I was on the phone with my dad yesterday, and as usual, he brought up politics. And I fucking hate when people do that. Not because I don't enjoy a good political discussion. I do. I enjoy hearing other perspectives, questioning my own beliefs, and having conversations with people who don't necessarily agree with me. What I fucking hate is when somebody brings up politics for no other reason than to grandstand their own opinion.
They don't want a conversation. They want an audience.
And yesterday, apparently, that audience was me.
My dad was going off about Trump.
I get it. Trump is a divisive figure.
But I asked him one simple question: What has actually changed in your personal life since Trump took office? Not what some asshole on television told you to be angry about. Not what the Democrats are screaming about. What has actually changed in YOUR life?
“Gas prices are higher … Housing prices are up … Trump’s a goddamned liar.”
Blah, blah, fucking blah.
We're supposed to be a free-market economy, for fuck's sake.
Supply and demand. Remember that? The fucking market determines prices. That's how it's supposed to work.
But apparently, when gasoline gets expensive, it's the president's fault. When housing prices go up, it's the president's fault. When anything happens that somebody doesn't like, they immediately look toward Washington for somebody to blame.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Meanwhile, my dad is still collecting his Social Security check. So is his wife. They’re doing just fine under Trump.
Future generations may not fare so well on social security, but that’s not Trump’s fault. That’s been an issue brought up in every fucking election for the last thirty years or so. It’ll be fine for the next twenty years or so. It’s the future generations that are fucked.
Which brings me to the fucking baby boomers. What an extraordinary generation of selfish fucking cunts.
They inherited land. They inherited houses. They grew up when property was fucking cheap, when a decent work ethic could actually get you somewhere, and when you didn't need the government's permission to do every goddamned thing imaginable.
And what did they do with all that opportunity?
They subdivided the land. Sold it off. Pocketed the money. Watched property values skyrocket and congratulated themselves on how fucking successful they were. They inherited assets that could have supported generations, cashed them out, and left their children and grandchildren trying to buy back what they were handed at super inflated prices. Then they have the audacity to tell those children to work harder.
Fuck you.
And they didn't stop at selling off the land.
They helped build the regulatory fucking nightmare everybody else has to navigate.
There was a time when you learned to plumb a house by working with somebody who knew how to plumb a house. You learned to cut hair by cutting fucking hair.
Now you need licenses, certifications, mandatory training, permits, fees, inspections, and the blessing of some government bureaucrat before you can earn a fucking living. We've built an entire economy around making people pay for permission to do things.
And who gets fucked?
The generations that didn't inherit the land.
The generations that didn't get to buy a house for pocket change.
The generations that now have to spend thousands of dollars jumping through bureaucratic hoops just to get started.
You sold off the family wealth, helped build the barriers, pulled up the fucking ladder, and now you're complaining that the government isn't doing enough for you?
Here's a news flash: Liberty comes with responsibility.
I'm a fucking libertarian. I believe the government's purpose is to protect individual liberty. Period. Every action that infringes on that liberty ought to be questioned, and every politician who thinks they know better than the people they're supposed to represent ought to be held accountable.
Which brings me back to my dad.
Somewhere in the conversation, he started complaining about data centers and how much water they use. And I tried to point out something apparently nobody wants to fucking discuss: it's your greedy-ass local politicians approving these developments. It's local governments making zoning decisions, negotiating agreements, offering incentives, and welcoming these companies into their communities because they're blinded by fucking dollar signs. It's local governments approving surveillance cameras, automated license plate readers, and technology that tracks where ordinary Americans go. It's your city councils, county commissions, and state officials signing off on this shit. So if you're pissed off about what's happening in your community, maybe you ought to start holding the people who actually approved it accountable.
His response?
"Yeah, but Trump."
Oh, for fuck's sake.
Then we got onto immigration enforcement.
I believe the United States has a right to control its borders. I believe we should have customs enforcement. I believe immigration laws should actually mean something.
Apparently, that makes me a fucking Trumper.
Really?
And even if I were, who the fuck cares? I'm an American. I'm entitled to my political beliefs.
But here's what really pisses me off. ICE wasn't created by Donald Trump. ICE was established in 2003, under George W. Bush, as part of the massive federal government restructuring following September 11. The Homeland Security Act created the Department of Homeland Security. The old Immigration and Naturalization Service was dismantled, and its responsibilities were redistributed. That happened more than twenty years ago.
And the United States had immigration laws, customs enforcement, border security, and deportation procedures long before anybody had ever heard of ICE. The restructuring followed the September 11 attacks, when nineteen terrorists hijacked four airplanes and murdered nearly three thousand Americans. Those attacks exposed serious failures in intelligence sharing and national security coordination, and Congress reorganized the fucking system. We can argue about whether that was the right response. We can argue about whether ICE has too much power. We can argue about whether the federal government has overstepped its constitutional authority. Hell, as a libertarian, I WANT to have those conversations. But believing immigration enforcement should exist doesn't mean I approve of every fucking thing immigration officers do. How is that distinction so difficult to understand?
