What America Needs: ‘Politics Without Sex’ – Die Zeit

Exasperation over the standard of debate in the U.S presidential race is definitely global, and in ‘Old Europe,’ this exasperation centers on how sex and religion insert themselves into a debate that ought to be about better public policy.

In this article, which might be regarded as a plea for rational political discourse in the United States, Carolin Emcke writes for Germany’s Die Zeit:

“What I don’t understand is all the fuss about Sarah Palin. She, the clueless, internationally inexperienced Governor of the pygmy state of Alaska has been chosen by John McCain to be the Vice President of the United States, and all the media can get animated over is the fact that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is expecting a child?”

Then, beginning a rather impressive rant about the American media obsession with sex and personal lives, Emcke writes:

“Why should I be at all interested in their husbands or wives, their mothers or children?

What does it matter if Palin’s husband was driving drunk, if her teenage daughter’s sex is good or bad, or whether Barrack Obama’s stepfather taught him to box in Indonesia? Why during an out-sized mass-gathering in Denver, do I have to witness Obama’s two little daughters standing in the spotlight waving like little dolls whose batteries are about to run out? Why should whether John McCain and his wife Cindy are happy be relevant?

“As far as I’m concerned, Sarah Palin’s children might not have sex at all, John McCain could be single and Obama’s children could play at home with their slot cars. They could all be bad husbands or wives, frequent brothels and subsequently lie to their families about it.”

By Carolin Emcke

Translated By Ulf Behncke

September 6, 2008

Germany – Die Zeit – Original Article (German)

Carolin Emcke asks why she should care about Palin’s daughter and Obama’s stepfather…

What I don’t understand is all the fuss about Sarah Palin. She, the clueless, internationally inexperienced Governor of the pygmy state of Alaska has been chosen by John McCain to be the Vice President of the United States, and all the media can get animated over is the fact that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is expecting a child?

Sarah Palin isn’t only against to abortion. She’s also against sex-education to schools, which is why, on both counts, it is perfectly obvious why her teenage daughter is going to have a baby. Since Palin is also opposed to sex before marriage, it seems equally obvious that her suddenly well-known daughter Bristol is now going to be forced to marry so that the child – although conceived out of wedlock, will not be begotten in “sin.”

So much for the logic of religious-pragmatic reasoning.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated and English-language foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.