Hortus Deliciarum

Not being the raging hot center of the online political blogiverse (bloggiverse?), I haven’t felt like sticking my neck out there for political discussions over the last few months. Yes, I’m uber-liberal, pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage/civil partnership/whatever equal legal rights terminology you want to use…but everyone already knows that! Discussing the election is a lot harder for me and pushes me to be rather more thoughtful about my frequently very instinctive decision making process than I’m typically comfortable with.

That said, a couple of random thoughts on the election, as inspired by various friends’ blogs.

1. Sarah Palin: The comment about Sarah Palin that I felt best summed up my opinion of the woman (as a political candidate) is that they didn’t think the Republican party could possibly find a candidate worse than George W. Bush…but they did.

I’m a working mother. I think the American government needs to stop talking itself up as pro-family and needs to actually do something about it, like providing decent paid maternity leave and universal healthcare. I do not have a problem with a working mother in government; heck, if anything should be able to teach you how to deal with squabbling politicians, it’s dealing with a fretful toddler. Children and politicians frequently are on approximately the same plane of maturity and politicians have less of an excuse.

Thing is, I didn’t dislike Sarah Palin because she was a working mother and I suspect that most people felt the same. Although I’m not entirely sure how she was going to juggle five children, one of whom will almost certainly have developmental delays, and be vice president, I absolutely supported her right to do that. What I disliked about the woman was that, intelligent or not, she was uneducated and severely lacking in knowledge of current affairs and international issues. If you have a lack of international experience, you ‘fess up to it and explain what you’re going to do to make it better. You don’t make up excuses about your state’s proximity to another country and its (fairly insignificant) role in world affairs.

When I vote for an elected official, I want her to be more intelligent than I am. I don’t want someone like my next-door neighbor that I like to visit with, unless the next-door neighbor is a political expert! I want someone who doesn’t tacitly allow racism and bigotry at her rallies. I want someone who can think on her feet and come up with intelligent, thoughtful responses to questions that she hasn’t been prepped for.

My father, who is an avowed Democrat, doesn’t particularly like Obama and was considering voting for McCain until he chose Palin as his running mate. Then, despite his objections to Obama, he absolutely would not consider voting for McCain. I suspect many people felt the same – not because she was a woman, but because she was the wrong woman for the job.

2. Obama: Ah, Obama.

I am not a hero-worshipper. I have had a difficult time with the bizarrely messianic nature of much of the support Obama received before, during, and after the election. He’s just a man. A smart, talented man with a penchant for choosing good people to advise him, but just a man when all is said and done. He can and will make mistakes and I hope that the people who do idolize him so much will be realistic about that.

I worry about Obama’s (in)experience. As with any politician, I worry about who’s holding his purse-strings. There are many things about him that worry me. His military experience? Not so much. Bush had “military experience” and look where it’s gotten our nation…a Commander in Chief needs sympathy for military families and a solid understanding of international politics, as well as a real grasp on the ever-expanding ripples that will be caused by any military action undertaken by the United States. He doesn’t have to be a soldier. He just needs to be wise enough to choose military advisors who are thoughtful, rather than overwhelmingly devoured by the notion that the US has to be number one, no matter what we do. Military experience does not a good leader make.

I do think that Obama’s international experience does augur well for the US’s reputation abroad. He cannot help but do better than Bush has done in the last eight years; short of setting off some nuclear weapons, he cannot do worse.