Honestly, all the election coverage is giving me something like the flu -- I've got the chills, my stomach is upset, my head is on fire -- and yet, I CAN'T STOP READING. And watching. And tearing my hair out. I'm obsessed. The share function on my RSS reader is foaming at the mouth.
Watched the RNC last week and I just want to say that I have never been more proud to be a Democrat. Yes, there have been times when I have been ashamed to be a Democrat, just as there have been times when I was ashamed about sharing a passport with some of the people who voted Bush into office, just as I have been ashamed about things I've said to people, or for
the Lysol sitting on the counter next to my food. Whatever. To be ashamed is to be human. It is a slut of an emotion.
But tonight, I am proud to talk politics on my food blog. I never have before because I didn't really consider it an appropriate venue. But it matters because I write as a student of culture and an advocate for diversity.
I want to believe -- desperately want to believe -- that the American people are not so gullible that they'll fall for more
Republican lies or buy into a vague economic plan from
Tracy Flick. I want to rebuke a cynical campaign whose male top brass think women (including
Peggy Noonan) can forgive the inexperience of a 44 year-old Vice Presidential candidate who
reportedly didn't get her first passport until last year, and has only traveled outside North America once. ONCE.
More importantly, I'm interested in
improving the economy, not just for myself, but for the
working families in my neighborhood, where the median household income is
$36,478. I want a president who knows what it means to lift and organize a community out of despair, who really understands what it means when a family who makes far less than
$5 million can't pay a health insurance premium that costs more than their monthly rent.
The McCain who speechified, "We lost [the country's] trust, when we valued our power over our principles" -- he ought to be cringing at the mud being slung by everyone on his campaign.
Prior to all this, he seemed like a pretty decent guy to me. I thought he had some principles. But now I see that he's just another Rove puppet who'll spread 'em for the oil companies. I don't want more war. I don't want more tax relief for the rich. I don't want a man who
lies to further his own personal political career. (The alternative is that he "misspoke"? Do I want some senile old man to "misspeak" when he's sitting down to talk sovereignty with Medvedev?)
McCain = 4 more years of Bushonomics, Bush fear-mongering, Bush go fuck yourself unless you're a fetus. What kind of world do we live in if only the
National Enquirer speaks against the Republicans without fear of being labeled partisan?
Last week, I donated to the Obama/Biden campaign (my first and only political contribution so far). I'm thrilled to be a part of Obama's campaign.
But there's more to do. I think about how history will judge us. How did we allow our president, a man who shat on
Habeas Corpus, to remain in power for as long as we did? How did we allow our government to get us involved in a totally unjustified war which will cost us
$3 TRILLION, $3 trillion which could have gone into healthcare for all of our citizens, into our schools so that our children can compete for the jobs of the future, into the creation of alternative energy? How could we let our president and his cronies sit idly by and
go shoe shopping as beautiful, historic, important New Orleans was swallowed by a hurricane, its citizens left to die? How could we go on caring about American Idol as
4,000 of our country's young sacrificed their lives in a war based on falsehoods (and how do we not mourn the
150,000+ Iraqis who have lost their lives)? And then how could we let the deluded and delusional even think about electing his successor, McCain, a man who has proven himself to be nothing more than another cynical
bait-and-switch politician with
one hand on the soft curve of Bush's waist and the other pulling on his own dick?
How dare the Republicans appropriate 9/11 -- 9/11, which WE lived through, which affected OUR city, which never ever had anything to do with Iraq -- to drum up McCarthyist fear and xenophobia in middle America! How dare McCain try and appropriate feminism and family values for his own purposes -- this from a man who
volunteered his wife for a topless pageant, who once demeaned a teenage Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno's looks in
a joke told to the old boys club! How dare McCain pass himself off as an agent of change! How dare McCain and Rove try and bend us over for another four years!
Get angry. Feel passionately. I will keep you company. We can have our moment of clarity. Let's break out of the cradle of consumerist inertia we have gotten so comfortable in. We need to empower our leaders to show their anger, encourage the press to seek the truth at whatever cost. I'm paying attention, I'm ready to throw down, and I'm shouting from my virtual rooftop.
I am an American for Obama.
I am a woman for Obama.
I am an Asian-American for Obama.
I am a New Yorker for Obama.
I am a public school graduate for Obama.
I am a musician for Obama.
I am a blogger for Obama.
I am an immigrant's daughter for Obama.
I am a Buddhist for Obama.
I am a middle class singleton for Obama.
I am a book reader for Obama.
I am an
INFP for Obama.
I am an idealist for Obama.
I am a
citizen of the world for Obama.
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