Category Archives: Political thoughts

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My candidate lost the election, I am taking my ball and going HOME!

Getup Get God

Getup Get God (Photo credit: prettywar-stl)

By now you probably know that people in every state in the country have started petitions to secede from the United States.  First of all, good luck with that.  How often has that worked before?  Oh, right, never.

Secondly, you might want to think a bit before you go ahead and start your own country.  Personally, I like having the US military there to protect me.  Maybe you do, too but whereas I will still have it, you would not.  Think your former country is going to bail you out when some big bad comes knocking on your door?  Think again.

And while we’re at it, I like being able to travel the world with full protection of the US government behind me.  Get stuck in some foreign country and need help, yeah, there’s an embassy not too far away.  Not so much for the newly created Republic of Alabama.

Oh, and to senior citizens in states looking to leave, hope you don’t need that Medicare or Social Security because you won’t be taking it with you.  And Florida, that’s going to impact a lot of your residents.  Texas, too but you’ll be smarting from all the people you have lured away from their states racing home to keep their US citizenship.  Funny, your governor doesn’t seem all that excited about the possibility of giving up all that federal aid you get.

Aside from all of that, this is really absurd.  Part of the deal of our kind of government remains that not everyone will be happy with the outcome of every election.  In some ways, that means we are doing something right. You know where nearly 100 percent of people vote for one candidate over the other?  Places like North Korea.

Personally, I have lived through many elections where I wasn’t happy. I had threatened to move to Canada if George W. Bush was elected but I didn’t go anywhere.  After working on the Gore campaign, I was pretty bitter about the outcome of that race but I didn’t think the state I lived in (New York) should become the nation of New York.  But I wasn’t the whiny bitch you people seem to be.  Seriously, this stuff annoys the crap out of me.

I actually agree with this:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

This, however, is not one of those times.

 

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What I would like to see from the GOP (and the Democrats, too)

From the New Yorker

I am a Democrat (not a DINO, I have been working for Democratic campaigns since I was eight) but I  honestly like the idea of having two rational parties.  It behooves us all because we have real issues to tackle; the fiscal cliff, an increasingly unstable world, the Mets.

We need our leaders from both parties to start acting like adults and start working with each other.  We all need to stop demogoguing people who have different views from us.

In that spirit, I have some suggestions for the Republican Party:

1.  Stop proclaiming that compromise is horrible; it’s what made our country possible.  And special note to people like Congressman Ron Paul, we cannot fix problems of the past but we can try to deal with what’s going on now (he said recently that we have “already gone over the cliff” and warned against compromise).  Note to Speaker John Boehner: Thank you for showing some willingness to work with the White House.  I think you are reasonable but you cannot expect to please every member of your caucus if you want to get enough Democrats on board.)

2.  Vet your candidates better!  Seriously, listen to Stephen Colbert — anytime any of them want to talk about rape (unless it’s about stopping it) they should follow the advice and stab themselves in the eye with a pencil.   I say this not just because I know women can get pregnant from rape or that I don’t think a baby conceived this way is a “gift from God.”  It’s because these comments shift the focus from things that matter to things that don’t.

3.  Vet your surrogates better!  The ridiculous caricature that is Donald Trump has no place in the public discourse.  And concocting conspiracy theories to demonize the president makes reasonable people think you are anything but and then even if you have cogent points on other issues; we don’t notice because we’re too astounded by your claims that President Obama is a Kenyan born, Marxist, wanna-be-Hitler whose presidency has ushered in the end of days from the bible.

4. Remember that our Constitution was written to protect our rights from the government, not restrict them.  When you continue to oppose same sex marriage and try to demonize the LGBT community you show just how on the wrong side of history you are on.  A friend of mine calls this the civil rights issue of our time.  It is.  I cannot wait until everyone has the same rights and we can stop talking about this and get back to dealing with real issues.

5.  Try to remember, this is 2012, not 1955.

The part of me that writes satire and comedy loved the circus that was Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann et al (if Jon Huntsman had been nominated, and he was more conservative that the rest of them, you would have had a better chance) but the part of me that cares about the country was deeply saddened by the missed opportunity to get people thinking about real solutions to our problems.

I don’t think the Democrats are blameless.  I hate negative political ads and our side ran a ton.  They make everyone jaded about a process that should excite and inspire people.  Politics is also supposed to be “the art of the possible.”

Lest you think I only think Republicans field bad candidates remember, I refer you to– John Edwards, Elliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner.  Neither side is perfect but that doesn’t mean they are evil either.

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Can someone explain this to me?

English: In January 2009, President of the Uni...

English: In January 2009, President of the United States of America, George W. Bush invited then President-Elect Barack Obama and former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter for a Meeting and Lunch at The White House. Photo taken in the Oval Office at The White House. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Color me super confused.  President Obama won reelection this week (yay!) and the GOP is running around claiming things like voter suppression, trickery and basic malfeasance.  This after he won most swing states.  This is coming from the party of George W. Bush.

