Before I wrote Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter’s Guide to Sarah Palin in 28 days, and before I got booked for 21 radio shows to talk about her, I used to write a lot about sex and boomers. Believe me, 28 all-nighters followed by weeks of radio shows at 6:00am and 11:00pm can put a crimp in a girl’s sex life.
But that’s nothing compared to what will happen if McCain/Palin win. McCain and Palin just love things that don’t work, things that mess up peoples’ love lives. They’ve got this ongoing crush on abstinence-only sex education even though it is thoroughly discredited. McCain doesn’t support gay marriage or adoption and Palin, despite mumbling sweet nothings about states rights (when asked about the Supreme Court), she nonetheless grows all tingly over fantasies of a federal Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and removing states’ rights.
Greta Christina turned me onto Planned Parenthood’s Action ratings where John McCain scored a shocking zero score on the issues that most touch our beds. Zero. So I began exploring some more and established that Barack Obama scored 100%. In fact, Planned Parenthood has even endorsed Obama. It’s not hard to understand why: McCain voted to take away funds from PP; while on the other hand, Obama spoke at their annual fundraising event last year.
These candidates are opposites all the way down the line. McCain wants to overturn Roe v Wade, taking away protection for legal abortions, while Obama supports Roe v Wade actively. Let’s not forget Sarah Palin: she’s against abortion even in cases of rape and incest, a view that reflects the crazed ideological elevation of a fertilized cell over the health and welfare of a grown woman. McCain won’t have insurance companies pay for birth control; Obama will. McCain won’t put a cent towards prevention of unwanted and youth pregnancies; Obama has backed several bills aimed at this social problem.
The list goes on, but one that personally bugs me is that McCain (and not Obama) supports the “Global Gag Rule.” This wretched rule withholds US family planning assistance to overseas non-profits that provide abortions, information on abortions or advocate for pro-choice policies in their own nation – even when they’re using their own funds to do it. This is the global imposition of the Republican religious right-wing agenda. This is the nasty offspring of the marriage of Freddy Fundamentalism and Fanny Imperialism, if you’ll excuse my language.
I could list a dozen other ways that a Republican victory could mess with the country’s sexual freedoms – starting with Internet porn and ending with condom distribution in prisons. Yes, as the author of the one and only critical book on Sarah Palin, I too closely link Palin in the White House with me in Guantanamo. That circumstance would very likely drain any remaining libido from my heart. Save me from a life of sexual deprivation, please. Oh look at me – begging again.
Another great post, Sue! Wow, I knew McCain/Palin would be bad for my bed, but I never realized how bad. Thank you for enlightening us! Excuse me, I'm going to fill out my absentee ballot right now....
Joan Price
Author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty
Join us -- we're talking about ageless sexuality at http://www.betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com
Posted by: Joan Price | 29 October 2008 at 00:52
Used to be that the Republican party was the conservative party, annoying perhaps, sexually-repressive certainly, but not maniacal. Nixon was anti-abortion, but it was his supreme court which authored Roe V. Wade. You could still get contraceptives at the drugstore, and any pharmacist who refused to dispense birth control pills "on moral grounds" would find himself on unemployment. There was opposition to sex education in schools, but not a push for formalized disinformation, as we now have.
The Republican Party needs to be disciplined, and how!
Posted by: C.S. Lewiston | 29 October 2008 at 03:20
I've said all along that McCain would shove women's rights back to the dark ages. When he chose Palin as his running mate and I heard her stance I was convinced the man actually hates women. And let's face it, it is obvious that Palin hates women too! She is an embarrassment to females if you want my not so humble opinion.
McCain is just another male chauvanist pig (and I use that phrase lightly here).
On the other hand, I don't believe Obama has our best interests at heart either and fear he will lead us down the road to socialism.
I voted for a third party instead, I refuse to once again vote for the lesser of two evils......THAT obviously doesn't work.
Posted by: Lynda | 29 October 2008 at 15:56
Interesting how the people who are against government intruding on our lives are so into intruding on our lives. Do they not get it? Do they not even see the hypocrisy of saying that taxes are socialism but telling people, just about, what sex positions are legal is such an invasion of privacy as to not only not be democratic, but to be tyrannical?
Posted by: Laura | 29 October 2008 at 22:15