Not all the way better, but somewhat. If Obama himself had come to me and said "hey, the only way I can get the votes for this is to sign an executive order that says we won't provide more public funding for abortions and that means insurance companies won't be likely to offer it", I would have been like "alright, well that doesn't change much does it? It's bullshit, but alright, make the deal." Because the health insurance I have now wouldn't have paid for an abortion anyway. And the health insurance I had for most of my adult life, which is to say NONE, wouldn't have either. Frankly, I'm with Planned Parenthood on this one. They singlehandedly prevented me from becoming pregnant for ten years, and I feel pretty confident that they've got my best womanly interests at heart.
2) Hey Republicans! Feeling low, cause you think this bill is a bad idea that will bankrupt the country, and force you to buy insurance you don't want, and be complicit in killing babies? Angry that now you, as a participating citizen who uses streets and utilities and firemen and cops, will now have to foot a tiny bit of the bill so poor people don't die? Well guess what? Try electing people who aren't mercantile idiots. When you elect congress people like Bachmann and Boehner, this is what you get. When you voluntarily put people into office who can't take a shit without consulting a lobbyist, and whose only career aspiration is to get invited on Fox News as a consultant, you are fucking screwed. I don't give a crap about your media personalities and their destructive weevil little minds. They aren't policy makers. But your policy makers are dumb! I know there are well-spoken not dumb Republicans. I meet them in real life sometimes. But why don't I ever see them on the news?
And calm the fuck down. This bill and every other piece of legislation coming out of the Hill is so far from Socialism as to be laughable. I mean, it is laughable. It makes me laugh. In a very sad sad elitist way. A condescending laugh really. ALSO LOTS OF REPUBLICANS DRINK COFFEE SO STEP OFF.
Democrats - we're guilty of this too, if in less degree. We have some people sitting in that Congress who are real dickwads (ahem Stupak). JUST BECAUSE A PERSON IS EXPERIENCED AND REALLY OLD, DOES NOT MEAN IT IS GOOD EXPERIENCE. This bill should not have taken as long it did, and it illustrated just how many horses asses are being allowed in DC. Hillary should make you all sit in the corner. The Republicans are not going to remain laughing stocks forever, even though it really seems like it.
3) I cannot even find words for how pissed I am that this Unabashed ToolBox has the balls to insinuate Christiane Amanpour is too Iranian to be the new host of "This Week". Also, and the Salon article didn't really touch on this, he says her profile in Washington has been "widely considered to deficient".
"Consider: Whenever CNN has thrown one of its big election-night, convention, or presidential debate spectaculars, drafting nearly every living staff member to appear, Amanpour has had a conspicuously low profile. "
That's a bad thing? Did she not give someone enough face time, or enough money? Oh my god, that just makes me wish she could be the host of everything.
Anyway, what I'm really mad at here is the idea that being Pro-Israel or Anti-Israel is suddenly a really important qualification when the person isn't bowing down to the Israel lobby like Wolf Blitzer. Israel IS A COUNTRY. It's not a fucking moral decision. I can be anti- Israeli policy and not be an anti-Semite. It's not like being Pro-Women or Pro-Gay. And those things should have nothing to do with her qualifications either, because the whole point of being a journalist is being objective, remember? REMEMBER?
Ding ding ding winner.
ReplyDeleteI'll rephrase what I said on Jezebel: "You mean Christiane 'Is my name too Socialist or too Muslim for you?' Amanpour?"
ReplyDeleteI don't care about Amanpour that much but Rory Gilmore does, & I'm on the Gilmore Girl's team.
I've always admired Amanpour. When I was in high school I wrote to her and she actually wrote back! I have the letter if you'd like to see it sometime.
ReplyDelete