I am trying to decide what exactly is so disturbing about this Cindy McCain ad against Proposition 8. Is it those dead drug-addict eyes? The strategic placement of the tape to hide any frown lines? The sanitarium background? The anorexic fade into nothingness?
It goes on a bit from there, but not upward.
So, to Hanna Rosin, I pose this question -- how on earth is this helpful? Do you think we proponents of marriage equality are just drowning in our scads of supporters, such that we can now sneer at the ones we don't like? Particularly those whose politics we otherwise don't endorse? Because the move for marriage equality is going so [obscene participle] well?
How about this? How about we express some basic human decency and gratitude for a woman who has chosen to do something helpful for a cause we champion? How about we avoid rubbing our hands in child-like glee over the dysfunctions of her deeply dysfunctional marriage, and instead respond with grace? How about we don't shoot ourselves in the foot by alienating supporters we can't afford to lose?
Because this? This we don't need.
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I know it goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway. You are a decent, honorable man.
ReplyDeleteLook, we all know John McCain is a decent and honorable man, and I wish and pray it had been him that was elected in 2000 instead of shrub, and what Rosin wrote was excrement, (as was the campaign by Corzine in NJ, which still annoys me). All that being said, I don't think we should lionize any Republican just because they come out in favor of what should be a fundamental human right, equality under the law. I mean, if Cindy McCain were to read Rosin and come out against gay marriage because of it, or if anyone were to, then their support was basically meaningless.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am trying to say is, while we should certainly never disparage someone who agrees with us, we need not be grateful either (unless they are facing manifest danger by their support). Blacks need not have been grateful to white for whites acquiescing for their demands of equal rights. If Cindy McCain were like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, then, of course, I would erect a statue in her honor, but she is not so lets not. At most, I do appreciate her public effort but I can't say I appreciate her supporting what is a fundamental right, in the same way I can't say I appreciate a white person for supporting equal rights for black, it should be a given. At this point, I can only decry those who don't since it is long past time that this be recognized as such.
charo
Charo, I'm not going to erect a shrine to her or anything. But, even if you and I agree it was the right thing to do, she didn't have to make the ad. For what it's worth, I'm very grateful that she chose to do this. I certainly don't think poisonous little hit pieces like Rosin's are anything but counter-productive.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, John. I try.
It's also rather despicable that Rosin chose to highlight what she finds offensive about Cindy McCain's appearance, rather than the merit or lack or incongruity of her ideas. When in the name of all that is holy can women say something important and not be judged for how they look? Nobody does that kind of verbal hatchet job on her husband's face and body because he's valued or criticized for his perspective rather than his appearance.
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