Last night I watched the GOP convention. I did this, not because I am a masochist (even though sitting through some of those speeches, if you can call them speeches, was torture), but because I feel the need to give both sides a chance. After wanting to stab out my eyes during the early speakers, whom, for their sakes, will go nameless, we finally got to McCain.
He did well in the beginning. He blamed republicans for losing the trust of the American people because of their greed. Thank you, McCain! He spoke movingly of his experience in Vietnam, which sounded like a life changing event. He reminded us that we are more than political parties, we are all Americans. I was being lulled into this thinking perhaps I had been a little tough on McCain for the last year. (Last fall I thought that he might be crazy when he had a break down during the republican primaries.) Maybe he was the McCain that I had liked and respected 8 years ago and the crazy-primaries-McCain was just a media created illusion. And I thought, "Okay, but what about substance." He had primed me to be more open to his views for the future of America and then he started talking about actual policies.
Suddenly he was talking about getting rid of public schools, starting a war with Russia, not allowing the US to "lose" the war in Iraq (which my sister pointed out that we already won back in like 2004 according to George W). I literally sat up from my soothed coma-like state and thought, "NO!" We cannot have 4 more years of the US carrying some Rooseveltian Big Stick against the rest of the world. We just fought off the "Parental Choice" people, who want to get rid of public schools, here in Utah and I don't know if we can do it on a national level.
It is official. I have listened to the candidates, the speeches, the talking heads and this is what I have come up with: McCain is not for me!
He did well in the beginning. He blamed republicans for losing the trust of the American people because of their greed. Thank you, McCain! He spoke movingly of his experience in Vietnam, which sounded like a life changing event. He reminded us that we are more than political parties, we are all Americans. I was being lulled into this thinking perhaps I had been a little tough on McCain for the last year. (Last fall I thought that he might be crazy when he had a break down during the republican primaries.) Maybe he was the McCain that I had liked and respected 8 years ago and the crazy-primaries-McCain was just a media created illusion. And I thought, "Okay, but what about substance." He had primed me to be more open to his views for the future of America and then he started talking about actual policies.
Suddenly he was talking about getting rid of public schools, starting a war with Russia, not allowing the US to "lose" the war in Iraq (which my sister pointed out that we already won back in like 2004 according to George W). I literally sat up from my soothed coma-like state and thought, "NO!" We cannot have 4 more years of the US carrying some Rooseveltian Big Stick against the rest of the world. We just fought off the "Parental Choice" people, who want to get rid of public schools, here in Utah and I don't know if we can do it on a national level.
It is official. I have listened to the candidates, the speeches, the talking heads and this is what I have come up with: McCain is not for me!
1 comment:
I'm so glad you have a total of 3 posts. I hope you continue. And you should check out the Daily Show with Jon Stuart online. You can watch whole episodes for the past few weeks. Hilarious.
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