Let me see if I get this right.  Republicans win and it is democracy while if Democrats win, it’s blasphemy.  They didn’t “win an election” they ushered in the “end of days” from the bible. (Can I point out the wins for same sex marriage? Kind of proves the point that the electorate wants Barack Obama to be in the White House.)

Good lord this is tiring.  And I am not kidding about that bible stuff.  I know people who think that.  And none of them are Donald “I cannot let the birth certificate thing go” Trump.  Nor are they Ben “JFK stole the 1960 election” Stein.  And no, they aren’t even Karl “Megyn Kelly has to school me on my crappy math and remind me that the president won because I just hate that maybe I suck” Rove.  Yeah, Karl, you do kind of suck.  Good luck with the super pac, how’d that work for you this year?

In 2000, I worked on the Gore campaign.  By the time election day rolled around, I had been on it for nearly two years.  In my life I have called my mother crying once.  It was when the initial reports were that Gore had conceded and I called sobbing, How did people vote for him?  

I was, in a word, devastated.  DEVASTATED.  Yet, irony alert her — Karl Rove talked about Teddy Roosevelt‘s comments about getting into the arena.  The thing about getting in to that arena is sometimes you lose.  It sucks.  It sucks a lot.  My one consolation was that this is what happened.  I worked for Gore but the country wanted W.  It was years before I would even entertain the idea that the election was stolen and I am not convinced either way.  I never, not for a moment, questioned George W. Bush’s legitimacy as president.  Even if Al Gore should have fought harder with the recount, at the end of the day, he didn’t.  Oh, while I am at it, I didn’t protest the beginning of the Iraq war, which I think was a terrible thing for our country to do (fight the war, I mean). But I didn’t because I don’t believe a, a decision like that should be dependent on current public opinion (Twilight remains popular, do we want that mentality deciding our military decisions?), b, the president has access to more info than me so if he thinks we need to go to war, we do (think FDR in WWII, that wasn’t popular either) and c, I support the president of the United States.  (No, I am not a DINO.)

Note to GOP:  It’s just an election.  There will be another one in four years — though I wish we could wait until after the holidays to talk about it.  You need to focus on better candidate recruitment, get that we are no longer a “Mad Men” country (we are so much more “Modern Family”), and deal with the fact that pissing off big parts of the electorate (women, Latinos, gays) is bad for winning elections.  You lost because you didn’t think that, not because of random conspiracies or anything else.

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Hurricane Sandy and the presidential election

Barack Obama

First of all, I hope everyone reading this is safe, warm and dry.

What a difference a week (or day) can make!  Just think, a month ago, President Obama’s reelection seemed almost like a fait accompli and then, BAM!  Debate number one gave Mitt Romney an opening and he’s back from political death.  I blogged in 2008 that I thought he was going to win it all then.  There’s no excuse for taking their eye off the Romney ball the way Obama clearly did.

I do not want Romney to get to move into the White House.  Not even a little bit. Why?  Mostly because I have no idea who he is or what he stands for.  He was pro-choice before he was anti.  He was pro-health reform before he was anti and then pro again when it served him.  He has taken the whole “run to the right in the primary and then to the center for the general” to levels that I never thought were possible.  Really, Mitt?  You’re now proud of your Massachusetts health care plan?  And you really still think FEMA should be privatized?  Are you fucking kidding me?  Yes?  No?  Maybe?  What day is it?

The Supreme Court could be enough of a reason for me to vote for Barack Obama.  But then I also remember that the president sets the tone for the entire federal government.  I think the Violence Against Women Act was a good idea and want our Justice Department to enforce it.  You know who doesn’t?  Most of the GOP.  And don’t get me started on binders and the GOP’s thoughts on rape.

Then there’s Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI).  Full disclosure, I have a pretty huge crush on Ryan.  I

Congressman Paul Ryan (R,Wisconsin)

Congressman Paul Ryan (R,Wisconsin) (Photo credit: Tobyotter)

am not proud of it.  I don’t like it but… would I kick him out of bed?  Probably not.  If he could only stop talking and just sit around looking pretty, we’d all be better off.  If he is intent on talking, maybe he can just STOP writing.  I read his plans for Medicare and they are really, really bad.  And no, Joe Scarborough, he isn’t great for being the only one to propose something about the federal program which does need restructuring (we need to deal with health care costs, a voucher program is not the answer).  This is like, the neighbor’s house is on fire!  Somebody, do something!  Ahh, Paul Ryan brought doughnuts.  Doesn’t help with the fire, per se, but technically, he has done something.  And we want this guy to be a heart beat away from being president?  I may think he is some pretty nice (and very hydrated) eye candy, I don’t think he belongs in the White House.

