Stuck

Thanksgiving is next week and, while I know I have so much to be grateful for, I'm just not feeling it yet.  I'm irksome.  I'm rather disillusioned and disgusted with the whole shebang right now.  I can barely get through my FB feed.  Or the newspaper.  (Though, as a side note, I'm loving all the mischievous  Biden memes.) All the talk of coming together and love on FB is annoying me.  "Love always wins"--yeah, except, you know, the election.  Sometime shit does actually happen and I think we do ourselves a disservice to pretend otherwise.  Random acts of kindness do not erase the real effects of racism, sexism, intolerance, violence, income inequality, environmental collapse, and the like.  For now, I feel like they are pablum to make us feel better that we're not doing more.  And frankly, they make liberal white women (because that's where it seems to be coming from) look silly.  Now, I'm not saying go be an asshole like the President-Elect.  And buying a stranger's cup of coffee is good.  And I do like the safety pin movement because, as a lesbian with biracial children, I appreciate knowing who would support me in the event of conflict.  But I'm looking for a little more practicality and realism than "love."  Especially because that is NOT the game the other team is playing.

I've given this some thought ever since I read an article about why Martin Luther King, Jr and later Barack Obama both looked at Unitarian Universalism and rejected it--its embrace of inherent worth and the search for truth and justice was too positive and didn't address the real losses and real suffering of many communities, particularly African American, both urban and Southern.  The UU focus on the goodness of humans can leave followers at a loss when faced with people who behave dishonestly, selfishly, immorally, violently, illegally, etc.  There have been discussions of why UU kids have trouble when they realize not everyone believes in inherent worth, the interdependent web, and acknowledging the importance of various sources of knowledge, etc.   I think it might be the reason so many UUs now embrace Buddhism--myself included--because it acknowledges suffering and how to address it skillfully.  I think that's one of the reasons I'm frustrated with all the "stronger together" talk now.  I'm sure I'll find a middle ground.

Still, I haven't decided what I want to do about it all.

Well, I have--I'm planning my Thanksgiving menu.

Election Day

The only thing I remember about Election Day from my childhood was that we ate our lunches at our desks while the cafeteria was being used for polling.  Sometimes, this meant fetching your cafeteria train and returning to your desk and then taking it back.

I missed voting in Bush v Dukakis by about a month and so cast my first presidential ballot for Bill Clinton.

And I've voted pretty much straight-ticket Democrat since then.

I know, I know, vote for the person, not the party.  But I find that by aligning themselves with a party instead of being independent, politicians are making very clear statements about who they are.  And they eventually support that party, especially in important party-line votes. And when Republicans do it, they vote against my interests--women's rights, gay rights,gun control, higher minimum wage, maternity leave, national healthcare, education, environmental protections (against coal, fracking, Keystone, emissions), voting rights, regulations for banks and financial institutions, separation of church and state . . . . I could go on and on and on.  Anyway, I don't mind voting for a Democratic ticket because I can't ever, ever vote for a Republican.

So, I woke up several times in the night to check the returns for Connecticut's gubernatorial race, but it was too close to call until lunchtime (when the Republican finally conceded.)  Bud, who has asked a lot of questions about elections and politics, asked me this morning, "Mom, will a Republican governor say you can't be married anymore?"   ( He also asked if Mama's job or our lives would be affected if there was a change in minimum wage or healthcare laws.  Gratefully, no.)  Despite all of our assurances, he worries about such things (and so maybe I should quit raging about politics in front of them.)  Thankfully, such things are probably unlikely here in Connecticut.  But the same can't be said for other places, like my home state of Texas.

And so, politics is very personal.  And I will always vote for Democrats.

(But I will say, as such, this election cycle was pretty hard to take.)

Election Day

"Mom, what's an abortion?" she asked.

How do I always step in it?

We were leaving the polls where I had just voted a straight party ticket and then bought them baked goods from the fundraising table out front.  They asked me why I voted Democrat.  And I said I won't vote Republican.  I know that in local politics the big social issues of LGBT rights, abortion rights, national healthcare, welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, the social safety net, maternal leave, fully-funded schools, separation of church and state, all in all the ability of government to be a positive force in people's lives when they need it, etc., rarely come up.  But I believe that, even though local politicians decide on trash pick-up, zoning, pensions, etc and not the other issues, they still opt to side with the Republicans and accept and agree to the national political platform--they choose to be Republicans, when they could be Democrats or even Independents.  And so I won't vote for them because they align themselves with beliefs I can't believe in.  Period.

And so I mentioned abortion.  And had to explain myself.  I'm not sure they really got it and hope they aren't picturing the Massacre of the Innocents.  I focused more on women's rights to control their own bodies.  And the irony of the Republican desire for small government except when it came to women's bodies and whom you could love.

Sure, they're probably a little young for that speech, but it's the one I believe.  What better time to give it than on election day?

Especially because, with one exception, every single Democrat, everyone I voted for, in our town lost.  (But I was glad to see NYC's and VA's results.)

An Election Reflection

Okay, so I haven't really gloated about the election.  No high-fives, no I-told-you-so.

Well, except with other Democrats.  

But there are so many of us up here that we just all walked around smiling and nodding to strangers.  

Well, until about 12 hours later when the hurricane hit.

Besides, we're a kinder, gentler electorate and didn't want to pain the disappointed Republicans up here.  

All six of them.

But enough is enough. I've now read article after article about how Karl Rove was surprised, how Linda McMahon was surprised, how even Mitt Romney was surprised.

Don't they read Nate Silver??

No, it seems the GOP had their proverbial heads in the sand this year.  

Or glued to Fox News.

And still do.  Because everything I read tries to guess at why they lost--urban vote?  minorities?  young people?  gays?   Were they too conservative?  Or not conservative enough?  But they had all that red space on the map!  How come they still lost by 126 electoral college and approximately 2 million popular votes?  Apparently, Romney told his backers this week that Obama won because he bought the vote of special interest groups like gays and young people and minorities with his stances on same-sex marriage, college debt, and the Dream Act.  

Can 10% of the population be a niche special interest group?

Are white, conservative, Christians a single special interest group?  And wasn't the GOP trying to buy their votes?  With all of Sheldon Adelson's money?  

See, the thing is, the fact that the GOP doesn't understand how and why they lost is exactly how the Democrats won.  The Republicans are out of touch.  And apparently, based on all the reactions, more so than we Democrats could have possibly dreamt.

For some wonderful reflections on this, see (I'm sure there are more, but these are my recent faves):

• Maureen Dowd on for whom Romney is President 
• Christian Right failure to sway voters
• The best titled article on the election, "Cry Babies and Sore Losers." 
• On Rove out of touch