scrawls.

scrawls

still cheaper than therapy*

24.5.08

on american politics

Had a discussion (in the dog park, natch) with a nice fellow who turned out to be from Turkey, entirely in German. I talked a little. He talked a lot. In German. (i think he also spoke French, or he asked me if i did; but i can't lay any claim to that language at all any more.) It is impossible to explain American politics, even the party system, even the fucking primary season and the superdelegates and really, i can barely do it in English, so doing it in German is next to impossible.

But many people here - and, probably, many people in the States, for that matter - want to know if it will be easier for us to elect a black person or a female person. And i have to say, i think it would be easier for us to elect a black person. We have been rotten with racism for centuries now. And i think sexism is often more subtle, but also more insidious, and harder to get rid of. Maybe it's just me. But there are words for ethnicities that i cannot even bring myself to type as "something i would never say" but i use the word bitch all the time. And worse: Screaming harpy. Rancid cunt. See? Holy fucking shit, is that ever a nasty turn of phrase. (Um, i save that one for special occasions.)

And i - poor Clinton. People put those words on her so much more, and so much more publicly, and so much more often, and so much more loudly, than anything remotely similar gets put towards Obama. And people call her Hillary instead of Clinton and that in itself is disrespectful, belittling. And that is just one example: here are more. This is a thing, too: only Americans feel like they have to like their politicians. I don't need to like my President. I don't need to want to have a beer with it or hang out and watch a movie with it. I don't want its book recommendations, and i don't base a vote on what it likes on its pizza. I don't care if my President likes dogs or cats. I don't care if my President has a really annoying voice. I don't care if my President wears a jacket that doesn't fit right. I don't care who it's sleeping with or what it believes happens after we die. I want a President whose policies i mostly support, whose priorities i mostly agree with. I want a President that is smarter than i am (and that, my dears, that is hoping for a whole lot, that is. Seems like).

He also said Turkei was sehr schoen, und auch sehr freundlich, and we had to ein urlaub machen dort. Und ich glaube er hat rechts. Ich hoffe wir konnen in December gehen. mmm, Mediterranean in December! Yes please.

Labels: politics

scrawled @ 21:34