Posted on 07/18/2008 5:31:10 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
FOR months, our political punditry foresaw one, and only one, prospective gender contest looming in the general election: between the first serious female presidential candidate and the Republican male “warrior.” But those who were dreading a plebiscite on sexual politics shouldn’t celebrate just yet. Hillary Clinton may be out of the race, but a Barack Obama versus John McCain match-up still has the makings of an epic American gender showdown.
The reason is a gender ethic that has guided American politics since the age of Andrew Jackson. The sentiment was succinctly expressed in a massive marble statue that stood on the steps of the United States Capitol from 1853 to 1958. Named “The Rescue,” but more commonly known as “Daniel Boone Protects His Family,” the monument featured a gigantic white pioneer in a buckskin coat holding a nearly naked Indian in a death’s grip, while off to the side a frail white woman crouched over her infant.
The question asked by this American Sphinx to all who dared enter the halls of leadership was, “Are you man enough?” This year, Senator Obama has notably refused to give the traditional answer.
The particulars of that masculine myth were established early in American politics. While the war hero-turned-statesman is a trope common to many countries in many eras, it has a particular quality and urgency here, based on our earliest history, when two centuries of Indian wars brought repeated raids on frontier settlements and humiliating failures on the part of the young nation’s “protectors” to fend off those attacks or rescue captives. The architects of American culture papered over this shaming history by concocting what would become our prevailing national security fantasy — personified by the ever-vigilant white frontiersman who, by triumphing over the rapacious “savage” and rescuing the American maiden from...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
(No, but Michelle is.)
That picture is an Obamanation.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."
It was made into a very popular Currier & Ives lithograph, which is the version I had seen before --
The lady doesn't look all THAT frail -- the dog looks like a poodle in the sculpture, though, and a little more fierce in the chromo. Why he's not latched on the Indian's ankle is a mystery, though. Even my Labs would take a chunk out of somebody in that situation.
“In many ways, he really will be the first woman president,” Megan Beyer of Virginia, a charter member of Women for Obama, told reporters. An op-ed essay in The New York Post headlined “Bam: Our 1st Woman Prez?” came to a similar conclusion, if a tad more snidely: “Those shots of Barack and Michelle sitting with Oprah on stools had the feel of a smart, all-women talk panel.”
She's right - his testicles are in Hillary's Testicle Lock Box!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will fommand to spread by the swoind things only evil and inhuman, such as his crd the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Michelle wears the uterus in the family.
He will be cast either as the epicene metrosexual who can’t protect the country or else as the modern heathen with a suspicious middle name.
Epicene metrosexual? Obama looks and acts the part. "The modern heathen with the suspicious middle name?" "Hussein?" GUILTY!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will fommand to spread by the swoind things only evil and inhuman, such as his crd the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Clinton was the first Black President and Obama (God forbid) will be the first woman President.
Thank you, Graybeard. !!!Ah, the ‘noble’ savage. The idiot Rousseau. The idiot Faludi. And by the way, Susan, manhood is not a ‘role’or a gender construct.
Again, parents with college bound children, this is the faculty you’re up against.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will fommand to spread by the swoind things only evil and inhuman, such as his crd the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I must admit she writes well, and, as far as concoction goes, she’s not half bad herself.
On the subject of Obama’s C.O. Jones, she might actually be on to something.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will fommand to spread by the swoind things only evil and inhuman, such as his crd the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Barack the reluctant dragon, what ho? what ho?
A most reluctant dragon, oh very, very, don’t you know.
Or is he the Wizard of Oz? Or the Music Man? Or a shamanic shape-shifter who can be all or any of the above, including the owl who says your name?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will fommand to spread by the swoind things only evil and inhuman, such as his crd the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I wish the author had bothered to explain why the desire of men to protect women and children, and of women and children to be protected by men, constitutes a "delusion."
Instead of doing so, she steals a base and assumes that she and her audience are in agreement that it is indeed a delusion. Given that she is writing in the NY Times, she is probably right about her audience.
BTW, although I've lost the link, I've seen the British accounting of payments to Indians for white scalps during our Revolution. They added up to many thousands of murders per year, often preceded by extended torture, with payments broken out for women and children, who were paid for at a lower rate. These are facts, not delusions.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will fommand to spread by the swoind things only evil and inhuman, such as his crd the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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