What's My Line?

I've been meaning to follow up my recent rant about the Democrats with a more general spleen-venting at the American public, who in-toto saw fit to allow President Shitbird to come back to power. I was going to focus on the spectrum from Trump-loving red hats to those who don't like him but thought they would benefit from him financially to those who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Kamala Harris for whatever reason.

I wanted to examine the sense of schadenfreude I get from the Leopards Ate My Face subreddit which offers ongoing lessons in voter regret. Mostly, I wanted to vent about my fellow Americans who let this happen, raging equally at both those who actively voted for Orange Orban and those who, through inaction, allowed others to come to harm. (Maybe we need a 3-Laws of Democratics a la Asimov).

Instead, I've begun to better understand some of those who drew a red line at voting for Harris over the war in Gaza or her retreat from transgender rights or other reasons. My attitude during the election was that I was disappointed in her stance of these issues and how she was running her campaign, but I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, and above all, I wanted to keep President Pantload from returning to power. Since the election, I've had trouble letting go of my anger at the whole idiotic lot of the American electorate.

I've written how many in the transgender community have pointed out that some Democrats are trying to scapegoat us for the loss in November. Gavin Newsom has been especially egregious, pressuring California legislators to abandon trans rights protections and sucking up to Nazis by inviting them on his podcast to agree with them that transgender school children should be denied healthcare and the ability to participate in sports. Even Pete Buttigieg has been getting in on the anti-trans action. I've been struggling with the idea that I might have to vote for such a candidate in 2028 (assuming we have an election), lest I expose myself as a hypocrite.

But I had a bit of an epiphany this week, thanks to a couple of threads on social media, which is that it's not necessarily hypocritical to draw a line, behind which one is able to excuse some level of lesser political evil, but over which this will not stand. One can disagree or even be angry with those who have drawn different lines, but it's unrealistic to expect all of one's allies to adhere to your lines as individuals. When a democratically-oriented political party draws up a platform or takes an action or refuses to take an action, it should come with the understanding that some lines may be crossed and those voters may be lost. I didn't know where my line was, or even that I had a line in terms of present-day politics, until this week.

Over on Bluesky, journalist Erin Reed posted her latest risk assessment maps for transgender people in the USA. They show an alarming degradation in safety for transgender youth in formerly "safe" blue states.

Erin rightly points out that Democrats in "blue" states are not doing enough to protect transgender people in general and transgender youth specifically. States with Democratic Attorneys-General could be suing hospitals that are voluntarily cutting back on trans healthcare in defiance of state law. The hospitals themselves could be suing the administration instead of caving. Her post resulted in a remarkable thread on Bluesky in which another poster took issue with Erin's framing. The poster, who honestly seems like a decent person with whom I could see being friends and allies, was genuinely angry with progressive journalists calling out the shortcomings of our Democratic leaders instead of focusing on the truly evil things that Republicans in power are doing.

I found myself wondering if this person has a line. That line could very well be that Mango Mussolini has to go and everything else can be dealt with after. That was my line until the election, so I don't think I can fault anyone for having it now.

The other posts that got me thinking about lines came from science fiction author David Gerrold. I've enjoyed David's work since the 70's, when he was writing for and about Star Trek, along with his own novels, short stories, and opinion pieces. He's been a staunch supporter of civil rights, lgbtq rights, and democracy. I rarely find myself disagreeing with what he writes, but he grew quite irate on Facebook this week with people complaining about Gavin Newsom and saying they wouldn't vote for him if he got the nomination in 2028. He wrote that he knows Newsom isn't the ideal candidate for trans rights, but that "he can be educated", and if he is nominated by the party he will vote for him because better a flawed Democrat than the end of America. Again, I get where he is coming from. But...

I wondered if David has a line. If Gavin Newsom went on a white nationalist podcast and said he now believes the country went "too far" on marriage equality, would that cross a line? If Newsom said the country had gone "too far" on reproductive rights, would that cross a line? This was the moment the light bulb lit up over my head. Trans rights is my bright red line. Not so much for my own benefit, but for the schoolchildren being denied the healthcare they need or the right to participate in school activities or go to the fucking bathroom. And for the adults who want to live their lives outside of the shadows and be recognized as human beings and citizens. I will not vote for any candidate, Democrat or otherwise, who won't proudly stand up for us.

And before you get shirty with me over this, take a look at the Mayoral race in NYC in which national Democratic leaders are afraid to endorse the party's duly elected candidate, Zohran Mamdani, in the hopes that either Trump bootlicker #1 or Trump bootlicker #2 becomes Mayor instead.

And look, I'm still plenty angry at the voters that resulted in us getting President Sundowner. But I'll try to be less so towards those who at least knew what their line was.

What I'm watching and reading:

Un Village Francais: I'm two-thirds of the way through this drama about a French town occupied by the Germans during WWII, streaming on Mhz. I'll have things to say about collaborators when I'm done.

Alien: Earth: I stopped watching Alien movies after they killed poor little Newt in Alien 3 (spoilers!), but this is scary monster fun. From Fargo show-runner Noah Hawley, streaming on Hulu.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster, the new novel by Charlie Jane Anders.