Romney Binders

Thursday, Oct 18, 2012

Ok, so today I'll start with the actual running of Post It Politics. Then I'll move on to what I believe to be one of the most surprising and random moments of a 2012 campaign that has already featured talking to chairs, Etch A Sketches, and firing Big Bird.

For anyone following along on the YAF/No More Che Day front, I can let you know that I've reached out in various ways to those who were involved in that project. So far I haven't heard anything from them. Looks like I might need to find some new ways to get in contact.

However, I was able to do some on campus posting! As some of you might know, there was a marriage equality rally on campus last week where some high profile people spoke, including Senator Ben Cardin. This had me very excited, because I thought this would lead to lots of advertisements about the event that I could post on.

This never really occurred. On the parts of campus that I frequented, I saw nothing. No chalking. No flyers. The only place I really saw anything about it was on Facebook.

However, last Tuesday while walking through a part of campus that I usually don't make it to, I found a flyer taped to the ground! And because the Marriage Equality Amendment remains a political issue, even though the event has passed, I went ahead, flipped a coin to determine up or down, and posted on it.

Ok, now full disclosure. I, personally, am in favor of marriage equality, and plan on voting in favor of Question 6 on November 6th. And therefore, making this post made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Now, I've posted thumbs down in the past for candidates that I actually support, and approved of candidates that I have no plan on voting for, but I always felt kind of ok about it. People might support or disapprove of a candidate for a variety reasons, coming from the left or the right, regardless of party. So I always felt that my fake approval/disapproval could be at least interpreted in different ways. However, when it comes to showing disapproval for Question 6, I felt like that could only be interpreted one way, a way that many very close friends of mine would probably not forgive me for.

However, I also know that maybe posting down in the end could prove beneficial for my project. On a campus that largely supports LGBT rights, showing disapproval for the rally could show the biggest reaction. Plus, in a way, I could understand someone who plans on voting yes for Question 6 still not being totally behind the rally that occurred. After all, the rally was hosted by the UMD Student Government Association, a group that has been given the authority to represent all students on campus. And while all students might be for lower textbook costs and the like, not everyone is for marriage equality. In a way, it seems that the SGA doesn't care about these students. I tweeted the above picture to the SGA (as well as the Human Rights Campaign and Marylander's for Marriage Equality) and let them know as much.

I went back to check on this post earlier today. The Post-it was gone. Whether it had been taken off, or simply walked over I don't know. There's been no activity on Twitter or anything else to use as an indicator. For good measure, I posted again, and will check back. Also, as fate might have it, walking back to my dorm, I took a new route, and once again found another rally flyer. Once again, I flipped a coin, and this time it came up heads, putting my conscience at ease.

So, as you probably know, there was a moment from Tuesday's town-hall style debate that everybody is talking about. But if you don't follow politics at all, and somehow have avoided the internet for the last three days, let me show you what I am referring to. I'll let you know that Romney was answering a question from a young woman in the crowd (in his usual round-a-bout let-me-rephrase-what-we're-talking-about kind of way) about women in the workforce not being paid the same as men for the same work. 

Now what do you think about this clip? I mean, while I was watching the debate and heard Romney say this, I didn't think it was the most eloquently stated thing in the world, but since when has Romney putting something not-so-eloquently been a surprise? Perhaps I just didn't see its significance at first because I'm not aware of the nuances of comments that can fire up American feminists.

But let me tell you. This did. 

Drawing from practically every existing meme on the internet, people stuck it to Romney for his bungled narrative. Creativity ran rampant, taking jabs at Romney from everything from his apparent awkwardness,

to his Mormon faith

to the fact that many women just weren't too impressed with his response to the original question at all.

My favorite images from this moment may not really be considered memes at all, but more of an internet trend, in which people started going on to amazon.com and leaving product reviews for binders. Here are two particularly witty (and politicized) ones.

Now I'm starting to understand why the botched binder example was so ripe for political imagery. Even though Romney was trying to make a point about what he has done to improve the working status of women in America, the very concept of him having an easy fix by being able to draw from a conglomerated stack of resumes doesn't have the appeal that Romney might have thought. And though Romney has been closing the gap in some polls of women voters, those who do oppose him have been pretty vehement. Even though the Romney campaign has lately been trying to portray the former governor as moderate on women's rights, I feel that many are still caught on the conservative Romney we saw when he was still having to establish himself amongst conservatives during the primaries. Plus, the word "binder" and all that goes with it was just a bad choice. If he had said folders full of women, would it be a different story? Perhaps not, but it might have been toned down a little.

Regardless, as the campaign edges closer to Election Day, with the last debate taking place on Monday, now Romney has yet another internet fiasco to deal with. In a way, it seems the Obama campaign is just costing through 2012, or at least in regards to social media, accepting the fact that meme culture seems to have it in for Romney. However, after reading this article from the Christian Science Monitor, I question whether or not this is necessarily a good thing for the campaign as a whole. In the article, Liz Marlantes compares Obama vs. Romney to Bush vs. Kerry, in which the sitting president just focused in on certain parts of the electorate and watched as his opponent grappled with the rest. The result: distraction from real issues. The way this election is going may work against the president in the long run. If reelected, he may have to deal with a constituency who is only willing to tolerate him, instead of the enthusiastic population that he represented coming out of 2008.

Whoa, s**t just got real. Political imagery real-world consequences for the win!

@Post_It_2012