11/30-11/31

Anna: Well Monty, I thought for our inaugural header, in honor of the holiday weekend we should maybe say what we’re thankful for, politically. It’s often a dreary, soul-crushing area of interest, but good things happen too. In my head I visualized each of us composing a list of something local, international, and meme/absurdity of the year. My hope was that our own examples would start a vibrant discussion. 

But as I tried to think of something I was internationally grateful for, I very quickly realized how badly this idea could go. Something that sounds good from here could be perceived very differently on the ground over there, and as it is much easier to be grateful for policies that have benefited you, not a lot of us here share the same state reps to have had equally good years. Much like an actual Thanksgiving dinner, the scene is fraught with minefields. Though unlike Thanksgiving, we will probably be unable to ignore politics completely. So how do you think we should start our new reign as WPT header hosts?

Monty: I don’t have any right-wing family members, so my Thanksgivings were more commiseratory than fraught– at least when I lived in the US. So at the risk of being boring, want to spotlight some national elections outside the US? There are a lot of places we don’t usually talk about here that are having them, and if the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that every election really does count.

This Friday, Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic) is holding a general election. The 21-seat House of Assembly is split between the center-left Dominica Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, and the centrist United Workers’ Party, led by MP Lennox Linton. Skerrit was seen in the past as a big supporter of Maduro in Venezuela, but now he seems pretty uncontroversial, and in any case the Labour Party has held a massive majority for nearly 20 years.

Anna: Elections I wouldn’t know about otherwise is exactly the shit I come to the politics thread for, are you kidding me!?!? It’s perfect! All too often I find myself so consumed by own country’s current awfulness (three guesses which one) that it can be hard to keep track of everything else. But it’s a big world, and a country having an election these days is a good thing we should celebrate. Are you usually on top of Dominica’s affairs or have you upped your game for this?

Monty: It’s a small country, so there isn’t much political “news” to speak of, but it seems responsible to bring attention to an election that might otherwise get ignored. Hey, anything could happen…

Anna: And on that dramatic note I will simply remind our regular readers that the Mayor McSquirrel (no threats of violence) and Red Handle (no body shaming) Rules are in effect. Happy posting!