*my progressive newspaper column for the month of September, coming out in a regional rag August 31st. Thanks for being here, and for reading, and while dumpster-fires horrible performance at this week’s debate with VP Harris would normally end a campaign (one bad debate performance certainly ended Joe Biden’s), we cannot and must not take anything for granted in this fall’s election cycle. Their side is a cult, one whose great leader can do no wrong. (That sound you hear is my head banging my desk.) Up and down the ballot, we must vote these weirdos out. Democracy – and women’s lives – are at stake. #VoteBlue. We’re not perfect, but they’re fcking nuts.
The Democratic convention is over; I’m relieved and thrilled. Once again, I’m in bed before midnight, so no more cranky, over-tired donkey. It went well, very well, from my vantage point; the speakers were of varying ability, as expected, yet the overall mood was, while serious, disciplined, celebratory, and joyous, which was terrific. Joy is a main theme of the Harris-Walz campaign, and I am up for that in a big way.
The last decade has been challenging for every American. The chaos of You-Know-Who’s administration (waking up to whacky tweets from the White House, sent at 3 and 4 a.m. – huh?!); an overdue racial reckoning; Covid 19’s confusion, upheaval, and sadness with over 1.2 million Americans dead; the violence of January 6th; immigration and refugee crises here and abroad; climate change on the march; the cruel aggression of Putin; the continuing painful saga of the Middle East. It’s been ugly, debilitating, exhausting.
Let’s choose now to turn the page, to be joyous, and get to work. Let’s elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Does joy magically fix everything? No, but joy makes the burdens we face easier to bear, and that is a gift.
Best non-politician speaker at the DNC? Michelle Obama. Authentic, smart, direct, funny, and inspiring – all while being open about her dislike of politics. Can you blame her? After being hit with every grotesque slur in the books, while receiving more death threats than any other first family in history, who in her position would want to play in such a dirty game?
Michelle Obama, however, believes that this moment is too important for anyone who cares about our country to sit it out. She’s right. We all need to participate; we all have a responsibility as citizens to listen, read and research, go to trusted sources for information and, ultimately, we all have a duty to vote. Vote.
The Democratic candidate – Vice President Harris – put it best. Here is an excerpt from her acceptance speech: “America, let us show each other—and the world—who we are. And what we stand for. Freedom. Opportunity. Compassion. Dignity. Fairness. And endless possibilities.
We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children and grandchildren, and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done. Guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love. To fight for the ideals we cherish. And to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth. The privilege and pride of being an American. So, let’s get out there and let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there and let’s vote for it. And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”
I can get behind that, and a candidate who spoke so well, and movingly, of her origin story, her immigrant parents, her commitment to our country and defending those who are the weakest and most vulnerable among us, as well as to the ideals and values we all share as Americans, which are so much greater, and compelling, than those that divide us.
This summer I met a family of Venezuelan Americans, including a kid whose parents are old friends of old friends of mine, none of whom I’d ever met before. The parents, who immigrated in the eighties, reside in Miami, where Roberto Sr. works for the Spanish language media giant Univision, but Robert Jr. was born and raised in New Jersey. He began his political life as a child, a conservative Republican child, as many diaspora Venezuelan’s are, precociously attending the 2008 RNC convention when he was 12. At the convention, where Senator John McCain was nominated, Robertito was approached by an official delegate with what the delegate, a man in his 40s, swore was an actual copy of Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate. He thought the guy was nuts, and in that moment – though I hesitate to use the word – he woke from the conservative slumber he’d been in, soon after switching his party allegiance. Now 27, he’s a college grad living NYC working for a company you may have heard of – Microsoft. He’s remained a political addict like myself, but since that gob-smacking awakening in 2008, he’s been a fervent Democrat because – his words, not mine – those guys are nuts(but, let me be clear: those guys are nuts).
If the GOP wants to appeal to a broader cross-section of Americans and stay relevant, they must wake up from the cult of personality and exclusionary politics they’ve been practicing for far too long.
In the meantime, whatever your affiliation, you too can choose joy! Vote Harris-Walz for the People.