Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started

@gothamgirlblue

Defiance posting. Vibes: Enraged 🔴 Not a Democrat anymore. Columnist @ Dame Magazine, bylines @ The Cut, Harper’s Bazaar and more. Black, millennial, feminist, tired. Going to keep fighting anyway. Pay me for ideas: patreon.com/gothamgirlblue

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Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jun 25

I swear to god it must be some kind of congenital condition

More absurdism spewed by a complete ignoramus: White liberal here Katlin, while I agree that some white people lie, asserting that most are sounds biased. If you have statistical evidence that shows what you assert please share. After living a decade or more in Mass, TX, and WA, + other states & countries there's little difference by ethnicity

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jun 25

Aww, removed by author? I can fix that. Reminder: acknowledging that racism is real makes you David Duke

Nonsense thoughts from a ridiculous person in a post that reads: im just hearing a bunch of david duke arguments reframed and its just as bad this time

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· May 26

Look at this much younger me, so full of innocence* on the day I said “I do”

A dapper looking Black woman wearing a blue pantsuit with gold buttons and a long flared jacket in the back—almost like a bustle. She stands underneath an arch of roses, bright multicolored heels on a brick path.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Feb 24

Apparently this is you today

A series of folders with tabs that are all labeled “Violence” as a hand with extended fingers hovers over them, presumably about to flip through and choose

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jan 13

Everything is terrible but at least I’ve got sexy new notebooks to record my breakdowns

Lovely mint green B6 280 page notebooks, still in the packaging

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jan 8

Found her! Canadians need to stay out of Black Americans’ business. You are not as enlightened as you imagine.

Posts by the now-blocking user LA Legault about my posts on “say her name” and misogynoir:

[Post] swear to god who sent her? Is someone fucking with me?
She is arguing "Say her name."
Which is not "we shall overcome"
To have the luxury of being a spoiled American brat in the middle of fascism.

[Reply] No I am blocking her, I cannot take this bullshit from [US flag]

[Reply 2] Sticking to the gay hockey that country has lost its fucking mind

[Post] SAY RENNE NICOLE GOOD'S NAME.

The original posts by the now-blocking user LA Legault about my posts on “say her name” and misogynoir:

[Post] BkueSky is the Seattle house's worst roommate half the time. Holy shit. No one owns "say her name." Her name needs to be said.

[Reply] This is the most fucking ridiculous thing I have heard, Americans are ridiculous.

[Post] No one owns "say her name" this is ridiculous.

[Reply] It's misogynistic insanity.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jan 1

Haha, that’s fun

A screenshot of the Merriam Webster gif with many words flashing and the instructions to take a picture of the screen to select your word of the year. Upon following these steps, the word was “preeminent”.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Nov 16

brb grabbing my “honestly, I would rather be wrong” custom mug

A brilliant Black woman with cropped hair in glasses and an oversized gray sweater looks into the middle distance and holds a mug with the words: Honestly, I would rather be wrong.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Nov 10

Wrote this in September and feel like it’s relevant now. www.patreon.com/posts/136698...

From the Patreon essay by GothamGirlBlue, “Something for Good People to Do”: Every government-despotic and liberal-operates on the consent of the governed. One key reason we are in the grips of a tyrannical regime is because a significant portion of our polity has abandoned the authority of their own consent: They feel it is irrelevant or meaningless, that it has no power to compel those who wield it, or resolve the problems that plague them. This silent plurality is neither left nor right ideologically; they are helpless and apathetic. Without engagement from this group to defend rights that they don't even believe they enjoy, we are never going to be able to beat back the fascists. This is a simple truth.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Nov 3

Keeping my head above water was enough for me these last few months, but I did honestly imagine the possibilities

A screenshot of a paragraph from a post on the Patreon of GothamGirlBlue in February 2025: I want to create a new political party. I want to do this because existing third parties are products of the system as it was, and that system is crumbling. I think something entirely fresh, unburdened by previous leadership, mistakes, thinking, approaches will allow us to capture the discontent from across the political spectrum. Equality will be at the heart of this party; equality will be the purpose of it.
This party will do what the two major parties have failed to do: Listen. It will organize around what the major parties have not: the People. The focus will be on electoral deserts for one party or another, so as to disrupt the two party system least - at inception. It will use a non-profit to offer grants to local organizations that are filling in the gaps torn open by the Trump Administration, and build trust and community through keeping people sustained. It will start at statehouses and local councils, and it will harp on issues that have not yet been negatively polarized, where people have not been taught to rule by hate. It will have the colors of the sunrise: gold and white. It will remind us that we are at our best when we lift people UP.
The United People's Party.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Oct 30

All I want is for Article 1 to mean something again.

