I should not be given wine in proximity to a Ron Paul supporter.
Yesterday, I attended Sam's mother's art gallery's grand opening. (Is that enough possessive pronouns in a row for you?) It was also a CD release party for his father's band.
There were hors dourves and (boxed) wine. While drinking my second glass of wine, a twenty-something woman walked up wearing a Ron Paul t-shirt and some (white) man in his fifties or sixties asked who Ron Paul was.
"He's a presidential candidate who is for limited government and getting back to the constitution," she responded in the tone of someone who really hasn't read all that much about the candidate that she's supporting. She was being vague and not specific, just "limited government" and "constitution" repeated like any good lolibertarian you might encounter in the wild.
And despite being in a crowded room with dozens of strangers, which had my anxiety flaring up like whoa, I let loose with, "He's also a homophobic racist who says he's for limited government, but not if you're a woman who wants to go in for a legal medical procedure."
It's a little paraphrased, but that is, pretty much what I said. I had to walk away soon after and told Sam, "Let's get away from the axis of evil." (Hey, he laughed.) I mean, I didn't even get into how Mr. Constitution and Limited Government has suggested building a fence along the US-Mexico border (thank you, Paulbomb Pastebin). One minute doesn't give me a lot of time to go into how most Republicans and Libertarians who rail about big government only mean smaller governments for corporations and white, rich men.
I'm sure they thought I was one of those one-issue voters, and in their white, white world of Southern Appalachia, the idea that Ron Paul is racist is silly (those newsletters weren't all written by him, after all). But I was still rather proud of myself. Even if they ignored what I said, maybe, maybe I planted the seed of doubt in that young woman. Maybe she's young enough and privileged enough she'll never have to think about what should happen if she gets pregnant unexpectedly, or what happens if she loses her job and needs government assistance so she doesn't starve, but for fuck's sake, you can't give me wine, stand me next to someone saying something so idiotic, and then expect me to keep my mouth shut.
(And yes, it felt damn good.)
This entry was originally posted at http://jadedmusings.dreamwidth.org/701815.html. You may comment here or there using OpenID.
There were hors dourves and (boxed) wine. While drinking my second glass of wine, a twenty-something woman walked up wearing a Ron Paul t-shirt and some (white) man in his fifties or sixties asked who Ron Paul was.
"He's a presidential candidate who is for limited government and getting back to the constitution," she responded in the tone of someone who really hasn't read all that much about the candidate that she's supporting. She was being vague and not specific, just "limited government" and "constitution" repeated like any good lolibertarian you might encounter in the wild.
And despite being in a crowded room with dozens of strangers, which had my anxiety flaring up like whoa, I let loose with, "He's also a homophobic racist who says he's for limited government, but not if you're a woman who wants to go in for a legal medical procedure."
It's a little paraphrased, but that is, pretty much what I said. I had to walk away soon after and told Sam, "Let's get away from the axis of evil." (Hey, he laughed.) I mean, I didn't even get into how Mr. Constitution and Limited Government has suggested building a fence along the US-Mexico border (thank you, Paulbomb Pastebin). One minute doesn't give me a lot of time to go into how most Republicans and Libertarians who rail about big government only mean smaller governments for corporations and white, rich men.
I'm sure they thought I was one of those one-issue voters, and in their white, white world of Southern Appalachia, the idea that Ron Paul is racist is silly (those newsletters weren't all written by him, after all). But I was still rather proud of myself. Even if they ignored what I said, maybe, maybe I planted the seed of doubt in that young woman. Maybe she's young enough and privileged enough she'll never have to think about what should happen if she gets pregnant unexpectedly, or what happens if she loses her job and needs government assistance so she doesn't starve, but for fuck's sake, you can't give me wine, stand me next to someone saying something so idiotic, and then expect me to keep my mouth shut.
(And yes, it felt damn good.)
This entry was originally posted at http://jadedmusings.dreamwidth.org/701815.html. You may comment here or there using OpenID.