Nostalgia

Presented without comment, an entry from my old Livejournal, posted Dec. 17th, 2008:

mood: hopeful

"I feel like the government's working for me. I feel like it's accountable. I feel like it's transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information, that believes in making decisions based on facts and on science as opposed to what is politically expedient." - President-Elect Obama on what he hopes the American people will be able to say about his administration in two years, in his interview with Time magazine.

Accountability? Transparency? Decisions based on science not politics? Somebody find me a fainting couch, I am about to swoon.

This is like waking up from a terrifying nightmare to a beautiful spring morning outside your window. Excuse me while I take a brief break from cynical reality to bask in the sweet light of hope.

Dear OFA: I'm Not A Special Interest Group, Either

Last summer, I was (briefly) an Organizing for America (the post-election version of Obama's campaign organization, now an arm of the DNC) online-based intern, before The Great Lifesplosion.  This has meant that, despite my growing disenchantment with the Obama administration, I'm still on the email list and get regular calls to action from the group.  Today, an OFA email landed in my inbox, with the subject line:

I am not a "special interest"

I opened it, and it was an e-blast about the emergency jobs bill, purporting to be from a teacher named Wendy.  Here's the relevant quote:

Democrats in Congress are trying to do the right thing, proposing emergency assistance for states to preserve more than 100,000 jobs like mine. They're racing back to the Capitol for an emergency session this week to pass this bill and save these jobs.

But Republicans are standing in the way. Minority Leader John Boehner is calling the bill a "payoff" to "special interests" and attacking every Democrat who is fighting for us.

But I'm not a special interest. I'm a teacher.

You know what, Wendy?  I'm not a special interest, either.  I'm a woman, a person without medical insurance, and queer.  The Obama administration has trampled right the hell over each of those facets of my identity, reasoning that we're "special interests" that they don't really have to listen to.  Hell, in the case of the insurance "reform" fiasco, they *actively* pandered to the real special interests, the insurance companies, instead of supporting uninsured people and women!  Why should I jump up and swing into action, calling my Congresspeople and spreading the word, to make sure you aren't treated like a "special interest", when the Obama administration all too clearly sees me and many others like me as "special interests" and is willing to treat us as such?


Mind you, I do support this emergency jobs bill.  Call me a socialist, w'ev.  But I am really fucking annoyed by the OFA's approach on this.  No, teachers are not a special interest.  But neither am I, and until the Obama administration is ready to acknowledge that and get to work representing me as well as you, they can go suck a bag of dicks for all I care.

Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss...

Police closed Lafayette Park and chased the media back about two blocks away from the White House today, to prevent them from covering the DADT protest in which six servicemembers in full uniform chained themselves to the WH fence, a la Lt. Choi a couple weeks ago.  
 

Looks like the White House is in full damage-control mode, now that our community has gotten sick and fucking tired of waiting for movement on DADT repeal and has started holding feet to the fire.  What's the matter, Obama?  Don't like your "fierce advocate" facade being exposed for the cardboard cut-out it is?  You've tried to keep us quiet with the odd crumb here or there - partner benefits for federal employees (still hasn't been put into effect), Medicare/Medicaid hospital visitation (with no timeline for enforcement), a throwaway half-a-sentence in the State of the Union (even as you spent five or ten minutes per topic on other subjects, like terrorism! and war! and Main Street v Wall Street!) for DADT repeal - but we're not stupid.  We've noticed the total lack of leadership on the issues.  Even if it weren't for the rumors that your Congressional Liaison office is actively working to quell any DADT movement in the defense budget bill, we've still seen how utterly silent your administration is willing to be on our issues, like ENDA and DADT.  

But this?  Closing Lafayette Park entirely, and chasing reporters away from a protest?  Looks like the Obama administration is taking directions out of the Dubya-era PR book.  Am I the only one who remembers the promises of openness! and transparency! and change in the way Washington works!?  Because this is not something that inspires hope, and it's definitely not the change I believed in.

Post-Election Roundup: The Aftermath

Recommended readings: TerranceDC at Pam's House Blend makes the point that on Tuesday, the nation elected a president whose parents' marriage would have been illegal forty years ago, and yet at the same time voted to make and keep his marriage illegal. Also at PHB, Autumn informs us that the legal challenges to Prop 8 have already begun. Thomas, a guest-blogger at Feministe, blogs about the sense of bittersweet victory many of us are sharing in No We Can't.

