Today in the mailing list I had the following to say…. below I’m also going to think a little further on that because of COURSE I have further thoughts… but it’s not what I’m going to shove at you unsolicited (in the mailing list).
So, I’m not going to tell you HOW to vote. I’m going to ask that you DO vote. There are many who think that since ilyAIMY has not only a platform but a fully national (and international for that matter) fanbase that that’s not the right decision – that I should tell you who I’m voting for and that you should do the same – but that’s not what I’m going to do. If you know us, you probably think you know our politics. If you listen to the lyrics, you probably DO know our politics… and a lot of it is written with contempt for people who just think what they’re told to think and so I’m not about to start telling you what to think…
But I implore that when someone DOES tell you what to think, how to act or how to VOTE that you listen. Don’t just listen to what you’re being told. Listen to how it’s being said to you – because some people speak to you calmly, some speak to you angrily, and some speak with contempt and some speak with humility. Sometimes it doesn’t tell you what that speaker is really thinking, but it can tell you a lot of what they think of YOU. And that’s important – because YOU are important.
And because that’s my message to the listeners – I hope the speakers are listening too. Because how you speak to someone is important. The ends do NOT justify the means because at the end of the day (or the week if you want to talk about elections, or the month if you want to talk lawsuits, or year if you want to talk pandemics… or further out if you want to REALLY talk about pandemics…) unless you’re calling for some sort of genocide or a war (and some are, which is disgusting) beyond just Living with our choices we all have to Live with one another.
Anyone who would have you simply dismiss half of our nation because we don’t all think alike is encouraging you to think short term. Looking at all the wonderful photographs this weekend of people building ways for their kids to enjoy a thoroughly bizarre version of Halloween despite COVID-19 makes me think some of YOU might have children. You don’t get to think short term.
We can’t afford to think short term. Our leaders shouldn’t be allowed to either.
As always, thanks for listening. And thanks for thinking.
I Love you and I Miss You.
Vote.
Many years ago I wrote a Journal entry about someone rolling down a street in Belleville, IL in a gigantic pickup truck and frankly I don’t remember what I wrote and I’m too lazy to go look it up – but I got a really pissed off email about how as a liberal east-coaster I had no right to come in and bring my elitist contempt to a small Midwest town and that my music was welcome but my pompous attitude was not.
I remember being totally caught off guard at the time, but it really made me look at how people communicated with one another – and something that the Left, the Blue States and the … frankly, Liberal Elite don’t own up to ENOUGH is the fact that there’s absolutely contempt for the working class in a lot of our* language. Weight on the concept of college degrees vs GEDs, office jobs vs service industry. “Flyover states” “redneck” … Obama calling out people with their “bibles and their guns” – this is done all the time, big and small, on NPR and on Facebook and up and down the spectrum and it’s wrong.
And it’s absolutely left a huge opening for white grievance and the feeling that us city folk don’t appreciate the challenges of rural Living. It’s left an easy opening for people to assume that saying Black Lives Matter means someone else DOESN’T and it’s left a crack for people who “aren’t racist BUT…” to claw their way into mainstream politics – and whereas I do NOT understand how I can forget who’s producing the food I buy and who’s fixing my water heater and who built my car – I get how someone in Illinois can see Washington DC as nothing but a source of red tape and corruption. President Trump has capitalized on this – intentionally or simply by following the path of least resistance.
I do NOT know how a man known in the 80s and 90s for dating supermodels and owning gold-plated toilets came to speak for the “everyman” – but I THINK it’s precisely because we didn’t. SO he made snide comments and outrageous comments and promised the world… or at least a very specific KIND of world.
But from what I’ve seen, following varied news sources (yep, I tune into Fox as well as NPR, WTOP and the Washington Post and the NY Times – but I try to be good about what I ingest and the fact that “the laptop” was broken to the NY POST speaks volumes about the veracity of the source) Trump hasn’t actually followed up on much of substance outside of business.
Despite bankruptcies and debt, he absolutely is a good business man – not in the sense that he runs good businesses – but in the sense that he comes out on top, generally by getting the best deal for himself. After all in fits and starts he’s gettin’ that wall built. And he’s not paying for it. We are.
