On "Burden"

The national conventions of the two major parties in American politics have been an absolute adventure this year. I have much to say about the DNC, but more about that later. I have much to say about the choice of Sarah Palin, but more about that later.

Gov. Palin hasn't even spoken yet, and already Wednesday night of the GOP convention has begun to reveal the true character of the Republican party.

The choice of speakers tonight for the RNC seems very fitting. Two women preceded Gov. Sarah Palin, keeping in not-so-subtle theme with "Hey look, we have women too." Interestingly enough, these women were both CEOs of major corporations (Meg Whitman, formerly of E-bay, and Carly Fiorina, formerly of Hewlett Packard) and are now McCain advisers. Perhaps this was to keep in step with displaying images of powerful and engaging women in attempts to attract Hillary voters - who apparently only aligned with her for her anatomy and will just as quickly align with Palin, a diametric opposite. The fact that these women are both advisers to McCain in fact makes an even stronger statement that the GOP is truly the party of corporations rather than of the working class. Rather than seeking women of color, women of low income, or - god forbid - women of "alternative lifestyles," McCain relies on the transparent diversity of white women of privilege and big business.

However, what I have found most disturbing this evening is the blatant references to America's "burden" when it comes to the pursuit of freedom. Both Meg Whitman and Mitt Romney have mentioned this tonight. I find this troubling because of the historical linkage of the concept of burden to colonialism and manifest destiny. The writers of Sociological Images define this linkage:

This is just another manfestation of an old colonial belief, the white man’s burden, or the belief that white men had to take care of the rest of the world’s people because they were incapable of taking care of themselves.

We freed Iraq from the tyranny of Hussein because the Iraqis couldn't do it themselves, oppressed as they were.  This doesn't only apply to Republican foreign policy, however.  Here at home, it seems we must take care of women, because they are incapable of making their own reproductive choices.  It seems we must take care of heterosexual marriage, because the majority of married Americans are incapable of maintaining the strength and validity of their own relationship when threatened by the homosexual menace.

And now, as Mike Huckabee and the Republicans try to claim the Civil Rights movement as their own while in the same breath villifying people on welfare and government programs - and making the not-so-subtle references that McCain has already shouldered America's and freedom's burden through his POW experience - I will sign off. Before I get too frustrated to form complete sentences.