It All Comes Down To This (My Final Word On The Subject)

Posted on November 1, 2012

I swear it’s like I’m psychic this week. Even before the storm on the east coast hit–at least I’m pretty sure I put it out there in the world before it hit–I posted a question asking who would be the first to blame the gays for Hurricane Sandy. Seems a little silly, right? Sure enough, someone did! And as if that wasn’t sad enough in a preposterous way, isn’t it sad that it took a hurricane to push news stories of the election aside? Not that it stopped them for long because then it became about who was doing what to help with relief and how the two candidates differ in their approaches. Let’s face it. We’re NOT going to escape this thing until the votes are counted. But then…there are stories about those, too.

Simply put, this election is a nightmare. I think, though, that it was going to be a nightmare no matter what starting four years ago. Why? Honestly, as progressive and leading the United States has convinced itself it is and as accepting of an African American president is in a Hollywood movie, that hasn’t been the case in real life. I can’t recall a more prejudicial response to our current president in all the presidents we’ve had in my lifetime. It’s appalling. And just when two parties should be working together the most to get our country out of the recession, Republicans state that it’s their main goal to make Obama a one-term president. This is why I don’t understand politics and it’s a good thing. I prefer to be optimistically naïve.

The economy still requires care and recovery. We get that. We know that. Has Obama’s plan worked? Not like we hoped it would. Will Romney’s plan work? I don’t know. We’ve only heard he has a plan, not actually heard many details about it. Is this a good thing? No. I’ll be honest here and say that if Romney had a plan that would get us back on track, had leadership qualities I could respect and wasn’t about to set the GLBT community back four years or stick its nose into women’s reproductive organs, I’d vote for him. But I can’t. I have questions he hasn’t answered. We have questions he’s evaded.

Romney and Bain. He won’t answer questions about it and what he has said hasn’t exactly been truthful. Romney and tax returns. George Romney (Mitt’s father) set the precedent for a candidate showing tax returns when he presented 12 years. His own son won’t go more than two. Why? These alone are enough to make me think the man is hiding something. Should a presidential candidate be more transparent than Romney is? Absolutely! This is someone asking us to trust him to run a country while the company he was CEO of is sending jobs over to China.

And speaking of sending jobs over to China, how is it a candidate can out and out lie about the auto industry sending Jeep production over to China when it’s blatantly not true? This is from a campaign whose manager stated it wouldn’t be run by fact checkers, leaving it all open to making lies the norm. When Mitt was asked by a reporter about any incorrect information that’s been given out, Mitt stated it was removed right away. It wasn’t and there’s been a lot of it.

But this is a bigger problem than any one candidate. Obama isn’t innocent of everything and I’m not so naïve as to think he is. I want to know what is so wrong with the American public (of which I am apart of) that we are allowing this to go on? When did we get so complacent as to say “Who cares if it’s true or not? It’s what I want to hear.” Why do we not demand better of our candidates? ALL candidates. I’m not sure if anybody watched The Newsroom with Jeff Daniels, but there was an episode about a debate that particular TV station wanted to host and lost because it was too truthful, too intense. That’s the kind of debate we need to be able to sink our teeth into.

Even going to the voting booth is bound to be stressful. Why? Because of stories circulating about how Romney is somehow tied to the company that makes the voting machines. Oh, yes. We’re now being treated to theorists telling us how he’ll steal the election. Is it true? Who knows? Is it possible? I’m getting to be a firm believer that much is possible if someone wants it bad enough.

Shhh! No more talk about the election.

Sadly, my vote this year becomes a one-issue vote. It shouldn’t. It should never be like this, but it is. It comes down to Obama’s backing GLBT rights and Romney’s desire to make our marriages illegal. Given the opportunity, Mitt Romney will make a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. Also, this will leave it up to states to decide whether or not I can visit my husband if he’s in the hospital. I’m not family and my marriage would most likely be nullified, so I would have no right to see my guy. Romney believes it’s a ‘privilege,’ not a right. And this is coming from a candidate who believes it’s very important to be with your family when there’s something wrong, as with his wife’s multiple sclerosis.

To my friends who are registered Republicans, I don’t care that you are. I’m being optimistic here and believing that, like me, you’ll vote for who you think the best candidate is despite which party they represent. But please, think about this when you go into a voting booth; remember that one candidate is trying to take my marriage away and make it illegal in this country for me to ever get remarried. One candidate is going to allow states to determine whether or not I have the ‘privilege’ of hospital visitation with my (now) husband. One candidate has lied repeatedly during his campaign and not cared. This is who we want running our country?

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Kristoffer Gair (who formerly wrote under the pseudonym Kage Alan) is the Detroit-based author of Honor Unbound, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Sexual Orientation, Andy Stevenson Vs. The Lord Of The Loins, Gaylias: Operation Thunderspell, several short stories featured in anthologies (to be combined in a forthcoming book), the recently re-published novella Falling Awake, its sequel, Falling Awake II: Revenant and Falling Awake III: Requiem.

