Why does Christine O’Donnell get to me so much? Is it because she reminds me of attractive evangelical women who never gave me the time of day? Is it because I admire her as an underdog, and yet I just wish she could give us more than platitudes, and wouldn’t be afraid to take on the media by actually showing up for interviews? Is it because many of the conservative mantras I hear are now making me sick—with their notion that the government should adopt a “You’re on your own” attitude towards people struggling with problems, their judgmental attitude toward those who need help, and their criticism of Obama for apologizing for the United States, as if this country is perfect and other nations have no reason to be upset with us?
Is it because I’ve seen the back-breaking financial effect of America’s health care system on individuals and families, and I admire President Obama for trying to do something about that, even as I resent tea-partiers and Republicans for obstructing his attempts to find a solution?
(Not that Republicans haven’t floated their proposals. They just didn’t do jack about rising health care costs when they were in power! Moreover, I roll my eyes when tea-partiers subsume people’s problems under a discussion about federalism: “the federal government shouldn’t offer unemployment benefits or address rising health care costs because that’s not its constitutional role.” Fine. But is there a way to keep people from falling through the cracks within a strict interpretation of the Tenth Amendment? And will people get help if the tea-partiers’ libertarian ideology ever becomes official U.S. policy?)
Here’s a comment under this article that is not entirely fair, and yet it resonated with me:
Let me get this straight. She rails about non-Christians but dabbled in witchcraft. She is obsessed with “coverting” gays while her sister is a lesbian. She promotes “Family values” but has never been married. Since she tells us that sex, even with yourself, outside marriage is sinful. Can we assume she is still a virgin? LOL. She goes on and on about “hard working Americans” but she has been unemployed for 5 years.
Republicans want to prevent injured people from suing, but she filed a dubious multi-million dollar lawsuit against a former employer. Tea baggers talk about hard work and complain about lazy people on the dole. Yet she owed back taxes, has unpaid student loans, and is in arrears with her mortgage.
Of course, much of this comment is unfair. Christine’s point was that she used to dabble in witchcraft, but doesn’t anymore. Christine can’t help it if her sister violates Christine’s religious beliefs. Christine has said that she made her anti-masturbation comment when she was less spiritually mature than she is now. Christine can believe in family values and still be unmarried: maybe she hasn’t found the right guy yet. And many of us haven’t paid off our student loans.
But I like this comment because conservatives love to preach about responsibility and tell others how to live their lives, even as their own lives are not necessarily in order. They should take the beam out of their own eye before telling us to take the splinter out of ours. Or, at the very least, they should try to be less judgmental and more compassionate. This commenter was responding to Christine’s speech, in which she criticized extending unemployment benefits (during this recession, I might add) and praised the hard-working people who save. I see judgmentalism in her remarks. Maybe I’m being judgmental, but that’s the paradox. I’m not entirely comfortable with the vision conservatives and tea-partiers have for this country, and, in the process, I’m judgmental. I fear that I (and others) will fall through the cracks of their social Darwinian “utopia”, and that scares me.
Plus, she reminds me of attractive evangelical women who don’t give me the time of day! Usually, they’re around my own age, as Christine appears to be. (Well, actually she’s 41, but she looks like she’s my age!) I used to have a crush on Sarah Palin, but I can at least picture Palin being nice to me, as many women in their forties and older are.