So Kamala Harris just had a CNN town hall tonight. I watched it live. I don't have a ton ton to say about it, but here's how I feel about it.
First of all, Harris hit trump HARD. And I will go even further than her. Okay, seriously America. We need to talk. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! If you ever wondered how Germany ever got a nutcase like Hitler, think very carefully about what you're doing right now. This guy wants to abolish the constitution, be a dictator, and the dude has EVEN FRICKING PRAISED HITLER!!!!! He wants his generals. Seriously guys, what the fudge? I know you're probably thinking he wasn't that bad last time...he had handlers and people in the right place with checks and balances. This time will be different. He has learned from his mistakes and he has plans to fill the government with yes people. There's a very real possibility that Trump gets a house/senate trifecta on top of winning. AND he's gonna have a conservative supreme court on his side, with 3 justices he handpicked himself. This dude is not gonna have checks and balances. He's gonna erode and break our system of government. Think VERY carefully about what you're doing. I'm not a huge supporter of Harris either, as I'll get to in a minute, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T SUPPORT TRUMP!
With that out of my system. Yes, it's nice to see Harris go after him in a way like I did. Called him a fascist, brought up the hitler thing, blah blah blah, very good.
But then there's the issue where I take offense to Harris as a candidate. In one question she was asked about her contradictory stances and how she was for banning fracking but now she's not, she was for medicare for all, but now she's not. I'm gonna be honest, I don't care about fracking as much. I personally believe we should ban it, but i also understand the economic populist ermahgerd muh jerbs mentality. And despite my personal views about how work is a means to an end and we shouldnt let bad jobs exist just to keep people employed, I have enough populist instincts to concede the issue a bit too.
BUT...medicare for all. So...this is a top priority for me, and I didn't like her answer. Basically she said her values didn't change...but she realized that she wants to encourage consensus building and compromise. She does this moderate "I wanna be president for all americans" schtick, and it doesn't really resonate with me. I know this is that centrist focus group brained nonsense the DNC keeps feeding to people and maybe even some voters at the town hall want a politically correct answer like this, but I don't.
At some point, the big tent becomes too big that nothing gets done. Sometimes, some people are going to walk away unhappy with what they get. And sometimes, you can have a coalition so broad it contains directly oppositional elements to it, and you cant please both. And for some people, this is an animating enough issue that it is a deal breaker for them. As I said, i can compromise on fracking, but healthcare? This is issue #2 behind UBI, and you're already not for UBI. Tax credits, yes, and i do recognize that the tax credits are useful, but not UBI.
So healthcare. Healthcare is broken. What we're doing isn't working. We need reform. ideally i'd like single payer, and im gonna be honest, in 2020, i was a bernie or buster who was single payer or bust. Since then, I HAVE compromised. I HAVE done extensive policy research (see posts from april/may 2021 or so) on the topic and I've become flexible enough where I'm open to a public option. I'm open to a plan similar to what she proposed in 2020. And now she abandoned it, because she's too busy trying to build consensus...with people who literally dont want universal healthcare. And let's call a spade a spade. They dont want universal healthcare. They're opposed to the idea. Let's call it like it is. And you gotta make a choice, either you're for some form of it or you're not. You cant just do this 'well my values havent changed but my approach has." I mean, that's fine for lesser answers, if i was asked about fracking I'd give the same mealy mouthed answer, but as someone who just admitted that, I also admitted my real position, that the issue isn't important enough for me to show moral courage on, and I'm willing to compromise on it because i dont care a ton on it. Frankly, and I've made this stance on compromise clear, I have a hierarchy policy preferences. And on lower level issues less important to me, I'm more willing to compromise. On issues i care about the most, im willing to compromise less. And healthcare and UBI are the two policies where at the end of the day I'll be an uncompromising and purity testy ###hole until I get what I want. Because that's what I believe in. And again, building consensus. How are we gonna build consensus with people who quite literally oppose the goals i fundamentally support? How can there be compromise and consensus? A public option IS the compromise, and now we're backing away from either that. So no, Harris, that answer was not good enough, you gotta do better.
Now, to be fair, I already voted for her, and this is why in a normal election cycle, I'm so obnoxious about withholding my vote from democrats. Because the second i vote for them, i lost my leverage and now she's gonna try to win over the moderates she hasn't won over. Ya know? Once you vote for them, they dont care. You gave them what they wanted and they have no reason or incentive to listen to you. Of course, hand was forced, because again, did we mention that trump just PRAISED FREAKING HITLER?! I mean, COME ON. Even I'm like..yeah okay this is nuts, I know dems say every 4 years this is the most important election of our lives, but they actually mean it this time.
Which is why, I guess, despite my protests, I'm not gonna get healthcare. Because harris doesnt care. She's too busy trying to win over weirdo moderates who don't even have a consistent perspective about politics (quite frankly, NOT voting for the modern incarnation of hitler is a very low bar to clear, apparently...), and these people like this mushy nonsense about bipartisanship and compromise.
Well, I'm gonna be honest. i don't. I'm tired of compromise talk out of democrats. When you're dealing with evil, compromising is literally being half evil. And I hate to actually say republicans are evil, but yeah, we're literally crossing that threshold. And yeah, that's why I just dont like harris. That's why i just dont like democrats. Because this is what they do. Run to the center on everything to appeal to the mythical median voter, when yeah. We need something more like "yes, I'm not the fascist in the race, trump is, and yes, I'm gonna ensure everyone has healthcare, and I'm tired of dancing around this." Because I am. I'm tired of dancing around this. i'm in my 30s, and I'm already getting way too old for this crap. Crap or get off the pot. But at least make it known where you stand.
And yeah. once again, I'm gonna close this with an obligatory "yeah I know I just ripped Harris a new one again, but please vote for her, pretty please, it's kinda important given again...A LITERAL FASCIST is running on the republican ticket." Because it really is that simple and any protest votes are useless if democracy falls and implodes. So just do the right thing, vote for Harris, you dont have to like it. Quite frankly, I don't like that I did it, but I still see it as necessary because again, at least Harris isn't LITERALLY PRAISING HITLER and wants to emulate the guy. So yeah. DRINK THE FRICKING FLOATER WATER to make that saltine crackers and floater water analogy again. There will be future elections to litigate this stuff....if we allow democracy to continue existing.
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