17 Responses to “It All Comes Down To This (My Final Word On The Subject)”

Dorien says:
November 1, 2012 at 10:01 am
There are two sayings between which one might choose regarding these elections: “This, too, shall pass” and “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” I fear, with the real prospect that Romney will win, I must opt for the latter.

Sigh.

D

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Kris says:
November 1, 2012 at 10:37 am
If people can’t accept an African American president, then imagine their reaction if we ever have a gay candidate running for that position.

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Vincent Ravencroft says:
November 9, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Imagine their reaction if we were to ever have a Democratic gay, African American, female, atheist for president … Now that would be something the far right republicans/christians would sure be in an uproar about, marching with pitchforks and torches … LOL

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Vastine Bondurant says:
November 1, 2012 at 10:40 am
My gut is against Romney, and I don’t even know why, politics aside. I’m just not able to take him seirously for some reason.

The GLBT support is growing stronger every day, and I’m not sure even Romney could stifle it should he be elected.

But one issue that I worry—that has not even really been spotlighted but which is so hugely crucial—is our defense and the Middle East.

In that regard, I wish I’d paid more attention to each candidate, paid more attention to Obama and where he already stands. I only know that—with the thought of Romney at the helm against this impending crisis—I’m terrified.

I’m ashamed to say I do not know much about where either candidate stands. But it’s a looming issue, a terribly important one, and…well…now I’ve said more than I ever intend to about politics.

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Kros says:
November 1, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Vastine, one of my own personal rules that I’ve broken several times this year is to stay out of politics. It’s not a good place for me. But after these past many months, I needed to get the crap off my mind.

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GA Hauser says:
November 1, 2012 at 12:14 pm
I am amazed how many dazed sheep are out there and cannot see what is going on. It’s those dazed sheep who vote party and not ‘think’ that terrify me the most. They listen to BS they don’t open their minds to new ideas and they want to drag this country back to the 50s when blacks and women and gay were oppressed. The good ole days? I can’t wait for it to be over, and we shall survive whatever comes our way. But shit, I hope the morons don’t win.

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Kris says:
November 1, 2012 at 3:45 pm
The 1950s for women and gays do seem to be exactly where we’re headed if Romney gets into office. I honestly can’t fathom women voting for him.

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Lloyd Songal says:
November 1, 2012 at 12:34 pm
I feel Mitt the Twit has got a good chance of winning because they still have not learned how to count votes in the large swing state of Florida.
I think they should administer drug tests to all those old people counting votes. Who knows what kind of heavy meds all those old people are taking. Some of them can barely drive.
I mentioned to someone the other day, “Well at least President Obama has traveled the world, while in office, prompting good will and has made the World take us more seriously; because they have been laughing at the U. S. for years, and the answer was “Well I disagree with you their.” To which I just replied “Well that’s your prerogative.” What can you say to someone who uses hasty generalisations based on false reasoning?
All I can say is we need 4 more years!

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Lee Rowan says:
November 1, 2012 at 12:53 pm
I agree completely. And i voted weeks ago, by mail-in ballot.

The gay issue might be the deciding factor, but the way Romney’s been hiding what he did (and, I suspect, is still doing) with Bain would be enough, too. Of course Obama has been a disappointment, but given the massed opposition to change — the GOP has spent the last 4 years trying to make sure America makes NO progress — it’s sometimes surprising he’s accomplished anything at all. And we don’t even know what threats and dirty tricks are going on behind the scenes, but given the character of the Cheney-Rove types, we can be pretty sure there’s something nasty going on.

I am not optimistic. I worked the election in Ohio in 2004, and saw what the GOP secretary of state did to sabotage Democratic voters. Same thing’s going on this year. And the Dems did not even demand a recount, despite having solicited donations for that specific purpose.

Until big corporate $$ are taken out of campaigning, America is sunk. And since almost everyone in Congress is a corporate whore — a few bright lights like Dennis Kucinich are the exception – that change is unlikely.

My wife and I applied to Canada as immigrants after the 2004 fiasco. We are still US citizens, we still vote — but I doubt if we’re ever going to live in the US again. It’s a sad irony that my grandfather came to the US looking for freedom and civil rights, and I had to leave the US for that same reason.

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Kris says:
November 1, 2012 at 3:46 pm
I’ve joked in the past about maybe needing to move to another country one day if it gets too ridiculous here. I’m starting to wonder if it could become a reality. Why should I stay in a place where I’m clearly not wanted?

