As election day nears (don’t forget it’s tomorrow, BTW), I’ve felt a certain ambivalence in regard to politics. In high school, I thought I knew the meaning of the word polarized, but for whatever reason, things have gotten ridiculous. As much as I like SNL sketches about Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell, a certain uneasiness overtakes me when someone calls for:
- No abortions for anyone including victims of rape and incest (I’m an adoptee, so I could have been one of these babies, BTW).
- Abolishing the Department of Education
- Dismantling Medicare, social security, public libraries, and NPR
- Demanding continuation of tax cuts that don’t benefit me in my particular income bracket.
- And let’s not forget the Dems: keeping marriage a states’ rights issue, neglecting Latin American foreign policy, esp. Cuba. (Alright this was a much weaker list…).
That’s why we have this guy:
Chase Whiteside
If “fair and balanced” weren’t terms coopted for political gain, I’d use them to describe this guy. He manages to get at some core issues and hypocrisies simply by asking questions. That’s always what I found enchanting about journalism (my short-lived second major).
Unfortunately, I find that in the 24 hour news cycle, this gem is lost. (A worthy tangent worthy of future discussion, though this isn’t a blog that generally deals with non-gay politics—I’ll leave that to David Baker and Horizon).
I leave with you some of his intelligent interviews first of the Glenn Beck *shutter* rally and then of the Stewart/Colbert rally:
It just goes to show every group has its issues. (I will say that I am up on the local politics).
5 comments:
Well I pay a good deal less than my fair share of tax already, so I'm more than happy for other people to benefit from tax-cuts.
Not that we're going to see them in this country for a while.
I'm a little confused by what exactly you're saying about adoption, but I'm interested, because I haven't met any other adoptees who have complicated feelings about abortion. Totally agree with you on the other stuff.
Sorry. That first sentence was supposed to say "what you're saying about abortion." It's a little gross that those words are so similar.
Ah, abortion. Well, I'm grateful for the decision my first mother made.
My feelings on the abortion issue are also complicated by the fact that I sometimes think "There's no way men can understand; I'd rather only women could legislate that issue...."
No, I just meant that literally your sentence was unclear and I wasn't sure what you were trying to say. I have no problem with educated men having a thoughtful opinion about it. And as a fellow adoptee and a sexually active female, I have complicated feelings about it. In an ideal world, I think we wouldn't need it, and my first choice is for people to have adequate education and access to healthcare so that there is no need for abortion, or at least so that there is more support for adoption services. And I could have been aborted, but my birthmother was smart, healthy, an dperfectly capable of carrying me for nine months and then giving me to a family who wanted me. But it terrifies me to think about what I might think if I got pregnant today, because I think the first instinct is "omg i have to get rid of this immediately before anyone finds out omg omg omg," but i like to think that a) that would never happen to me, and b) that i would be strong enough to withstand the social stigma, the getting fat, and everything else to do what i feel is a nicer choice. so i'm pro-life and pro-choice?
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