Which version of the world is the one that will be coming?

[sovay]

A canvasser scared our cats this afternoon. She didn't mean to; she just rang the doorbell, which the cats still associate with the advent of vacuum cleaners even lo these many years after we have stopped being able to afford any kind of cleaning service that isn't ourselves. I looked out the window to see what she was canvassing for—like, if Charlie Baker, should I start heating the boiling oil now—and saw she had a clipboard and a bunch of flyers for Yes on 3. I ran down the stairs without even putting my shoes on. Probably I did not scare her because I imagine that door-to-door canvassers have to deal with all kinds of reactions, but I did kind of overrun her spiel by assuring her almost as soon as I opened the door that I was planning to vote yes on Question 3 and I would sign whatever she wanted to that effect and I hoped she had a lot of luck in the neighborhood. And then it can't be that I came upstairs and checked Facebook for the first time all day and saw all the links to the present administration's proposal for a science-ignoring, genital-scrutinizing immutable equation of binary sex and gender, but that's what it feels like. I am not really joking when I say that my gender is "BLARGH," but it would not matter even if my gender were "does what says on tin." It is more of this administration's gleeful monstrosity, cruelty for cruelty's sake. It should be fought for no more reason than that. It is wrong.

So if you live in Massachusetts, vote yes on Question 3. And vote Jay Gonzalez for governor, because I cannot imagine from his track record that Charlie Baker will jump the right way on this issue any more than he has on Syrian refugees or the still-languishing Safe Communities Act or the enforced theft of children from parents at American borders and I am tired of pestering my governor by letter and phone in order to coax something less than the absolute minimum of humane behavior out of him. This is where the ethical artichoke started.

And if you don't live in Massachusetts, vote for whoever you've got that isn't a Republican, even if they're an inanimate object or a consensus illusion, because swan_tower said it well. Vote even if you think our political system is a curdling trash fire. Vote even if you aren't crazy about artichokes and would really prefer a nice runner bean or something. You want to stand up and be counted? That's voting. Throw your ψῆφος in the jar. And hope to bury them under a hail of stones.

Comments

[davidgillon]

I can't vote in the Midterms, but whatever you vote for has all the moral support I can think your way.

[sovay]

I can't vote in the Midterms, but whatever you vote for has all the moral support I can think your way.

Thank you.

[shewhomust]

Good luck! And hooray for being canvassed by the right people!

[sovay]

Good luck! And hooray for being canvassed by the right people!

Thank you!

I want it to make a difference.

[asakiyume]

The fact that your gender is BLARGH makes me think you'd enjoy a quick tour of the "gender of the day" bot on Twitter.

--The gender of the day is a company of distant starlings
--The gender of the day is a manticore with a prophecy

etc.

[moon_custafer]

Ooh, yesterday's gender was spiked leggings. Much better than sadness and the smell of new car.

[sovay]

The fact that your gender is BLARGH makes me think you'd enjoy a quick tour of the "gender of the day" bot on Twitter.

"Today's gender is a happy hamster."

That's nice. I like hamsters.

[cmcmck]

There your government and health authority thinks gender is binary and immutable and that biology is destiny, while here, it seems to be a certain brand of feminist who is now thinking that way while creating terrifying links to your Christianist, anti abortion far right.

And people STILL ask us why we're scared!

[sovay]

There your government and health authority thinks gender is binary and immutable and that biology is destiny, while here, it seems to be a certain brand of feminist who is now thinking that way while creating terrifying links to your Christianist, anti abortion far right.

It's amazing how it all wraps around and is wrong from whichever direction it's coming.

Good luck with your TERFs.

[selkie]

But my teeth are tired.

*goes snapping, grimly, into the fray again*

One of Spouse's PTA colleagues gave me a lift home the other day. We drove past the anti-choice, anti-trans*, anti-everything but Fanfic Jesus protesters that litter the space between a couple houses of worship and a massive high school. PTA colleague is Jewish, worships Reform as far as I know, and said something about "transgenderism" being wrong and abortion just being a murder you had to live with.

I am afraid I nearly caused an inconvenient vehicular collision in my suburb's major thoroughfare. I regret only that there were no opportune red lights so that, having given her an earfull instead of a fistfull, I could get out and walk.

Meanwhile, her kid's off the playdate list.

[sovay]

*goes snapping, grimly, into the fray again*

STRENGTH TO YOUR TEETH.

PTA colleague is Jewish, worships Reform as far as I know, and said something about "transgenderism" being wrong and abortion just being a murder you had to live with.

I am glad your child is not in their house.

[gwynnega]

I've always voted for Adam Schiff without really thinking about it, but this year it will be a genuine pleasure to do so.

[sovay]

I've always voted for Adam Schiff without really thinking about it, but this year it will be a genuine pleasure to do so.

I'm glad to hear it.

[hamletta]

Fingers crossed from across the pond!

[sovay]

Fingers crossed from across the pond!

Thank you!

[starlady]

Well fucking said.

[sovay]

Well fucking said.

Thank you.

[lemon_badgeress]

We've had one candidate knocking on doors in our neighborhood. She started her spiel, I held up a hand, and asked, "What's your party?"

She said democrat. I told her I was voting for her.

I then verified which one she WAS, and thanked her for doing the work of knocking on doors, and wished her godspeed.

If this had been before the primary, we could have had a solid conversation. At this point? I only need to know one thing.

[sovay]

If this had been before the primary, we could have had a solid conversation. At this point? I only need to know one thing.

Agreed. Good luck where you are.