Bestselling Novelist Terry McMillan Tweets-Off On Politics (Part 1)

Her vow to take a break from Twitter to finish an upcoming book lasted less than a week, as bestselling author Terry McMillan kept getting pulled back in by the daily political happenings.

In the days leading up to the first debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, @msterrymcmillan was back to tweeting sporadically. And by the time of the debate, she unleashed the floodgates with tweets like this:

“I wish there was a rule enacted and enforced that would make all candidates retract and admit all falsehoods.”

and

“I wish Lehrer would ask him if you want smaller government why are you trying to tell women what to do with their bodies?”

and

“I wish Mitt would STFU.”

and

“The President seemed tired. As if he just didn’t feel like arguing over all of Mitt’s b.s. lies because they were just too thick.”

And finally, “The debate was like disappointing sex.”

Snarky, colorful, over-the-top, controversial, and definitely entertaining. Much like her books over the years, Terry McMillan has found a whole new audience in the twitter-sphere where she never holds her tongue and can’t seem to get enough—even if it means she may be late for her December deadline.

Then again, McMillan has always followed her own path. Born in Port Huron, Michigan just outside of Detroit, McMillan rose to fame behind a string of hit novels, which included Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got her Groove Back, which were both turned into successful Hollywood feature films starring Angela Bassett (in both) and Whitney Houston and Loretta Devine (in Waiting to Exhale).

She found herself in personal controversy when she married 20-year-old Jonathan Plummer, who later revealed that he was gay.

McMillan has moved on from all of that and is working on a new novel. When we caught up with her, she couldn’t pull herself away from the political landscape, which is the subject of Part 1 of our two-part interview with McMillan. Tune in next week where she will talk about her new book, Whitney Houston, and Jonathan Plummer.

P.S.: You were very active on Twitter and recently you’ve been very quiet.

TM: I’m working on a novel that I have to turn in by December. And I’ve had to force myself to stay off Twitter. This whole election thing, and all this voter suppression stuff, is really driving me crazy. So I had to stay off Twitter to focus on my book. But I love Twitter. I mean I LOOOOOOVE Twitter.

P.S.: You’ve been tweeting some pretty political issues and statements lately.

TM:  OH YEAH!  Just the other day when Mitt Romney said that mess about planes needing windows that rolled down, I wanted to tweet: “You know what, why doesn’t Mitt get windows that go down on his plane?” But I was writing my book, so I just wrote it down on a piece of paper.

P.S.: (Laughter). I’m not going to comment on that at all.

TM:  This doesn’t have anything to do with what your political persuasion is; it doesn’t even matter. I just think that a lot of what’s gong on in this whole campaign, this whole election, is just frightening to me. I mean it’s scary how far people are willing to go and what they’re willing to do to win an election.

I also find it insulting to the American public, and to our democracy and I have to say it but it’s these Republicans doing all this stuff, and it’s really sneaky—and they don’t even care when they get caught. They don’t even care!

I tweeted “If Mitt Romney were to be elected president, the U.S. would cry.” I just find it terrifying, how this country would really change.  There’s a reason why he and his little homeboy (Paul Ryan) haven’t released the details of their economic policy. If they were to do that they would never get elected and they know it. They know exactly what it is that they want to do.  They know nobody would buy it.  It’s all about corporate America.

Anybody that can admit that they want to cut education, and they don’t care about the environment, what does that tell you?! I find it scary. I don’t know how in good conscience he can tell so many lies. I don’t know what kind of a Mormon he is.  It’s so hypocritical.

This is about America. It’s not about having a black man in the White House. They were doing all this stuff when (George W.) Bush was in office, and it’s really unfortunate that this is what it has come to since President Obama got elected.  I have never seen this kind of mean-spiritedness, this kind of hatred.  It’s unconscionable. I find it very, very sad.

P.S.: You’re very skeptical of the electoral process…

TM: When you read about the different things that they have put in place since 2010 to suppress the vote, it would make a damn good movie how they masterminded all of this!  I’ve heard Mitt say, “We’re going to win,” and I’m saying, “What does this (guy) know that we don’t know?”  Is it rigged that deeply?  He said, “We don’t care about the polls.  We have our own polls.”  I’m like, “What else do they have up their sleeve?”  If he were leading in the polls then everything would be hunky-dory.  And I have to tweet about it because there are a lot of people out here who don’t know. There are people out here that don’t even know the role that Congress plays. All of this stuff—I just can’t even believe this is all happening.  I just cannot believe that ever since President Obama was elected, the Republicans decided that they were going to make sure that he was just a one-term president.

They basically bought the House of Representatives.  They have not passed a single piece of legislation, for the most part—not even one that could create almost two million jobs.  Everything that he wanted to do that would make him look good and presidential, they rejected. So every month when those jobs numbers come out, I’ve never seen Republicans so happy. I just cannot believe how they rig this, and then they’re blaming (The President) for what they’ve not done. This is better than a movie.

P.S.:  Maybe it can be your next book!

TM:  No, people’s lives are at stake. That’s why I write. This is almost like science fiction. It’s really insane. I mean if you really listen to Mitt Romney, he’s dumb. Everyday, he puts his foot in his mouth.  And then you have his followers, his base and they believe all this BS they are being fed. They don’t even know that they are voting for things that aren’t even working in their own best interest.

P.S.:  President Obama has taken some backlash recently, regarding his stance on gay marriage. What are your thoughts on this and how do you feel about it?

TM:  What do you mean, recently?  I thought he did okay!  He agreed to gay marriage.

P.S.: Yeah, but he’s taken some backlash because people are upset about his stance on it.

TM:  You mean that he is pro gay marriage?

P.S.:  Yes.

TM: Come on; it’s 2012. Yeah, you have some black folks in the church who don’t agree, but you know that’s not enough to make the president lose the election. I think it’s awfully brave of him because he also turned a corner. It was very brave of him to “come out.” (chuckle).

People have a right to love who they want to love, and marry who they want to marry.  That’s one of the reasons why I have so many problems with these Republicans who say, “We want small government, small government,” but yet they want to jump all inside of our uteruses, our vaginas and tell us what the hell we can do with our bodies!  Who do they think they are?!  I commend President Obama.

(Part 2 next week…)