The alphabet of issues
Every reason from A to Z to keep McCain and Palin out of the White House
By Ellen Snortland 09/25/2008
Here’s a handy, dandy alphabetical list of clear-cut reasons to stop Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from winning the White House on Nov. 4.
Personally, I can’t afford four more years of steeply declining income, rapidly rising prices, descending stock and real estate markets, climate crisis, loved ones too underinsured (or not insured at all) to be sick, and war. As a gender and human rights activist, a GOP win would create such a reversal of my entire life’s work that I can barely sleep at night thinking about it.
How about you? See where you stand with this alphabet of issues:
| A | is for abortion, which will be criminalized again with another four years of Republican rule. |
| B | is for a Bush administration extended. Republicans will change nothing but the puppets onstage with a McCain-Palin regime. |
| C | is for choice, something the GOP is against as a plank in its party’s platform. |
| D | is for Down syndrome and using an innocent infant at the RNC convention as a crass prop in the campaign against choice. |
| E | is for equal pay, a fundamental notion of gender fairness that McCain voted against. |
| F | is for four more years of foreclosures and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts. |
| G | is for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender people. Folks who vote for the McCain-Palin ticket endorse a party that proposes a constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage. Maybe that’s because Palin actually believes GLBTs are possessed by demons. |
| H | is for humungous humiliating hypocrisy. Why does a party that touts individual responsibility and smaller government consistently undermine domestic and international family planning, fight gay rights and harangue everyone else about private matters? |
| I | is for the Iraq invasion, the squandering of lives and the looting of our treasury and theirs. It’s also for Iran, the country Republican warmongers are just itching to incinerate. |
| J | is for justices of the Supreme Court whose lifelong appointments will wreak havoc on civil rights, reproductive justice, labor unions and the stability of the middle class for decades. |
| K | is for kidding, as in “Are you kidding?” Gov. Palin is no more a feminist than Justice Clarence Thomas is an advocate for civil rights. |
| L | is for librarian, who Gov. Palin, while in office in Wasilla, tried to oust for refusing to ban books. Palin backed down after being threatened with recall, and the books stayed put. |
| M | is for mind your own damn business! What part of separation of church and state did so many Republicans miss? |
| N | is for ninety-five percent, or all the times that McCain, the so-called “maverick,” voted with lame duck/brain Bush. |
| O | is for oil. Gov. Palin is all drill, drill, drill while our addiction to petroleum simply has to end — or else. |
| P | is for Polar, as in ice caps that are melting at alarming rates, and bears, animals that Gov. Palin sued the federal government to remove from the endangered species list so they could be butchered with impunity. |
| Q | is for quality, something that is increasingly missing from the lives of poor and middle-class families. |
| R | is for rifle, something that Palin cares more about than animals. |
| S | is for Social Security, one of the pillars of the New Deal that would be gutted by another Republican administration. |
| T | is for terror and torture. Ask yourself: Have we really gained any ground on the so-called War on Terror? Also, is it OK with you that McCain has backtracked on his own stand against torture? |
| U | is for universal healthcare. If McCain-Palin win, forget about it. How many of us are a mere job loss, accident or illness away from bankruptcy and possibly homelessness? |
| V | is for Viagra, which McCain thinks is appropriately covered under health insurance, unlike simple birth control pills and devices. |
| W | is for wolves and wildlife, precious, living creatures that Palin enjoys slaughtering from the air. |
| X | is for XX, the chromosome marker for females, but also for the double-cross, something that women are just as capable of doing as men. |
| Y | is for YouTube. View Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show’s” take on VP-wannabe Palin by visiting http://tinyurl.com/6s3k6v. |
| Z | is for zoos, the only place where you will see Polar bears, wolves or caribou if Gov. Palin has her way. |
Contact Ellen at snortland.com.
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