Screenshot from the essay “Congress Could Be Our Last Defense Against Trumpism” by Kaitlin Byrd at Dame Magazine, published July 18, 2024: And should the worst happen, and Donald Trump once again assumes the powers of the presidency, the only inhibiting force he can face is an aggressive and empowered Congress. Even as far gone as they are, some of the voters who are with Trump for tax cuts or immigration are unlikely to want him to be entirely unfettered to follow his every impulse. In places where Democrats are playing defense for either the House or the Senate (or both), arguing for a congressional leash on Trump could be the distinction that separates a moderate Democrat willing to tell the truth to a stubborn executive branch irrespective of party from an obsequious Republican willing to submit entirely to imperial power for the "right" one.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Oct 25

Who said Reddit wasn’t good for anything?

A post on Reddit from user Rage_Like_Nic_Cage: “The Dems are the Uvalde Cops, the Republicans are the shooter”

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Oct 1

Tag yourself, I'm this guy

An image of the assembled military generals and leadership gathered by Hegseth and Trump, with well over 100 stone-faced people staring into the middle distance, possibly contemplating how their commitment to their country and lives in public service brought them to this moment

The face of one of the assembled military leaders for Hegseth and Trump’s “warrior pep rally” which looks like he’s passing a kidney stone through his soul

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jul 26

I was going to look up what I said between the 2020 conventions (Republicans went first), but then I reread my column from January and yup, it’s enough

The first two paragraphs of “Is Anyone Going to Fight for Democracy?” an essay by Kaitlin Byrd for Dame Magazine: From the start, Donald Trump has offered autocracy to the United States. He has built his vision of the
country on Big Lie politics, threatened, cajoled, and corrupted everyone who would challenge him, targeted millions of citizens as unworthy of rights, and rejected millions of would-be citizens, dismissing them as unworthy of life. His campaign lied its way into the Oval Office, attacking President Biden and then VP Kamala Harris on the premise that DJT would replace the real, complicated domestic progress of the current administration with a fantasy of easy, unrealistic perfection, with the only cost being that Trump would be in control of everything. Trump promised that we would receive a government free from the shackles of compromise, of complications, of checks and balances, of general welfare and common defense.
And in response to this unmaking of the American experiment, Democrats have promised ... compliance.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jul 13

People who hate New York every time they see Mamdani get even cooler:

That Breaking Bad meme with Jesse crying, screaming: He can’t keep getting away with it!

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jul 9

Sometimes I feel embarrassed about how badly I’ve broken down under the fascism but then I remember that I wrote this in December 2020 literally 3 weeks before the insurrection, and wonder why I haven’t had a full breakdown

An excerpt from “Can America Be Governed?” an essay by Kaitlin Byrd for Dame Magazine (Dec. 2020): Elections—the foundations of our government, the essence of representative authority-have transformed for millions of people, from an imperfect reflection of popular will to a mortal contest of ideology where Republicans have either prevailed through tenacity and strength or been cheated from victory. With a concentrated and constant campaign, Republicans have successtully convinced more than a third of the country that there is no such thing as a legitimate government run by Democrats. The consequence is a country with millions of voters in conflict about whether our elections are choices or impositions, if majoritarian sentiment is real or fabricated, if Joe Biden's victory is a validation of our country or a crime against it. With a government that rests precariously upon the consensus of popular sovereignty, Republicans have not only encouraged 1 in 3 voters to deny the authority of the government, but to deny that the other 2 in 3 voters even exist.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jun 26

We were overthrown and the reaction our incoming leadership had was to scold the perpetrators and then pretend that holding them accountable would be “playing politics”

Excerpt of a June 2023 Patreon essay from Gothamgirlblue: During the 2020 campaign, Biden promised an end to the dysfunction and acrimony in Washington. He'd get government working again by bringing civility back and cutting deals like the old hand returning for one last rodeo. His win was supposed to put Trump and Trumpism to rest, restoring sanity to a country sorely in need of it.
And then a violent coup attempt happened two weeks before he took the oath of office.
In the days and weeks that followed, the problem of Trumpism went unaddressed. By the time midterms rolled around, the Dobbs decision from the Trump SCOTUS majority and the increasingly unhinged candidates served up by the GOP showed that far from dissipating, Trumpism had metastasized in the body politic. Added to the frankly outrageous behavior from the new GOP House majority, it doesn't seem like Biden can identify the problem, let alone solve it.
Which is kinda what he was hired to do.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jun 26

I’m so glad I already tested my schadenfreude limits and discovered I don’t have any

A NY Times update from reporter Theodore Schleifer:
As donors try to assess their next moves in the mayoral race, one of the biggest donors to Andrew Cuomo's super PAC, the investor Mark Gorton, said he is likely to back Mamdani. That is because of the support that Mamdani had gotten from Brad Lander, who Gorton said he ranked first. "I feel like people misunderstood my $250,000 for Cuomo for real enthusiasm," Gorton said in an interview. "It was basically, 'Oh, looks like Cuomo is coming back. We don't want to be shut out. Let's try and get on his good side? That's kind of how things work with Cuomo. It's sad political pragmatism. I wish we lived in a world where those sort of things were not useful things to do."

