We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check; we've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can. ~Barack Obama
...
I have to admit, I was all in for Joe. But then, I'm all in for anybody who Ain't Trump, and I have been since 2015. I've never liked Trump, and I've actively hated him since I was like 15 years old when he basically tried to have the (later exonerated) Central Park Five killed for basically no good reason. Some of them were and are my age. Trump is scum.
And all we've heard about from the press for the last nine years in general, and the last three weeks in particular, is Trump.
I'm tired of it, but being against something only motivates most people so far.
While I was out to lunch with my Mom and her partner at their favorite Mexican restaurant, Biden announced and endorsed Harris.
I detected a change in the air almost immediately.
The vibe was immediate. I felt the same way in 2020.
But of course, I couldn't really comment much on that at the time because I had to go to bed. I had to work last night.
By the time I got up and started getting ready for work, like magic, Democrats had begun to fall in line and Republicans were suddenly...and very...on the defensive and losing. Their entire narrative is fucked.
I know where they'll try and go, but misogyny and open racism will lose them more voters than it gets them.
By midnight, I'd seen that the Black community has fallen in line. I know for a fact, from watching him for years because of my last roommate, that people listen when guys like Roland Martin talk. Harris has already done legit serious organizing and raised a shitload of money in her own right, in addition to inheriting the existing campaign war-chest.
Harris has caught on with Democrats in a way that to be entirely honest...reminds me of how Sarah Palin caught on with Republicans in 2008, but for a lot better reasons, also probably even faster. And I was there, Palin became a thing almost literally overnight but I can tell you for a fact I was not like Holy Shit by 4 AM on September 3rd, 2008.
I'd cracked a few jokes about Palin, that was about it. But, Magic The Gathering mattered more on my lunch break. I was just getting into the game and my then-new Native roommate (Who'd moved in the previous weekend) had helped me build a deck I wanted to try out. The horror at Palin's stupidity came later.
That said, within a week, I wasn't a Republican anymore.
But I'm here to tell you, even I understood the importance of Barack Obama and what even the possibility of him getting elected meant. I knew he'd open the door for others, and represented the future. I was quite willing to vote for Obama even before Palin came along, but I had nothing against McCain either (And I still don't.) Among other things, my late grandfather was briefly one of McCain's commanding officers at some point. I'm a veteran myself, and I was a swing voter at the time.
I voted for Obama and never looked back.
Now that the Republicans have effectively become the pro-Soviet Vladimir Putin caucus I'm glad I did that.
The thing is, since a Black man said "Yes We Can" the entire Republican bit has become "No We Can't." And it's gotten old with everybody who doesn't seem to enjoy being a miserable bastard as some sort of a hobby.
That seems like a hell of a way to live, as far as I'm concerned.
Acting like you think you're a bold truth-teller doesn't make you not be a miserable asshole.
Those among the donors and the media who ran the Palace Coup against Joe seem to have had it in their heads that they could foist Joe Manchin or Mitt Romney or somebody like that onto the Democratic Party's ticket...an idea that lasted about as long as a hog-tied vampire once it was exposed to sunlight.
And those people...not to mention the Republicans they fundamentally sought to enable...are going to get their asses kicked.
I'm serious.
The kind of energy I'm seeing here can, historically, only be stopped by more of the same.
Palin fired up the Republicans in 2008. Say what you will, but there was evident joy among Palin's Pentecostal supporters that one of their own had made it that far. Obama just fired up Democrats more. Likewise in 2016, Democrats were fired up by Hillary Clinton, but Trump fired up Republicans more, and you could see it. I mean, I said at the time if Trump lost he'd just run again. But the pollsters said all the systematic stuff was on our side that year...and they were wrong.
And Republicans ain't got it, not this time, not ever again if Trump's on the ticket. There is No Joy in MAGA-Land, by definition, because Trump himself is a joyless asshole. Happiness isn't his thing.
Hell, Republicans don't know what that shit even is anymore.
At least Palin catching on was, whether I agreed with it or not, motivated by sincere religious faith among a hell of a lot of the people she caught on with.
That's not what this is.
The bitter pleasure of cynicism doesn't motivate anybody to change the world.
Just like the frequent posts to "Hold the line" in the case of Joe Biden's candidacy were really starting to fall extremely flat.
Right or wrong, the status quo doesn't really motivate anybody except conservatives...and if you ask me there's damned few of those left who still are that, might well be there were damned few who really believed in it all along. I was one of those, not that it ended up mattering worth a damn in the end.
I was compelled to take a stand by the circumstances around me in 2008. I threw in with civilization and took a stand against the fall of night.
You either believe in freedom or you don't.
Well, now we've rolled the dice for damn sure.
And looking at it in the moment I can't say I disagree with the call, and I'm impressed with and stunned by its immediate results. Republicans are trying to make some big deal about Obama not endorsing Harris (Yet.)
I'm still catching up and I been following this. If he's busy or slept in today, maybe he just ain't got to it but he will.
Like the man said; "Yes We Can."
And he was not wrong.
I'm With Her.
How this goes is American Revelation.
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If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan
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