Warning: Politics

[meitachi]

NB: Post is text heavy, feel free to apply &format=light

So I couldn't sleep last night because I was busy making lists in my head of what groceries I'd buy and what food I could make out of said groceries: the things that occupy me late at night. (Protip: Don't do this. It makes you hungry. In the middle of the night.)

So I moved departments at work recently and my new position is all about broadcast news, which means as of last week and this week, it's all politics, all the time. I forgot how invested in politics I could be and how many goddamn feelings I could have - and do have - about everything. It totally counts as a fandom of sorts.

I don't talk politics too often here so forgive me if it picks up (here, on Twitter, on Tumblr, on FB - oops) a bit due to the job (or more likely just this week due to the DNC). Basically, I'm going to ramble a bit. I'm not going to preach to the choir (hopefully), but please, please feel free to scroll if you're just not in the mood for politics right now.

Michelle Obama's speech was the best, everyone agrees. :D I LOVE HER. Watch this entire thing; it's absolutely worth it. She's so inspirational, genuine, dignified, loving. It's amazing.

I have to go find Ann Romney's speech now - I want to listen to it too because everyone in media was talking about what a great speech it was last week after she gave it and how it personalized Mitt Romney (the Robot). Then there were inevitable comparisons after Michelle Obama's speech, of course, but the general consensus was that Michelle was incomparable in her delivery and speech. ♥ One specific thing I did hear was that Michelle used personal anecdotes where Ann didn't, and the American dream/we're in debt and struggling story Michelle told was about her and Barack, whereas for many of the RNC speakers it was more about when their grandparents came to America and their struggles. So, you know. One is more immediate in terms of resonating with the people who are currently struggling.

So far everyone, even Republicans, have agreed that Michelle gave a great speech. Their criticisms seem to be mostly that she is promoting reliance on the government (god forbid) and that her speech focused only on the personal and not the policies (which, WTF, Ann's did the same thing... also Michelle did connect her anecdotes to how the policies Obama was enacting were good, e.g., health care, student loans/financial aid).

EDIT: Two interesting op-eds on the speeches.

1. Ann Romney had to humanize Mitt as the husband and father she trusts and whom we can trust. In that, she was on steady ground in telling her "When Mitt Met Ann" story, positively beaming when she spoke of being a wife and mother. Women in the hall clapped their hands off for that.

But she was not in her element in her evocations of sighing mothers at the end of a hard day, in offering insights and empathy for women and families struggling to pay bills, to buy gas and food. That's too much for her to do. She has neither the personal nor the professional authority to talk about the difficulties of poor, working-class or even middle-class Americans. (source)

2. Michelle Obama and Ann Romney speeches: Agreement that moms are tired on both sides of the aisle. GOP equates parenting with mothering; Democrats seem to see parenting issues as family issues – with Dad just as tired as Mom. (source)

Anyway, a couple of other speeches I particularly enjoyed:

- Julian Castro (Mayor of San Antonio), which I felt like didn't pack the same punch Deval Patrick's did in terms of delivery but which had some brilliant moments, particularly in sharing his personal story and the engagement with the audience on "Romeny said no". (His bootstraps line made me facepalm though. No, the whole point is that you can't actually pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.)

In the end, the American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don't always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor. My grandmother never owned a house. She cleaned other people's houses so she could afford to rent her own. But she saw her daughter become the first in her family to graduate from college. And my mother fought hard for civil rights so that instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone.

And while she may be proud of me tonight, I've got to tell you, Mom, I'm even more proud of you. Thank you, Mom.

Today, my beautiful wife Erica and I are the proud parents of a three-year-old little girl, Carina Victoria, named after my grandmother. [...] She's still young, and her dreams are far off yet, but I hope she'll reach them. As a dad, I'm going to do my part, and I know she'll do hers. But our responsibility as a nation is to come together and do our part, as one community, one United States of America, to ensure opportunity for all of our children.

- Deval Patrick (Governor of Massachusetts), which was a slow build to an incredible crescendo, powerfully delivered, on point for every major platform item, and just awesome.

My message is this — it is time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe. Quit waiting for pundits or polls or Super PACs to tell us who the next President or senator or congressman will be. We are Americans. We shape our own future.

