Corie Whalen

While the media reports the partisan blame game antics (whereas in reality the “leaders” in both parties supported burdening taxpayers with Wall Street’s woes and not doing anything to actually deal with the problem at its true roots), you should look to the real source – Paulson, Bernanke, the Federal Reserve, and the corrupt bankers that they have refused to condemn (and all but supported by creating incentives vis a vie bailouts). DO NOT get tricked into thinking it’s one party or the other. Instead, look at the votes (I also recommend reading statements by Karl Denninger and Jim Bunning) – sure, there was a bit of a split among party lines (more Democrats than Republicans voted for it) … However the real issue (and it’s a non-partisan one) is as follows:

The party “leaders” (I put leaders in quotations because I do not respect them enough to believe they lead in a benign manner) Pelosi (Speaker of the House [Democrats]) and Boehner (House Minority Leader [Republicans]) stood “united for a solution” … In reality, the career politicians with the most to lose if they were not reelected stood united for a quick fix that simple laws of economics tell us is putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. Even McCain and Obama were willing to throw $700 billion down the tubes for the sake of political pandering (read Denninger’s article proving how the bailout wouldn’t have worked in the longterm anyway). Think about that – and then think about how voting for members of Congress might just be more important than the Presidential election (it always is in my view – and instances like this illustrate why).

Why then, were these “leaders” willing to do this if both principled liberals as well as conservatives, including hundreds of intelligent economists knew it was wrong? Because it’s an election year. They’d be off the hook for now if things were “looking good” right around the beginning of November. They could simply re-assume their positions as “representatives of the people” (7% of whom supported the bailout bill, mind you), and go along on their merry way. Notice however, that we, the American people, were saved by principled leaders on both sides of the aisle who refused to cave to party pressure and did right by their constituents instead. They did not listen to their party “leaders”, both of whom told Reps with “safe seats” to “just do it” despite the fact that it’s “political suicide” (Translation: We don’t care even remotely what the people we “represent” think. Instead, we’ll play off the polarized party lines image that the media helps us portray. In the meantime however securing our own positions by threatening Reps who are running unopposed or in areas that extremely lean to either party to vote for this bill for purely political reasons).

Think about this, fellow residents of Massachusetts – safe seats – like for the Democrats in our state. Interestingly enough however, the Representatives in Massachusetts (all of whom are Democrats), voted like this: Reps. William Delahunt, Stephen Lynch and John Tierney voted no. Reps. Michael Capuano, Barney Frank, Edward Markey, Jim McGovern, Richard Neal, John Olver and Niki Tsongas voted yes. In my view, this means that you should vote for whomever the opponents of the Barney Frank style hacks are, on principle – and not BLINDLY by party. You voting based solely on party lines and NOT on substantive issues that will change your life enables this sort of behavior and creates the idea of “safe seats”, which clearly gives corrupt partisan “leaders” the ability to manipulate

you and your family

. Think before you vote!

Here however are examples of the of type principled Representatives I can admire:

1. Conservatives : Thaddeus McCotter

2. Liberals : Dennis Kucinich

I personally agree more with McCotter on issues of economics and in general, but that doesn’t change the fact that true LIBERALS and true CONSERVATIVES (not necessarily Democrats or Republicans) are more willing to look into the longterm effects because they actually care about the people. They recognize that there is life after election day. The party hacks like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner and Chris Shays clearly either don’t, or simply do not care. Personally, I think it’s the latter explanation coupled with a dangerous amount of self-interest and inability to think under pressure.

