Hello friends,
I'd intended to speak my mind later in the fall closer to the election, but like a Quaker meeting I feel moved to talk today so I will. In short, this is my official endorsement of Joe Biden for President. The longer version will hopefully be clear if you keep reading.
To be blunt, I'm voting for the guy who isn't an asshole and I hope you do, too.
My circle runs a pretty wide spectrum from those of you who I know will never be convinced away from Trump to those of you who share forward-thinking values with me and find yourself deeply uncomfortable with Biden. This writing isn't meant to convince. It's meant to offer a quiet moral support to those who need consolation in a very dark hour. We will get through this. And it recalls the very difficult conversations I can remember having in late 2016 as Trump voters tried to explain themselves about what they'd done and why. This is meant to be a similar vein. It's where I'm at right now and if you're in a similar place then let's sit by the fire together for a second before we go back out there into the cold.
I count to myself this morning--just casual addition--no fewer than 5 immediate, deadly national crises that are killing our fellow Americans in the news this day. There are more crises than that but I'm just spit-balling here. Enough. And no matter what you think of the intentions of our national leadership, they clearly are not up to the task of getting us through to the other side. Disease is spreading, people are hungry, fires are burning out of control, it's bad out there. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have needlessly died as a result of failures, missteps, whatever you want to call them.
And then there is the hate. The suffering. The failure to help our neighbors. Especially as two-faced religious hypocrites openly make a mockery of the Golden Rule. I don't toss around the word "evil" in my vocabulary on a daily basis much. But, in this case, it fits so let's use the proper word for the proper thing. It means "profoundly wicked, tending to harm, extremely unpleasant, a manifestation of immorality, something which is undesirable and harmful."
Do I think that just because Joe Biden isn't an asshole that our country will magically repair these awful wounds? Absolutely not. But you don't fix what we're going through by giving selfish, thoughtless liars and scoundrels the reins of power and expect better. Republicans had a chance to remove the madman during impeachment earlier this year and chose to sacrifice the good of the nation for their own ideological fantasies--most of which do little to actually help Americans in any meaningful way. They talk of freedom and national defense and the "swamp" of corruption when there are camps of homeless Americans in our parks and children being delivered bread on their school buses because their families have no access to any other meals.
I won't even talk at length here about the environmental destruction, the children separated from their families at the border, the unrelenting egotism, or the attacks on people exercising their Constitutional rights.
I want better for you, reader. Just as I want better for my own children. It's really that simple. I want them to grow up in a nation that isn't screwing up that is run by people who aren't constantly screwing up. I believe intelligence and dedication to our core principles should guide our path alongside looking out for each other and leaving no American behind.
Those of you who know me well know that I've been reading a biography of Ulysses S. Grant this summer. It's a portrait of an unlikely hero who managed to find his strength and sense of justice at exactly the time the nation was being torn apart with the endless bloodshed of Civil War. Like now, it was one of our darkest hours. He was the steady hand of relentless fixing.
If you love this country, you'll show it the respect it deserves by voting for kindness. Your ballot can do more than just get rid of Donald Trump. Let's pick Americans who want to help all. The laws and systems we live by in our everyday lives start with electing people who care about what you need in your life to be happier, healthier, and more prosperous.
I'll leave you with the words of George Washington in 1785 to James Madison:
We are either a united people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a Nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.