But he’s not Donald Trump of Trump Industries or the Trump Organization or Trump National Doral or Trump Old Post Office or Trump Ruffin Tower LLC – he’s Donald Trump, President of the United States and we can not run the nation as a BUSINESS because a business is about squeezing, shaving the margins, and not paying for anything you don’t have to.
Writ small : As ilyAIMY I look for free food from the venue, a free place to crash and I ask for free parking… because I’m trying to make a Living and pay my band. But a government, a PRESIDENT, has to not just make sure they’re making a Living and that their staff gets paid – but they have to worry about the venue, the hotel industry, and that the parking attendant’s getting work. It’s just entirely the wrong philosophy.
And so when Biden says “To live together and work together. That’s how I see America. That’s how I see the presidency, and that’s how I see the future” and Trump says things like “we’re really at a low level [re : COVID-19] if you take the blue states out” I feel that I’m seeing a presidential approach vs a business approach.
We cloister ourselves in an effort to avoid conflict, but in the process we lose our ability to Live together in the future. If you’re only ingesting your news from NPR you NEED to go look at Fox news for a bit and understand that the information… though not necessarily DIFFERENT from what you can get from more centrist or left-leaning media is certainly weighted differently (for example, there’s an article about COVID on the splash screen on NPR right now, but I have to scroll two screens before seeing it mentioned – in the opinion section – on Foxnews.com – but by 9 scrolls you’re also reaching the information that “Majority trusts Biden on COVID, half say virus is out of control”**) – and looking at what view we’re being shown of the world is a huge part of understanding why people think (and vote) the way they do…
In any case, I doubt I’m changing anyone’s minds, and literally 40% of the nation’s eligible voters have already cast their ballot (and it really feels as if that means no-one should be allowed to change the rules at this point TEXAS) so it’s too late in most cases. But Tuesday’s Election Day and we’ve got someone at the reins who shows no compunction about lying to get his way – because in business you beg, borrow and steal LONG before you pay retail.
For anyone undecided on the left? Biden’s centrist – it’s true – but that means pushing to the left from where we are… and if your destination is in a particular direction, you should go that direction even if you’re moving a little slow…
… and for anyone undecided on the right? Biden wouldn’t have looked too out of place on a Republican ticket pre-Obama. Whether you’re about family values and need to take a closer look at how Trump has Lived his tabloid-baiting Life, or actually ARE a believer in Law and Order and need to take a closer look at the way in which Trump has been allowed to flout both first in his business dealings and now in his political Life… Law and Order, should NOT be a code word for “militarized police” or even just a TV show – but genuine goals.
And last point? Don’t ask on Facebook and NextDoor where to vote. Use your state’s website. Keep social media SOCIAL and get your info from the SOURCE.
But vote.
*I don’t actually identify with being part of the “Liberal Elite” but barring income and property ownership I DO tick a lot of the boxes
**though I note Fox has gotten rid of their COVID death / infection ticker in the last couple of days
Extra credit reading :
If ROB was elected on Tuesday – he’d make the following executive orders the moment he sat his ass in the Oval Office, followed by a push for Congress to actually pass laws of similar spirit:
- Establish a non-partisan federal board of elections that is responsible for normalizing state voting laws and has the capacity for funding changes to said laws. This board would also have investigatory and enforcement powers.
- Establish a Rule of Precedent for the Executive and Legislative branches. Get rid of “democratic norms” and give them the force of law. If something is done in a particular way (like, I don’t know – you take the action to block a president from appointing a judge with 8 months left in that presidents’ term) it would then take an act from Congress (2/3 majority) to change that precedent.
- The Hatch Act would be given huge, gnashing teeth.
- Something big sort of related to section 230 to investigate how we can make social media and other internet companies more responsible for the fact that they’ve given people a platform for screaming FIRE in the crowded theatre that is the world…
- Something big sort of related to investigating what we do about people (private citizens as well as public figures and politicians) DO scream FIRE in the crowded theatre that is the world…
Yeah. That’d be a good starting point.