- Lilly Ledbetter (plaintiff in employment discrimination case, namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009), which was particularly amazing on women's rights, equality, and what Obama has done for us. An added bonus is how very, very Southern she sounds. :)

The President signed the bill for his grandmother, whose dreams hit the glass ceiling, and for his daughters, so that theirs never will. Because of his leadership, women who faced pay discrimination like I did will now get their day in court.

That was the first step but it can't be the last. Because women still earn just 77 cents for every dollar men make. [...] Maybe 23 cents doesn't sound like a lot to someone with a Swiss bank account, Cayman Island Investments and an IRA worth tens of millions of dollars. But Governor Romney, when we lose 23 cents every hour, every day, every paycheck, every job, over our entire lives, what we lose can't just be measured in dollars.

- Also, this woman floors me with how amazing she is: Tammy Duckworth, Asian-American woman, veteran, amputee, and Congressional candidate. Now that is an American hero.

Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat, is the first Thai and Chinese-American, mounting a challenge as a Democrat in Illinois. [Representative Judy] Chu (D-California) describes Duckworth's story as "so compelling" that voters will find her easy to remember.

Duckworth, a captain in the National Guard who piloted Blackhawk helicopters, became one of the first women to fly combat missions in Iraq. On Nov. 12, 2004, a rocket-propelled grenade hit her aircraft. She lost both legs and part of the use of her right arm in the explosion and was awarded the Purple Heart. (source)

Now, one thing that really stood out to me today in all the pundit commentary was that the Democrats' official platform for 2012 does not have the word "God", does not state that Jerusalem is Israel's capital,¹ and does include LGBT rights. Well, the last point is one more touted by the Dems as a good thing; the first two have been raised by pundits as questionable moves by the Dems and may cost them support, particularly from, obviously, the Jewish-Americans. AIPAC (pro-Israel lobbying group) apparently did not approve the platform and its lack of "Jerusalem is the rightful capital" message so... Some politicking may be necessary, say commentators. Catering and/or backpedaling, say I.

And in the time it took me to write up this post at work in an email draft and coming home and reading the headlines - yep, the Dems are putting "God" and "Jerusalem" back into their platform.

¹ For the record, Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel. I feel the need to state that in self-defense, because there are seriously people out there asking what Obama's last name is.


Yeah, so that was a lot of thoughts, sorry. Here is a picture of cute animals to make up for it:


x


Please, please, please remember to vote this November if you can. And specifically, since specificity is great, vote for Obama. (Also remember: Barack Obama supports the correct college basketball team, and that team is UNC. ♥)

Comments

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Hopefully you can keep your strength up! :) I would be prefer Obama in power (recent poll in Australia 70% would vote for Obama, 5% for Romney, the rest undecided. Which also shows how people in other countries follow US politics since they tend to have a grand influence on world events) and hopefully that will be the case.

The Jerusalem issue could hurt him, I've known some people who are generally quite leftist but are fiercely Zionist when it comes to Israel. Among other things they flip their opinion on refugees when it comes to the Palestinians. On the other hand, I've also known others who hold to a two state solution. I wonder what Obama will say about the issue? Two state solution? Anything else I can't see happening.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

The rest of the world seems mostly to be backing Obama (Romney's foreign policy experience = not great or...nonexistent). Actually, the rest of the world seems to find our Republican Party absolutely nuts and can't seem to fathom how they have so much power. u__u I agree.

I've known some people who are generally quite leftist but are fiercely Zionist when it comes to Israel.

Yep, definitely the case in the US, which is why it's an issue both parties seem to have the same stance on: pro-Israel. There is only one stance, really.

Well, the Dems put Jerusalem back into the platform but I don't know what alternative stance they might take. I'm not sure Obama is going to touch on that issue at all during the convention, but it'll probably come up during the campaign trail and debates in upcoming months.

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Well he had a great world tour recently! Except not. That's right, insult the British, one of your biggest allies /shakes head. It is somewhat surprising! But compared to similar western democracies, the US tends to be much more religious and that seems to heavily influence politics.

It will be interesting to hear what he and others have to say on the issue.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Augh so I'm watching the DNC and just seeing the diversity in the audience makes me ;~;. Men! Women! So many women! Indians! Blacks! Asians! Muslims! Christians! Jews! Young college kids! Grandmothers! AND EVERYONE GOT TEARY FOR MICHELLE OBAMA LAST NIGHT.

Ugh god stoppit, drowning in politics. Must go read some teenage werewolves being snarky and having sex. >:(

[osoreranai.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Good speech.

