So, I am mostly posting this because of that blowhard mod asking me if it was me if I spoke at the DNC when I bashed clinton, and I told them what kind of question is that and they wouldn't allow me on stage with my views. But, I decided, as an intellectual exercise, what I would say in a stump speech supporting Harris at the DNC. I think it would sound something like this.
My fellow Americans,
I am here, tonight, to show support for one, Kamala Harris for president. I am not your normal democrat. if anything, I almost don't consider myself one. I am in name only, but I mostly consider myself an independent.
I am one of those Bernie or Busters who didn't vote for Clinton in 2016. I don't like Hillary. I think she sucked. I think that she was abrasive, that she learned too hard into her gender to the point of accusing anyone who didn't like her of being sexist. For all the talk of how us Bernie bros are toxic, I felt like she fired the first shot, in how she treated the Bernie camp in 2016. I mean, Bernie Bro. Ya know, like Obama boy? Those overly educated white males who care too much about policy and theory and are racist and/or sexist? Yeah, we've been character assassinated by the democrats many time. In 2016, I was drawn to three distinct policies, two of which were supported by Sanders himself. Universal basic income, medicare for all, and free college. Clinton met 0.5 of my purity tests, offering a flawed free college platform that was means tested and originally had work requirements. She was abrasively anti medicare for all, and UBI wasn't even in the discussion until yang ran on it in 2020. bernie supported 2/3. Not perfect, but as the song goes, two out of three aint bad.
Honestly, I was so pissed off by Clinton, that I voted for Jill Stein, in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Honestly, like many Pennsylvanians in 2016, I felt abandoned by the democratic party. Maybe most pennsylvanians didn't feel exactly like me, but living in a neoliberal hellscape known as "the war on normal people", we clearly have suffered a decline in living standards and economic stability over the past 40 years. I grew up in (blank) PA. I went to college and got a degree in political science and sociology. I did everything right in my youth. I was a hard worker, I was an A student, I wanted to do the best I could so I could get a good job. And then I left college only to end up not being able to find a job. As it turns out, people in my area were no better off. We were the poorest city in the US in 2011, and by 2016, I feel like a lot of us were angry. We were sold college as a path to success, only to end up with tons of student debt and not really being any better off than I would be otherwise. Growing up, we were told we better to go college, or we would end up working in McDonalds. When I graduated college, we were told, what are we too good to work in McDonalds now, college boy?
Since then, I've become angry. I've also used my skills to actually put together my own agenda of how I feel we could actually fix the economy. I don't lean into all of this dignity of work crap I'm seeing at this convention. Rather, I see systemic government intervention in the economy in terms of giving people a UBI, giving people universal healthcare, and free college as the path to success. Since then, I've added housing to my list and Harris does have a good housing plan to her credit.
It really was no surprise, in retrospect, that trump won in 2016. When jobs arent paying and there arent enough of them, it's hard to be optimstic about the future, and the worst thing democrats can do is nothing. Telling us that the economy is great and we are the problem is not the way to win our votes. heck, the democrats did nothing to win our votes in 2016. Just lectured us and told us to vote for clinton, or we got trump. I opted for stein. Pennsylvania opted for Trump.
I think people liked Trump because he promised to bring the jobs back. It was a foolish promise, but when you're desperate, you just want to believe. And just as anyone with any know how could have predicted, trump was a disaster. Me, I just laid low during the trump years, continued my life as a NEET who had given up on life, and the world turned on. Some would say I was "privileged", I say screw off with that crap. That talk is what alienated us in the first place.
In 2020, we had more policy discussions. Bernie ran on his platform, and I liked Andrew Yang a lot too. I didn't really go for Harris or Biden much. They just seemed like more of the same. I ended up getting alienated by the primary process being so tipped in the favor of the moderate candidate that I just took my ball, went home, and voted for Howie Hawkins, who at least offered a truly progressive platform. Biden won. And then...something happened.
On janaury 6th, i turned on my TV, and I saw rioters storming the capitol. I mean, I knew trump was a sore loser. He was screaming he didnt actually lose for weeks by that point, and it always was pathetic. I didn't think he would do anything though. On january 6th, I wasn't convinced he even did anything. Yes, he gave a sore loser speech full of salt, but I wasnt convinced he incited anything. However, I did have to wonder, WHERE ARE THE NATIONAL GUARD? Serious, Trump was having police and the like cracking heads of BLM protesters all year. Just a few weeks before the election, Trump basically had protesters dispersed with tear gas so he could do that stupid photo op in front of a church. Remember that? Pepperidge farms remembers.
Eventually, Trump told the protesters to go home, but it was hours after the damage was already done. And again, why such a slow response? I bet if it were BLM protesters, police would be there in full riot gear in like 15 minutes. But it took hours when it was white Trumpers doing this crap? Really? Talk about a double standard and police violence.
It didn't come out until later that yes, Trump actually did incite this stuff. Yes, Trump wanted the election results overturned. Yes, trump sat there for hours from the white house watching it happen diet coke in hand and refused to do anything. If anything, he was cheering them on. And he finally dispersed people after his family pressured him to finally do something about it.