Instead, my father is so consumed by his hatred of Trump, reinforced by whatever he's watching on television, that everything gets filtered through that one fucking obsession.
ICE bad. Trump bad. Democrats good.
Or, on the other side, ICE good. Trump good. Democrats bad.
And that's apparently what passes for political thought in America.
What the actual fuck?
We've become millions of brainwashed idiots arguing over whatever our political overlords tell us to argue about.
Nobody wants to think. Nobody wants to question anything. Nobody wants to consider that somebody might hold a political position without subscribing to every other belief associated with that position.
The moment somebody says something that doesn't fit the narrative, we label them, dismiss them, and attack them.
Which brings me to something considerably more personal. I recently learned that somebody in our circle has been questioning Dawna's decision to marry me. Apparently, this person has concerns.
Concerns.
Well, isn't that fucking interesting?
Because this person doesn't know a goddamned thing about me.
They probably don't know I volunteered to put my life on the line for this country when I was seventeen fucking years old. That I served aboard a nuclear submarine, operating a reactor plant and accepting responsibilities most people couldn't begin to comprehend.
They probably don't know I've worked my entire adult life, building a career, leading organizations, and trying to create a stronger, more financially secure tomorrow.
They probably don't know how seriously I take responsibility, how much I question my own ego, or how much I examine my own decisions.
They probably don't know I've been run down by a car, had my body broken, endured surgeries, and somehow fought my way back onto my feet. I've died three fucking times. Three. And I'm still here.
Still walking.
Still riding.
Still living.
I looked the fucking reaper in the face and told him, "Not today, fucker."
And I seriously doubt this person has the slightest fucking idea how deeply I love Dawna.
She's the woman I'm going to marry. The woman I've chosen to build my life with. The woman whose happiness and well-being matter to me more than I could possibly explain. I take my role as her provider and protector pretty fucking seriously. Not because she's helpless. She's not. But because when I love somebody, I don't stand around watching them suffer and pretend it isn't my fucking problem.
Which makes these supposed concerns especially interesting.
Where the fuck were you when Dawna was living under the abusive thumb of that prick she used to be married to? Where was your concern then? Where was your outrage? Where was your willingness to stand up for her?
Because from what I've seen, you didn't lift a fucking finger when she was fighting for her life in that relationship.
But now that she's engaged to a woman who loves her, respects her, supports her, and would go to extraordinary lengths to protect her, NOW you've got fucking concerns?
What exactly are you concerned about?
That I'm authentic? That I work my ass off? That I've served my country? That I lead organizations? That I take responsibility seriously? That I've survived things that should have killed me and still get up every morning determined to make something of my life?
Or is it that I'm transgender?
Did you hear some bullshit about transgender people on right-wing-hack.com and suddenly decide you're a fucking expert?
I don't know.
And that's the difference between us. I'm not going to pretend I know what's going through your head when I don't. But apparently, you're perfectly comfortable forming opinions about me without knowing who the fuck I am.
And that's exactly the same problem I encountered talking to my dad. He hears me support immigration enforcement and decides I must be a Trump supporter. Somebody else hears something about me and decides Dawna must be making a mistake by marrying me. Neither one bothers to understand the person they're judging. They've already made up their fucking minds.
And that's America today.
A country full of people who have confused opinions with knowledge. We've abandoned critical thinking in favor of political tribalism. We've let television networks, politicians, and social media assholes convince us that everybody belongs in some neat little ideological box.
I'm a transgender woman. I'm a libertarian. I'm a veteran. I ride motorcycles. I believe in personal responsibility, individual liberty, free markets, and limited government. I swear like a fucking sailor because I was one. And I don't give a flying fuck whether any of that fits somebody else's idea of what a transgender woman is supposed to believe. That's the whole fucking point of liberty. The right to be who you are, believe what you believe, and live your life without somebody else deciding they know better.
And to the person questioning Dawna's decision to marry me, here's something you ought to consider. You don't have to like me. You don't have to agree with me. You don't even have to understand me. But you ought to respect Dawna enough to recognize that she's perfectly capable of deciding who she wants to spend her life with.
She knows me. She knows my history. She knows my character. She knows what I've survived, what I believe, and how deeply I love her. And she's choosing to marry me. So maybe the question isn't whether I'm good enough for Dawna. Maybe the question is why the fuck you think your uninformed opinion matters more than her judgment.
You want to know who I am? Get to fucking know me. Otherwise, keep your concerns to yourself. Because I'm going to keep loving this woman, protecting her, supporting her, and building the life we've chosen together, whether you approve or not. And I'm going to keep thinking for myself, regardless of what some politician, television commentator, or self-appointed moral authority tells me I'm supposed to believe. Because that's what liberty means. And that's what this country seems to have fucking forgotten.
Everybody's got an opinion. Yet nobody knows a fucking thing
