Tiny piece of the "liberal blogosphere"

With my little patch of blogosphere, I just have one thing to say again: I don't think Sarah Palin is all that bad. Maybe it's because I'm not on the fence but I don't care about her missteps. I don't care that she dodged a question about the Bush doctrine and I don't think that her nomination is a farce or an insult to the country. I think she's a good vice-presidential running mate for John McCain. I think she was a strategic wild card pick but I think it was smart and I think they filled in a gap in John McCain's image. I strongly, strongly disagree with her politics. This is how I know she's good for the republicans. Also, I love Barack Obama and I don't care very much who's running against him. Also, I'm really glad to have someone whose wide open platforms I am free to strongly disagree with. NO, don't go to war with Russia! NO, don't drill in ANWR! NO, I do not support your boot-strap health care philosophy! NO, NO, NO! But, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I feel so much better having someone I can actually understand. I can sort of see why a person who is wrong about political matters might like the McCain/Palin ticket. I have no idea why so many people continue to support GWB and it scares me and makes me feel threatened.

I was super frustrated yesterday morning because there was this awful circular debate about the Iraq war with the guy who wrote some book...hold on...Oh, man, I knew I recognized that guy! It was fucking Newt Gingrich! So, he's talking to Matt Lauer, of all people, about the Iraq war. And Matt Lauer points out something about how Sarah Palin strongly implied that her son is going to fight the people who made the September 11th attacks even though that's not true. And Newt Gingrich was like, "Well you're talking about the 2002 world. We're talking about the world as it is now. Al Qaeda is in Iraq now." I mean, I drooled coffee onto my shirt, my jaw dropped so dramatically. I'm not sure I'm eloquent enough to point out how this very argument illustrates how I've felt for the last eight or so years but here goes: The conservatives are now spitting and spoofing at the liberals for not understanding how NOW Al Qaeda is in Iraq, unlike in 2002. THIS, my friends, is EXACTLY what we understand! Your boy took a place which, maybe wasn't Disneyland, but wasn't filled with the people who had just attacked the USA, and he turned it into a safe place for Al Qaeda. George Bush gained ground for the people who launched the September 11th attacks! You're telling ME this? You're telling me? Seriously? You're the one who still supports this bozo! And then, (hold on, I need to breathe...inhale, exhale) And THEN I was listening to some stupid conservative radio morning show DJs talking about how liberals are always asking them what they see in Sarah Palin. And they're like, "You look up her voting record. I'm satisfied. I don't need to see what she's done." Hold on, I'm not the one voting for this lady! You...I mean I...I mean YOU...I am not asking because I want to know. I'm asking because I want to see that you know. And you don't! And they're like, "You big city boys ain't gonna trick me! I'm not doin' the dirty werk for ya! Yew look up what she stands for. I am votin' republican!" Oh, for crying out loud! Like it's somehow un-republican to discuss issues. And that is exactly what the party has become for me. They are people who refuse to discuss things. They want to scream insults at me and tell me I'm unpatriotic and immoral and that I don't understand and they don't want to speak in words that have meaning. I'm an educated person who has been paying attention and I don't think that the economy seems to be responding well to the Bush strategy. If you have something to say that explains this, help me out. They don't want to hear my side of the story. They just want to roll their eyes and talk about the biased liberal media. And they're winning! There are tons of them everywhere and they're winning!

So, as I said, I watched the RNC and I heard the positions of McCain and Palin and, for the first time in a hundred years, it wasn't so much smoke and mirrors. There weren't people standing there telling me what I already knew and pretending it wasn't horrific and ridiculous. There were people standing there saying things that seem like things that reasonable people might say. Things that I disagree with, but things that turned into words which formed images in my mind that I could understand. Thank you. Thank you for stopping the onslaught of the crazy fireworks sleight of hand puppet show that has been the Bush administration. I appreciate an opponent that I can see with my eyes, hear with my ears, and understand.