About Maryscott O'Connor

JANUARY, 2009:

I have to say this -- The person I was when I wrote this... She's not here anymore. I don't believe in the Democratic Party any longer. I'm still a liberal. Even more radical than ever. But a Democrat? In name only, and I vote for the Democrats because I don't have any other options.

The profile of me that was published on the front page of the Washington Post in 2006

Until then, I'll let this speak for me -- THE PRIMARY PRINCIPLE OF A FREE SOCIETY, THE ONE ABOUT WHICH I AM MOST PASSIONATE, IS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.

A lot of this may be redundant if you've read the My Left Wing Manifesto and the Launch Announcement. Apologies for that, but I'm way too frigging busy to rework the whole thing. : )

A Little About Me:

Or, A Radical Leftist Liberal Socialist Commie Feminist Pinko from Hell

My name is Maryscott O'Connor. (MSOC for short.) I am 37 38 39 40 41 married to separated from married to Adam Crocker with a 5 6 7 8 9 year old son named Terry O'Connor.

(p.s. Since I'm faithfully updating ages and marital status and everything in between, I guess I ought to updating photos, too -- and as soon as I can find a current one that my overweening vanity can stomach, you may be assured, I will post it. For now, I will only admit that all that hair is long gone, replaced with a very chic bob... that has now grown into a decidedly UNchic shag. I've replaced the moderately flattering headshots that fed my pathetic vanity with some not-so flattering shots -- candids that actually have grey hairs (!) in them. So there. There's even one in the extended text area -- a SMILING shot -- that reveals my incredibly crooked teeth. Bleargh. I also stashed the old headshots there.)

Anyway.

Photo by Adam Crocker






I am  an orphan of Vietnam.

My father, Lieutenant Terence Raymond Roach, Jr. of the Third Marine Division, was killed on February 8, 1968 at Khe Sanh, during the Tet Offensive. I was born 3 months later, on April 29, 1968.

I consider Vietnam to be the defining feature of my life. Had it not been for that unjust war, I would have grown up with a father and a happy mother. Had she not been widowed, my childhood would have been very different; I cannot imagine it would have been worse (that's a lie: I can imagine Terry Roach coming home with PTSD and providing me an even MORE fucked up childhood than the one I had -- but I choose NOT to imagine it that way). It ought not surprise anyone that I have an extreme sensitivity to needless war.

Why I Created My Left Wing :

I created this blog because after over a year of writing at another political website, it became patently obvious to me, as it must be even to the casual observer, that there are liberals all over the world simply aching for forums, for an outlet for their voices, for contact with kindred spirits - and for even the most loosely based of communities.

The blogosphere's capacity for liberal communities is virtually infinite (no pun intended). There are millions of us out there in the world, and, like me, many American liberals have spent the past 6 years feeling  they wandered in a wilderness, bereft of companionship, solace or sustenance. Once having found communities in the form of public blogs teeming with fellow liberals, we also found our voices again. And we discovered that, contrary to the claims of the Vast Right Wing Corporate Propaganda Media Machine, we are legion.

What if all our voices, cacophonous as they might sound to the uninitiated, are actually the harmonic,  symphonic key to saving democracy, saving the Democratic Party - and by extension, saving our beloved nation and the world from the heretofore deafening and meretricious roar of the Radical Right Wing?

WE are the messengers of truth. WE hold in our hands the power to change the world. WE hold the high ground. So, we join together, with all our flaws and foibles, our self-searching and self-doubt, our myriad perspectives.  What was once referred to as the "circular firing squad" of the Democratic Party and the left side of the political spectrum in general has the potential to become not a Tower of Babel, but a resonant, harmonic chorus of a Liberal Symphony.

A Radical Leftist Liberal Socialist Commie Feminist Pinko from Hell:

I have always been politically aware, a Democrat and a liberal. In 2000 I became a political activist. The national shame of that sham election -- and the subsequent appalling abuses of power by the Bush Administration -- spurred me to contribute to John Kerry, to volunteer for the Kerry campaign and to become involved to a degree I never imagined possible for me. I joined Kerry's blog on his website, then another blog not associated with Kerry's campaign -- and began interacting with thousands of people who felt as I did - that George W. Bush was the worst thing that had ever happened to the United States and that we must do everything in our power to elect John Kerry and John Edwards John Edwards Barack Obama.