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Lee Rowan says:
November 1, 2012 at 8:59 pm
To us it was — why pay first-class-citizen taxes to a country that treats us as second-class citizens. And since we were approaching middle age, the prospect of both Social Security and Medicare being wiped out weren’t comforting, either. Or the prospect of being separated if we had to go to a retirement home. When Ohio passed a prop-H8 style amendment, that was the last straw.

Immigration to Canada is not easy, it takes 2-3 years, and the red tape is horrendous–also, since Canada’s economy was affected (though not as badly) by the meltdown, jobs are harder to find and there are more hoops to jump through. If we were 20 years younger, we’d have stayed to fight, but the odds just didn’t look very good.

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Monique says:
November 1, 2012 at 1:03 pm
I am voting for Obama, the reason I am voting for him is not because he is black but he is pro woman, pro healthcare and pro marriage Equality. Mitt Romney scares me as a woman and his GOP violence campaign is scary. I know like every politician neither on is truthful. But if I had to pick the lesser of two evils I will go with Obama.

Romney wants to take us back to the 1950′s where women stay home and have children. But Romney also wants to have every LGBT person to go back in the closet and no we cannot let that happen. Every man, woman and child deserves happiness whether they are LGBT or not. I will not let a man like Mitt Romney take away any persons right to visit their spouse in the hospital. It is a right Mr. Romney not a damn privilege.

Those are some of my reasons why I am voting for Obama

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Kris says:
November 1, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Not going to hear an argument from me on anything you listed. =)

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john says:
November 1, 2012 at 8:24 pm
I mostly agree with you, but I don’t think my vote for President Obama is a single issue vote. I also agree with a lot of what you wrote. The President isn’t perfect & think people expected that he would be.

I agree with a lot of what you said and have a lot of other opinions too…haha.

What I think it all comes down to is “us, we the people.” Until we collectively agree that it should change, it won’t change. It’s “we the people” who really have the power.

I saw this on Facebook and shared it today and of course, others got into fights with people who commented.

“”I wish my moderate Republican friends would simply be honest. They all say they’re voting for Romney because of his economic policies (tenuous and ill-formed as they are), and that they disagree with him on gay rights. Fine. Then look me in the eye, speak with a level clear voice, and say, “My taxes and take-home pay mean more than your fundamental civil rights, the sanctity of your marriage, your
right to visit an ailing spouse in the hospital, your dignity as a citizen of this country, your healthcare, your right to inherit, the mental welfare and emotional well-being of your youth, and your very person hood.” It’s like voting for George Wallace during the Civil Rights movements, and apologizing for his racism. You’re still complicit. You’re still perpetuating anti-gay legislation and cultural homophobia. You don’t get to walk away clean, because you say you ‘disagree’ with your candidate on these issues.”

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Lloyd Songal says:
November 1, 2012 at 9:08 pm
What I really do not understand is why any woman would be willing to vote to give up her own reproductive rights and her right to determine her very own destiny.
On this one point alone I could not support any president who would take away anyones personal right to control their own bodies and infringe upon my right and preference to be or live with whomever I choose.
What can we expect from a country who expects; No demands that young men and woman put their lives in harms way and then refuses to provide appropriate medical treatment for their sustained injuries during warfare to protect this country.

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Toni says:
November 1, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Said it before Kris and I’ll say it again, American politics now scare the crap out of me.

I’ve watched the run up to the elections in past years with an amused but distanced interest. This year sadly not.

I actually quite like Obama and I think I can see what he is trying to achieve with the affordable healthcare thing. I don’t understand why the average citizen can’t afford a few extra dollars a month to implement this. There WILL come a day that they or a loved one will need that extra help. Unless of course they are in the stinking rich minority that is!

But Romney….wow. Witchfinder general might be a better title if he wins rather than president.

He seems to me to have fallen right out of the dark ages. Chain women to the kitchen sinks, keep them barefoot, pregnant and in their place. Under their husbands thumb at all times. Woe betide a woman that gasp….wants to control her own destiny vis a vis childbearing.

Don’t even get me started on the whole religion and gay thing too Kris.

He is a master at subterfuge and avoidance and uses these skills freely. The American public seem to lap it all up and take it in their stride as thought they really aren’t that bothered by it all. (Oh it’s funny really I imagine them whispering to each other, lets call him Mittens he’s harmless and lets face it he’s better than the other one).

Where is your fight America…..Where are the crowds of people demonstrating on the streets saying NO we wont be treated like second class citizens…..you just change the channel and leave it to someone else.

The apathy is what really scares me most. (sorry for the essay)

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Sue Brown says:
November 2, 2012 at 2:44 am
From this outsider’s perspective, Romney does not inspire any confidence in taking America and the world forward. If he cannot control his politicians on matters of human rights then he cannot deal with the top job.

I have never seen an election reduced to a one issue campaign before. It’s go forwards or be dragged backwards into the nineteenth century.