Thursday, September 04, 2008

You can't have it both ways.

These days it seems the political right wants things both ways. They make an argument to discredit their political opponents, only to turn around a few weeks later and take the opposite stance in order to prove another, completely different point. They label themselves as reformers, mavericks, and patriots, but their actions demonstrate character undeserving of these titles. These inconsistencies, more than anything, prove that the Republicans' time in power is coming to an end. Let me demonstrate how right-winged politicians and pundits have spoken from both sides of their mouths this campaign season in order to dupe the American public.

Feministing
After months of attacking Hillary Clinton with sexist remarks and degrading criticism, Republicans are now crying "unfair" as Sarah Palin suffers the same sort of scrutiny. It was OK to call Hillary a "bitch" or make condescending remarks regarding her gender, but it has been completely out of bounds to criticize Palin's lack of experience or controversial background.

Experience
Barack Obama has been taking hits for his perceived lack of experience for months. This is an argument one would think holds no weight with the selection of both party's running mates. Joe Biden has years of legislative and foreign affairs experience. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, was the mayor of a town of 9,000 and governor of the 47th most populous state. The experience argument doesn't work anymore...if it ever did.

Baby Mama
Since I'm on the topic of Sarah Palin, I'll continue with a point concerning the teen pregnancy circus that swirls around her daughter, Bristol. Luckily, no one has referred to her as "baby mama" like a certain news channel did when labelling Michelle Obama as such. What is so hypocritical is that the Republicans marched the Palin clan out in front of the world as a prime example of their family values in practice. They have also used Sarah's five-month old son with down syndrome as a poster child of the pro-life agenda. On top of that, McCain and Palin claim that Bristol had a choice in keeping her baby and marrying the father, Levi Johnston. Yeah, pro-lifers and non-gay marriage! Apparently, it was OK to use Palin's family as a trophy of her family values, but not OK that her family receive any scrutiny. One cannot use your family for photo ops and simultaneously expect the press to let their stories go.

Luckily, Jon Stewart illustrated my first three points better than I ever could have...


Race
I don't mean the race to the presidency. I'm talking about the subtly racist undertones of the Right's arguments against Obama. Obama made a comment describing how Republicans will try to scare voters not to vote for him. The McCain camp accuses Obama of playing the race card. Who's playing the race card?



Drillbit McCain
With gas prices on the rise and his poll numbers sinking, McCain has thought up several half-cocked ideas to improve the fuel price crisis. First there was the idea to cut consumer taxes and make the oil companies pay a greater share. That died quickly. Then, after proclaiming that he'd never drill offshore, he changed his mind in hopes of changing a few votes. Now, drilling offshore for additional fuel is a cornerstone of his energy plan. Unfortunately, this plan won't have any effects on our oil supply for several decades and will not end our addiction to oil.


Maverick
Despite what they tell you, John McCain is not a maverick. The man voted with George W Bush over 90% of the time. I'm not making that up. He said it himself...


I'm sure I have only touched on the hypocrisy that is the Republican party. There's plenty of time before November for the Right to come up with more of that stuff. What have you heard?

2 comments:

GE said...

Great post, CP. The hypocrisy is pretty mind-boggling. Keep the clips coming - - until you have a baby, naturally.

comoprozac said...

Well, then the clips will be of Jr.