I’m Mario and I’d like to start off with telling you about myself. I’m first generation American and the product of three generations of legal immigration that resulted in my birth here in the States. Long story short, great grandfather was a migrant worker, and my grandfather although American, grew up in Mexico relocated the family, I’m born here, moving on. I know there is debate about natural born, but let’s leave that for another time. I’m also, how shall we say this, a Republican. *gasp*
(old man voice) It’s the party of old rich white men who want me as their gardener.
“Hey man I ain’t joe Joaquin, I gots me a car, okay?“
Hmm… Too good? Yeah I’m that too. But who cares cos we’re on the same team!
I like to call myself a conservagay (see that’s conservative and gay) now I know there’s varying degrees, but I believe in many of the sane things most heteronormal society teaches us. The value of nuclear family, fiscal responsibly, free personal Liberty and I loathe the intrusion of the federal government in our lives. You’ll get to know more on me I promise, but here’s the truth, someone has to do something to swing the pendulum back our direction.
What I really want is for you to listen with a logical thought cap on because I strive to achieve solution through logic and compromise. Sometimes, as we all do, I can go off or lose my cool, but I don’t like to and that’s the beauty of adult communication and mutual tolerance. When two or more people can have a conversation without emotions and use actual logic to solve problems, there’s very little that can’t be accomplished. The most successful marriages center on this premise and if we as a society want to succeed, then we need to learn from these examples. All of the Honey-boo-boo, Snookie, 16 and pregnant crap… YEAH, THAT’s an example to emulate right? Anyway… We all need a little more Duck Dynasty in our lives.
The time is now for a voice and voices like mine because we not only challenge the stereotype of our own culture we shatter the foundation of identity politics. Just because I’m Hispanic (or black or gay) doesn’t mean that I “belong” to any political party. I self identify as a Radical Republican (you should look them up), but just because there’s “radical” in my name doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m some crazy GOPer looking to serve a white puppet master. Individuals who champion social welfare and perpetual victimization are my target because, while we all may need help from time to time, society has begun to incentivize it; and that’s not cool. I see kids having kids for profit and I refuse to accept this as a cultural norm. I don’t give excuses nor do I accept them. I give and ask for examples when challenged because I like to be informed yet my opponents ultimately resort to rhetoric or name-calling when cornered. I call it the SIN operation, Sidestep, Ignore and Name Call. I’ve seen it, I’m sure you’ve seen it, and we always roll our eyes or get flustered then yell back; we’ve all been there. (The trick is to not yell back but point out the name-calling or redirect them to the matter at hand)
I challenge those who would write me off as a traitor and ostracize me for my views to befreind me. I’m not a bad person and I would never hold anyone’s political views against them, merely challenge them as I hope they would challenge me. When they become downright nasty or hateful because they can’t control themselves, I expose them for the creatures they truly are. I remind people that the KKK and Democrats fight hard to bury their past because it’s full of intolerance and hate. It wasn’t the Republicans burning crosses, it was rich white former Democrat slave owners.
I’m coming out for a second time because I want you to know me. Together our voice will be strong and we WILL shake the tree of rationality and all the bad apples will fall off. They’ll be exposed as they tumble from their respective perches allowing all the good fruit to ripen. We have let our harvest rot on the branches as legislators spend lifetimes telling us what is best or who deserves more. Sure some laws are in place to help, but the more laws a country has, the less freedom it will experience. I’m Mario, I’m a Hispanic conservagay and I’m here to tell you, I’m on your side.
