Democratic Diva

Ok, I know this post is really late and many of you have already voted. And if you don’t live in Maricopa County, it won’t matter to you anyway. But, I am really concerned about the election for Maricopa Special Healthcare District.

A little background: the district was created for oversight of the Maricopa County Hospital, because the County Board of Supervisors was basically running the county hospital into the ground. You know, because poor people and immigrants get their healthcare there, and they don’t really vote. Oh, and they do abortions there. So, in 2003 the voters created the Maricopa Integrated Health System that would be run by a nonpartisan board of five representatives, one from each supervisory district. The board was first elected in 2004.

A group of right-wing Republicans (the Pachyderm Coalition) has chosen to make this a totally partisan race, endorsing candidates that share their right-wing agenda of shutting down the hospital (actually pledged to vote to do so) and have zero health management experience.

Rather than regurgitate what others have already said, I will just point you in the direction of what I found to be really helpful information on this: Vic’s Pics (scroll down to bottom of p. 4); Random Musings; and, not necessarily helpful, but here are the Arizona Republic’s endorsements.

Tedski is reporting on robocalls being done here in AZ by our hometown hero:

I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama is so dangerously inexperienced, his running mate Joe Biden just said, he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone.

If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

This is similar to the script voters are hearing in states like Nevada where McCain is struggling. Apparently, we Zonies weren’t worthy of such hair raising alerts until recent polls showed a dead heat. Oh yeah, our Senator was all about leaving us out to dry, without the information we need to make the correct choice between our stalwart steadfast war hero and Barack HusseinpalsaroundwithterroristsOMGHEZAMUSLIM!1! Obama.

Geez, you’d think he’d be a little more worried about the location of four of his houses before now, dontcha?

Two major newspapers from the home states of candidates on the top of the national tickets have weighed in on the race.  

The Anchorage Daily News chose to do a sober evaluation of both Presidential candidates.  Their editorial board took a deep breath and told the truth, despite the fact that it’s Alaska Governor Sarah Palin who is vying for the Vice Presidency.  They did the right thing.

They could have wussed out like our hometown paper did, but they didn’t.   If you don’t want to read the Republic’s toadying cop-out, I’ll summarize it for you: 

McCain:  He’s maverick-y.  Don’t worry about his hairtrigger temper, we know him.  Paragraph devoted to maverick-y stuff he did back in the ’80s and ’90s.  No mention of the Keating 5.  Or Palin. 

Obama:  Talks all pretty and stuff but will transfer wealth from deserving rich people to worthless working class loafers.  Doesn’t like free trade enough.  Voted present in the Illinois State Senate*.  Doesn’t believe enough in drill baby drill and nuclear as the solution to energy needs. 

Despite my prediction to friends that the Republic was either going to endorse McCain or no one, I still nursed the faint hope that they’d rise to the occasion.  They did for Dan Saban, Tim Nelson, and others.   Sadly, they couldn’t muster the courage for the Presidential endorsement.

* Are they kidding with this nonsense?!?  Present votes are a commonly employed procedural strategy in the IL State Legislature. What, they had to reach all the way back to the primaries to find some non-issue that was used to fool low information voters to make their case? How lame.

They become right wing blogger idiots, obviously. 

In case you hadn’t caught the tale, a College Republican named Ashley Todd claimed that she was assualted by a 6′4” 200 lb. black male.   She alleged the event occured after she withdrew $60 from an ATM in the “wrong” part of Pittsburgh, as she Twittered to her friends.  She said the thief became so enraged when he saw her McCain bumper sticker that he punched her and then proceeded to hold her down and carve a “B” in her face. 

That there were holes in that account big enough to drive Todd Palin’s snowmachine through was not enough to deter Matt Drudge from issuing a breaking news alert complete with the flashing siren.  Eager rightie bloggers, including a local site that shall remain nameless (the one with the manly western-y cowboy themed banner) were salivating over this tale that involved a nubile flower of white womanhood being ravaged (oh yes, she claimed he sexually assaulted her) by a big scary….you know.   They were wetting themselves in excited anticipation.  McCain and Palin didn’t waste any time either, both called the victim personally to console her.

They might have wanted to take a good look at the photo of the “victim” before they jumped on the story.

And they might wish they’d recalled a man by the name of Morton Downey Jr., who pulled a similar stunt in 1989. He also didn’t figure that mirror thing out.  Only Mort was doing it to save his sagging TV show and he blamed skinheads.  Despicable, but far less dangerous than what that nasty little College Republican did. It’s been reported that she’s had past mental problems, but she was clearly functional enough to make up a vicious racebaiting lie. I hope they throw the book at her.

And I sincerely hope that Matt Drudge is ruined over this.

Here’s a little fun fact for my readers: Back when I was a Divakateer, growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland I attended high school with Matt Drudge. I didn’t go to classes or socialize with him but I remember that he wasn’t very well liked. As I recall, his unpopularity stemmed mostly from his smug, disagreeable nature. Not that it has anything to do with it, nor that there’s anything wrong with it, but everyone knew he was gay. That’s right GOPers, yet another hero of yours is a bitter, closeted gay man. As Republicans, you must be getting accustomed to these revelations by now, but we Democrats are getting more than a little tired of you moralizing at us while your hypocrites take their self-loathing out on the rest of the country.  Drudge was the hateful little turd who brought us the Lewinsky scandal and who rose to undue prominence because of it. He’s a moron and his website looks like it was designed by an eight year old with a crayon. His 15 minutes were up 10 years ago.

