Drag queen RuPaul voiced his thoughts on the 2016 presidential election recently in an interview with Vulture. When asked about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, he said:
I fucking love them. I have always loved them. And let me just say this: If you’re a politician — not just in Washington but in business and industry, you have to be a politician — there are a lot of things that you have to do that you’re not proud of. There are a lot of compromises you have to make because it means that you can get this other thing over here. And if you think that you can go to fucking Washington and be rainbows and butterflies the whole time, you’re living in a fucking fantasy world. So now, having said that, think about what a female has to do with that: All of those compromises, all of that shit, double it by ten. And you get to understand who this woman is and how powerful, persuasive, brilliant, and resilient she is. Any female executive, anybody who has been put to the side — women, blacks, gays — for them to succeed in a white-male-dominated culture is an act of brilliance. Of resilience, of grit, of everything you can imagine. So, what do I think of Hillary? I think she’s fucking awesome. Is she in bed with Wall Street? Goddammit, I should hope so! You’ve got to dance with the devil. So which of the horrible people do you want? That’s more of the question. Do you want a pompous braggart who doesn’t know anything about diplomacy? Or do you want a badass bitch who knows how to get shit done? That’s really the question.
RuPaul also said that he identifies as a political realist:
Drag says, ‘This is all bullshit.’ Drag says, ‘You’re playing a role, and I’m here to remind you: Don’t get it twisted. I’m not buying it. I understand what’s really real, and what’s really hood, and I’m living my life that way.’ I see politics the same way. Everybody’s playing a role. And don’t try to make me believe that you are what you say you are. I can see behind that mask.
He said of Donald Trump:
What we’re witnessing is this violent exchange and a rejection of the movement forward. It’s so uncanny, and it’s so clear that that’s what’s happening, even as it relates to what’s happening around the world, with these horrible tragedies. There are people who are rejecting the forward motion of mankind. And they don’t want to be present for what’s happening because they don’t want to change, because change would mean they’d actually have to look at themselves and go, ‘Who am I? What am I? And how do I relate to this world?’
Ego wants to divide us up. Ego wants to believe that we’re separate from one another, but the truth is there’s only one of us here. So for us to move forward, we have to acknowledge that element in us, and then when it comes up, say, ‘Thank you for sharing, but I’m going do this, because I’m not going to act on my fragile ego.’