Well, regardless of the reasons why (and I have my strong opinions as to why), we failed in our collective endeavour to kick out Bush in 2004. After shaking off the disappointment, rage and despair, many people chose to turn their ire on their fellow Democrats, liberals and people of conscience. They call this the "circular firing squad," an infuriating tendency of Democrats and liberals to tear apart whatever organization and cohesion they might share with ludicrous internecine battles over everything from policy to campaign strategy to defining Democratic (or liberal) "values."

I'm no policy wonk, nor an analyst, nor a strategist. I do know that the Democratic Party is badly in need of reform. Howard Dean and Al Gore have my utmost support; they stand with a very few others in my esteem as examples of true integrity and passion for democracy and freedom.

What I do not support or condone: The execrable inclination of most entrenched elected Democrats toward capitulation, pathetic compromise, vacillation and outright spinelessness in the face of the most dishonest, manipulative and outright virulently criminal Administration in the history of the United States of America.

When a Party is in the minority at the Federal level, it is supposed to be an "Opposition Party." One must suppose, logically, that the term prescribes actual OPPOSITION to the ruling Party. The Democratic Party is rife with far too many of the so-called "Vichy Democrats."  (I say "so-called" because... I call them that.)

The final nail in the coffin of my support for the Democratic Party as it exists today came in the form of a filibuster that wasn't: the Alito nomination and subsequent confirmation to the Supreme Court. When 19 Democratic senators voted for cloture, they gave a de facto "Yes" vote for Justice Alito's confirmation - their protestations of voting against that confirmation to the contrary. It was a despicable, cowardly act - one of many in the past 6 years.

I do not believe in blind fealty to any political Party, but have never voted for a Republican in my life. Lacking any alternative in the form of multi-party or even third party viability, I'll likely be voting Democratic for the foreseeable future. Barring the creation of a new party, a third party - and I say "barring" because it's simply not going to happen in this political system -- we have to REFORM the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party must move further LEFT. Cautious, moderate centrism might have been laudable, once upon a time; but once the Radical Right Wing of the Republican Party began the inexorable shift of the entire American political spectrum further and further to the Right, the centre began looking and feeling exactly how the old Right looked and felt. America has a party of the right and a party of the centre - and in a system designed for compromise, that adds up to a government whose policies and ideologies fall naturally to the right of the natural centre.

If I must declare myself, I am a reluctant Democrat. The Democratic Party as it exists today might as well call itself the Centrist Party; the Republican Party is the de facto Party of the Right. Getting the idea? THERE IS NO PARTY OF THE LEFT.

Sorry, boys - I have no wish to be in the centre of what now appears to be half a fucking spectrum. If I have my way, the Democratic Party will once again be the party of the Left, the party of True Liberalism - and our Democratic Representatives will proudly wear that badge of honour. I have no use for Democrats who, fearing reprisal or defeat in elections, indulge in craven appeasement and capitulation to their opponents' framing of the issues.

ENOUGH of that shit, man. I want a Democratic Party with a conscience, with courage of conviction, with commitment to Liberal Values, goddamnit.

A good place to start? How about we defend the motherfucking CONSTITUTION? Patriot Act, Homeland Security, "activist judges" - don't tell ME we're not on the road to Fascism, man. We passed a rest stop in November and we could have turned around, but NOOOO, half the fucking country preferred to "stay the course." Well, almost half -- say, that reminds me, Democratic politicians: FIX THE ELECTION SYSTEM, you assholes.

ON ELECTION REFORM

Yeah, this is verbatim from the Manifesto, but it bears repeating -- ad infinitum.

Not only am I FOR it, I hereby declare that if you're a Democrat, Independent, Green, Libertarian, progressive, liberal or just an honest Republican and you don't consider mandating transparency and consistency in all voting procedures nationwide to be the Number One Item on the agenda of the Democratic Party, to say nothing of Democracy itself, then you are either ignorant, deluded or an asshole.

