Recommended Reading #123: Politics, Pt. V
“Romney Is President” by Maureen Dowd (Non-Sex-Related, Sociology, Humanism) 11/10/12
This resonates with my own sense that the Republican ticket of the most recent U.S. presidential election seemed geared toward a quite traditional white/straight/cisgender/normatively-abled male populace, and how disturbing I found what seemed to me the open and unapologetic catering as such. I am and was both relieved and heartened to see the defeat of such as well as what appeared to be appreciably progressive signs in elections and election results across the country.
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“Should We Discriminate Against Chick-Fil-A?” by Dr. Marty Klein (LGBT, Sex and Culture, Censorship) 7/26/12
While this seems outdated in literal terms, the overall offering strikes me as more far-reaching—as well as nicely put. I of course find the open anti-gay stance of Chick-Fil-A’s head honcho as distasteful as anyone, but I agree that disallowing the business to be somewhere based on the company president’s public stance about something oversteps a concerning line. Practically speaking, I do feel uncomfortable with government stepping in to disallow a business to operate based on government’s disagreement with a public stance of the company’s leadership. That does not seem to me to be for government to dictate. I like what Marty focuses on instead toward the end of this post about the heartening nature of the mayors’ speaking out, both in content (what they said) and in practice (in, as Marty points out, the current political “play-it-safe-ism”). That indeed, it seems to me, is lovely to see!
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“Letter to a future Republican strategist regarding white people” by Eric Garland (Non-Sex-Related, U.S. Public Policy, Politics) 11/9/12
While I perhaps don’t agree with every tonal nuance and/or point made in this piece (and there are a number I would add), on the whole it resonates highly with me—and I much enjoyed reading it!
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