POLITICS + PERSONALITY: NOT Politics As Usual

Fridays at Justin + 6 are Politics and Personality with Washington DC-based gay party guy, and creator and host of Swish Edition, R. Scott Wallis. Expect to be challenged. Expect to be offended. Opinions expressed here are Scott's and Scott's alone.
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Hi, I’m Scott and I’m an alcoholic.

Oops. Wrong group.

I’m Scott and I’m here to try to break us all out of the boxes we tend to want to put ourselves into. I don’t like labels and I certainly don’t fit neatly into any predetermined column. So, I feel like I need to explain myself.


I’m not your typical gay American. I don’t belong to a political party. I don’t have an Obama or an HRC sticker on my bumper. I’m not sure I believe the G’s, L’s, B’s & T’s should be automatically lumped together all the time… since we’re all so different. And I kind of like the word tranny, even though I know it’s not very P.C.

I’m not a politically correct minion. I tell it like I see it. I think we all need to get real, work our asses off, take more vacations, and have more sex and not feel guilty about it. And when we fall down —sure, we can look for some help from myriad sources in the short-term— but, we shouldn’t expect a lifelong safety net.

I’m not a big-government champion like Rachel Maddow. I cringe at most everything that comes out of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth. I think CNN is just as bad as Fox News. (I do agree with 80% of what Bill Maher has to say however, but then again, HBO does everything right.)

I think Obama has done a lot for us gays, sure, but he’s abysmal at most everything else. Now, before you click away, you have to know that I’d rather move to Cuba than vote for Romney (I hear they have nice cigars and cool 1950s cars down there). I think the Log Cabin Republicans are apologists who value money over their own civil liberties. I think HRC just might change for the better under its new leadership, but for years they were a bloated organization that seemed to be more interested in throwing lavish, star-studded parties and securing a gleaming headquarters than demanding government action.

I’m an atheist who has morals. I believe in separation of church and state as one of the absolute cornerstones of this nation. The U.S. Constitution and Entertainment Weekly are my bibles. And I wholeheartedly believe in personal responsibility.

I’m an Independent with a capital “I” and a libertarian witha lowercase “l.”

It might not happen in our lifetimes, but we’re moving in the right direction. Before too long, we’ll have viable options besides the left and the right. Fuck the old school thinking of the donkeys and the elephants. We won’t have to settle for big government or bigger government. And we won’t let anyone tell us what we can do with our own bodies. Period. I believe I should have the right to drink a 24-ounce Coca-Cola, smoke some weed in the privacy of my own house, not have to give up any liberties in the name of security, and I should be able to enter into a mutually agreed upon contract with a prostitute.

And I’m not alone. We’re a growing bunch. Sure, many of you are towing the Obama line. I get it. But, you do realize that for every DOMA and DADT victory, this administration racks up a trillion dollars in spending, right? And I don’t blame it all on Obama. Many presidents before him did the same thing. And this current, do-nothing Congress? It’s been proven that they are the absolute worst in American history. We should throw ‘em all out and start over.

I don’t want to make you mad at me. I just want you to know where I’m coming from… and where we could all be going. And what it is that I’m going to be writing about.

Sure, GLAAD hates me. So do my Log Cabin friends. But, I do have tens of thousands of fans from coast-to-coast who listen to me on a weekly basis on my podcast…so I know there are some people that like where I’m coming from.

Bottom line? I’ll say it again… we don’t have to settle for one side or the other. There can be a middle ground. We can have all of the equality we deserve as Americans without all the red tape, government intervention, endless regulation and extreme overspending. We can respect and assist our neighbors, and live our lives the way we want to. All without spending money we don’t have.

In the coming weeks, I’m going to make issues fun and relatable. We’ll talk healthcare, the election, shipping jobs overseas, same-sex marriage… all of it. But, it won’t be politics as usual, I can promise you that.

I hope you’ll come back. Now, it’s Friday. Leave the office early and go have some fun.

- Scott