Of course, if you're a Republican or a member of any of the myriad varieties of Radical Right Wing Neocon Christofascist Zombie Brigades who only care about winning, it's pretty clear that reform of a voting system that includes companies like Diebold, whose source code in their voting and counting machines is classified and available only to their associates (no accountability to outsiders like, say, voting monitors)... well, reform doesn't really seem like it would do YOU much good, does it?

'course not.

I honestly believe the 2004 election was manipulated and stolen through the employment of computer fraud, voter intimidation and illegal disqualification of voters. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like (though I don't happen to believe that's necessarily an epithet): But please, PROVE to me the election wasn't stolen and that we as a nation did not experience a coup d'etat. I dare you. When the source code in the computers that register and count votes is not available for inspection and verification, there is simply NO WAY to ensure that fraud is not being perpetrated.

So even if there WAS no fraud, there will always be doubt and mistrust. It is IMPERATIVE that all voting systems throughout the nation be consistent and verifiable by disinterested parties or individuals.

So, to repeat: ELECTION REFORM: Number One Issue. Period.

My feelings and thoughts on IRAQ:

WE MUST GET OUT NOW. NOW, goddamnit. Now. But we won't. No, we'll keep killing and dying until the quagmire is unbearable to the majority of Americans, perhaps even until a draft has been reinstated and our own death toll rivals that of the Iraqis...

What am I saying? The Iraqis have already been killed in the tens of thousands. It's a goddamned mess, it's Vietnam to the power of ten and it will NEVER, EVER be "won." We created a civil fucking war, and we will NEVER be able to fix it.

I consider George W. Bush's virtually unilateral decision to send young American men and women to die and to KILL in Iraq a crime against humanity. I believe he used obfuscation and the certainty that he would be able to blame others for his faulty decision making to engage us in an unnecessary and immoral war; to that degree do I believe he has embroiled us in another Vietnam. I realize that Mssrs. Kerry and Edwards faced a mine-filled territory when it came to Iraq (pardon that metaphor, it's inappropriate), and I did not expect them to reverse the current course of events. I only prayed that once they took office, the United States would begin making its way out of Iraq on the fast track.

Obviously, that did not come to pass, and loquacious as I am, I simply cannot find the words to describe my bitter disappointment and despair on November 3rd, 2004.

I cannot fully explain why this war has affected me as deeply and painfully as it has. I don't know anyone over there, my son is not of age for a draft and my husband and I are too old for a draft, should it come to that. (I do fear that, given how badly the Bush Administration has mangled this entire situation, the government will be forced to implement the draft, regardless of who is in power at that point.)

It comes to this: I have a deeply ingrained sense of justice, and it has been terribly offended by this unnecessary war. I weep for the people of Iraq, I weep for the American men and women in Iraq, I weep for the families of the dead and the maimed. I weep most especially for each and every orphan created through George W. Bush's hubris and folly. The recent revelations of the torture in Abu Ghraib (the violent rapes of CHILDREN, for God's sake!) only adds to my despair and shame. To say nothing of my RAGE.

More About Me

I used to be a professional actress, before I simultaneously became OBSESSED with politics and decided to spend my son's formative years being a full-time mother.

If I could go back in time and change one decision, it would be this: I'd have finished college and then turned LEFT out of Ann Arbor instead of right. New York. I should have known that the stage was my proper milieu. But I had a man to follow to Los Angeles, and out-of-whack delusions and expectations of a film career. The lure of fame and money and love was irresistible to my vanity and self-aggrandizing self-image. Thus did vanity contribute to my seemingly irresistible (though certainly subconscious) drive to fuck up my life for at least a decade.

But such is life; had I made different choices, I certainly would have had a very different life... but I'm actually sort of ENJOYING the life I lead today. No regrets. Truly.

VALUES:

•    I am pro-choice: I cannot countenance a government being given proprietary rights over the medical decisions of any human being. I am also in favour of the legalisation of Assisted Suicide, for the same reason.

•    I oppose the death penalty: I do not believe that a state sanctioned killing is any less of a murder than the one committed by the man or woman sentenced to death.

