This past June, I left Walt Disney Animation Studios after almost 11 years. Most of that time was pretty great, even (maybe more like especially) when we weren’t “succeeding”. I joined the company just before the release of Bolt, which was a huge disappointment theatrically. I’ll never forget the Monday after opening weekend, when it grossed ~$26mil, dwarfed by Twilight‘s $129mil. We gathered in the area known as the Caffeine Patch to hear John Lasseter tell us that we shouldn’t be disappointed, that the movie deserved much better than it got – better marketing, a better release date, a better reception. He assured us that we had made a great film, one that would one day be loved as its predecessors were. As hard as that message was to internalize when the world was telling us we made shit, everyone standing there knew he was right.
I think about that time a lot. I never wanted to work at a mega corporation, but Disney Animation (at the time) was a lot more like an underdog than the juggernaut is it now. The Studio hadn’t had a hit since long before Pixar had been acquired, and many people felt it was just a matter of time before it was quietly closed. But when a building is full of the kind of talent, creativity, dedication, and pure passion that was in that room that day, you can’t count it out. Despite pressure from parts of the Company that believed they were the true Disney, the Animation Studio withstood the pressure and went on to exceed all expectations creatively and financially, because at its heart it was the product of the people in that room.
In many ways I feel the same way about the country right now. Are we going to continue to be pushed further into economic inequality? Will we allow those who believe that we are no longer a nation of immigrants to define us? Or will we reinvent ourselves?
What do we want?
I have voted in nine presidential elections. In not a single one was my Primary choice on the ballot on election day. Not one. I was raised to believe that my responsibility as a citizen is not just to vote, but to fight for the person that I believe reflects my priorities, and those that I believe will best serve the future of the country (and by extension, the world). My father taught me politics and justice and commitment, a foundation upon which several PoliSci professors helped me build a passionate insistence upon truth, equality, and protection of the vulnerable. I have never and will never support a candidate whose commitment to those concepts is wishy washy.
and yet I had to vote for candidates that did not live up to my standards.
I have been the quintessential nose-holding voter. The single exception was Obama. I had not supported him in the Primary because I felt he was too inexperienced and likely to be controlled by the Centrist Dems. But I did believe in his passion and the fact that perhaps, finally, in the hands of a man of color, some racial justice could find a toehold. Unfortunately I was right about his relationship with the Blue Dog Dems as well as the Military/Industrial complex and the Corporate structure. But I digress, this isn’t an analysis of past presidents.
It’s a question.
What do we want?
I am NOT good at asking for what I want in my life. I’m more likely to just politely nod and smile and say “whatever you want” when someone asks if I want something, or need something. Except when it comes to politics and justice. In this one arena I am loud. And impatient. And I am exhausted by the willingness of Democratic voters to support people who offer absolutely none of what the voters claim to want. I bore painful witness to the rise of the Reagan Democrat and the castration of the Party. We haven’t recovered. We have only proven that we can find candidates that hide in the skirts of corporate donors and claim liberal victory by fighting for reproductive rights while voting in support of economic policies that devastate communities, environmental policies that keep the oil flowing and immigration policies that keep babies caged. And then we wonder why we are running downhill toward a Conservative Utopia.
It’s time to decide what we want, what we believe in.
Regardless of party. Regardless of past political opinion. We are on the verge of ‘it’s too late’. We can potentially find ourselves saying that we wanted racial justice, but we elected a white guy who thinks things are pretty ok because we had a black president. That we wanted real climate action, but we elected a guy whose relationship with the oil lobby made that impossible. That we wanted to make the world safe and equal for women but we elected a guy who felt entitled to touch, kiss, patronize them at will. That we wanted to end our world-wide wars but we elected a guy who had to take care of the profiteers. We wanted respect for all those with whom we share this country but we elected a guy who kept the lights on at the detention camps.
Defeating trump accomplishes exactly that and nothing more. We do not have 8 or even 4 more years to wait on the issues that are destroying lives, futures, the planet. The warning lights are all turning from orange to red and we are the only ones who can reverse it. It will not happen at the hands of anyone whose loyalty is to billionaires, the party structure, the church, or any lobby. The only path to real change will come from one of those candidates who is willing to acknowledge the failure of our systems. They have failed. If you don’t know that, you’re privileged enough to not have to know. But for those of us still living in the real world, our responsibility is immediate and daunting: we have to change. We have to insist upon it or we will have to join the revolution. For those are our only choices.
What do you want?
dawnhalloran 