And you know what? That is what really sits with me now, at this time, in 2024. Trump LITERALLY incited an insurrection to overturn election results, and he ALMOST succeeded. And it's scary. This man, cannot be president again. I know the democrats have been fear mongering about this guy every election since 2016. In 2016 and 2020, it was mostly just politics. It wasnt much different than the republicans screaming obama was a communist in 2008 and 2012. But after january 6th, it hits differently. And yes, this guy is a threat to democracy, and he CANNOT win again.
This is our american beer hall putsch. Next time, Trump will try again, and he will succeed. Trump failed, because a few people in just the right places, put country over party. Like Mike Pence, who the crowd that day wanted to hang from literal gallows, constructed on capitol grounds. I might agree with mike pence on virtually nothing, but i respect him for his patriotism that day. Thank you, if you are watching.
But let's talk about 2024. Donald Trump is running again. he has criminal charges related to that day against him. He hasnt been tried or convicted on them yet, but he has been convicted on other things. Donald Trump this time, wants to to be "dictator for a day." As other speakers have said, that's always how it starts. The republican party has project 2025, which many other speakers have read from. One important facet of it is unitary executive theory, which would concentrate a lot of power in the executive branch, and seeks to fill the federal bureaucracy with loyal trumpers in a spoils system type fashion. Remember how I said january 6th failed because there were all the right people in all the right places to make sure it won't succeed? If trump gets in a second time, he will make sure everyone in all the right places is as loyal and committed as he is. Even scarier, the supreme court recently gave the president presidential immunity for "official acts". This can include things like assassinating political opponents, according to sonia sotomayor, in her dissent. This is scary crap. I hate to pull a godwin's law here, but Donald Trump is literally America's Hitler. And this is our 1932 election cycle.
In that cycle, the Nazis won. How did they win? Leftists and Liberals refused to work together to defeat them. They focused more on their own ideological purity, than on their own personal goals. I'm going to admit it, Kamala Harris isn't everything I want in a president. She's not for UBI. She abandoned her 2020 medicare for all plan. The democratic party platform this year doesn't even mention a public option. Harris has some decent policies on other priorities. Biden is seeking to forgive some student debt (but not all of it), and Harris is for free 4 year college. She is for expanding Biden's environmental policies. She's for fixing the housing market. She's for a higher minimum wage and unions. But still, she is lacking on some key policy priorities of mine.
Still, if you ask me who I'm voting for in November, it's Harris. Why? Because this isn't the election cycle to get picky. We hear it every 4 years. This is the most important election of our lifetimes. Well, normally, it's just campaign rhetoric and I know better. But this time, yes, it literally is. For the love of God, Donald Trump CANNOT BECOME PRESIDENT AGAIN! So lefties, get your head in the game, stop purity testing over stuff, it can wait until 2028. I know some people are upset over Gaza. Get over it. I know I'm upset over no decent universal healthcare plan. But I must get over it. We can litigate this stuff in the future. As long as democracy survives, there's hope.
I protest voted in 2016 and 2020 because I believe in democracy. I dont believe that the politicians or the parties are owed votes. I believe they have to earn them. I believe that WE THE PEOPLE are real owners of democracy. And if we say a candidate isnt good enough, it is the candidate who must change to earn the votes, the voters shouldnt conform to please the party. I despise sentiments like "vote blue no matter who.' You hear me democrats? IM NOT LOYAL TO YOU. But I am loyal to democracy. And the point of a protest vote is to pressure the parties to do better next time, if they don't this time. If a party or politician loses, I generally believe it is because the people weren't pleased with their governance and it is up to them to change.
BUT, this strategy requires us to have future elections for the parties to change in. If Donald Trump is elected, there will be no more elections, he said it himself, vote for him and you'll never have to vote again. And that's because there likely won't be democracy. He'll gut democracy like Hitler did in the 1930s in Germany. He will gut it like Putin did to Russia in the 2000s. This isn't a motherfricking game. We, on the left, dont have a luxury to protest vote this year. if we screw up, this election has widespread consequences that might be irreversible. We vote for Harris, and things continue as normal for better or for worse. We vote for someone like Jill Stein or Cornel west, and harris loses and Trump wins, and, well, that's it. it's over. Democracy is over.
Democrats, lefties, this is not a surrender, this is a tactical retreat. We must live and fight another day. I encourage lefties to join me in this retreat and support kamala harris for president. But I also offer a warning for future election cycles, this IS just a retreat. This vote should not be seen as explicit support for your platform or brand of politics. We are here to stop orange man. We have policy priorities, and honestly, you guys still have to earn our votes in future election cycles. We are going to purity test you in the future. And if you fail our tests, we might not vote for you. But for now, we must put our petty differences aside, and do the right thing, and stop Trump. And that's what I'm going to encourage people to do.
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So, that's that. I know the dems would never let me on that stage to say any of that, but that is my honest, impassioned defense for kamala harris. And that's how I feel about 2024. I just wanted to share here. Because the dems sure as fudge won't let me say it in their spaces, because despite voting for them, I don't do the emotional labor and groupthink nonsense of thinking they're the greatest thing since sliced bread and how dare you not like them.
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