Blank Slates and Agendas

For the past couple of weeks, I have been unable to concentrate on writing. For one, I have been really invested getting Sunday School ready for a new church school year. I have to say, many prayers have been answered. It feels fairly good.

But another problem has been the disjointed uneasiness of all that surrounds us: the hurricanes, the melting Arctic, the extreme poverty in this world and our failure to do “enough”…and now Sarah Palin.

Actually, not Sarah Palin herself; rather, the idea that she has rejuvenated the campaign of an elder who should be sitting in the councils as a respected advisor but whose day has past as the leader. She is smart, witty, pretty and as one Republican spin-doctor said, “she is a blank slate.”
That is one powerfully and profoundly frightening statement.

Does Sarah Palin understand the profundity that lies within it? The idea that other people can write what they want and she will buy into it hook, line and sinker…the idea that she has nothing of her own (save her physical appearance)…that she is a shell waiting to be filled…she is a tool…a vessel and that is all.

If she does not understand that, surely she is not intelligent enough to run this nation. Being “bright” and being intelligent are not the same thing.

If she does understand it, whoa. If she understands that she is being used for her physical appeal and her allure (sexual or whatever) and she is willing to allow this to happen, that is even more profound than the blank slate statement. It says that she is willing to pander her physical looks and charm to get what she wants – power. That makes her dangerous. If this is the case, then we know what she is...we just are not sure of the price we will have to pay. I think it safe to assume that it will be high.

Do we really see Sarah Palin as a behind the scenes type of Vice President willing to go all the places the President does not want to go? Do we see her hobnobbing with the less-thans in the society of world order? Hardly.

She has already shown her hand about what she thinks about “Pro-Choice” but let us not forget that she is herself “pro-choice”. She chose to have her baby, just as hundreds of thousands of women do in this country every year. She is no saint just because she chose to have a baby that is extra-special. Good for her; she is human. She made the choice that she felt was right. But let us not forget that it was, indeed, a choice made by the body that would be carrying the baby.

In her acceptance speech she let all know how she felt about basic civil rights. As one journalist noted, she is no Atticus Finch.

I think that the major reason that I have not been able to write about this is because the people in this nation (those who vote and especially those who do not) scare the heck out of me. We have gone through two campaigns in the past 7 years and here we are in a third…are we going to screw up one more time? Is the press going to continue to be oohed and aahed about how Palin holds a shotgun or are they going to start writing like Mark Bowden (author of the article above)? Are they going to be afraid to call her what she is – a power-hungry human willing to sacrifice her own soul to get what she wants OR one heck of a stupid person – or continue to be panderers of the Republican armada?

If there is a sexist agenda going on in this campaign, it is the one being forced down our throats by the Republican manipulators of spin control. Using Sarah Palin to bolster McCain's sagging numbers not only because she is a “blank slate” but also because of her physical appeal is just damn terrifying. Touting equality for all while writing on the blank slates of women who look good on the cover of a magazine is not true equality. Of course, what would these people know about that? They think that a moose-shooting woman is sexy. What does all of this say about the people that these spinners are trying to reach?

I think that any who might consider voting for John McCain simply because of Sarah Palin ought to sit down for a little while and just ponder what “blank slate” actually means.

Reminds me of way back yonder in another lifetime when I attended a fund raiser for Congressman Jim Wright. Standing next to him, in a small group of people, I asked him a question that pertained to an issue of the day. He put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Honey, don’t you worry yore pretty little head about that. I will take care of it.” I supposed he thought I was a blank slate.

I haven’t voted Republican since.