An expansion of my Primary thoughts...
Feb. 5th, 2008 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vulgarweedI VOTED.
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ursuscelticus will recognize a reprise of some themes, clarified and expanded....
I requested a Democratic ballot, no shit.
I've spent at least a year on this, and when it comes down to it, I have to say, I went with the identity politics thing: the candidate I felt I could best relate to.
And that would be...the woman?
No. That would be the bi-ethnic, bi-national person who, like me, owes his existence to the liberal (in the best sense of the word) international college exchange programs of the 50s and 60s.
The one who can never have both parents' sides of the family in one place without multiple, expensive 12-hour intercontinental flights involved.
Who has one side of the family that's in the superpower with the multiple black-ops CIA fingers in pies all over the world, and the other side that has had to live through the bloody effects of these schemes. Who realizes that what Americans think is "cynicism" is still considered "naivete" by those whose relatives have been killed and never identified.
Whose racial identity varies by income level and time zone.
Who feel pathetic for only knowing one language, as in much of the world, knowing at least three is crucial for making a living.
Who feel even more pathetic visiting other countries and realizing though most Americans own more stuff, most other citizens, even the poor ones, can quote more great writers.
Who realize that America is like a teenager who thinks that our emotional mood swings ARE "reality." We HATE who we HATE and LOVE who we LOVE (not realizing that, in another 200 years if we live that long--a mere blink of the eye for many nations--everything will be different. For fuck's sake, it was only 30 years ago that WE propped up and armed Saddam Hussein ourselves as a bulwark against Iran, and only 25 that we armed the Wahabbist-miliant mujaheddin of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union--that may be "ancient history" to too many US voters, but it's like last week to most of the world.)
I'm a citizen of the world by Spirit, of America by chance. I'm sick of apologizing for the color of my passport. I'm sick of feeling I ought to be ashamed of coming from the nation of John Coltrane and Walt Whitman. I voted for the one I felt was the most like me. I voted for Barack Obama.
For the record, I don't trust either him or Hillary on LGBT issues, but I think they're trainable. And they're both pro-choice, my other deal-breaker issue [I've voted for a pro-choice R over an anti-choice D before and will again if I ever have to, which I hope I won't]. I have no faith in either to fix health care. But President is largely a symbolic office, honestly. And honestly, the only thing wrong with Obama symbolically for me is that he's male. I can forgive him for that. He can't help it. :D
Whew. It was a harder choice than you might think. But not as hard as it would've been if JE hadn't dropped out.
ursuscelticus will recognize a reprise of some themes, clarified and expanded....I requested a Democratic ballot, no shit.
I've spent at least a year on this, and when it comes down to it, I have to say, I went with the identity politics thing: the candidate I felt I could best relate to.
And that would be...the woman?
No. That would be the bi-ethnic, bi-national person who, like me, owes his existence to the liberal (in the best sense of the word) international college exchange programs of the 50s and 60s.
The one who can never have both parents' sides of the family in one place without multiple, expensive 12-hour intercontinental flights involved.
Who has one side of the family that's in the superpower with the multiple black-ops CIA fingers in pies all over the world, and the other side that has had to live through the bloody effects of these schemes. Who realizes that what Americans think is "cynicism" is still considered "naivete" by those whose relatives have been killed and never identified.
Whose racial identity varies by income level and time zone.
Who feel pathetic for only knowing one language, as in much of the world, knowing at least three is crucial for making a living.
Who feel even more pathetic visiting other countries and realizing though most Americans own more stuff, most other citizens, even the poor ones, can quote more great writers.
Who realize that America is like a teenager who thinks that our emotional mood swings ARE "reality." We HATE who we HATE and LOVE who we LOVE (not realizing that, in another 200 years if we live that long--a mere blink of the eye for many nations--everything will be different. For fuck's sake, it was only 30 years ago that WE propped up and armed Saddam Hussein ourselves as a bulwark against Iran, and only 25 that we armed the Wahabbist-miliant mujaheddin of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union--that may be "ancient history" to too many US voters, but it's like last week to most of the world.)
I'm a citizen of the world by Spirit, of America by chance. I'm sick of apologizing for the color of my passport. I'm sick of feeling I ought to be ashamed of coming from the nation of John Coltrane and Walt Whitman. I voted for the one I felt was the most like me. I voted for Barack Obama.
For the record, I don't trust either him or Hillary on LGBT issues, but I think they're trainable. And they're both pro-choice, my other deal-breaker issue [I've voted for a pro-choice R over an anti-choice D before and will again if I ever have to, which I hope I won't]. I have no faith in either to fix health care. But President is largely a symbolic office, honestly. And honestly, the only thing wrong with Obama symbolically for me is that he's male. I can forgive him for that. He can't help it. :D
Whew. It was a harder choice than you might think. But not as hard as it would've been if JE hadn't dropped out.
