♛These are truly frightening the times for many people, and you have every right to be afraid. There’s no shame in that fear.
I’ve seen tyrants like him fall on their own accord, through their own mistakes. Whether that happens or not, we must do what we can to build ourselves and our communities stronger, and refuse to surrender.
I take heart in the fact that great progress has been made in the past few decades by others who fought for their rights. The power of the President is limited, and there are many groups ready and armed to defend those who need defense. One such group is the ACLU: “The ACLU works to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people can live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association.”
In June of 2015, the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states, we all celebrated. Just one example of something fought for and won for the LGBT community, not the first, and not the last.
They do care, and they probably would have intense debates about the candidates, but they wouldn’t advocate for one or the other. You can check out Lestat’s answer to this question here.
I think Louis put their stance very eloquently in QOTD (my emphasis added):
“It’s their world, not ours,” he said humbly. “Surely we forfeited it when we lost our mortality. We have no right now to interrupt their struggle. If we do we rob them of victories that have cost them too much! Even in the last hundred years their progress has been miraculous; they have righted wrongs that mankind thought were inevitable; they have for the first time developed a concept of the true family of man.
… Don’t interfere with them. Even if they kill each other! Give them time to see this new vision realized; give the cities of the West, corrupt as they may be, time to take their ideals to a suffering and blighted world.”
Cut for length.
That was the issue that was brought up in QOTD, whether they had a responsibility to have political power and/or have influence the world or not. There was a council of sorts, and some heavy debate was had, mainly on the part of Lestat’s ultra feminist SJW girlfriend vs. literally everyone else except Lestat who mostly sat there terrified into silence and not taking sides, and it ended with the general agreement that they shouldn’t meddle in mortal affairs.
This is partly bc writing their involvement into actual historical events could be difficult if not impossible (What, did they fight in WWII? Which side? How would that even work, concealing their vampirism from their fellow soldiers??!), and partly bc AR herself wasn’t very political back in earlier canon.
(Side note: Louis and Claudia left America close to the beginning – or before? – the Civil War started, it wasn’t addressed in canon, Lestat was on his way to Paris to see Armand, and then Lestat slept through WWII…)
Even now, in the later books, AR keeps her world mostly separate from the Real World; IIRC, Hurricane Katrina was never mentioned in canon, and one would think that NOLA-branch coven founders Louis and Lestat would at least comment on that obviously devastating tragedy. At least one fanfic writer did take up the challenge of weaving in Katrina, and did it very tastefully. So it’s possible, but AR hasn’t gone there.
As always, #your headcanon may vary, but from my own reading of the books and the characters focused on (the main coven), AR does not make it clear how much power the vampires have in the world* beyond the fact that they’re rich if they want to be (like Armand and Daniel owning and running the luxurious Night Island, a lucrative hotel/entertainment/casino/art-space/etc.), or not (Louis living in a dilapidated shack w/ few physical possessions).
Santino and the Children of Darkness might have had some impact with their religious zealotry, but targeted at the world in more of a negative way, a League of Shadows sort of group. Other vampires, especially the new ones introduced in PL, we don’t know much about their interest in economic or political influence.
Speaking of Louis…
he put the Coven of the Articulate’s stance very eloquently in QOTD (my emphasis added):
“It’s their world, not ours,” he said humbly. “Surely we forfeited it when we lost our mortality. We have no
right now to interrupt their struggle. If we do we rob them of victories that have cost them too much! Even in
the last hundred years their progress has been miraculous; they have righted wrongs that mankind thought
were inevitable; they have for the first time developed a concept of the true family of man.
… Don’t interfere with them.
Even if they kill each other! Give them time to see this new vision realized; give the cities of the West,
corrupt as they may be, time to take their ideals to a suffering and blighted world.“
Cut for length, not spoilers.
*That was the issue that was brought up in QOTD, whether they had a responsibility to have political power and/or have influence the world or not. There was a council of sorts, and some heavy debate was had, mainly on the part of Lestat’s ultra feminist SJW girlfriend vs. literally everyone else except Lestat who mostly sat there terrified into silence and not taking sides, and it ended with the general agreement that they shouldn’t meddle in mortal affairs.
This is partly bc writing their involvement into actual historical events could be difficult if not impossible (What, did they fight in WWII? Which side? How would that even work, concealing their vampirism from their fellow soldiers??!), and partly bc AR herself wasn’t very political back in earlier canon.
Even now, in the later books, AR keeps her world mostly separate from the Real World; IIRC, Hurricane Katrina was never mentioned in canon, and one would think that NOLA-branch coven founders Louis and Lestat would at least comment on that obviously devastating tragedy. At least one fanfic writer did take up the challenge of weaving in Katrina, and did it very tastefully. So it’s possible, but AR hasn’t gone there.
♛*leans forward, fidgets with his sleeve, leans back again, smoothing it out, avoiding the question*
If I may quote from a blogger here, @lovefreeanddiehard, “This is truly a historic year. We’re either going to elect a woman, a Jew, the Zodiac Killer, or the start of the Fourth Reich.” [X]
Not that I fully agree with all of those characterizations, but by any definition it is an assortment unlike any other I’ve ever seen.
We don’t vote, it’s your world, not ours. So I can’t offer support for your choice of Mrs. Clinton (her stage presence and fashion sense has vastly improved since the 90′s, I’ll give her that). As Louis put it so well, “we forfeited it when we lost our mortality. We have no right now to interrupt their struggle. If we do we rob them of victories that have cost them too much!”
Of course I would love to… take Mr. Trump out for dinner *licks fangs* and stay to say grace when we’re done. But Louis won’t let me extend such an invitation or make further opinions on that. The more we hear from him, neither of us like the sound of “President Trump,” though *shudders*
In previous years we would gather and watch the debates together, Marius, Armand, Daniel, David, Jesse, Louis, and I… Sometimes Gabrielle, Maharet, or Pandora would join us if they were in town anyway. Catching Gabrielle up to the current political climate is my task and it’s barely doable at all because she tunes me out; her eyes glaze over and I can tell she’s 1,000 miles away on a mountaintop somewhere *ragged sigh* Exhausting.
After the televised action, we’d have debates ourselves. It was lively, it was good. This time around, we seem to all be taking it in separately, or with those we already cohabit with. Louis and I watch these debates mostly in silence, laughing occasionally at old rhetoric we’ve heard before and being grateful when we hear the voice of reason speak through one of them.
We’re cautiously optimistic about it all. We hope for the best for you all.
Issues we’re always interested in hearing about from the politicians: gun control, immigration (we’re immigrants, ourselves), the stock market (if you expect any of us to get real jobs, you’re quite deluded), education, etc…. the violence that’s erupted between the police force and the people they’re meant to serve and protect has been appalling. We’re beyond shocked that this happens in broad daylight, when we can’t stop it! We’re numb from every new video of another innocent battered or gunned down by a uniformed man. We would pursue those ourselves, if only they didn’t become such noticeable victims to take *frowns* But I’m getting off-track.
We’re invested in your future, because we do exist in your world. We want you to thrive in it. So that we can perch in a bar, watch you and your gaggle of friends, all the beautiful colors and shapes you’re made of, and then we go out and destroy the real monsters who would seek to cut your lives short for the contents in your wallet (or worse). We have our place, and we “interrupt your struggle” only on the margins, only in the way we must. I’m certainly not going out into the jungles and killing innocentanimals. So I’ll kill the rapist lurking in the alley by your apartment, that’s fair enough for interruption.
I-want-my-IWTV 