OK it’s been longer than a week since the last election. (hmm…election? What is this election?) My blog fast is officially over. We lost. I got sad. I got angry. I didn’t get over it yet, but thank goodness all that crap is over, time for the real shit to come on shooting down the tube, and by golly, it sure likes there’s a lot of shit coming and it looks like this ones going to be a double flusher. The world didn’t end like all the liberals and the media led me to believe it was. I’d like to think of Tuesday as more of wake up call then a death knell.
After the elections I was in a state of shock, I really hoped that Kerry was going to win. My belief system was totally ambushed, so much so that I didn’t want to write anything. I didn’t want to press pause on the movie that is my life just to reexamine everything. You simply just want to go and live like you were doing before. Then the next day I thought, man, I am such a fucking drama queen, get over it. Life goes on.
At the time, trying to organize my thoughts into some sort of coherent and intelligent reaction was impossible. If you wanted a pure visceral knee jerk response from me, you would have come to the conclusion that I was a blithering, nonsensical, angry asshole. At least the asshole part would have been new to everyone. That’s not me at all. I wanted to wait a little bit and let the rational side catch up to the emotional side. I’m a lover baby, not a fighter. Yet trying to be rational isn’t always easy to do, my opinions about what happened and what to do next change from one minute to the next.
That Friday I went to a cousin’s wedding in Culver City. I didn’t feel like celebrating anything, or going to a wedding nonetheless, but it was a Buddhist wedding, so I thought, this might be a fun thing to experience. I was expecting gongs and tons of incense and flowy orange robes, only to be surprised as to how ignorant I was about the whole thing. Unfortunate for me those Buddhist ceremonies can be just as long and boring as all of the other weddings I’ve been to. The whole time I was there I kept on thinking, “how the hell can anyone get married this week? What an ugly disgusting week to pledge your love to another human being.” Then I realized, “Jesus, Gary, you’re so selfish, so high and mighty, so morally righteous, you’re exactly like them.” I forced a happy face on, and tried my hardest to resist bringing up political matters, it was my cousin’s day and even though Bush spoiled my week, why should I spoil theirs?
At the reception, I couldn’t help myself and I was able to force the topic of politics on a few family members. None of them had deep rooted fanatical convictions; they just chose to vote for Bushy for whatever reason. I realized that the majority of the family that was there were stone cold Republicans. This shook me up a bit because now the enemy had a face, and that enemy’s face happen to look a lot like mine (not as handsome, but pretty durn close).
My sister and I ganged up on my mom (who usually votes Democratic but for some reason voted Republican this time) and berated her with the extreme consequences of her decision. “Do you want Edgar to go to war? Would you like to have a home movie of Edgar getting his head slowly chopped off with a butter knife? Do you want illegitimate grandkids because Shiredee can’t get any abortions? I hope you stocked up on wire hangers mom, those plastic dealys ain’t going to get the baby out! It might agitate it, but that puppy ain’t going nowhere!” Of course it was all in fun, but there was still a little truth in there.
A friend of mine said that you can’t really humanize the Republicans, but it’s hard not to when they’re your own flesh and blood. My parents aren’t crazy conservatives, really, they’re just mom and dad. How far should I go and chastise them for their beliefs? That’s the catch-22 with freedom of choice, people aren’t always going to choose the choices you make. I hate this phrase, but it is relevant, but we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. I piss them off now, I can say goodbye to home cook Filipino food for good.
I know some people who were visibly shaken by Tuesday’s results, but to a certain extent I wasn’t too surprised. I hoped Kerry was going to pull through, but I knew deep down, that the conservatives were going to take this one. I think it was because I spent a good chunk of my life deep in the bowels of conservative Orange County and I knew just how strong and dirty they could play. A few years ago when Gay Civil Unions was up on the ballot in California, I watched as the crazy Christians mobilized and banned together to destroy that measure. I was amazed at how easy it was for them to get together and ejaculate a huge amount of Christian hatred spew on everyone’s face. After my eyes stopped stinging and I wiped the crust away, I realized these guys don’t want to play nice. It baffles me that these people would deny gift registry at Pottery Barn to homosexuals, yet they’d be fine with sending their children off to war to die. Unfortunately I’ve never seen this kind of unity or strength in the Democratic party, but really I latched onto some kind of hope they were going get it right.
The truth of the matter is that we have to all still have to live together, as annoying and crazy as they are, I still have to live with them. These people didn’t just magically appear, they were always there, and I have to remember that. If anything, the election just made it easier for me to identify the enemy. Yeah asshole, speak up, wave that stupid misspelt picket sign in my face. Now I’ve got my eye on you.
It’s nice to think that our country is so neatly color coded and divided, but it’s not as simple as that. Here in my great ole blue state of California there are still millions and millions of Republicans. We barely won. Then there’s Texas, did you see the tip of that state? How blue that little bit stood out amongst that sea of red. That part of Texas succeeded against all those odds, and it brings a tear to my eye. My advice to all the blue people in red states, stay there! Fight for your right to exist and fight to change your state! If not for the simple reason that your ideas of democracy are warranted, then for the fact that if you come here to California you’re going to make rental rates skyrocket, and it’s hard enough trying to find a bigger place to live in as it is.
If you were to ask me on election day, what I thought of republicans, my immediate answer would be, “Boo! I hate those ignorant hicks! Boo!” Yet if you gave me time to think about it, like I’ve given myself, the answer would be a little different. I’m not making excuses for them, I still believe in my heart that their party is one whose foundations are based upon hatred and racism, but I just can’t fight 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To be honest with you, I’m quite lazy.
This blog by no means is a political blog. If anything it’s mostly personal observations with a healthy shot of pop culture wit. Yet its focus changed the moment politics entered into the realm of pop culture. I take a step back, and honestly, I just have to laugh at all. The whole thing is really so fucking ridiculous. It’s almost as funny as watching a Family Guy episode. Humor for me is the knife that cuts deep through the bullshit cake otherwise known as democracy. It’s through humor that truth can come out. Sure I can be rude and obnoxious, but for me, it isn’t so much irreverence as it is enlightenment. As long as this government is going to be acting silly, I have no other choice but to call them on it. It’s totally reactionary, but like I said earlier, I’m a lover baby, not a fighter.
