Republicans and Condescension

I was a neutral Republican on the eve of George W. Bush's second term in office. I watched the 2004 Republican National Convention and ignored its Democratic counterpart. I had tears in my eyes when GWB was sworn in, more because I tend to get emotional in such situations than because of the man taking the oath.

Over the years, as I watched President Bush mumble and fumble, I was most bothered by a singular fact: he was condescending to his audience, the citizens of the United States of America. With phrases such as "I'm the decider" and rhetoric like "they hate us and hate everything we stand for" I felt like our president was being terribly patronizing and teacher-like, and my favorite teachers were always those who spoke to us as if we were on their level, which we probably were not as of yet.

Enter John McCain, who is constantly attempting to distance himself from George W. bush. He has proved to be unwatchable and unlistenable and the biggest mystery is how he managed to make it this far; or in other words, how the voters have let it get this far. His slow, condescending tone is enough to turn me off and make me think of those people who try to handle children but just end up making themselves hated by their young charges.

I was not able to watch the first McCain - Obama debate in September, but I did get to watch the second, on October 7th. Right from the start, the Republican nominee John McCain was so condescending to the first man posing a question, I just wanted to smack his face. His tone was not helped by his constant use of the term 'my friends', much villified afterwards in the blogosphere and mainstream media. McCain is a disaster when it comes to oratory and it becomes ten times as bad when he tried to be 'cute'.

When it comes to he actual vote on Novmber 4th, I am obviously not basing my vote on the candidate's power of speech, eloquence and grammar usage. I am pretty confident in Barack Obama's policies and strategies and truly believe that he wants what is best for the country and the common man. Still, I cannot help but wonder how this supposedly great country produces such idiots and illiterates in its politics and after watching Palin it does seem that condescension is the modus operandi in the neo conservative word. "Joe Six Pack?" "Hockey Moms?" please. We're not that slow, are we? Or are we? Is this what America wants, politicians talking down to them? I admit that people who have it made that far up are probably smarter, gutsier and luckier than most of us common 'folks', but we still have the right to be spoken to on equal ground. I will not be condescended to, Mrs. Governor and Mr. Senator.

Barack Obama treats the voter with respect and despite his sometime arrogance he presents himself as a person for the people, as opposed to a preschool teacher trying to sell us some lies sweetend with candied phrases.