“Swing Red,” a guest blog from Moralia
OK, so it’s no big secret which way Swing State of Mind swings, but that doesn’t mean we don’t read and adore those on the other side of the pendulum’s swoop. We like to think Moralia Blog (”Parenting and culture, religion and politics”) is to SSOM what Pat Buchanan is to Rachel Maddow: proof that polar opposites can still be kindred spirits in love with political discourse. In our swung state of mind, Moralia’s Brigette Russell is also New Mexico’s #1 Sarah Palin expert, so we asked her to contribute a guest blog during these last breakneck days about why we shouldn’t be terrified of Caribou Barbie. - Maassive
SWING RED
By Brigette Russell (aka Moralia)
If New Mexico has now moved from swing state to full-fledged blue state, then I’ve lived all my life in blue states, and in the bluest of blue cities within those states. I’ve never lived in a city where the letters to the editor in my local paper did not vilify the candidates for whom I planned to vote. Every morning I sit down with my coffee, open the Santa Fe New Mexican, and read letters from my neighbors about how stupid Sarah Palin is, how unqualified, how inexperienced, how neglectful of her children, how ignorant, how dangerous, how embarrassing, and above all, how frightening. Ladies and gentlemen, the good people of Santa Fe are simply terrified – dare I say, scared well and truly witless – by the specter of President Palin.
Wait, isn’t she running for Vice President? Well, yes, but we all know what’s-his-name is older than Methuselah and has one foot in the grave already, so let’s just call the old geezer down for the count and run against the chick instead. After all, when the enemy wears high heels the scrupulously impartial media can have fun playing Presidential Pin-up along the way.
I endorsed Palin for Vice President back in mid-August, before John McCain chose her and before most Americans had heard of her, so I’ve felt compelled to defend her a number of times.
Exactly what do these terrified epistlers think she’s going to do? Single-handedly force every woman in America to have their unwanted babies? I’ve explained on my blog why the abortion issue is essentially a non-issue and people who are pro-choice can vote Republican without fear. Drop a nuke-yoo-ler bomb on that country she can see from Alaska? Those on the far left may claim they’re afraid Palin will start WWIII, but I think what they’re really afraid of is simply having their party deprived of the presidency for four more years, of being unable to implement policies they call progressive and conservatives call socialist.
Oh, I forgot. We’re not supposed to say “socialist” because it’s really just a code word for black. Sorry, folks, but this race isn’t about race. When Barack Obama says he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills, it’s true. He looks a hell of a lot better than most of them. He is tall, slim, athletic, looks like a million bucks in his clothes whether it’s a suit and tie or the casual Friday look. He has a great voice and a way with words, coming across as serious without being stuffy, and likeable without being a lightweight. He is a very appealing candidate, and both he and his supporters know it. White people of all ages and income levels have flocked to support him, and the idea that some “Bradley effect” is going to derail him is insulting. It’s his Big Government policies that will derail him, if anything does – exactly the same kind of policies that derailed the candidacies of Al Gore and John Kerry, who in case nobody noticed, happen to be white guys. Nevertheless, if McCain wins, I expect to read a slew of letters in the Santa Fe New Mexican calling me and everyone else who voted for him racist.
Before McCain picked Palin, conservatives called Obama inexperienced, and liberals were incensed. Maybe “inexperienced” was a code-word for black, too? But then along came the Caribou Barbie, and suddenly liberals were very concerned about inexperience. Suddenly people who had thought a first-term senator eminently qualified for the top job were fretting that a first-term governor was supremely unqualified for the job of attending funerals and breaking tie votes in the Senate and being ready to step up to the plate in case something should happen to her running mate, whose experience and credentials not even his opponents ever so much as hinted at questioning.
If I haven’t convinced any you to vote Republican yet, how about this shameless plea: Don’t you like being swing voters, voters who actually matter? Candidates take solid red and blue states for granted. New Mexico has been crawling with candidates the past few weeks. In California the only time any of them showed up was for star-studded Hollywood fundraisers. Then it was right back to the swing states with no time to spare for rallies with ordinary Californians whose votes were already counted.
Besides, “Blue State of Mind” isn’t half as catchy as “Swing State of Mind.” So let’s keep this blog from having to change its name by making New Mexico swing red next Tuesday.
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October 30th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
But, Moralia, don’t we have to swing back to blue this year in order to stay a swing state? If we vote McCain, we’ll be red two years in a row, right?
October 30th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Most of us - “we the people” have to wait and watch while our fellow Americans in “swing states” read, analyze, consider, connect the dots, etc. prior to voting in the upcoming election.
The choice is between a real American hero - John McCain and a candidate - with lots of questionable long term associates - attracted by Obama because his ideology is in line with the thinking of people like Rev Wright, Fr. Phelger, Louis Farrakhan, Wm Ayers, Tony Rezko and entities like the ACORN group. The research regarding these associations can be completed by anyone with an interest in the character of a candidate for POTUS. Obama’s incredible campaign donations - nearly $3/4 billion is not all properly documented; hence “we the people” do not really know who is buying this election.
Barack Obama has been preaching the sermons of the above mentioned associates for nearly two years now - the sermons of class distinction which we know translates to distribution of “wealth” and beyond that to a socialistic mindset.
Wealth being - money earned by businesses large and small by hard working Americans - those very people that generate the jobs and need for goods and services that employ lots of us out here. Obama’s economic agenda - is wrong for our country. Never have we heard a politician work day after day to create envy between citizens - a way of broadening his voter base - actually making it clear that although some may not pay federal income tax - they will get a check - but he needs their vote.