Speaking of College Republicans and local right wing pundits, conservative AZ blogs are currently having a collective case of the vapors over alleged instances of gasp! sign stealing by Young Democrats. So much angst and handwringing about those horrible leftist rapscallions and how they are hastening the decline of humanity with their shocking incivility. Yeah right. Here are some things the little darlings of the College Republicans have gotten up to in recent years: “Catch the illegal immigrant” games and ripping off the elderly with fundraising scams. Those apples don’t fall far from the tree, do they?

But for this he deserves our everlasting respect:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdBt4f2GUDY

Mm hmm.   http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/21/davis-feminists-palin/

BENNETT: I don’t know which drives them more crazy. Let me give you three things that I think drives them crazy, and you don’t have to comment. That’s she’s very attractive. That she’s very competent or that she’s very happy. You know, as a human being.

DAVIS: Yeah, all of the above.

As a card carrying liberal feminist, I’m not terribly bothered when pendejos like Bennett and Davis think they’re insulting me. You see, like any good Gen X third wave feminazi I’ve got a dogeared copy of The Beauty Myth on my bookshelf. Naomi Wolf’s unsparing analysis and indictment of our culture’s obsession with female appearance and the arbitrary and unattainable physical ideals imposed on women came at a time in my life (early 20s) when the pressure to conform to it was never more intense. Reading that book shifted my perception to the extent that I was never able to view any concession I made to the mandate - from dieting to working out to putting on lipstick - in a non-political context ever again.

It’s not that I threw off the shackles of feminine appearance maintenance, not by a longshot. Like most women, I’m a realist and a rational actor. I realized that refusing to shave my legs, color my hair, or wear makeup could severely limit my social and economic options. Like most feminists, I find myself walking a fine line between doing what I need to do to get by in the world and selling out my convictions and self-respect. Plus, there’s an undeniable enjoyment to be had in adorning yourself, whether or not you’re doing it for male approval or professional advancement. I think many of y’all reading this can relate. It also goes to show just how clueless misogynistic asswads like Davis and Bennett really are. They define “feminist” strictly as, “ugly women with hairy legs who have failed to be successful sex objects”*. They also seem to be blissfully unaware that women who identify as feminists marry and have families on a fairly regular basis.

This leads me into the most important thing the book did for me, which was to reveal how beauty standards often have a lot more to do with desired behavior from women than they do with natural attributes. It is for this reason that what is considered “hot” will vary somewhat (within a limited range). When I was a teenager buff blondes like Heather Locklear and Madonna were all the rage. Later it was statuesque Cindy Crawford, who was displaced for heroin chic waifish Kate Moss. By the time I was in my early 30s, curves and ethnic diversity held sway - enter J-Lo and Rosario Dawson. Yet the one constant throughout is that whatever the desired “look” is, ordinary women will find it nearly impossible to mimic it without resorting to time-consuming, uncomfortable, and downright painful practices. High heels, “foundation garments”, grueling workouts, cutting calories drastically, cosmetic surgery, etc.

If you manage to pull it off for a while, time marches on and you are never allowed to forget how short your shelf life is. Even if you are pulling it off (and have been given a special extension for being a “MILF”) your status still depends upon being properly submissive to the patriarchy. This is how the Beauty Myth works. It gives every man a cudgel to wield over every woman, no matter how “beautiful” she is, or not. In fairness, there are many, many men who don’t buy into it. But for those who do, like Davis and Bennett, it provides them with an outlet to express their misogyny and a way to emotionally blackmail women into obedience. Sarah Palin, the feisty MILF, vigorously upholds the status quo.  She is no threat to the to the patriarchy and serves as an example of compliance to hold over other women.

The other reason that I’m not personally bothered by Davis’ and Bennett’s comments is that I know they weren’t directed at me. As stupid as those two bozos are, they are not dumb enough to believe that self-identified feminists like me are going to be browbeaten into supporting Sarah Palin. They are hoping that there are millions of women who, despite embracing feminist ideals such as equal pay and reproductive choice, are still loathe to call themselves feminists because of the way the term has been denigrated. They are hoping to persuade them to embrace Palin as an alternate role model. They are hoping that the threat of calling women “ugly” will bring them into line.

As if.

They either haven’t noticed, or are willfully ignoring, the fact that Palin started out with high favorability ratings with women. Those ratings have been dropping like a stone. Sorry guys, but women recognize a reactionary pig in a retrograde poke. Even if she’s pretty, and wearing lipstick.  That goes for you too, John McCain.  Dissing “the liberal feminist agenda”, as you did in recent campaign rallies, helps you about as much as mocking women’s health at that last debate did.  Which is to say, not at all.  Women will use their votes, en masse, to repudiate you.  And Sarah Palin. 

Donna

*Not that there’s anything wrong with that. 

That’s going to hurt