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a little focused on the fact that, as historical as Obama's victory is, as wonderful as it will be to have a President who is not actively seeking to regress the country into the Dark Ages...for many of us, Tuesday was only half a victory. Yet again we have had it shown to us why the rights of a minority can never be entrusted to a vote of the majority. 52% of my home state declared their willingness to deliberately recreate second-class status for a group of citizens who had, albeit briefly, been fully equal citizens under the law.

The effort to pass Prop 8 was largely funded by extremely strong and well-organized religious organizations; notably, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's estimated that up to a third of the total funding for Yes on Prop 8 came from the Mormon church. According to LDS members, impassioned appeals during church services told members that their souls were in jeopardy if they did not donate. You may remember the 40-day "relay fast" for Prop 8, as well. One of the "scare points" of the Yes on 8 campaign was the lie that churches would lose their tax status and pastors could be prosecuted for preaching against homosexuality. The irony, of course, is that in the aftermath, No on 8 groups are calling for the LDS church to lose their tax exemption, since they poured so much of their tax-exempt funds into a specifically political cause.

That may provide an explanation for why we lost. We fought on the basis of fairness, justice, and equality. They fought on the basis of fear. Where our ads showed nice, photogenic gay couples and teens talking about "our human rights", their ads outright lied about the scary effects legal same-sex marriage would have, like churches being prosecuted and children being taught tolerance and open-mindedness against their parents' will. (I know, it sounds horrible, doesn't it? "How dare you teach my child to be tolerant! We will not have that kind of accepting language in my house, young man.") We like to think that people are good, that they will do the right thing when given the opportunity to. But when you can successfully frighten people, fairness and equality go out the window. People who are afraid for their souls, who fear attack on their churches and church leaders and children, aren't going to care about doing the right thing.

If we had addressed those issues more directly, if our ads had confronted head-on the lies and fearmongering, we might have been able to edge a win. But as it stands, a religion of fear managed to write their discriminatory beliefs into our laws. And for so long as that is true, I cannot celebrate with a whole heart.

What Will You Remember?

Blogger earlgreyrooibos on Feminocracy has a post up called What This Woman Is Going To Remember, about her memorable experiences of this election cycle.  Head over and check it out.  In the meantime, I thought I'd post my own "What This Woman Is Going To Remember" list.  In no real order:

1. Going "Barack who?" the first time I heard Obama's name, back during the primaries.  

2. Flopping on Girlfriend's couch with her and Boyfriend for the first presidential debate, glasses of wine in hand, after our Mabon feast...and the drinking game that ensued.  (We drank on maverick, POW, terrorist, nukyuler, elitist, and uppity.)

3. Wanting to throw things at the TV every time Obama did his song-and-dance about abortion being "...between a woman, her family, her doctor, and God."  No, you pandering douchehound, abortion is between a woman and whoever the fuck SHE SAYS it is.  Her.  Her doctor, cause she's gotta have someone perform it for her.  AND NOBODY ELSE UNLESS SHE DECIDES OTHERWISE.  Her family is not entitled to be involved.  And for the love of fuck, enough with the Christonormativity!  

4. Wanting to throw things at the TV every time Obama did his song-and-dance about gay marriage and how he "personally doesn't believe in gay marriage."  Believe me, you pandering fuckneck, gay marriage exists whether you believe in it or not.  Don't you dare start dismissing the LGBT community just because you assume we're a "safe" voter bloc.

5. Going "Palin who?" when Mamana told me McCain had picked his VP, then the searing outrage at his blatant attempt to court the "Vagina Vote".

6. The "That One" moment at the second debate, and the immediate response on Shakesville of "This one is voting for that one!"

7. McCain's "women's health" moment.  I hate that smug jackass.  My health exists, thank you very much.  WITHOUT scare quotes.

8. Obama Waffles, the Not Sarah Palin blowup doll, and the fact that Shakesville's "Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch" reached 98 entries and "Clinton Sexism Watch" reached 110 entries, showing right out in the open how truly racist and sexist this country still is.

9. Being terrified, on a day-to-day basis, of Prop 8 and how close the race has been this whole time.  It is going to turn my world upside down and rip huge chunks out of the foundation of my identity as a proud Californian if that vile bit of garbage passes tomorrow.

10. Having it suddenly hit me just the other day, what a milestone this is.  Someone other than an old white man who inherited his wealth and power is a serious contender on a major ticket for the Presidency of this nation.  How fucking cool is that?

What will you remember?