Please don't eat me: My thoughts post-election

Good morning, friends. This is the first of two posts about an issue that has been pretty front-and-center in the US as of late. Any guesses as to what I want to write about?

I'll give you a hint-it involves a lot of shouting, name-calling, and a repeated sentiment that the world will end if the other guy (who our sources tell us was Satan's roommate back in college) wins.

Yes, I am talking about politics.

Now, before you zone out on me with a piteous groan of: “Oh gods, not you too!” let me temper this by saying that only this first post is going to deal with US politics and the election. I am passionate about the events of last night and do have some thoughts I want to get out. However, the other political post will be more fun as I about politics in fantasy. It just made sense to do these posts back-to-back, especially after last night.

Does that sound do-able? Then let's jump in.

I was thinking this morning about exactly what I wanted to say here or, quite honestly, if I even wanted to say anything at all about politics. I was raised not to talk about politics, money, or religion and I think there's a lot to be said for that. I tend to believe that those things are a person's own business. This is further complicated by the fact that this blog is an interesting convergence of personal and professional space for me. Currently this is my only “author website”, but at the same time I have shared some deeply personal things here. Thinking about what I have already shared about my depression, self-harm, suicide attempt, and my lady-bits, well, politics seems a bit tame after all that.

So, in the interest of transparency: I voted for Obama. I spent a lot of time before the election reading things and watching things, in other words, doing what I always do when in doubt: research. I know I am not alone in that I wasn't blown away by President Obama's first term. However, I am hopeful now that he has won a second one. I think that this is the best thing that could have happened. Is he perfect? Absolutely not. However, I don't think that a big presidential transition would have been good for us right now. I think that if Governor Romney had won we would have seen a repeat of President Obama's first term. I think he would have faced a lot of obstruction from the democratic party (sorry guys, but we're all human here) and we just would have been mired in mud-slinging, recrimination, and stagnation. I am hopeful that both President Obama and Governor Romney make good on their assertions that we need to work together, because they are absolutely right. Nothing is served by us bickering at this point.

I will also freely admit that my gender came into play when it came time to cast my vote. I couldn't vote for a president whose party seemed to treat my vagina as a pre-existing condition. I was genuinely creeped out by some of the rhetoric coming from the right this election season. “Legitimate rape”? Really? To channel my MMORPG gaming self: GTFO of my body. I am the only person qualified to make choices about it. I believe every woman should have that right. If you are pro-life, good on you. If you are pro-choice, good on you. The power to decide the fate of your body should rest with you. While I do like smaller government, I don't want it to be so small that it can comfortably nestle in my uterus.

Furthermore, I firmly believe that my gender shouldn't determine how much I get paid, nor should it be used to rob me of control of my body. I am grateful to President Obama for standing up for women like me, my sister, my mom, my girlfriends, and any daughters I may ever have. It saddens me that it was even an issue, but I am so proud to be an American woman today. We have been fighting hard and the results of this election show that it is not for nothing. This gives me hope.

Speaking of things that give me hope...it seems like we are moving away from a victim-blaming mentality and towards a sense that we are in this together. I know that President Obama's “You didn't build that” has been twisted to imply that people who succeed deserve no credit for it. However, that is not the core message there. The message is that we are a nation. We are the United States of America. We fail and succeed together. We are not islands of success or failure. It is a fallacy to assume that the disenfranchised portion of our country is that way by choice. I am not saying that we have no responsibility. I am not saying that we don't make our own beds. Personal accountability is important to me, but I can't in good conscience vote for anyone who is willing to write off a portion of the country on the assumption that “well it's their own fault”.

Let me make it personal for a moment. What if all of this fuckery with my IUD had happened before Husband and I had gotten married? I was uninsured for awhile. What if I not only had to have surgery, but it had gone badly and I'd needed to stay in the hospital for awhile? That would have put us in a really precarious position financially. It wouldn't have been because we were irresponsible, it just would have been really, really awful luck. I am beyond grateful that that didn't happen but the point is it could have.

I want to know that there's someone in the White House who wouldn't want to punish me for that ill-luck. I would want someone who has the faith that if I accept help it is not because I am looking for a handout or that I am lazy, but simply that I needed help. I want a leader who trusts that I am doing the best I can and that I will repay the help given to me as soon as I am able.

I am not in favor of a giant government, ok? But I do think that our government has to remember that it is first and foremost “of the people, by the people, for the people”. Government programs are not about helping lazy people stay lazy. Are there lazy people who take advantage? Yes. But they aren't about keeping people complacent, they are about being willing to give our fellow men and women a hand when they need it.

Look at this way: imagine you are rock climbing with a group of strangers. Suddenly, the safety equipment fails and all of you are find yourselves without anything keeping you from plummeting to your deaths. Now, you were one of the first up the rock face and your brand-new climbing shoes are giving you more traction, so you use your position to get up and over, reaching safety. Do you look over the edge and watch dispassionately as the people struggle, clucking your tongue and berating them for not having superior equipment too? Do you watch them sweat and start to slip and shout down: “you're not trying hard enough! I got up here so you have no excuse?”

Hell no. You help pull them to safety. You extend a rope, a hand, a branch, anything to make sure that your fellow man does not perish. And, if you'll permit the conceit, chances are the people you pulling aren't just dangling there and letting you do all the work. They are scrabbling for a toe-hold that they only would have been able to reach with your help.

Unfortunately, some people will never try the climb, and that means that they will stay as they are. However, they need to have the option. They need to have the opportunity. And they need to have access to help to get them off the ground and something to catch them when they loose their footing. Summiting the mountain shouldn't only be possible for people who had access to all the best equipment and training right from the start. It should be possible for the people who started out with nothing but a little chalk on their fingers and the drive to go for it.

That is how our government should be. It should let us do the work and climb our own mountains, but man, if our equipment fails and we are in danger of plunging...it's good to know that there's someone there to catch us and let us regain our footing. Then it is on us to pay it forward.

So, yes. Obviously there are a lot of issues in play here that I haven't talked about that I will leave discussion of to better political minds than mine. I think that we need to recognize that for the most part, Donkey or Pachyderm, we want the same thing. We want a strong, vibrant, stable country. We have been disagreeing a lot on how to get there, but it is time to set that aside. Let's remember that as big as we are, we are ultimately just a community. We need to take care of each other and work together to move forward. Set aside your party colors, or even better, combine them. Our flag bears both red and blue, after all. It's time for us to do the same and unite under those colors to get shit done. It's time to stop being Republicans or Democrats, Red or Blue, Donkeys or Elephants. We are Americans. We are stars and stripes forever. We are eagles. So, let's do this. Let's fly together.