I Regret To Inform You That The ‘Leopards Eating People’s Faces’ Party Still Wants To Eat Your Face.
And that if you like your face, we need to work hard to keep them out of office.
I’m in a crispy mood this morning reading the news, reminded that Thursday is the first debate between the presumed Dem and GOP nominees for president, and it’s freaking Groundhog Day all over again. I’m a bit triggered, considering that the last time we did this dance four years ago, we were in the throes of COVID and (after our candidate was decided), I co-lead Dem phone banks for Biden out of my jr. one bedroom, praying that we as a country would make the right decision between possibility and oblivion.
And now we are right back where we began, and I feel like I’m having the same difficulties understanding that some people genuinely do not see a difference between Biden and Trump, despite (shakes fists furiously at the sky). As a political pragmatist who prefers results above rhetoric, and who believes in voting to get the best possible outcome for your interests, I’m a bit deflated at the moment.
So why am I crispy? I got into a discussion over the weekend about Biden and the 2024 election wherein two individuals said they’d be voting for whomever the Green Party candidate is because Biden is, amongst other descriptors, “too old”. And yes, he’s old, but when I see articles like this from Media Matters (‘Study: Top newspapers fixate on Biden’s age’) that detail how much more the press is mentioning Biden’s age versus Trump’s age, I get very uneasy about how that lopsided reporting is trickling down to voters, even in the liberal bubble San Francisco is ensconced in. And why do I get so damned mad about how this election is being reported on?
Because politics is fucking personal. Because as much as I wish we lived in a system closer to a parliamentary one, we don’t, it will likely be a binary choice for the majority of us, and this race is distressingly close despite a not-perfect but formidable policy track record on one side, and a gaping maw of existential threat on the other. Because two years ago my constitutional right to privacy over my body was stripped away because Trump was able to appoint three judges to the Supreme Court (check out this devastating article that Memeorandum had to mark this ignominious anniversary, ‘June 24, 2024’ by Heather Cox Richardson) and now I am a lesser citizen than I was when I was naturalized in 2015.
- Related to the above: ‘What two years without Roe looks like, in 8 charts’ (Vox) and ‘Infant mortality rate rose 8% in wake of Texas abortion ban, study shows’ (AP).
- This quote from Charlotte Clymer’s look at the recent climate protests really struck me:
“…it is not enough in mass communications to merely be right about something. It is not enough to be logical. It is not enough to be the smartest kid in the class.
You can be thoroughly correct — morally, ethically, spiritually, whatever — but unless you’re willing to meet people where they are and engage in tough but necessary conversations and exercise patience with those who may not see the world exactly as you do, simply being correct and having a nickel is worth exactly five cents.”
- In a slightly lighter vein (although there is nothing light or funny about drunk driving, especially when you are very wealthy and can afford a ride home), I enjoyed Jennifer Weiner’s take on why we all delighted in schadenfreude when news of Justin Timberlake’s brush with the law came to light” ‘The Tiresome Mr. Timberlake’ (NYT)
- But in better news: ‘Child of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard now an anti-racist activist, openly transgender’ (ABC News). Hell yea.
Welp, thanks for letting me rant. Go sign up for Vote Save America and get some volunteering in. And drink some water. And get outside. And be kind to each other!
xoxo Amy