Many of us waiting to hear what our fellow Americans in swing states are thinking - are hoping that these important voters are carefully thinking about qualifications, background, and character of these two candidates. We hope these important citizens are also thinking about: OBAMA/BIDEN/PELOSI/REID/FRANK/DODD/RANGLE/KERRY AND ENTITIES LIKE ACORN and their impact on our future.
VOTE AMERICAN - Vote McCain/Palin 2008 for a freeze on spending, reform of politics as usual, energy independence and the future of our economic strength and growth.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
[…] check out my guest blog on Swing State of Mind, the campaign blog of the Santa Fe Reporter. For my out-of-town friends, SFR is about as […]
October 30th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Maassive MUST be “progressive”– one tipoff to that is thinking exclusively in short-term (i.e., before the tyranny of good intentions manifests itself).
“Two years in a row” is coincidence. If the state hits three consecutive years — or better, elections– then let’s talk pattern.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Brigette,
You have a gift. Keep up the good work. Swing Red New Mexico.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Re: “two years in a row”
I meant two presidential election cycles in a row. My bad.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Yes, 2000 was blue, 2004 red, so now 2008 would theoretically be blue’s turn, but I’m looking beyond presidential elections. In 2006 the Dems swept the state completely. I think Pat Lyons was the only Republican to win statewide office. Even the GOP candidate for treasurer lost — and he was even endorsed by the New Mexican! Of course, that only happened because of the Armijo fiasco. Still, the fact that a guy the liberal New Mexican endorsed as well qualified lost to a last-minute substitution candidate just because he had a (D) beside his name…well, how much bluer could ‘06 have been?
October 30th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Mrs. Russell, you truly do have a gift. And I would love it if California was among those Swing States! As it stands, I have to travel this week-end to Nevada from Los Angeles to walk for Senator McCain! Bless your heart for keeping us well grounded!
October 30th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Wow, this is what I call GOOD reading! And you are funny too.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:38 am
I’m a swing voter, still undecided. I went to your blog and read that post where you wrote about abortion, and I’d never thought about it that way. The more I think about it, the more I realize you may well be right about it. Right or wrong, though, that post was really clever and funny, too, just like this one.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I was in Corrales yesterday, campaigning for and with Rick Lass, about whom you, Moralia, showed the good sense to say nice things on your blog. I spoke with one voter who wanted to talk about the presidential race. She said “Blacks don’t belong in the White House,” and “Well, at least he’s half white.” These are verbatim quotes. So, some Republican partisans make ad hominem attacks as well. My brother has sent me all manner of made up attacks on Obama. An old fundamentalist friend sent me an e-mail that said, in its entirety, “Q: What do Obama and Osama have in common? A: They both have friends who bombed the Pentagon.”
Smart people would like nothing better than to have voters make decisions based on a rational evaluation of the facts and the expected consequences of the candidates’ proposed policies. As a supporter of Lass, I am particularly wishful that that would be the case, since his resume contrasts so sharply with his opponent’s mendacity.
But voters make decisions based on all manner of capacities – rational, emotional, and prejudicial. Objecting to the fact that those who are voting against your candidate are doing so for other than rational reasons is, I think, evidence of frustration with the world as it always has been. At least, that’s what I decided it was when I made the same complaint about America in the last two presidential elections.
So, you don’t like living in communities that denigrate your political perspective. Those of us in blue communities have had to deal with being called unAmerican for our views, and have been told to vote Christian, or vote American, as only a vote for a Republican can be Christian or American. After 8 years of Bush, guess who looks like we’ve been proven right? Is torture either Christian or American? Are secret prisons? Is a $700 bailout of miscreant financial institutions Socialist? Capitalist? Or something else? How Christian or American is a war begun on lies, with thousands dead and incapacitated on both sides, with innocent civilians caught in between?
I could go on . . .
October 31st, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Wow! I just wanted to thank y’all for chiming in. This is the best thread we’ve had this year…
October 31st, 2008 at 2:14 pm
This was a great post! Well written and non-abrasive in its message! You made excellent points that are well understood.
Thank you! And love to see more!
October 31st, 2008 at 2:54 pm
So you think “nucular” war is funny? Something to joke about? You’re sick and pathetic. You want to elect a woman whose so stupid she can’t even say nuclear right just like that moron Bush can’t. A woman so dumb she doesn’t even read newspapers and gets the Dan Quale “deer in the headlights” look when Katie Couric asked her what newspapers she reads. McCain is bad enough but Palin is just plain scary. You laugh at us for being scared but we are scared because we love this country and don’t want to see eight more years of Bush-Chaney-McCain-Palin policies where they torture people and call it patriotic.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:42 am
The election comes down to this:
Obama wants to kill babies and raise taxes.
Palin wants to raise babies and kill taxes.
It is that simple.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 am
“It is that simple.”
Only for the simple-minded.
Obama for President!
Lass for PRC!
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I haven’t read anything in the Reporter that hasn’t turned my stomach since McCain picked Palin as his running mate. Thank you for not turning my stomach in this blog.
McCain/Palin ‘08
November 4th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
[…] tuned for more election night blogging from the woman the Santa Fe Reporter calls “New Mexico’s #1 Sarah Palin expert.” That might not be worth much after tomorrow, I realize, but let me bask in my fading glory for […]