On impulse, I joined the Facebook generation one day. Don’t worry, Facebook friends. I am not going to reveal your names or anything at all about you. My own personal ethical code prevents me from that.
My purpose in joining America’s number one social networking tool was to learn about the political moods of individuals and groups across the country. Facebook is a topflight source of political info, and several political candidates are taking advantage of its universality. Many Facebook pages have been established by supporters of this, that, or the other candidate titled, appropriately enough, Supporters of (Insert name).
My own personal favorite is an application called simply US Politics. There is a little bit of something for everyone here. For example if you like a candidate, you can follow him or her through a specific reporter. I choose Bill Richardson, not because I like him but because Sarah Amos, the reporter following him around, had the fewest number of people signed up under her name. Besides, Amos is the name of my granddad’s brother. Makes sense to me, anyway.
But I found the Debate Group feature more to my style because I’ve always liked to read the thoughts of others. One debate question caught my eye: Do you think a woman can be as effective a President as a man? Of the possible choices, I choose “Not sure,” followed by a short rationale:
It all depends on many variables, who the woman is, the strength of the opposition in Congress, etc. Winning an electoral vote or even a popular vote is just one element. As we’ve seen in the case of Clinton [Bill], a highly popular president, the conservatives managed to render him totally ineffective.
Bill Clinton was called many things but the tendency of his opponents to refer to him as “effeminate” ought to be a tip off that the opponents of Hillary Clinton (the Facebook question obviously had her in mind), are going to play the testosterone card to da max if Hillary wins the Democratic nomination and to da max times the speed of light squared if she actually becomes President.
Just to backup a little and explain what testosterone is. It’s that little sheen that pops out on the foreheads of men followed by a curtain of shiny glaze descending over their eyeballs and beads of sweat forming under their armpits.
These signs of impending testosteronic rage are followed by rants, raves, and filthy epithets at the very thought of anyone other than a “real” man holding any political office at all in America.
Testosterone is the Swift Boating of Vietnam War hero John Kerry and the destruction of Max Cleland, a quadriplegic Vietnam War hero, because both had the temerity to oppose George “Real Man” Bush.
Testosterone is that peculiar strand of DNA that drives Republican men to have youthful affairs at the age of 45 but which amazingly becomes “lying under oath” when Democratic men also get a little on the side.
Hypocrisy is an inbred element in testosteronic domination. It’s the neo-con approach to defining torture as a walk in the park.
It’s the pious church going group’s tendency to classify a woman’s role as gracefully submitting to their husbands.
It’s a ranting, raving, purple-faced talk radio disk jockey.
It’s a group of Republican senators who join Bush in pursuing the war in Iraq in the face of widespread opposition to the conflict across virtually all spectrums of America.
Testosterone is shoving your hand in a meat grinder and then pushing harder as a means of extricating yourself.
Hillary is going to be up against a lot of collective testosterone.
Some follow-on notes:
- Most Facebookers prefer Barack Obama.
- No one asked Facebook to define “effective.” Opinions vary.
- But most agreed that a woman can be an effective president.
- I agree. I’m just saying that it ain’t going to be easy. Be prepared, Hillary. The Swift Boaters are waiting in the wings.
- I am personally undecided at this moment, but I’ve narrowed the Democratic field to three. In no particular order: Hillary, Barack, and Generic Anglo-Saxon Male John (Edwards).
- None of the Repubs are on my deserve-consideration list.
- I learned to spell testosterone without using Word’s spell checker.
