Something I noticed reading the Twitter feeds of a number of American steampunk enthusiasts: they’re all anti-Republican.
I hesitate to say they’re Democrats, because the party might be too centrist for them. The number of disparaging tweets about conservatives in general, and Republican legislators and presidential candidates in particular, was high, though.
So where are the steampunk Republicans? Are they hiding? Do they even exist?
Probably they do, but they’re less interested in politics than their leftist counterparts.
The political tweets that I read were usually activist in tone, supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement, for instance. Many conservatives may simply not bother whereas people on the far left and far right think everything is political.
Then again, it may simply be that steampunk is more popular on the left than it is on the right. In a country where people who identify as “conservative” outnumber liberals two-to-one, though, that would tell us more about steampunk than it would about politics in America.
7 Comments
Add YoursNon-liberal steampunks are certainly out there, but in a group with mostly people who disagree with you intensely, starting to play the activist feels a little like trolling and is instantly rewarded with an avalanche of tartly worded disagreement if you’re lucky and personal insults if you’re not. Neither side will persuade the other, so why make drama? It’s far less likely that they’re not politically interested and far more likely that they’re less politically vocal.
It’s also fair to say, speaking as somebody not enthusiastic about re-electing the president, that it’s hard even for many people who’d like to vote for one of them not to mock the current crop of republican nominees. It’s a clown convention.
That being said, if you care to read a twitter stream with both steampunkishness (tweed, tricycles and pipe organs!) and a rather more libertarian political spin, you can always follow me [ @talldarknweirdo ]
(Full Disclosure : Registered Independent, often liberal on social issues, almost invariably libertarian on role of government issues.)
Hey Bradley, thanks for your comment! I’m hoping to hear from more steampunks who are either centrist of right of center. If, after all, the vast majority of steampunks are indeed left wing if not radical progressives, they can make the argument that steampunk is a leftist movement. I don’t think it is nor should be — I don’t think we should impose any political philosophy on steampunk. But if the aesthetic or culture attracts almost exclusively people who are left of center, that would be significant.
On a sidenote, as a libertarian, you might be interested in reading my article on anarchocapitalism in the Old West published in issue #16 of the Gatehouse Gazette.
As a paleo-Republican and paleo-steampunk, I can assure you we do exist. I really hate mixing politics (or religion) with steampunk though, and wish it could be kept free of the stench of partisanship. I don’t mind the fact most steampunks are far to my left, and hope they don’t mind my occasional irritation with leftist thought permeating too deeply into everything. FWIW, I despise Bush far more than Obama, and voted twice in a row for Nader!
Oh, and I loved your article on anarcho-capitalism and usually call myself a libertarian. (Registering Republican lets me vote for the lesser of two weevils [Cf. Master and Commander] in the primaries.)
What a wonderful blog !!!
Funny how “we” notice that one angry valid point
“they’re all anti-Republican”.:and just say nothing.
Good Honest capitalism is so what this Nation has been built on .. smiles
I don’t think less are Aware and are interested in steampunks, I just think less take time to blog .. mho of course !!!!
thank YOU Good Sir !!
Steampunk’s respect and admiration for the lone-engineer and for adventure is highly Libertarian in philosophy.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties have come to embody the authoritarian corporate control that has taken over our government; social policies such as the issues of homosexual marriage and health care are just fluff. Both parties want more government control by sacrificing individual freedom.
To put it simply, there is only one political party in the United States, the Corporate party. The Republican and Democratic parties are just two different factions serving the same masters.
I realize this is an incredibly old post (by internet standards) but I am a Steampunk enthisiast and am also registered as a Republican. I consider myself more libertarian in my political views than anything but given how elections work here it makes some sense to register as one of the two major parties in order to be able to vote in the primaries. What few libertarian candidates show up in the two big parties tend to show up in the Republican party (e.g. Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, etc.) so that is the party I am in. I am not blindly loyal to the party though and tend to vote for a lot of third party and independent candidates.