The Sad Aftermath
Well, the RNC is over. Bush has charged to a double-digit lead in the polls, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent. And let me share an excerpt from TalkLeft:
If George W. Bush gets re-elected, he will likely appoint 3 Supreme Court justices during his next term. Say goodbye to Roe vs. Wade and a woman's right to choice. Say goodbye to equal rights for gays. Say goodbye to all the freedoms you want to preserve for your children. They will be gone.
Nevermind the lies that our preemptive invasion of Iraq were based on; the fact that the global opinion of the United States has turned embarrassingly negative; the "where's Osama" question has not been answered; education is in the toilet; the number of prisons are on the rise -- as are gas prices; babies are still having babies; and the nation is divided more so than I have ever seen it. People forget about the Supreme Court for some reason.
And the point TalkLeft made should be enough to scare the shit out of everyone to get their asses to the polls to vote for Kerry. That is, if they live in a swing state and care about the future. Politics suck. Politicians are dirty. But aside from everything else, that one issue -- abortion -- will be contested and will most likely become illegal. But that doesn't mean that they won't happen.Folks don't discuss this part. No one talks about coat hangers and dirty dining-room tables. They talk about abstinence, a notion supported by religious fundamentalism that presupposes no one fornicates before marriage. But little do church-going George and Sally know that the more they avoid discussions of sex, the more they say that it is simply a "sacred thing between husband and wife," the more their little 15-year-old boy is doing girls behind the bleachers after school.
The more their 14-year-old girl is scheduling recess romps in seniors' cars. And she's the one who will be forced to find someone somewhere to fish around her uterus to end the pregnancy. I'm thinking of a disturbing photo now, whose black-and-white image I will never be able to expel from my head.
It's in the book Our Bodies Ourselves. In it is a naked woman who is on the floor. Her knees are holding her up; the rest of her is face down. She died in that position during a botched abortion attempt. Yes, let's make abortion illegal. I watched bushwhacked speak last night with a friend. We were appalled at his patronizingly theatrical use of Spanish. We questioned his "promises." And we considered the possibility of a bushwhacked victory.
The attention this convention received is like bad publicity for a worse book. The more negative press it gets, the more it sells. But the world's eyes were on New York and they saw the hundreds of thousands of people protesting. They listened to the media denigrate the frustrated, though the frustration was peacefully expressed. "Well, I'm not like those protestors," swing state television viewers may have said to themselves.
There was a conservative party in New York this week, and I fear it was successful enough to make those on the right go further in that direction and those sitting on the fence to fall off to the right from the force of the conservative wind. I don't understand it. I don't know, folks. We're in for an interesting two months. The playoffs have started. And the conservatives have lowered the blindfold of ignorance over a lot of voters' eyes. I couldn't convince people I'm straight. Or caring. Or well-read. It's probably because I'm not a good liar. But bushwhacked is. And he did a lot of it last night. Health care, education, the economy. All he had to do was talk in a microphone and hope the speech appeared on the teleprompter at a slow enough pace so he wouldn't screw up the words someone else wrote. And he only had to do this for an hour. And equal rights for gays? Where was Mary Cheney after her daddy's speech the other night? Where was she last night? The ring she wears on her finger to symbolize the love that she feels for her partner means shit to him. As do those of us who every day have to swallow heterosexual images everywhere we turn. Who can't turn off Calvin Klein ads on Houston of heterosexual desire. These ads, television, the media all stand as a reminder that those of us who dare to love someone whose sex matches our own are doing something subversive. Let me derail here for a bit. I'm reading Henry Miller. The three of you who read this site regularly will attest to this fact. I never wince at images of his cock a random woman's mouth. I never question the underlying heterosexual desire that is in each word. When I watch television, I don't avoid the shows that celebrate a relationship between a man and a woman. If I did, I wouldn't need the box. When I go to the movies, I know that it will inevitably contain a love relationship between a man and a woman. I don't question that, either. I can't turn it off. I can't put it aside. I can't only take it in small doses. If I tried, I would be confined to my bedroom, watching "Queer as Folk" or "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Or "The L Word." Jesus. Let's try this for a minute. Come with me: "Straight Friends"; "Straight Up Simpsons"; "My Straight Wife and Kids." Yeah. In another lifetime. This was clearly a derailment. More evidence of my inability to formulate an argument. The only solace my friend and I had was that if bushwhacked should win, all we have to do is sit back and watch him continue his trip off the cliff of democracy. Because that word will change in meaning drastically. And there will be a lot of clean-up in order in 2008. All I have to say is Obama for president!
