My Voting Strategy

Our beloved blogmother has asked all of us Conflucians to "come out" and explain what we are doing on November 4th, and to choose a word that would summarize our NOBAMA position.

My word is "misogyny," and I'm voting for the 30% Solution in order to begin improving the lives of women throughout this great country.

I wrote this post a couple of days ago about how John McCain is passing out Hillary-oriented flyers in Pennsylvania. Although many PUMA blogs have been focusing on the flyers' explicit panders to PUMAcrats, very few people seem to have noticed this language from Senator McCain:

I share Senator Clinton’s goal of promoting women to more important roles in government. By the end of my first term, I promise you will see a dramatic increase in the presence of women in every part of the government. You have my word on it.

Just get your PUMA jaws around that and chew on it for a while.

Mmmmmmm. Tastes like feminism to me.

To further quote from the post:

When Barack Obama was asked by Hillary Clinton's supporters if he would make a similar promise, he said no.

Senator Obama has shown nothing but contempt and scorn for Hillary Clinton and her voters. He thinks he can win without us, and to prove his obstinacy and lack of respect for her and what she represented, he refused to even vet her for the Vice Presidency and took every opportunity to spread the most disgusting lies about her and her husband.

John McCain, however, is committed to to advancing the 30% Solution, whether he calls it that or not. He had the courage to pick a female Vice President whom he knew would be subject to the same virulent misogyny that Hillary endured. He pays his female staff more than his male staff.

Between these two candidates, who has exemplified a more feminist attitude?

Because of John McCain's clear recognition that women are underrepresented in government and his written and verbal commitment to do something about it (which he has already begun to execute, with the nomination of a female VP), my top-of-the-ticket vote for McPalin has started to feel more like an endorsement than a protest, despite my disagreement with them on a whole host of issues. As for the rest of my votes, I will be choosing women whenever possible, and since I do believe in divided government despite my anger at the Democratic Party, I will be voting on the Democratic side.

Who do I think will win on Tuesday? Well, for the record, I continue to believe that the Democratic primary forecast Senator Obama's future. He could not convince his own Party to vote for him in all the swing states and large blue states that have always been needed to win the Presidency. The same people who didn't vote for him then will not vote for him now. His inexperience and shady associations have not magically disappeared in the past few months. He has shown no understanding of either the economy or foreign policy, but instead, copied the homework of both Hillary Clinton and John McCain, who led the way in both areas. Despite almost a $500 million money advantage and the most favorably biased media coverage since Bush v. Gore, Barack Obama has not made his case to the American people. We see through the hype and know there is nothing backing it up. 

But as we know, my opinion is just an opinion. We truly don't know what will happen until after it happens, and anyone who tells you differently (like New York Magazine) is just pushing an agenda, and a pretty obvious one at that.

My fellow PUMAs, remember that you own your votes. No one - not your spouse, your kids, your family, your favorite politicians, or your Party - has the right to tell you how to cast them. And no matter what happens on November 4th, we will all still be here on November 5th, together, ready to fight for our country and our democracy.

Fellow Conflucian Myiq2xu wrote a post recently stating that no matter who is elected, we have already lost. I agree wholeheartedly that our best choice was taken from us, and instead of choosing between excellent (Hillary) and awful (McCain without Palin), we now have a choice between terrible (Obama) and semi-okay (McCain with Palin). It is difficult to be truly happy about making that choice.

But I consider this election cycle a personal victory, and I hope you will too. For this was the year my eyes were opened to the deep-seated misogyny within the Democratic Party and our society in general. This was the year I discovered that the famous feminists of yesteryear have become a snotty, lazy bunch of enablers. This was the year I understood that my Party has been lying to me about how bad and evil Republicans are. This was the year I threw off my partisan blinders and elitism and understood that this is a beautiful country, made up of sincere people who are just trying to do the right thing for themselves. This was the year I discovered the words, "agree to disagree," and found that they were good.

And I do believe I'm not alone, and that the PUMA movement will become a unifying force in American politics; a force based on finding common ground, not on demonization and name-calling; a force that can effect positive change no matter who the President is. 

PUMA POWER!!!

Cross-posted at The Confluence