Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: politics

Excited for the first time in 12 years

I’m excited. For the first time in 12 years, I’m…hopeful? And that is a dangerous thing because I was ready for America to go to hell. I was resigned to losing the election because this country is a fucking joke. And then, Kamala Harris did the unexpected and chose Tim Walz, my governor, as her running mate. I knew he was one of the finalists, but I assumed she would be sensible and choose someone from a swing state. Governor Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania was the one who was mentioned the most often. I figured it would be him.

This morning, I woke up to the news that Harris had chosen Walz. Immediately, my mood lifted 100%. When it was *sigh* Biden running for reelection, I just could not muster any enthusiasm. At all. It was incredible to me that it was that close at all. And it sucked that the Supreme Court was intent on ruining democracy. And Trump chose someone as his running mate who is, to put it politely, a complete jackoff with no redeeming qualities, which made me feel even more hopeless.

I had written this election off, incredibly. There are still so many people in my country who are that upset at losing their privilege (white cis dudes, mainly), they’ll vote for the gross old white dude who tells them what they want to hear. Even though he does not give a single shit about them. I did not like what it said about my country. I did not come back from the dead for this!

Then, Biden steepped down from the election. And Trump was classless as always in what he had to say about it. He could have simply said, “Good luck to him; I wish him wel.” If that was too much, he could have said nothing. But, no, he chose the ugliest thing to say because that is who he is.

There was a debate about who would replace him, but there reall ywas no confusion over that. It would be Harris because Biden left too late for it to be anyone but her. I was skeptical beacuse America couldn’t even manage to hire a white woman, let alone a black woman. But then I thought that weirdly, it might be easier for a black woman because progressive white dudes would probably be more willing to vote for a black woman than a wihte one (three-thousand words here why that is true).


Continue Reading

Walking a tightrope

i am not grace under pressure
SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

I know I need to keep up on what’s happening in the world because I wouldn’t feel like I’m being a good citizen if I just poked my head in the sand and ignored everything around me. More to the point, it’s not in my nature to be willfully ignorant, which is why I’m never blissful. Before the 2008 election, I became obsessed with politics because I was #TeamObama from day one. The fact that a black man was running for president made politics immediately personal to me, and I had a vested interest in following his campaign.

Let me be clear. I have been a Democrat since I could vote, and I have only voted for a non-Democrat (Nader, 1996), and I made sure Clinton carried MN before casting my vote. I did it to make a point, and I didn’t like Clinton (Bill), anyway. I’ve voted straight Dem ever since. However, it was more because there was no way in hell I would vote for the Republicans rather than I was excited by anything the Democrats had to offer. Don’t get me wrong. I believe in the basic tenets of the Democratic Party. Helping the poor and needy; equality for all; social justice, etc. However, before PBO, I felt as if I was taken for granted within the party. Being an Asian American bi agnostic woman meant I was invisible in so many ways, and I never really felt a part of the party.

When Barack Obama announced his candidacy, I felt an excitement I’d never felt before. In addition, Hillary Clinton also announced she was running, and while I didn’t care much for her, I was excited to have a female candidate as well as a black one. I really didn’t know which way I would go in the primary, but Obama won me over by being inclusive without making a big deal of it. He mentioned Asians when he talked about ‘all Americans’–probably because he has a sister who’s half-Asian, and he talked about nonbelievers without making it sound like a crime (this might have been after he was elected). He also actually uttered the word  ‘bisexual’, which made my jaw drop in amazement. No one ever acknowledged that bis existed, let alone said the actual word.

Continue Reading

General Announcement: Breaking Up With Politics

no more politics.
The end.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was thinking about rejiggering the format of my blog. Now, I’m formally announcing that Topical Politics will no longer be a category*, meaning I’ll have to come up with something else to write on Thursdays. I haven’t gotten that far in the planning yet. The reason I don’t want to write about politics any longer is complex and layered. I’ll try to dissect it so you can understand why I’m putting the pen down during these turbulent political times. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but I made the decision after Ian told me he loved my POOG posts (which you really should read because they’re pretty damn funny, if I do say so myself, and I do) because I got to write like me. I never thought about it that way, but it’s true. I love writing the POOG posts because I can just let ‘er rip and not care too much about how I’m coming across. It’s satire, so I can say whatever the fuck I want! It’s exhilarating and freeing, and my true voice shines through.

I used to be able to write about politics in that way, but somehow, I no longer feel able to do so. Let me recount the reasons why. One, I’m having a hard time laughing at the current administration because they scare the fuck out of me. Not just because they have no compassion and don’ t give a damn about anything other than themselves and their wealthy compatriots, but because they are so fucking inept and could bring about World War III. Fortunately (if sadly), many of our allies are more into mocking the president rather than trying to take him down, but that could change on a dime.

By the way, I’m so not into macho alpha/beta shit, but the video of my political bae, President Emmanuel Macron, owning our president with that handshake is a thing of beauty. He said it was to show our president that he wasn’t going to concede on the little things, and it’s one way of dealing with a bully. I would not kick President Macron out of bed for eating crackers, I’ll tell you what. You can have your Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; he reminds me of a grown-up frat boy, tbh. That’s neither here nor there, so moving along.

It’s almost seven months since the election, and I’m still not over the fact that so many of my fellow Americans wanted this man as president. I know there are more of us than there are of them, but it doesn’t really matter right now. All of our collective id is on display, and it’s not a pretty sight. It’s not that he’s a (nominal) Republican; it’s more than that. If we had ended up with a President McCain or President Romney, I would have been pissed, but not as scared as I am now. I would have understood why someone voted for them (though, obviously, not agree). I do not understand voting for a failed business man who has no experience in politics, and that’s the least of his problems.

I also don’t like how in focusing on this president and everything he’s doing wrong, we’re not paying enough attention to Congress. That’s where the real deals get down, and the Republicans are doing some nasty shit.

The biggest reason, however, is that I hate the endless infighting between progressives and pragmatists within the Democratic Party. It’s like being a kid whose parents are going through a horrible divorce, and you just want  to disappear. I don’t like how each side is hunkering down and  and demonizing the other side, and it’s making me sad, tired, and weary. I don’t find much humor in the situation, if any, and I find myself writing about it in a very tepid way because I have friends on both sides of the divide.

I’m not giving up on politics completely, but I just don’t want to feel as if I have to write about it every week. I don’t know what’s replacing it yet, either, but I have a week to figure it out.

 

*The irony being that I’m using it as the category tag for this post.