I’ve been talking things over with my cat, Roscoe, as the political campaigns start to heat up here in Pagosa Springs, and in Colorado.
I can’t tell if Roscoe has strong opinions about the candidates or issues, but he’s definitely a good listener. As long as I keep petting him.
He’s pretty affectionate, for a male cat. Not that I would classify ‘males’ as generally non-affectionate, mind you, but I find — among humans — that women tend to do more hugging and touching than men do. But cats are ‘non-binary’ when it comes to affection. Based on my limited experience, a male cat is just as likely to rub up against your leg, for no apparent reason, as a female cat.
Roscoe’s generous and affectionate nature does not extend to birds and small rodents, however. If you’re a bird, or a baby chipmunk, you definitely do not want to try and get close to Roscoe. Same general situation goes for dogs. If you’re a dog, and you know what’s good for you, you want to give Roscoe a wide berth.
During our discussions about politics, I have been explaining to Roscoe how the Democrats and the Republicans have basically stopped communicating at the level of rational discourse. It’s like the universe has split into two completely different versions. There’s the Democrat universe, over there on the left, and the Republican universe, over there on the right, with no apparent connection between the two.
Fortunately, these two disassociated universes are not the actual universe, as I have been explaining to Roscoe.
The actual universe is Unaffiliated. Non-binary.
According to what Roscoe and I have found online… (he likes to jump up on my desk and help me surf the web)… Colorado voters lived in the same, shared universe back in 2010, when 33% were registered Republican, 33% were Democrats, and 34% were Unaffiliated.
But according to the latest numbers from the Secretary of State (who has admitted to being a Democrat) the Republican universe now contains only about 26% of the registered voters; the Democrat universe, about 29%; and the actual universe — the Unaffiliated Universe (where Roscoe and I live) — accounts for about 43% of the voters. Which is to say, 43% of voters have not allowed Colorado politics to drive them over the cliffs of insanity.
I wish it were 50%. And maybe that’s where we’re headed? The percentage of Unaffiliated voters, among the Millennial Generation, appears to be in excess of 50% already.
What strikes me as strange (and it also strikes Roscoe as strange, I think) is that 100% of the politicians serving in the Colorado General Assembly, or in an elected state office, belong to either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It’s like, Denver is not part of the actual universe.
Why aren’t 43% of the politicians Unaffiliated? No one seems to know. It’s like a bad dream.
Another thing I’ve been discussing with Roscoe is this whole ‘non-binary’ question, in terms of men and women. Or rather, men and women and ‘other’. Or men and women and ‘both’.
That strikes me as another method of being ‘Unaffiliated’. I hear that a sizable number of Millennials are now claiming to be non-binary, in terms of gender identity.
Maybe 43%?
Although I proudly consider myself politically non-binary (that is, ‘Unaffiliated’) and although most people (about 57%, here in Colorado) still consider themselves binary (that is, either Democrat or Republican) and might consider a non-binary person like myself to be apathetic, or worse, I continue to represent myself as “genetically” binary. My mother dressed me in blue as a baby, and — ever since — I have carefully avoided the color, pink.
But now I have to avoid the colors blue and red, to maintain my non-binary political status. So I’m wearing a lot of tan colored clothes.
Tan feels sufficiently masculine, without being too obvious. And it doesn’t show the cat hair.
This whole non-binary gender discussion is a sensitive subject for Roscoe, of course, because he was officially and medically converted to ‘non-binary’ by a previous owner. He doesn’t hold humanity as a whole responsible for his particular situation, although I wouldn’t blame him if he did.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.