I'm a gawker when it comes to politics. Rarely a participant. Partly because of the career I chose, which demanded that I be "objective" about such things. Neutered is more like it.
The closest I came to political activism was attending one of Ralph Nader's "super rallies" in 2000. Lots of folks voted for Nader in 2000. I did because Gore would kick Bush's ass in my state. It still seemed somewhat of a radical thing to do for someone with an unoppressed, suburban upbringing. I went out of my way to show support for a losing cause.
Otherwise I stay away. Unless something really trips me out.
Take George Allen. I didn't even know about him until a week ago, when I heard that he's a Republican and he may lose his Virginia Senate seat.
What freaked me out after reading about him is that he seems like a straight-out racist -- and he almost won.
Besides using racial epithets in campaign speeches, he opposed a Martin Luther King Jr. state holiday, fetishizes the Confederate flag (in spite of growing up in Palos Verdes, Calif.), and courted support from the Council of Conservative Citizens, formerly known as the White Citizens' Council.
I know Virginia is considered a Southern state. I lived in the South briefly in the 90s, and I heard the word "nigger" more times than I ever heard in my previous 28 years -- and that's counting every Tarantino film I saw. So I know how things are.
Still, nearly half of Virginia's voters looked at this scum and said, "All right by me." And until recently, Republican leaders were calling Allen a front runner for the presidential nomination.
Which just amazes me.
So I've been glued to the Internet, hoping Webb's victory holds. Not so much because we'll have a Democrat-controlled House and Senate. I don't typically vote for either party. I'm just curious whether this bitch actually makes it down the toilet in one flush.
No comments:
Post a Comment