I actually don't mind being "feminized" in the least. ;-) I've always figured that women, in general, had a better handle on reality than men...in general. I think a society that gave greater weight to the feminine side of the equation than American society does would be a far wiser society.
Other than that... (grin)...I pretty much agree with you.
Of the two political parties, the one that routinely engages in the most crude and stupidly masculine stereotypical thinking is the Republicans, because they are the ones who play out that half of the equation (the authoritative father figure: John Wayne/Rambo/Davy Crockett/Schwarzenneger/Eastwood/etc)...and it gets them a lot of votes from people who are scared of being seen as "effeminate" by other people.
The Democratic Party, on the other hand, acts in an outward way that seems far more warm to the feminine side of the equation (Big Mommy), but that's quite misleading, because in fact the Democratic Party at the highest level is run by the same ruthless corporate Old Boys' club that runs the Republicans. The outward style of the Democrats is crafted to appeal to all the consitutuencies that the Republicans don't appeal to. In that fashion the public is eternally split and divided against one another like the partners in a bad marriage...and that consumes most of their energy, energy which could much better be used to challenge the real controllers at the top and change the $ySStem.
The public, a house eternally divided against itself in this way, is thus rendered confused, frustrated, and impotent, and the controllers continue to run the game through those 2 parties which are the right and left hand of the robot that serves the Oligarchy. Either hand will do...and approximately half of the people will support either hand at any given time. When the country appears to be under threat, most of the people will support either hand.
Now if you are in either of those parties (at the higher levels, I mean) you STILL want like hell to win the election and beat the other party. Why? Because it's a game, just like a football game or any other game. To the winners go both the spoils and the glory.
So they will both try like hell to win, and they will both try to make the other one look bad. This helps to continue dividing the public, and the controllers cash in on the ticket sales and continue running the game, the arena, and the league. This is the biggest game of them all, and it works just the same way all the other games do.
1. Abitrarily set up 2 opposing teams. 2. Dispense lots of propaganda to get people excited about those 2 teams. 3. Get people to fund the game massively and attend it in great numbers. 4. Get the fans to cheer for their side and jeer at the other. 5. Have some fouls, disputed goals, and stuff like that to add to the excitement and fury. 6. Pick a few well known "heroes" and "villains" for people to obsess about. 7. Give both teams lots of incentive to want to win so that they knock the hell out of each other on the playing field and engage in dirty tricks. 8. Stretch the suspense out over a period of a whole year (the season). 9. End it all with a big, giant championship game (election night). 10. Declare a winner, and everyone goes nuts and parties! (except the fans of the losing team...they go off and get drunk and maudlin, and say, "Just wait till next year.") 11. Have the losing team publicly congratulate the winning team (while secretly grinding their teeth and planning revenge)...this is a particularly farcical exercise in phony posturing, and it is usually referred to as "binding up the wounds"...
Wait for it. It's all gonna happen once again in November 2008.