I couldn’t say I was surprised yesterday when Hillary was
officially nominated by the Democrats for president, but what did catch me by
surprise was my reaction to it. An overwhelming sense of despair and
hopelessness set in. I wanted to cry. I was so down and dejected. I couldn’t
believe how much I was hurting. All the anger at the corrupt system and all the
emotion I’ve put into this campaign came home and hit me all at once. I succumbed
to the demoralizing feeling of having your hope extinguished by fears, by cowardice,
by what’s wrong about the world. I feel numb today. Maybe that’s what you’re
supposed to feel when something you love, something you care about so much
dies. You might think I’m overstating this but it feels like a piece of me died
yesterday. The dream for 2016 certainly did.
And don’t get me wrong, the political revolution has not
died. It will live on. It will continue to speak for the 99% and take on
political corruption and elitism whenever possible. But it’s not the same. We
were so close. We almost got there. That with the knowledge of the fact that
the decks were stacked against us, that the establishment defended itself in
such a way to unfairly prevent us from realizing our greatest hopes is where
the anger comes from. If we lost a fair fight, I’d be disappointed but not
angry. If the nation wasn’t ready for the dramatic reform that our revolution
promised, I’d be disappointed but not bitter. But the fact is they cheated us
out of our moment. The most evil and underhanded things often happen in the
cover of darkness. They happen when people are distracted, when people aren’t
looking or when people are misled. Trump is the ultimate distraction. The
Democrats and their candidate have gotten away with things that might have
gotten others impeached or put into jail in previous years. But there is no
outrage right now, at least not from the majority of voters. Yes, the voters
don’t like the nominee, yes they don’t trust her but when you put a truly
flawed, even awful candidate against the anti-christ, you get what we have here
today. It’s anybody’s ball game. You have wrong vs evil and there are no winners there.
Despite how I feel about this particular candidate, I think it’s wonderful that we have nominated what could be
our first woman president. It’s long overdue. Other major countries did it decades
ago. I understand that Hillary is looked at differently than male politicians.
There’s no excuse for that. But that doesn’t give her a pass on her record… a
record that leans to the middle, towards money and towards neoliberal policy.
Despite all the happy rhetoric of late, nothing in her history convinces me
that she will follow through on any of the progressive policies Bernie worked
to add to the Democratic platform. I hope I’m wrong, but I have no faith or
trust in someone who has a record of putting money before people and who
follows instead of leads. We need much better than this. We almost had it.
I love Bernie. I love him and I thank him for everything he
has done and continues to do on our behalf. God, this past year was like a
whirlwind romance. It was SO refreshing to meet someone in the highest levels
of politics who cared more about the people than their ego. It was liberating
to meet someone who wasn’t on the take, who wasn’t interested in playing
politician. He never pandered to get our votes. He wasn’t phony and that’s why
we were attracted to him and his policies. All he offered was what he believed
was right and we were attracted to that. It wasn’t about what he thought we wanted, or
telling us what we wanted to hear. This was organic. He said what he has always
said, the way he has always said it, and suddenly it was exactly what many of us
wanted to hear. That’s real. I’ve always considered myself a liberal but he
even pulled me a little bit farther to the left! The timing was right and as
evidenced by the millions of people who crowded his every rally and campaign stop,
the nation was ready. A nation of people who were cynical and let down by
President Obama’s empty promise of hope in 2008 came back. New people, who saw an
authentic reason to get involved did just that. Skeptics became believers. This type of thing
doesn’t happen any more and Bernie changed the game. For that I will always be
grateful and I will always hold a deep love and respect for the man, even when
we disagree on things. Do I think he should have endorsed Hillary? No, but I
understand why he did it and what he’s trying to do for us by doing so. He’s
altered the democratic platform in a positive way and he’s a much bigger person than
his opponents and his colleagues in Washington.