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jun 23

Had fun writing this in 2019 (!) which now feels so quaint

Screenshot of a paragraph from the essay “We Can Never Forgive the Trump Administration” by Kaitlin Byrd at Dame Magazine: This endless practice of good faith comes at the cost of the well-being of Democratic constituents and voters—millions of Americans. It is a truth so normalized that it is unremarkable, even to the people affected. Or perhaps it is normal because it is unremarkable for a party to mimic the reality of its voters. It is not surprising that as Democrats preside over the largest gender gap in American political history, they receive the obligations of feminine absolution.

Screenshot of a paragraph from the essay “We Can Never Forgive the Trump Administration” by Kaitlin Byrd at Dame Magazine: The answer has been a polity built atop the same self-sacrifice and self-denial of women that sits at the foundations of the world. The same way that women are chastised for increasingly accurate predictions of doom, the Democratic Party is informed that accusing the Republicans of waging a "war on women" is needlessly provocative as a new sinister wave of anti-abortion legislation passes. Just as the solution to "incels" is "forced monogamy" for women, so the solution to the looming crisis of Democratic Party underrepresentation is simply to appeal to the overrepresented. And as women are asked to "consider his future" and deny their own, Democrats are asked to consider only the version of the country defined by their opposition.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jun 20

As part of this fundraising, I’ll do a NYC politics Q&A to the best of my abilities — I don’t know everything but I grew up in Brooklyn politics and remember almost every (current) national NY figure from childhood — like NY AG Tish James was my councilmember

A young Black girl smiling next to Hillary Clinton during her 2000 Senate run in New York; they’re in a ballroom in Albany, during Black and Puerto Rican Caucus weekend, a major political event held usually during the President’s Day holiday

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Jun 3

Not to alarm anyone, but this is the last step before the True Blood universe happens

A screenshot of a Spill app notification which reads: Japanese Scientists Develop Artificial Blood Compatible With All Blood Types

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Apr 25

New York Democrats used to be FDR and Adam Clayton Powell and now they’re Schumer and Jeffries and Hochul and I’m like

A gif of Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, saying “Look how they massacred my boy”

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Apr 21

Nope!

A man in a blazer and a woman in a blue suit with tails walk past brownstones along a tree-lined street on a sunny day

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Apr 2

Not them texting me the moment after he leaves the floor. That was the minimum absolutely not.

A text alert from some political outfit asking me for money due to Senator Cory Booker’s historic speech

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Mar 30

I’m sorry this is just a bonkers thing to say. The fact that I still have to deal with real people who argue that we should just ignore voters we don’t like to get the “right” results…and from a Democratic primary???? Broken. Morally, spiritually, politically.

An absolutely bonkers reply in my mentions: “55% of the vote isn’t a clear cut victory”

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Mar 30

The most loyal members of the party chose the person who had an ongoing relationship with our community over someone who keeps saying that Trump voters aren’t racist

A tweet from Bernie Sanders on November 5, 2016 that reads: I do not believe that most of the people who are thinking about voting for Mr.
Trump are racist or sexist.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Mar 19

They’re trying to erase Jackie Robinson not just for what he represented in uniform—in service or on the field—but as a citizen and a voice for the oppressed. Black Americans tell our own stories in our own words, and erasing us is like pretending we can’t speak.

An excerpt of a column from Jackie Robinson in The Amsterdam News from November 9, 1963, titled “Fascinating Republicans:” […] already highly charged issue: laws alone cannot produce the full result we need."
Well, personally, I give less than a you-can-guess-what that some white people's emotions are going to run rampant because we want to insure our freedom." Our emotions have run pretty high when we have seen lynchings and our children bombed in churches.
As for the familiar crack about laws not being the end-all. I have to go along with Dr. Martin King in observing that "laws cannot make the white man love me. but they can keep him from lynching me-and I think that's fairly important."
I think it is also important for the Negro people to keep a wary eye on the Republicans-some Republicans like Goldwater. Dirksen, Nixon and Mr. Eisenhower. In parting, let me remind General Eisenhower that if he had used gradualism and moderation on D-Day on the beachheads of Europe, we wouldn't have to worry about civil rights. We just wouldn't be here.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Mar 14

Huh, almost as if the Left (broadly speaking) should have built a media megaphone

A paragraph from the essay, “The Left Needs Its Own Megaphone” by Kaitlin Byrd at Dame Magazine: Democrats and their funders can't continue to rely on someone else to do the affirmative, engaging messaging that they have left as an individual matter, waiting for voters to make a logical choice when the politics of the country has lost its damn mind. The Republican Party and the right wing apparatus that funds and feeds it had no hesitation in warping the political discussion to serve their own ends: pumping gobs of cash into information infrastructure, curating a media strategy for every platform, and ensuring that everyone willing to parrot the company line has a very comfortable place to lay their head at night. We scoff at "wingnut welfare," but it has crafted a stable, self-perpetuating core that powers the conservative media universe.

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Mar 6

How are we feeling about this sticker design? Is this something anyone would be willing to buy?

“Just say no to DOGE” in block lettering with 🚫 replacing the letter “o”

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started@gothamgirlblue· Mar 6

How many stickers am I printing?