And now, this storm may be a game changer.  (Do Mark Halperin and Jon Heileman have copywrite on that phrase? )  President Obama gets to look, well, presidential.  Something he needs to work on. Now, should he lose the election (and he might), there will be a ton of blame bantied about.  I will blame only one person; the president.  He looked so bored during that debate that I had a hard time watching it.  He made me like Chris Christie and that’s not a small feat.  At least he appreciates FEMA.  Fuck, anyone out there thinks privatizing that important agency makes sense?  It doesn’t.  And we want the guy who wants that to be president, I know I do not.

President Obama has not lived up to a lot of our expectations but truthfully, he never really had a shot at that.  Unless he could completely change the way we approach politics (a crazy high bar to reach), we weren’t going to be satisfied.  Part of this is also his fault.  The candidate of “hope and change” became the president of “it could have been worse.”  Not exactly awe inspiring.

But not terrible either.  I wish Obama had been more hands on when dealing with Congress, though I am not convinced that would have helped woo people like Eric Cantor, who clearly were going to oppose anything he proposed.

I guess in a week we will know.  Do I have to move to France?

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The GOP’s rape confusion

Recently, I have heard a lot from the GOP about rape.  Apparently, women cannot become pregnant if they are raped.  This information would have been very useful to me when I was younger.  When I was 18 to be exact.  That’s the year I was raped and then went four months without having my period.  Not knowing it was impossible for me to be pregnant as the rape I experienced was very forcible, I panicked and went to my doctor.  I was too embarrassed to admit what had happened so I just let her think I had irresponsible sex.  It seemed less embarrassing at the time (now, too).  Silly me!  If I had just told her I had been raped, she probably would have not even given me the pregnancy test!

(Side note: if you read my blog regularly, you know I write a lot about my life and from what you read here, it probably looks like it sucks.  It doesn’t though.  Really.)

Stephen Colbert had it right; anytime any GOP politician thinks they should talk about rape, they should stab themselves in the eye with a pencil.

You’d think the party of Paul Ryan would know better than to stick its head into these conversations.  I thought they were all about facts and figures.  I guess not.  If they were, they would know that one in four women is raped.  That’s right; one in four.  Take a look around you. See four women? One of them has been or will be raped.  True story.

Since I brought it up, I’ll tell you my story.  I was 18.  I had been drinking.  I was at West Meadow beach with a friend.  I met someone whose sister had gone to high school with me.  Irony:  I never remember the names of people I dislike but I remember his.  No, I am not going to call him out here as much as I want to.  Maybe he’s a decent guy now.  He was a jackass then.

Anyway, I met these two guys.  They said they wanted to see if I was a “real redhead.”  Side note:  I am, and yes the drapes match the carpet.  One held me down while the other raped me.  I cried.  For years I felt better about them because they said, “We’re sorry, we didn’t mean to make you cry.” Right.

I grew up at the beach.  It was one of my favorite places on earth.  Looking back, I see that I stopped going to the beach when that happened.  That sucks.

Positives that came from that:  In college I got the SUNY Stony Brook campus to install  a blue light phone system (seriously, you’d think with all the murders at Stony Brook that would have been a no brainer but it took some doing, you’re welcome Stony Brook students) and got a support group together for rape victims. I took survival seriously and I wanted to help others get through that.  I like to think that I made a difference for some people because it took a lot to make a difference for me.

I am not “over” what happened to me.  I am not of the school of thought that thinks rape is worse than murder. If I had been murdered, I never would have any of the cool things I have been able to do.  I am a different person than before that happened.  Not better nor worse, just different.  It bothers me when people discount rape in the way the GOP has been.  Had I become pregnant, it would have possibly killed me.  Despite the GOP hype, no one is “pro abortion.”  I am pro-choice but if I had become pregnant, that decision would have been horrible.  It is horrible.  I don’t know what I would have done.  My pro-choice side thinks I would have had an abortion but I don’t think I would have.

I am pro-choice because there is one piece of real estate that I want to always be able to control.  That real estate is my own body.  No, right wing, you don’t get to lease my uterus. I don’t like abortion.  In the years since this has happened I have become pregnant and miscarried (it happens more often than you might think, and yes, I am trying to justify what I think it a basic failure on my part as a woman — if I cannot bear children, what’s the point of me?) and that’s why I am not sure if that event would have resulted in an abortion.  I just don’t know.

What I do know is that I should make that decision.  Not Mitt Romney (or Paul Ryan).  Not Todd Aiken.  Not anyone who doesn’t answer to the name Alyson Hillary Chadwick (how crazy will I feel if there is another person with that name?)

So, GOP, you want me to think there is no “war on women.” You want me to think you care about things I care about.  Maybe you do.  Talking the way you do about rape does nothing to make me believe you.  Stop.