•    I support gay marriage: I would like to see all state-sanctioned marriages become "civil unions" in word and deed. Leave the word "marriage" to the religious and give the gay community the dignity of equal civil rights under the law. I am horrified by the Bush Administration's encroachment of the necessary divide between state and church.

•    I oppose school vouchers: The Radical Right's passionate advocacy for school vouchers, combined with empirical data, have convinced me that vouchers are yet another indication of the Radical Right's agenda: the  erosion and eventual dismantling of public education.

•    Public Education: Forget that school district crap: I don't care what has to be done to get us there, but all children in the public school system of the United States should receive at least a level playing field in terms of how much funding  their schools receive. The system as it now stands is ludicrous.

•    I support the legalisation of marijuana (and, frankly, all narcotics -- see the My Left Wing Manifesto for more): it is no more harmful than alcohol, a legal drug - and I believe its illegality to be based in the stranglehold of the pharmaceutical industry on our lawmakers and government agencies.  •    However, for as long as drugs are illegal (and I realize my views on decriminalising drugs are not shared by most people), I believe that non-violent drug offenders ought to be put in treatment - not prison. At the very least, I believe that medical marijuana should be available to everyone. John Ashcroft's abuse of federal statutes with regard to medical marijuana was a vile and immoral abomination and I was elated to see the back of him.

(Speaking of Mr. Ashcroft: he was the very embodiment of abuse of power, but only one of many examples in the Bush Administration. The cronyism, the disenfranchisement of the free press, the vindictive punishment of dissent, the pathological secrecy - all these represent to me just a few of the reasons that George W. Bush's tenure will one day (and soon) be regarded with horror as the worst Presidency in the history of the United States.)

•    I believe that "three strikes" laws and mandatory minimums must be eradicated. They are unfair and disproportionately target minorities and people in lower income brackets. The differences in sentencing for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine are so obviously biased against minorities and the poor as to be risible.

•    In addition to sentencing reform, I believe in the necessity of massive prison reform in this country. It's a multi-billion dollar business in this country; By mid-2002, 1 in every 142 Americans was in prison. That's fucking outrageous. SO are the statistics on race and imprisonment. Every single federal and state prisoner gets counted in each state's census, and is therefore part of what decides how many electoral votes and representatives in the House each state gets. Hmmm. They don't get to vote - but just look at all those so-called "Red States" building more and more prisons. There is something really fucking rotten in the U.S.A., folks -- and part of the stench is coming from our legal system.

•    I believe in strong government regulation of corporations: the idea that companies, whose sole raison d'etre is profit, would voluntarily regulate themselves at the risk of that very profit - is laughable. I also believe that so-called "white collar crime" should be just as harshly punished as non-violent crimes of other natures. Why a man who rips off his company and its shareholders for millions gets a tenth of the prison sentence of that of a man who breaks into an empty house and rips off the inhabitants is simply beyond me.

•    I support the concept of Fair Trade, as opposed to "Free Trade." As long as the more powerful nations can freely exploit those with less power and influence, as long as American companies can "outsource" to labour making pennies on their American counterparts' dollar, there can be no such thing as "free trade." It is merely unfettered colonialism and exploitation writ large; and it damages not only the vulnerable nations and their citizens, but all Americans and their national economy, as well.

•    I believe in universal health care. I believe that if politicians were not so in thrall to the lobbies of the medical and pharmaceutical industries, it could be made a reality virtually overnight. I don't hold out much hope for this, but I can dream.

•    I believe in that most basic tenet of every reputable religion and philosophy that ever existed: Love thy neighbour. To wit: it is incumbent on each person to make the health, safety and happiness of his fellow human beings his primary purpose in life. By extension, this applies to every institution and every nation.

•    To that end, I do believe in humanitarian and sometimes military intervention by the United States and every civilized nation when it comes to genocide (see: Sudan), brutal dictatorships and the systematic abuse of human rights. I have long struggled with this idea (America as the world's policeman) and have not yet reconciled my revulsion for war with my visceral desire to end injustice and suffering throughout the world. If my reading of history is correct, military action is sometimes the only recourse a good nation has if it is to fulfill the requirements of being decent human beings.