...

Yeah, that actually sums up my feels on the matter pretty well. Sorry. :( It's just not something I believe in very much, except as a distraction that keeps us from effectively addressing our problems and making lasting progress.

If Obama wins, he gets to keep making his changes one difficult step at a time, and so on until the other party wins. At which point, they will dedicate every effort to tearing down everything he's done. And when it swings back the other way, the cycle will begin again.

Politics is a business composed of rich people, intellectual terrorism from our media, and so much talking with so little communication. To quote Shakespeare, it's "sound and fury... signifying nothing."

Don't get me wrong. I'll vote. I'll probably just end up writing "Jesus" on the ticket, though, because he and his cause are worth believing in to me.

I apologize if I sound cynical or difficult. Please don't mind. I don't mean to be. I'm just a tired old man.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

You don't have to apologize! I know many people are cynical and disheartened by politics in the US and I definitely don't blame them. In a very real sense, it's a lot of lawyers and policymakers who know each other and aren't connected to "the real world" patting each other on the back or fighting among each other constantly - a lot of it reminds me of law school and the legal profession, actually, which is why so I don't want to do law unless it's the public interest crappy-pay working-with-the-real-people stuff. (Ugh, it sounds pretentious in its own way put like that, doesn't it?)

But the thing is, that's how our country runs. That's how change has to be made. We can try to distance ourselves from it in distaste, but if we're not the ones throwing ourselves into the ugliness and fighting tooth and nail for change, however many steps back we're taking for each step forward (very true on administrations tearing down what the administration before them did), it's not going to magically get better on its own. And it's not like our not caring or participating will make others do the same? They'll rush to fill the void with their ideals and values. If we don't represent our own voices and desires, who will for us?

At least that's how I see it. I'm not trying to badger you into caring, obviously. And you know me, I have my times when I'm also just tired of everything and want to quit - life, friendships, etc. But maybe for me, because I don't believe there's more than this one life, I feel like I have to fight and care for what I have here and now.

[osoreranai.livejournal.com]

(Not at all. I mean, it doesn't sound worse than saying you're going to be a great novelist, so, there's that).

I definitely see where you're coming from. It's not a fair fight, and it's not a good fight, but if you don't step in the ring and put 'em up, who'll do it for us? I see that. And I'm not trying to be like some kind of high-minded slacker, rationalizing inactivity as a cover for arrogance. The internet's got enough of those already.

It's just. I struggle to attempt to articulate this sentiment, so if I do poorly I beg your pardon.

We have problems. We have deep problems in this country. And for all the noise that we hear from on high, at the end of the day the situation is not truly changed. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer. Babies are born, and no one is there to rear them. Men go mad and shoot each other in theaters. Women are sold into slavery on the Internet.

How do you fight this? Some would say that you should go to the government for these issues and more - but there is no unified vision to define solutions. We can't make up our minds whether or not the rich are heroes or villains, whether the poor are oppressed or deserving. We can't figure out if we need less babies or more parents; if we need less guns or more training; if sexuality should be on sale or not.

We, who have limited time on this earth, are generally presented with one of two choices: we either do nothing and let others walk over us, or we throw ourselves at each other in the ring over and over again. My money and voice goes to a cause, only to negate someone who feels just as strongly in the other direction as me; both of our voices are then drowned out as a company throws a thousand times our strength in a certain direction and we get caught up in the undertow.

I simply believe that my limited time, resources, and will are better spent acting in favor of the causes I champion, buying food for the homeless, talking with people and hearing their stories, and trying to point to something better. Because it's as you say: we only have one life here to live. We all have to die, and we all have to live with ourselves until then. I don't want to live with the knowledge that I could have done more.

Hopefully it's clear that you don't have to badger me into caring. :)

[kasugai-gummie.livejournal.com]

Chicago's AABA had Tammy as the keynote speaker at the Installation Gala dinner this year. She's indeed a very remarkable woman and made pulling an allnighter during the summer for a group of hideously incompetent asians worth it.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

That is awesome. Well, not the hideous incompetence, since I know how that drives you up a wall, but glad the payoff was getting to hear her! She seems really amazing.

Hey and you can even vote for her! Awesome.

[kasugai-gummie.livejournal.com]

And I will! :D Just mailed in my registration thing last week. Thank you Obamas for making it easier to register for ppl who know only the internet and nothing else. looool