There are very few truly brave and principled individuals representing us, but enough of them did pull through yesterday for the American people. They did not fall in line after the threats of Boehner and Pelosi – they represented YOU. I urge you, no matter your ideology, to disregard the media’s obsession with portraying a bipolar “Republican versus Democrat” United States of America, and to look at the hard, cold facts. The vote yesterday shows us something so concrete that even the media shouldn’t be able to spin it (yet they manage). It shows us, plain and simple, who fights for the American people, and who fights for partisan power. Just look: In all, 65 Republicans joined 140 Democrats in voting “yes,” while 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted “no.” To me, that says we have 228 intelligent conservative or liberal Representatives of the people who know that viable alternative solutions exist, and 205 Republicans and Democrats who fell victim to Hank Goldman-Sachs Paulson’s scare tactics and/or (likely both) are interested to a disturbing extent in party power and reelection. What does it say to you?

I see it all over facebook; groups proclaiming “Sarah Palin is No Hillary Clinton” …

Really? A conservative isn’t a liberal? What amazing news!

…. But wait, I thought all women involved in politics were ordained to have the exact same views! That’s what post-modern feminist theory espouses. Modern “feminists”, obsessed to an absurd extent with gender, expect women as a “class” (thanks, Marxism) to unite and together fight the ongoing oppression of “female values”, as if all women have the same views and needs simply because of their sexual designation.

This is what I absolutey cannot STAND about (some, not all) modern, far-left wingers. They are so obsessed with race, gender, class and other such various GROUP classifications that nearly all respect for the individual is lost. Of course, I’m not saying that studying race, class and gender doesn’t yield valuable information – we can’t deny that historically, many people were oppressed; but let’s be rational and try to balance these findings with reality ….

If Sarah Palin had the same ideology and beliefs, but were a man, would there be cries that she’s not as good as Hillary Clinton? I doubt it, because the only reason these comparisions are being drawn is because they both happen to have an x chromosome – and that my friends, is sexist.

These “feminists” think that they represent the cutting edge of some bold, post-modern movement, when in reality, they are simply alienating the average American who respects individual autonomy, and can seperate someone’s views from their age, gender, class, etc (the list goes on and on) …

They’re right – Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton … and thank God for that. She hasn’t played the gender card to get where she is … And if you dislike her because she’s conservative and you’re liberal, fine – but don’t bash her for being a strong REPUBLICAN woman. Believe it or not, “feminists”, there are some women who can think for themselves politically and make it in the world because they are respected for who they are as individuals, not as the representative for some sexist agenda that seeks to group people based on gender rather than merit.

You don’t hear those who can respect her as an individual obsessing over Sarah’s gender (whether or not they agree with her; I definitely don’t share her views on everything). But, you hear it from an unfortunately large chunk of select liberals who hate the idea that conservatives could be “progressive” (in that women aren’t oppressed by ‘evil white rich men’ within the Republican party as they’d like to think for their own political purposes).

I mean, maybe it’s just jealousy … But whatever it is I hope the left-wing factions obsessing over her being a female begin to realize that what they are doing does a great disservice to the term feminism … It’s why throughout this blog I’ve put feminist in quotes to describe these misguided lefties, because you can’t really be pro-woman if you discredit a fellow female for not adhearing to YOUR political agenda.

For the love of God, these extremeists need to wake up and realize that not every strong woman HAS to be liberal. She doesn’t have to fit the Hillary mold to deserve respect, and the fact that so many apparently jealous “feminists” (men and women included), seem to think she does to gain respect as a woman is one of the most sexist and disrespectul sentiments I’ve heard in awhile … It actually offends me, not as a woman, but as a reasonable individual who can look past a person’s gender in my judgements of them.

And to even further my point – people have been speculating that perhaps McCain chose her simply because she’s a woman … BUT even if he did (which would only further prove my theory that he’s a Democrat who accidentally registered Republican), that doesn’t mean Palin herself, as an individual, should be judged for that possibility. The truth is that she’s a powerful, bold conservative woman. They do exist, and just because ridiculous extremeists like Nancy Pelosi feel personally threatened by that (see her comments on the women of America “deserving better”) doesn’t mean that politically demeaning someone because of their gender suddenly becomes non-sexist because it fell from the lips of a liberal.

When will the madness stop? Let’s get over sexism, and judge people based on meaningful qualities, like ideology and character.