Excerpt from an excellent, long interview –
“Speaking of progress, do you have hope we’ll be rid of this administration soon?
Here’s the deal. In one way or another, we’re stuck with one version or another of this administration until the next presidential election in 2020. What happens in November of this year is going to be a real bellwether for where we’re headed.
I was just recently involved in the campaign of Conor Lamb, who won in a predominantly Republican district in Pennsylvania, in my hometown. He upset a congressional Republican opponent who existed in a place where Trump won by many points.
I believe the balance will shift. If we’re talking about all these investigations and the undeniable corruption of this president and administration, I would love nothing more for them to be accountable for their egregious misrepresentation and attacks on equality of all kinds, not just in the LGBTQ community, but across the spectrum of disadvantaged, disenfranchised, impoverished people all over the country. These are people who have no one’s interests at the center of their Machiavellian ambitions. I’d love to see them brought to some measure of justice. I have to be reminded, though, in the eight years when Obama was president, eight years where all us liberals and social progressives relished in the progress made, there was a whole swath of the country who felt exactly how we feel now. It is part of the political spectrum and political process.
The thing that concerns me more and possibly most is how divided we are. It feels like the 24-hour news cycle, social media, technology, and the infiltration of all lives by these devices that we carry around created echo chambers that don’t allow for the kind of public discourse and respect that used to be the cornerstones of our democracy. So we follow who we want to follow, we hear what we want to hear. It’s dwindled the lanes of thought down to a two-way highway; you’re either going one way or another.
That’s what concerns me most; the lack of interest in connecting with each other and hearing each other and respecting each other even if our points of view or beliefs don’t line up. I have to think and believe and hope our country that we can do infinitely better than this sham of a president who’s currently in office, but I don’t know. And I’ve talked to a lot of people in the political world who think he’s going to get reelected. That not only would we have to deal with this for another two years, but another four after that. That thought makes my blood curdle, and I just hope that people see through these egregious lies and misguiding of our country.
I just have to say this is our democracy. We elected him; we have to deal with it. At this point, all we can hope to do as long as we have to put up with him is stem the bleeding. There’s no progress we’re going to make under him. There are no legislative advancements for the transgender community in the military and in schools, where they’re discriminated [against] and bullied in so many parts of the country. And the environment. Anything that anybody can do to back a midterm election in their city and their state — that should be our number one priority right now. And looking at the way in which Republicans have built themselves up from the state level of government all the way to Congress, we have to figure out how to combat that. I think the House is teetering; the news that Paul Ryan is retiring. Good riddance. We have to take advantage that the GOP is clearly seeing the writing on the wall.
The youth movement that’s coming out of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman and the way those young people have stood up and said we will be counted; maybe not today but the second we turn 18 and have the right to vote, we will be counted. That’s the future and that’s what we have to get behind. We have to amplify those voices and weather this endless storm. The instability of this White House is so disconcerting. I hope we pull ourselves together, and anyone remotely interested in the future of the country recognizes we all have to participate and show up and do our part.
What frightens is me is the precedents we’re setting by allowing Trump and his Cabinet to keep doing what they’re doing. On top of how Trump communicates, without an editor and without decorum. There’s no policy, no consistency. It’s just so unchecked and so uninformed. That’s what worries me, the destabilization of the office of the presidency. This buffoon of an entitled, lucky, rich businessman turned reality star is just repellent. The idea that that’s the standard that we’ve set for the presidency of the United States. Where do we go from here?
In 2020, what is the future of the Democratic Party? Who does have the political acumen? Put Oprah aside. That’s absolutely the wrong direction for us to be going in. We need to be identifying the future of political minds, not celebrity minds. That conflation and the way that we’ve lost the idea that celebrity used to mean you’re good at something; it doesn’t mean that anymore. The idea that Oprah, as good as she is at what she does, could be president is misguided. That’s not her skill set, that’s not her training or her experience. She’s great at interviewing presidents and connecting powerful people and doing good in the world, but she’s not a political mind. And she even identified that herself.
The thing that scares me too is if he does resign, Mike Pence is no better. Especially for the LGBTQ community, he’s the worst avaricious opponent of our community that we could ever hope for. So it’s not like what’s waiting in the wings is a rainbow flag and a hug for our agenda. He creeps me out more than anyone in the administration. The lady doth protest too much. I feel like we just need to weather the storm and get through what we’re in, whether it’s in six months because he gets exposed for the fraud that he is or two years because hopefully America wises up and realizes we can do infinitely better. Then we get back to the real work, which is moving agendas forward that will help equalize the playing field for all different kinds of people in the country, which is the cornerstone of why the country was founded in the first place.”
https://www.advocate.com/theater/2018/5/16/boy-band-zachary-quinto-state-gay?amp&__twitter_impression=true
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