That said, I’m not going to blame anyone for voting for
Hillary. Donald Trump could bring about the end of the world and that is NOT an
exaggeration. There’s a reason we don’t nominate the arrogant, know-it-all jerk
who has all the answers in hindsight and acts childish towards anyone who
disagrees with him for president. There’s a very good reason why we don’t
nominate the school bully or the incoherent bigot for president. There’s an
extremely good reason we don’t nominate crazy people for president. But guess
what? This year we have all of those things rolled up in one Donald Trump! Its
mind blowing that someone like this is a major party nominee for president. It’s
even more inconceivable that he’s currently winning! If you feel like it’s necessary
to vote for Clinton, I can’t blame you but I will not be joining you. I cannot
and will not support everything that I find wrong with the political system because
it’s going up against the ultimate evil. I wish more voters had the courage to come
with us and make the change we so badly need by voting outside of the 2-party
stranglehold on our democracy. If enough people were brave enough and cared
enough to do it, we could have put both of these corrupt parties on their asses. But I
can clearly see that will not be the case in this election. I do think someone still
needs to have the balls to disobey and I will be happy to do it. For “fringe”
parties to become relevant they need votes, not facebook likes. If we get
enough votes for the Green party, they won’t have to struggle and fight to get
on the ballots every election. The same goes for the Libertarians. We need more
parties and voting is the only way to get there. If we want democracy WE HAVE
TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. We can’t just talk about how we want things to be fair or to
reflect the diversity of political views. We have to act on it. You know who is
just talk? The Democrats and Republicans. Everything is talk until they’ve
checked with their corporate masters to see what they should really do.
When you’re being oppressed, when’s the best time to make a
stand? Is tomorrow good, maybe next week, next year? How about 4 years from
now? I don’t know, how about right now? Why wait another second? If you think
Trump is bad, wait until 4 years from now to see what monstrous candidate they
bring up from the muck if Hillary wins. It’s getting worse and worse. We’ve
gone from idiot W. Bush to the likes of incoherent, delusional Palin to an out of touch rich guy with little
experience like Mitt Romney to an out of touch rich guy with a massive ego,
brutal temperament and no experience in Trump. What’s next, someone who shoots fire out their eyes, but only at poor, marginalized people? If that's the case, then 4 years from
now we won’t be able to stand up and fight for our democracy because we’ll have
to stop that nut. This will only end WHEN WE MAKE IT END.
Okay, now I’m going to take the gloves off. To all the people
who want to vote for Hillary because of Trump, okay, I get it. Do what you feel
you have to do. I’m not going to give you any shit. But to those who want to take it further and chastise
me and the other Bernie or Bust folks, especially those of you who were Bernie
supporters and progressives a few months ago, who do you think you are to judge
me? You got off the bandwagon and want to curse at those still on it? To try to
say I’m stupid, or ridiculous, or being a baby for standing up for what I
believe in, how dare you! Fuck your condescension. You want judgment? I think
those of you fucking "heroes" who were with us and who know better but now are “sacrificing”
for the rest of us are cowards. I don’t want Trump to win, but if this election
has shown me anything it’s that personal integrity and honor are worth
everything. I’m not going to abandon mine for any reason. I can’t do that. I am
nothing without integrity. If you can
live with yourself setting yours aside, good luck but don’t condescend to me
for believing that the political revolution was not a fad, a fun time or a fucking
hashtag. It’s a fucking revolution and it needs people who are willing to be
brave and fierce and I will do my best to be both. The future of our nation
depends on it.
Needless to say, I am kind of checking out of the
presidential race now. I’ll monitor things but I don’t really care what Trump
and Hillary say unless they say it to each other’s faces in a debate. That
should be entertaining… a calculating, trained liar against an out of control
liar. Should be fun TV! But just because I am checking out of the Hillary/Trump
debacle, don’t believe for a second that I am taking a break from educating
myself and empowering myself in the fight for economic, environmental, racial
and social justice. It’s like in the Matrix. Once you’ve been unplugged and
know the truth about the world around you, there is no going back and more than
that you want to help everyone else you can who want to be unplugged do so.
“whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their
own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their
notice, they may be relied on to set them right." –Thomas Jefferson
Wake up America!
