Thinky Thoughts about the Election

Monday, November 9, 2020

I have thoughts and feelings about the election because of course I do. It's been hard for me to describe my feelings in an articulate way, so as is my custom, I've come to HCDSM to write in order to clarify my thoughts and get a handle on my feelings. This is how I calm the bagful of cats that resides in my brain. 

Please note: I am not looking for a debate, or for trolls to come and inundate my space with their whataboutism and all lives matter obtuseness and her emails and conspiracy theories and other general fuckery. Questions or comments posed in good faith will be answered in the same way;  shittiness in the guise of a question will be met by the Shovel of Doom.™

________

When CNN called Pennsylvania for Biden/Harris, I cannot express my relief. It literally felt like I had dropped a weight I'd been carrying around for so long I'd forgotten it was there, and then I cried, more than once, in both relief and joy. And if I, a middle aged, CIS, straight, white woman who is a member of the 10% felt that way, I cannot even imagine how BIPOC felt. Well, actually I can, as expressed by the (normally) articulate and thoughtful Van Jones of CNN:


________

Kamala. Madame Vice-President Elect Harris. 

I’ve worked in male dominated fields my entire life. And when Kamala Harris took the stage to introduce President-Elect Biden in her white suit, I wept. She's my age, and she's the first woman elected to the Office of the Vice President. Women still have so much work to do to achieve equity in this society, but she broke a pretty big glass ceiling, Nothing but respect, Madame Vice-President Elect. 

How I wish Moe had lived to see this day. 

________

I am still registered as unaffiliated. There has been nothing in the last four years (or in this election cycle) that has convinced me to change my mind on this score. Just because I'm a liberal doesn't mean I'm a Democrat, and I have some serious issues with the way the DNC has constructed their platform and selected their candidates. I also have some issues with the current Speaker of the House, who decided it was better to deprive the American people of the relief they so desperately needed in the Time of Covid so she could score points against a President she hates. She failed in her duties to her constituents because of an emotional, partisan response, and that's just not okay. Get your shit together, Nancy - you lost some credibility with that move, and you'll have to work pretty hard to get it back. 

________ 

Speaking of losing credibility, after the last four years, I am absolutely furious with the GOP. I have voted for Republicans in the past, even after I left the party, but right now, that seems like a pipe dream. After the entire GOP tacitly accepted tRump's constant violations of the law, his racist policies, his hateful rhetoric, his bloody incompetence, I will never again vote for a Republican who was in office during tRump's administration unless there is documented proof that they showed some moral fortitude in trying to stop tRump's egregious behavior. A short list, to be sure. The list of Republican candidates I'll consider will get longer as time and attrition removes the cowards from office, but for now, fuck you, you line-towing, immoral, party first lickspittles. When push came to shove and the time came for you to prove that your constituents, the rule of law, and the concept of character is what mattered to you, you failed in the worst way imaginable. You are without honor and courage, and your oath to the ideals you swore to uphold have been suborned by your own ambition and greed. Fuck you. Character matters, and you proved, over and over again in the last four years, that your character is fundamentally flawed. 

________

I am shocked and saddened that the margin of the Biden/Harris win wasn't higher, but really - I shouldn't be. If the tRump presidency has shown us anything of value in the last four years, it's the flashlight it's shone on the deep, dark corners of American white supremacy. From a statistical, systemic perspective, there is only one way to interpret the data: white America as a group is racist AF, and white people who try to vote thoughtfully, who try to vote only after educating ourselves with reputable sources, who try to vote with empathy for the well-being of others, are far fewer than we'd like to believe. The data doesn't lie, and the bottom line really is that if you choose to vote for a mean-spirited, racist, bigoted bully, then you're supporting mean-spiritedness, racism, bigotry and bullying as cultural norms for our country. At the very least this constitutes passive racism in my mind. To the tune of 70 million Americans. Angels and ministers of grace, defend us.

________

There is so much work to be done. The destruction of our historical and current system of white supremacy will probably take generations. But this is positive work; work that proactively makes our society better and more equitable; work that is rooted in love and empathy, and supports the well-being of all of our citizens. 

The anticipation and commitment to this work is invigorating and positive in a way that the work of the last four years wasn't. For the last four years I've written countless letters to my Congressional representative and Senators and I've made donation after donation to organizations and groups who support fairness and equity in public life. I've marched and I've railed. But that was work that felt like sticking my finger in the dike - I only wanted to stem the tide, to keep things from getting worse before an electoral solution could be found. 

