I subscribe to a daily e-newsletter for women that provides a daily tip on a variety of subjects: finances, books, beauty, and primarily, things to buy. There’s a little too much focus on the things to buy for my taste, but there are also a lot of gems in between, so I keep the subscription.

This morning there was a question, “What did you think of Palin’s speech?” with a link to a forum for reader’s comments. I was interested to see the responses, overwhelmingly in favor of Palin. I don’t know why, but the audience is mostly conservative, a fact that is readily apparent from the nature of the responses to the articles. Regardless of the topic, somehow the majority of comments circle back to several scathing slams against those terrible environmentalists and Democrats, even if the article was about mascara or Spanx (I swear one day I’ll be able to afford a pair).

I see where they’re coming from. After all, environmentalists are trying to make everyone’s life miserable, what with their far-sighted thinking, understanding of the interdependence of the eco-system, wanting people to have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, food not contaminated with cancer-causing toxins, good health, limited exposure to harmful chemicals, beautiful, serene, natural places where we can restore and soothe our harried souls, future generations to inherit a quality of life… I get it. Environmentalists are scum bags always trying to take away someone’s profits for their own selfish motives. A man has a right to rape the land and pollute the resources everyone uses if he so chooses, doesn’t he? This is America!

And those Democrats! Man! The way they’re always trying to help the little guy to get boots so that he has some bootstraps to pick himself up by, wanting corporations to be accountable for their actions, believing in notions like freedom of religion and separation of church and state, (like it’s stated in the Constitution), demanding absurd things like people have a living wage. What a freaking menace to society! Imagine if Democrats got their way what an awful country we would live in. We might even be forced to take two weeks of paid vacation every year. For the love of God, we might even catch up with the rest of the industrialized world and have access to quality health care. The “greatest country in the world” shouldn’t have health care for all its citizens. People should always be on the edge, worrying about whether one day an illness will wipe out their savings and make them bankrupt. No wonder “liberal” is such a dirty word!

I apologize for the sarcasm, but sometimes it’s pretty hard to read and hear the constant accusations about the “liberal media”, (like FOX???) and the rhetoric without getting a tad annoyed. I confess, I am a Democrat. On most issues I think the solution is somewhere in the middle instead of either extreme. I believe that’s where most other Americans are too, maybe sometimes right, sometimes left, but on the whole, the rest of us respect notions of tolerance and compromise. I don’t think that either party is exempt from corruption and career politicians who are more interested in self-preservation instead of what’s best for the constituents they support. On the whole though, I find myself sympathizing with the Democratic stance on issues far more than the Republican one. The sad thing is that because of our partisan system that rewards polarization, by the time a Republican politician opens his mouth, particularly over the last eight years, if I’m telling the truth, I invariably find the position mean-spirited, greedy, selfish, and often downright hateful. It’s the Rove and formerly Gingrich way. I’m wish I could understand it better and find the good intention, but again and again, and this is true of some Democrats too, I see privileged individuals fighting any and every law or policy meant to help the least among us, usually for the benefit of some big corporation. Where I come from, that’s called injustice.

In a spirit of being open-minded, I watched Palin’s speech. Here I’m going to be partisan, but honest. I wanted to know what Republicans say at their conventions. “We’re going to widen the divide between the rich and poor!” [Yay! Cheering] “We’re going to eliminate the minimum wage!” [more wild enthusiasm] “We’re going to make sure that all corporations are exempt from taxes!!!” [crowd screaming so enthusiastically that they pass out en masse from the euphoria] “My fellow Republicans, George Bush got the ball rolling, but we’re not there….Hello??? Hello???”

Honestly, I don’t mean to offend anyone. I understand that sometimes a Republican leaning comes from lack of faith that the government will use our money effectively to implement programs to help people. But why not cut out all the unnecessary government spending and earmarks and instead use that money to reduce poverty, to help people, to teach real life skills, job skills, parenting skills, and for the Love of God, why not sex education!! Anyway, I’m way off track from the original point of this post which was to talk about Obama’s experience.

Back to the e-newsletter…as I mentioned there were a lot of the usual negative comments about Democrats, as well as a near idol worship of Palin. Except for one reader, some coward who used the name “Anon” to say that she found Palin’s speech to be typically mean-spirited Republican. Boy did that stir up controversy and ire! But they asked, didn’t they?

What surprised me more than all the Palin veneration were comments like “I’m afraid of Obama.”

Afraid of him?

Seriously?

If it weren’t a little scary, it could be comical. Some people clarified that it was because of his “lack of experience.” Uh huh. I believe that. But let’s assume the best for a moment and that this “fear” is related only to Obama’s past experience. Here is my rebuttal.
1) Seriously? After having that simpleton chucklehead in office for the last eight years, what more to fear is there than more of the same? How about the crushing national debt that is accumulating at a staggering rate? Or, are we really so selfish as to not care a wit about fiscal responsibility and the effect on future generations and the future of this country?
2) If McCain were to be elected and die in office, the president would be…yes, that’s right, someone with GOBS more experience than Obama! Phew. No worries there!
3) Palin has enacted so much more legislation than Obama. She’ll be the change that D.C. needs. Well, except for that little fib about not accepting the money for the “Bridge to nowhere.” She accepted the money and praised her colleagues for getting the earmarks, but for the purposes of the election, none of that happened.
4) We definitely need someone who will drill for oil! Definitely! We’ve made such huge strides toward reducing our dependence on oil ever since the 70s! As a nation, we really heard that call, took notice and woke up to our energy usage. There’s no such thing as peak oil and that hasn’t been predicted since the 50s. No, we’ll never reach peak oil. It’s an unlimited resource, like the sun and water, and fish. (And apparently denial and delusional thinking which there seems to be no shortage of in this country.) Of course, some things are just necessities, like Urban Assault Vehicles that are bigger than the average home. We need those.

And finally, I’ll break from sarcasm for the final point…
5) If we want to talk about experience, Obama has about the same amount of experience as FDR and Truman, two of the greatest presidents in the history of our country. In terms of ideals, which pair would you compare more to FDR and Truman?

Oh yes, another FDR as president? I’m shivering with fear.

In closing, once again, I mean no offense to any unfortunate Republicans who stumbled upon this post. I respect John McCain and think he’s a fine man when he’s not trying to appeal to the fringe, minority ultra-conservative, nut jobs. However, I certainly wouldn’t say that he’s a less risky option of our two presidential candidates. If you ask me, surely he could have found a running mate that understood the importance of bringing Americans together. But then, I guess many of us *are* one issue voters. Palin is a woman, Obama is black, we need to drill for oil, and someone is “for” or “against” abortion. When will we get it? When will we stop falling for the rhetoric, and fear that politicians use to manipulate us?

Maybe, after we get rid of those self-serving environmentalists.