Comedian Jenée: People are Idiots

Election ‘08: The Issues

As promised in my last post, here are some of the issues surrounding this election that I wanted to discuss:

Republicans vs. Democrats- I recently had the epiphany that the Republican party is all very ME, ME, ME oriented. It’s all about “what *I* want” or how policies “will affect ME.” The Republican stance is that if they don’t like something, they don’t want anybody else to do it either. I don’t think that’s a sound attitude for our nation. I don’t like abortion (and I’m the first to encourage people to double up on birth control methods to avoid it) but I support other people’s right to choose. I despise organized religion but I support other people’s choice to worship in peace. There’s no smart reason to keep a gun in the home but I support people’s right to do so. Then there’s the hypocrisy of the party. Republicans deride Democrats for wasting money providing assistance to the less fortunate but when wealthier homeowners are in a bit of trouble, they’ve got no problem dropping $700 billion to help. Sometimes it’s best to set aside selfish desires for the greater good and the Republican stance just doesn’t do that.

Obama’s race- Everybody talks about the fact that Obama would be the first black president but I’ve yet to hear anybody mention that he would also be the 44th white president. And the dude is actually pretty white– that photo above only took me about two minutes to make because it didn’t require much color matching. He’s as white as I am. I definitely like the fact that he’s more black than other president before, I just think it’s a bit of a slight to the white mother and grandparents who raised him to ignore the fact that he’s just as much white as he is black.

Taxes- I used to believe that everybody should pay the same percentage in taxes but in the last year I’ve changed my stance on this. I realized that everybody has the same number of hours in a week and that the person earning $1 million per year isn’t necessarily working any harder than the person earning $30 thousand per year. I believe there’s a certain amount of luck that comes with earning a massive salary and that the phrase “it takes money to make money” is very true. We’re turning into a nation without a middle class and that needs to change. If I were rolling in more than $250 thousand per year, I wouldn’t have a problem paying a larger share so I’m quite happy to endorse Obama’s tax plan.

Health care- The one area I actually agree with McCain on is that insurance benefits provided by an employer should be taxed. Why not? An individual who pays for insurance is buying it with money that’s already been taxed so why shouldn’t insurance that’s paid for by a person’s company also be taxed? But beyond that, I think Obama’s plan for overhauling the health insurance industry is significantly better than McCain’s.

Music choices- After McCain was slapped with a lawsuit by Jackson Browne for the unauthorized use of one of his songs in a campaign ad, FOUR more artists (Heart, John Mellencamp, Survivor and Bon Jovi) have requested the McCain campaign stop using their songs. Aren’t there any Republican musicians willing to contribute their songs for McCain’s campaign??? Maybe they can make a remix of Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s screeching and make that the campaign song. I know McCain isn’t involved in song selection but it doesn’t say much for his management skills when he continues to employ whomever it is that repeatedly disrespects artists in this manner.

Dirty campaigning- It’s all so juvenile and I suspect that the people who really buy into the attacks are already in strong support of one side or the other so what’s the point? First there were the accusations that Obama is Muslim. So what if he was? We live in a nation where people believe the freedom to practice their own religion should be respected– as long as that religion is Christian. Fuck all the hypocrites who feel that way. Then there’s the silly William Ayers stuff. Should a candidate really be judged by some loose company he keeps? If Obama is guilty of palling around with terrorists, isn’t McCain guilty of palling around with a guy who pals around with terrorists? And as members of Congress, aren’t they both guilty of palling around with crooks, liars and cheats? I’d like to see the Obama camp spin the issue in their favor. After all, isn’t a Commander and Chief who can work with terrorists to organize charity events a good thing? As for Sarah Palin spending $150,000 on wardrobe and $22,000 for two weeks of makeup, that shouldn’t come as any surprise. It takes A LOT of lipstick to make a pit bull camera ready.

Hillary supporters siding with McCain- When I first heard about all the Hillary supporters who said they were going to vote for McCain out of spite to Obama for not choosing Hillary as his running mate, I realized they aren’t really Hillary supporters, they’re vagina supporters and it almost made me wish women were never given the right to vote. People who are voting for McCain for no other reason than the fact that there’s a woman on the ticket are no better than KKK members who will vote for McCain for no other reason than he’s white. It’s just icky and backward to me.

Some regional issues:

Proposition 8- Anybody who’s read my blog for any length of time knows that I’m a strong advocate for gay rights, mostly because it’s really the last form of bigotry in this country that’s not only tolerated, it’s encouraged by many top leaders. This is the California initiative to amend the constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman thus nullifying all the recent gay marriages. The proponents have resorted to scare tactics like saying that if Prop 8 is shot down, kids will be taught about gay marriage in schools, as if anything having to do with marriage (gay or otherwise) would suddenly be added to the curriculum. Give me a break. I beg all California residents to vote No on H8.

Proposition K- This is a San Francisco measure that would decriminalize prostitution making San Francisco the first major city in the U.S. to do so. It’s expected to save the city $11 million each year that’s spent arresting hookers. Prostitution is never going away and it’s time to wise up and legalize it, regulate it and, most importantly, TAX IT. Decriminalization is a good first step toward that so I hope folks in the SF area will support this.