The work of my lifetime will be incredibly difficult, and so, so worth it. After we decompress for a bit, we will start working on a plan to be more proactive in our contributions. We need to research how to be better allies to BIPOC communities, and then act on those findings. We need to help police our own cohort, and call out racism and white supremacy when we see it. No more "passes" based on age or region, no more remaining silent in order to keep the peace. I have benefitted from the white supremacy of our country every day of my life, whether I asked for it or not. I owe it to BIPOC communities to use some of that privilege to support the equity of those who have been denied what was freely given to me based solely on the color of my skin and my socioeconomic status. 

________

Because I live in an extremely conservative district, my U.S. Congressional Representative, my State Senator, my State Representative, and my local officials are all Republicans. There's nothing I can do to change this except to try and vote them out, year after year, until a) a Democrat wins; b) a Republican comes along who isn't a complete, lying douchecanoe; or c) I choose to leave the District. I'll continue to fight the good fight, but I've resigned myself to this truth, for good or for ill. 

________

In spite of my Republican local representation, I'm proud to be a Coloradan today: 

  • We now have two Democratic Senators, sending a message that Colorado as a whole will not stand for moral cowardice in the upper house. 
  • Biden/Harris won our state by 13 points, and our state has gone blue in the last four Presidential elections. Based on our demographics, this will probably continue to be the case as the state becomes more and more liberal. 
  • We repealed the Gallagher Amendment. Gallagher is an extremely complex issue, but the bottom line is that Coloradans agreed to pay more in personal property taxes so that non-industrial communities would have sufficient tax dollars to support fundamental services such as public education, fire and police, and hospital services. Will urban homeowners pay more so that other members of our Colorado community will have a reliable tax base for essential services? Yes. Yes, we will. And good for us.
  • Colorado voted against a ban on late-term abortions by 18 points. Colorado routinely slaps down anti-choice legislation, and in this case the terms were especially egregious - only one exception was included, and that was to save the woman's life if she was in immediate danger. So if you're carrying a fetus that is absolutely nonviable, you get to carry it to term whether you want to or not, and then watch your baby die immediately after birth with no hope whatsoever that they'll live. There may be some couples that make this choice for their own reasons, but it should still be a choice. 
  • Colorado passed a proposition to create a state-run Paid Medical and Family Leave program by 15 points. This one made my heart sing. This is a REALLY expensive program - .9% of workers' salary plus matching funds by most employers - and it passed with a significant mandate. So Coloradans as a whole voted to significantly increase their state tax so that members of our community won't become homeless or have to declare bankruptcy as a result of an illness or injury, and will also have a chance to receive paid family leave when a new child joins the household. Our household will have to revise our budget in order to accommodate this additional expense, as will most Coloradans, but we agreed to do it anyway, because we care about the well-being of others. 
Of course there were other initiatives which passed (or didn't) that I don't agree with, such as approval of Colorado joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). Sometimes I think that both parties are pretty short sighted when it comes to this type of legislation. Just because such a compact would benefit the Democrats at this time in our history doesn't mean this will always be the case. States are not blue or red forever (as the tRump campaign is discovering), and when deciding on these issues, you have to remember it's a double-edged sword. 
________

I'm so, so glad that his dark chapter in American history is almost over, and I hope for a better future. I hope President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Harris will be able to convince both parties to work in a non-partisan way to better our country and stop the incredibly hateful rhetoric. I hope they're able to restore America's place on the international stage, and work towards making us a respected ally once again. I hope that America will evolve into a country where BIPOC communities don't have to fear for their lives simply because of the color of their skin. I hope we, as a country, can bury the hatchet with our fellow countrymen and women, and try to work together civilly and without hate, rancor, and bigotry. I hope our Armed Forces are used wisely and thoughtfully when such becomes necessary. I hope respect for the rule of law becomes not only popular again, but expected in all our public servants. I hope we find a way to embrace a value system where character is what defines a person, not money, or race, or religion, or who you know. I hope we grow into a country who protects and cares for ALL its citizens, and understands that basic human rights such as having enough to eat and basic medical care is a standard for a modern civilization, and can be easily achieved if we value it enough. 

I hope. 


0 comments: