Knitting and Politics – Again
A yarn vendor mixed knitting and politics in a way that is starting to annoy the shit out of me. Recently, a yarn vendor whose yarn I really like posted the following on social media:
“For me, this presidential election is about choosing between 2 slices of moldy bread. They’ll both probably make me sick, but since I have to eat one of them, I’d rather have the whole wheat instead of the bleached flour. At least there’s some nutritional content in whole grains.”
Not Again – Can’t We Keep Knitting and Politics Separate?
Just to be clear about where I come from, my first choice for the Democratic nominee for President wasn’t Joe Biden. He honestly wasn’t in my top three. That being said, I am going to vote in November and my vote for President will definitely go to the person most likely to beat Trump. It would have been Kamala if she was the nominee, or Bernie, or Elizabeth, or Amy, or Pete…etc.
I also think that if you want a more progressive agenda from the Democratic nominee, criticizing him like the post above isn’t the way to do it. If you really want to pursue a shift away from Wall Street-owned politics…away from the corporatocracy, then start demanding that the presumed Democratic candidate move toward that.
For instance, I really would love to see some form of universal healthcare in this country. Joe seems to be the least likely candidate to pursue that. In addition to being beholden to the corporations lobbying against it, he’s also invested in protecting Obama’s legacy. But we do have some leverage here. All the people that supported Bernie and Elizabeth should lobby Joe to consider changing his position. Do I think that’s likely? No. Do I think comparing him as “almost as bad” as the current POS POTUS will make him change his mind? Again, no.
Two of my Facebook friends have been highly critical of Joe as the Democratic candidate. Both have made it clear they will vote for him in November anyway. They use that as their rationale for making the criticisms okay. One of them also figures that since he’s in New York State, his vote won’t matter anyway, so he’s free to let loose on Joe with harsh critiques.
I would suggest that if your really want change, work towards it. Stop bemoaning what we have and try to make the best of it.
Especially if your harsh words of condemnation go out far and wide to people whose vote might just make a difference in November.
I think this post and the recent post uses up my annual allotment of political posts. Especially political posts that are U.S.-centric and probably boring as shit to my non-U.S. readers. Thank you all for indulging me and letting me vent a bit.
A Different Yarn Vendor
I love the yarn produced by the person quoted above. So, I will continue to patronize his business, and recommend others do as well.
But (as noted in an earlier blog post) my fickle eye was drawn to urth’s Uneek yarns on The Perfect Purl’s web site.
In answer to the Pop Quiz, I ended up ordering Colorways 14 and 08. And I couldn’t be more pleased when they arrived yesterday.
Can’t wait to try these beauties out. And they feel as wonderful as they look.
Current Knitting
I’ve been distracted and unfocused the last couple of days, but I still added an inch or two to the Danao Cowl by Crafty Lukas.
Yes, I’m aware that this looks like the same photo as Wednesday, but it’s not. Please understand, I am fully enjoying this project and will make sure distractions don’t keep me from working diligently on it.
Joe, it’s your political posts that led me to the knitting blogosphere 12 years ago when I was trying to learn more about “this Obama fellow”. I cannot thank you enough for that serendipitous moment. Therefore, I absolutely approve and encourage *more* politics mixed in with your knitting whenever you like!
Thanks Marie. I knew there would be some who would be okay with seeing two blog entries with political commentary, but I think about readers from overseas who must get thoroughly exhausted having to listen to a self-centered American talk about elections…again! Glad you appreciate it and that it brought you here.
You suggest that progressives lobby Biden to change his positions, but also say you don’t think that will work. Surely one reason it won’t work is that he thinks he will get their votes anyway. It seems to me that the only chance progressives have of actually forcing change in the democratic platform is if we make Biden’s people believe we might stay home in November. “I’ll vote for you no matter how little you give me” is just not a power position from which to negotiate.
I’m sure lots of progressives will vote for Biden in the end, but what do they gain by saying so right now? Sure, it might make some people feel more secure. But those people felt plenty secure in 2016, and what good did it do them? It made them complacent, they ignored what a lot of voters wanted, and they lost the election.
This is where we disagree. To use your version of leverage means you may sway voters to do exactly that. Which is risky as hell. It’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans in this country. Republicans will vote for a piece of shit who kills hundreds of thousands of our people through his selfish neglect…just so they can get young conservative judges appointed for decades into the future. Whereas Democrats will criticize their candidate endlessly, risking them losing rather than accept that he will be FAR better than the alternative. Seems so short-sighted and non-pragmatic to me.
David Sedaris said this in the New Yorker:
“To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.”
I get that we only have two meaningful choices in the election and I thoroughly believe the democracy cannot withstand another 4 years of Trump. That said, it actually makes me physically sick to my stomach to think of voting for Biden. Once again, we marginalize the experience of women–continuing to overlook the institutional and systemic belittling of our lived experience. Democrats can get all up in arms about Kavanaugh, but we conveniently ignore Biden’s known sexual harassment of women because it is “harmless” and “he doesn’t mean anything by it.” I would love to see a groundswell among Democratic voters to throw out the “presumptive nominee” and coalesce around another candidate. It’s appalling that we are closing our eyes to this in the same way Trump supporters closed their eyes to his “grab them by the p*****” comments and others.
This is exactly the kind of comment I think is stupid to post publicly. Unless your purpose is to have people NOT vote for Biden.
What POSSIBLE good does it do? Maybe people need to vent about their anger. Don’t you realize the effect you have on other people who might not go to the polls in November? Fine, I understand you’ll be voting for him, but you may have just convinced three other people to not vote at all.
It amazes me that people don’t look past their knee-jerk responses to see the impact their commentary might have.
And one other thing I disagree with on your comment is how people see Biden’s behavior toward women. At least your comment doesn’t describe how I view it. My viewpoint might be equally as “appalling” to you, but here it is none the less. I think that for years it was common practice for a man to put his hands on a woman’s shoulders and smell her hair or to do other such heinous behavior. From what I have heard from my sisters and my own reaction to that is that it’s really appalling. And now this country (thanks to things like the “me too” movement) is working toward changing the rules. But there are those (including me) who sometimes still have blind spots when it comes to what is right and what is wrong. I am evolving just like I hope Joe Biden is evolving.
But even if you don’t believe he is, I still think sharing about it publicly is only damaging this country more. Call him out on it after he’s elected if he hasn’t evolved fast enough.
Your political posts are of interest to people overseas (I live in Shetland). The world is very interconnected for, good or ill, and it’s good to get an opinion from someone who is not on the tv, radio or internet news services. I am spending a lot of time wondering how the USA and the UK managed to vote in such poor (many stronger words available) leaders. How to change it for the better is a challenge. If nothing else the pandemic has brought to light the failures in the systems we have and hopefully enough people will vote for better next time.