I am Done with Squandering My Resistance for a Pocketful of Mumbles. Are you?
And he carries the reminder of every glove that laid him down or cut him
’Til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains”
There was a time when being a Democrat meant something more than just not being Donald Trump.
There was a time when winning the Nobel Peace Prize meant something more than just not being George W. Bush.
There was a time when Liberal Ideals stood for something more than just not being Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon.
A time when we held ourselves to the ideal of being a “Great Society” in our treatment of the less fortunate,
A time when we sang protest songs and marched in numbers too big to ignore and demanded an end to senseless wars,
A time when we banned toxic chemicals and protected endangered species,
A time when we insisted on equal rights for all, no matter their race, gender or creed.
A time when we looked to the stars and dared to imagine a future better than today because we envisioned new technologies serving all of humanity, not just the thin slice of humanity rich enough to own it all.
We stand at a turning point, on a battlefield no less tragic than Gettysburg. The fallen include: human dignity in the form of a guaranteed basic income (Yang), our longed-for destiny of true acceptance of LGBTQ+ Americans (Pete), the seemingly unassailable idea that we shouldn’t put our soldiers in danger for oil or lithium or currency stabilization (Tulsi), humane treatment of immigrants (Beto), some of the better ideas for solving global warming (Steyer) and even the notion we might create miracles in the political world by making Love a guiding principle for public servants in government (Marianne). So many good champions, so many good candidates, have fallen by the wayside.
And for what great movie has all of that ended up on the cutting room floor? What nourishing and delicious grain stock did we winnow out of that chaff?
On the one hand we have a man who supported the Iraq war in 2003, a man who wants to preserve the for-profit health system that’s bankrupting us, a man who thinks cannabis should remain a controlled substance even though studies have shown it can replace up to 25% of today’s prescription pain-reliever use, a man who balks when it comes to banning fracking, a man who sat in the white house for eight years and did virtually nothing to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a man who clearly expressed his willingness to consider freezing Social Security and Medicare rather than insisting on rolling back tax breaks given to the rich.
Really? REALLY? I mean, fucking REALLY???!!!!
I have lived my entire adult life appalled at the way our country has bullied smaller countries to pad our GDP, appalled by pollution and global warming, appalled by our reluctance to transition to sustainable energy quickly enough, appalled by our unequal treatment of minorities and women and immigrants and LGBTQ+, appalled by an overarching de facto philosophy that those who hold the plutonium should make the rules instead of engaging in diplomatic processes where all peoples and nations are valued and treated as equally deserving of the benefits humanity has developed, together, over the past centuries.
I have fought against the white trains of nuclear weapons and lost. I have fought against pipelines and lost. I have fought against so many wars and lost. I have fought against voter suppression and election fraud and I lost. I have fought for wind power and lost what could have grown into a small family fortune to retire on and pass onto my children. My heart breaks over and over and over…
But no more. I am done with squandering my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles. I see the manipulations by which we’ve been led down this path to yet another in a series of ultimately meaningless compromises based on the fear that boldly asking for a whole loaf will end up getting us less than timidly and not-too-radically asking for a half of a loaf, or, perhaps, an even more reasonable quarter loaf…
So.
Done.
With.
That.
And on the other hand? On the other hand is the guy who asks for the whole loaf of bread. On issue after issue, he refuses to compromise or accept less than what most of the rest of the world sees as obviously the bare minimum. Free public college. A minimum wage that is a living wage. Health care as a human right. Poll after poll shows that even we Americans have solid majorities in favor of all of these policy proposals. In effect, Bernie is really the centrist in this picture, absent the perceptual blinders and biases of corporate media.
So, I am going to vote for Bernie Sanders for President in November even if I have to write him in. And, listen well, I am going to vote for Elizabeth Warren for Vice President in November even if I have to write her in. I will do both of these things even if Bernie and Elizabeth tell me, even if they plead with me, to vote for someone else. There. I’ve said it. It’s a choice I can make. I’ve made it. Now you get to deal with it. You want to play chicken with me because you’re too afraid of real change? Fine. Let’s butt heads. Again.
I’d prefer if Bernie and Elizabeth set aside their differences and showed the world that Americans can still forgive one another for the good of the world. I’d prefer a public endorsement and distribution of “Sanders/Warren 2020” bumperstickers. I’d prefer they go on to win the remaining primaries and the convention.
But I’m going to do what I have to do, regardless.
I will not #VoteBlueNoMatterHowRed.
I’d rather have Trump in office and let the revolutionary zeal and pressure against Republicans build for as long as it takes than put an establishment “DINO” Democrat in office again and have the revolutionary zeal and pressure build against Democrats until we get the next less evolved version of Trump 4 or 8 years later.
But “the Supreme Court!” you say. Yeah, I know, you’d better think about that when you decide how you’re going to deal with the reality of voters like me.
Millions will die without #MedicareForAll. Millions, possibly billions, will die without #GreenNewDeal. We’re out of time and #StatusQuoJoe isn’t going to save us. Look at the big picture and vote like our lives depend on it because they do. And our children’s lives do. And our grandchildren’s lives do too.
Think about that too.
