An open letter

[soc_puppet]

Dear Democratic Party,

Hi! Remember me? I'm that young semi-marginalized person that's been voting for you for a few years now.

Sadly, I don't think I'm going to be doing so again for a while. It's nothing personal, really - except, wait, IT TOTALLY IS.

That thing where you're voting to take away my bodily autonomy? That thing where you're allowing my right to get married to the person I choose go up for vote by mob mentality? That thing where you don't seem to give a flying fuck whether you actually reform our health care?

Well, the personal is political, as they say. And it doesn't get much more personal than what I decide to do with my uterus, who I want to spend my life with, and whether I can survive from day to day.

It doesn't even matter if it's just me or not. The fact that you're deciding this for every other woman, queer person, and person who can't afford basic health care in this country, though? The fact that you're doing all of this when you claim to be the party that won't?

Color me disillusioned. Color me abandoned. Color me sick-at-heart. Color me something - anything - other than blue. Because I'm tired of this.

Next election, if I vote, I'll be voting for someone whose views actually align with my own, regardless of party affiliation. And if they lose? Well, at least I'll have gone down standing for my principles - which is something more than you can say.

Either way, I'm outta here.

----

On that note, anyone interested in moving to Canada with me? Alternately, for those already in Canada, would you mind if I were to drop in occasionally and/or set up an anime club or something? Because I could, potentially, do this on my own. I would still like an eensy bit more of a support network than that, though.

Comments

[meigui]

Honestly, I think we're just going through another party paradigm shift. Which. Looking at US history, we've kind of been overdue one for a decade or two now anyway--I'm thinking what'll happen is that the Republican party will devour itself slowly and painfully, the Democrats will sidle rightwards to make up for it, and a third, more liberal party will rise up to make up for that, allowing for a net leftwards movement. (Or we might even have another full-on reversal of polarity and the Republican party will become liberal again--after all, in the prior half of the twentieth century, the Dems were conservative and the Repubs were liberal, so it's not inconceivable that they'd switch roles again.) It'd be happening faster, I think, but the economy right now has been prolonging the process--politics trends towards the conservative side when the economy gets sluggish, but meanwhile the social forces behind the current liberal movement are, I think, so strong anyway that the interaction has been giving us these strange eddies--NOM, the teabaggers, etc.

TL;DR: wait out the storm! It'll be okay in the end, I think.

[soc_puppet]

I'd be okay with either of those, really - or, better yet, get more than two parties in the game for a while. The problem is, I go off my parents' health insurance in two years. Two years from now is also when the thing the Iowa conservatives have to counter gay marriage here will go up for vote or whatever. Coincidentally, it takes about two years to become a Canadian citizen!

I may try for dual citizenship, if such a thing would be available to me. If things look like they're starting to get better before I complete the process (or I end up with some other viable health care coverage and my rights otherwise do not go sliding wildly backwards), I'll probably not move after all. If, however, they aren't better yet, and they don't look like they'll be getting better in the extremely near future, it's off to the north I'll be. I can always move back later, I'm (reasonably) sure.

[meigui]

...ah, right, I forgot Canada allows for dual citizenship. I also didn't realize you could get it that fast, too--my parents' naturalization process took upwards of five times that long. In that case, though, it does sound like a good backup plan to have in case things don't start improving quickly enough over here.

[soc_puppet]

Oh Canada~ ♫♪

Well, that's what was said in the post I linked up there; though, if I'm remembering/interpreting correctly from some of your posts, the fact that I'm white is probably going to be a nice shortening factor for me =_= (Not that I'm complaining that I potentially get a shorter wait; it just sucks that people who don't look like me have to wait longer.)

[meigui]

...I. Didn't even notice that was a link.

[MASSIVE FACEPALM]

...and it could be! But hahaha actually though my parents were immigrating from China, which. As I understand it, tends to make any kind of international process more complicated? Considering how bizarre China is about international relationships. (China doesn't allow dual citizenships; if they did my whole family would probably have them.) Anyway, I know it took them... seven? ish? years of having a green card to be eligible to apply for full citizenship, though, which is its own process that might take any length of time... possibly someone immigrating just within North America might get to skip that long part of the process, or have it expedited, or something but idk.

[soc_puppet]

Y-yeah, I've gathered from other posts by that contributor that Canada has its own problems with race and racism and is not actually a Magical Land of Rainbows, Puppies and Unicorns. And that the Canadian conservatives have taken to complaining about immigrants who had the temerity to be born (gasp!) some shade of brown! And how they're ruining the country for the Noble White Folks! So I'm guessing that my Acceptable Level of Whiteness and moving from a Predominantly Perceived As White country will probably afford me some privilege here, sigh. Though I won't count out geographical convenience as a possible factor ;)

[meigui]

Well... yeah, every place has its issues! I've had some Asian Canadian friends, who... yes. Issues. Some of them a lot worse than what I got as a kid in North Carolina, although I was living in a college town at the time so it's not exactly like the rest of the American South. Eh, what can you do?