***UPDATED 9/10/08 9:00 AM – please see below!
+++ UPDATED AGAIN at 9:20 AM – keep going…
Earlier this year, PunditMom was motivated to open up her blog to weekly guests in a feature she called “Mothers of Intention.”
Things are heating up in the presidential race as we winnow the field of candidates. And emotions, as I’m noticing on comments here and elsewhere, are reflective of that.
So I’m introducing a new, regular feature here at PunditMom — one that I’ve been toying with for some time — called Mothers of Intention.
Every Wednesday between now and the November election, I’m inviting another blogger to share her thoughts and opinions about what makes her political, be it the politics of the presidential campaign or a passion for a cause.
Why? Because I have a feeling that the political voices of women are only going to keep getting stronger, especially on blogs and on the web, even after we decide who is going to move into the White House in January 2009. And I want to make a nice, comfy place for us to talk about them now and for the years that follow this election.
When she opened it up to new guests a couple of months ago, I eagerly got in touch with her, and I am happy to say that she welcomed me.
My Mothers of Intention guest post will be up at PM’s place today. Here’s a taste:
Getting back to that quiz I mentioned at the beginning of this post: my husband and I took it too, and for both of us, the results were mostly as expected. It didn’t produce an “absolute” answer, but a measure of your leanings in one direction or another, based on questions related largely to party platforms and issues, not the personalities of the candidates. With only two choices to answer each question, the quiz was fairly simplistic, but it did the job, and I think it took the right approach. We should be choosing our candidates based on how well their positions sync with our own thoughts on the issues, and not on personal qualities like age, race, gender, or the subjective concept of “likability”; and while no candidate is likely to be a perfect 100% match, we can see who is close enough on the things that are most important to us, and that should help us decide accordingly.
I think these “leanings” tend to get short shrift these days, when we consider politics in terms of red and blue states. Most people I know are probably some shade of purple, to be honest – favoring more traditionally conservative positions on some issues, and more liberal on others. Boiling it down to partisanship often makes things more black-and-white than red or blue, and I wish we didn’t rely on it so much. For the record, I’m a registered Democrat, and my husband is a registered Republican, but we’d both prefer open primaries and no requirement to align with a party, because our opinions on many issues belie that alignment by meeting somewhere close to the middle.
Please head on over to PunditMom to read the rest!***
***UPDATE – BUT NOT UNTIL WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON/EVENING! Via Twitter from PM, she’s got two TV appearances today (Go PunditMom!) but will get the post up before the end of the day.
+++ It’s up now, folks! Here’s the direct link. Comment there, or here, or wherever! +++
It’s not up yet, but I will be sure to check it out when it is.
Karen – I checked with PunditMom via Twitter, and she’ll have the post up at her blog later today – I’ve updated the post to mention that.
What a perfect post for the way we live today. My mother was a rabid republican and my father a staunch democrat and believe me, if you knew what was good for you, you picked a side and STAYED THERE. Now, there really are so many ways to look at things – i wouldn’t want my daughter to only see things through a blue lens – it’s important to really know what’s going on out there; that’s how you teach your kids about how to make their own choices. I loved this post and I love FLORINDA!
Lucia – You are far too kind :-), and thank you! And that’s my point – I want to try to see various sides of an issue, and I want the kids to learn to do that too.
I really enjoyed this. I have always felt that my vote for president was not an absolute given based on my registered party. This election is particularly interesting for us because my husband (a registered deomocrat) has very conservative leanings and is from Arizona. He somehow knew the McCains…maybe he went to school with (or the same school as) their kids? Can’t remember. But he’s always like McCain and has some conservative/practical opinions that would support McCain as president.
So while we’re both in agreement on support of the dem. candidate – I also get to hear some rather compelling arguments for the other side. And being able to see merit on both sides really does make for the best informed decision in the end.
I’ll have to forward him your post!
Kate – As far as the specifics of the candidates this year, I found McCain much more compelling before he…well, became a stereotypical Republican. But I’m not sure that even if he hadn’t changed his positions on a number of issues to fit that role better, I’d be voting for him.
But that kind of dialogue is just what I’m talking about.
This sounds like a great idea!
April – It seems to be working for us so far :-).