What would the letters to the editor be titled if Hillary Clinton had won in the primaries? Delightful plays on the candidate’s last name would not be possible; Hillary would not be an “Obamanation.” Granted, if it was Clinton up against John McCain, we’d be talking about how PMS might lead to nuking our allies or how bitches can’t be trusted (none of which comes up when we talk about that lovely little Sarah Palin character, who has now apparently gone rogue against her handlers). When did this race turn into one bad email forward? A look at my small town newspaper probably reflects plenty of those “Real American” newspapers. “Real Americans” don’t need facts; they apparently answer to a larger truth (where dinosaurs walk with man?) and John McCain, according to Jon Stewart, will be President of these areas (see the Nancy Pfotenhauer link below).

I live in a small town in south central Pennsylvania (an area that falls under Nancy Pfotenhauer’s “Real America“). For every liberal or moderate letter to the editor our local paper prints, they counter it with two or three conservative letters. “Barack President? An Obamanation” details Obama’s ties to the evil terrorist William Ayers and closes with, “An Obama presidency means a national breeding ground of neo-Weathermen terrorists. Talk about an Obamanation.” A letter titled “We deserve to keep what we’ve earned” seizes on the “spread the wealth around” comment and going on a tirade about socialism when the person writing it would likely fall under Obama’s proposed middle class benefits (there are very few around here who make more than $250,000 a year).

Other letters, including one from my cousin’s mother-in-law, praise the McCain/Palin campaign for being “what America really needs!” They don’t justify their claims with proof aside from Palin being a “reformer” from outside the beltway and McCain being a war hero. Apparently, that’s enough. We haven’t learned what inexperience can do in a presidency, have we?

Perhaps the issue I find most annoying in this election relates to reproductive rights. For a few weeks now, I’ve been bombarded with commercials with a lady’s voice talking about how Obama voted against protecting infants that survived abortion and how he, essentially, eats babies with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, with the image of a cute white baby rolling around on a blanket on my way-too-large television. In local print, a letter titled, “Honor God with November Vote” references only the Bible and asks, “If we can kill our babies without remorse, who’s to say that our elderly aren’t the next targets?” Presumably, the writer’s message is to vote for McCain. Another recent letter to the editor, “First issue is right to life,” ignores the fact that the economy is in shambles and we’re overextended in two wars and goes straight to the matter at hand: Obama should want to save babies because he’s black. In fact, according to this letter, “Because of [their pro-choice stances], each candidate is a contradiction to either his civil-rights heritage or his doctrine of faith.” I’m not going to judge this man (out loud) for wanting to extend his personal beliefs to my womb, but I am going to question how this could possibly be the first issue for someone right now. Hell, it’s one of the things I’ve been passionate about since I was 14 and it’s barely in my top 10. (#1 is making sure hunting wolves doesn’t become the national pastime.)

What draws me in are the Topix Forums associated with each letter to the editor. Here, wacko people like me can run amuck and say whatever they please. I enjoy opening a browser tab at work specifically to click around and watch three or four logical people post responses to illogical arguments and copied-and-pasted email forwards. I would even classify one of the more conservative posters as one of the most logical, and enjoy the opportunity to argue with him on certain subjects because at least he attempts to find facts to support his claims. Meanwhile, I grow more and more ashamed of the racism and religious discrimination that has always made my small town background something I try to hide.

As the election closes in (FINALLY!), I find myself liking Obama more and more each day. I was on the fence in the beginning, but I think the final nail in the I-might-be-a-Republican coffin was the addition of Palin into the mix. I realize that this race would likely be just as dirty if HRC was at the top of the ticket, but we would replace racism with sexism and the majority of the world might have been able to keep ignorant as to Palin’s existence. These are turbulent times, and when people are unsure of their futures, they will lash out against what supposedly threatens their way of life with little to no proof. I just wish that when political discussions move out of a person’s living room and are printed on newsprint that they would have roots in factual truths; not propaganda-filled email forwards from Joe the Plumber’s aunt’s cousin’s friend.