A PLEA TO MY FELLOW DEMOCRATS
Looking over a variety of Facebook posts today in the wake of the latest exit from the Democratic race, and the ongoing debate over whether Biden cares about young people or if Sanders is too far left for party moderates, and what I'm seeing is what I stated last week to be my biggest fear: too many people saying "If the candidate I support isn't nominated, then I'm not voting."
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: We simply CAN'T allow ourselves to respond that way. If we do, we're saddled with four more years of Trump - and the idea of how much further damage might be inflicted upon our country during those four years is simply too frightening to consider.
The priority HAS to be getting rid of Trump. Once that has been accomplished, then we can zero in a little more on some of the other narrower issues that good Americans who are registered Democrats find themselves debating about.
Disagreements about the particulars of student loan debt, medical coverage for everyone or (insert your particular favorite cause here) are perfectly legitimate discussions that need to be had, in the hopes of finding areas of compromise that will in turn lead to solutions for the benefit of us all. But all those discussions and disagreements are ultimately pointless if we allow the current occupant of the Oval Office to remain there.
Here is what I know: There are things about each and every one of this year's Democratic hopefuls that I have liked, and things about each and every one of this year's Democratic hopefuls that I have disliked. That has been the case with every election that has taken place since I became old enough to vote - which is more years now than I have fingers and toes to count on. But never - NOT ONCE - in all that time have the stakes felt as high as they do this in this election.
Every election has seen us debating over differences in ideologies. This is the first time I have felt like what we are deciding the very soul of the nation itself... over whether the Founding Fathers' grand experiment will continue, or be swept under the rug of history by a vainglorious dolt with Fascist tendencies and, it would seem, delusions of godhood.
At this point I really don't care who will ultimately be the Democratic nominee. Speaking as a former two-term county Democratic Party chairman - and more importantly, as an American citizen who cares deeply about the future of this country, and the legacy we will be leaving to my little granddaughter and her generation - I'm willing to vote for a candidate who may not have been my first, second or even third choice if it means closing the door once and for all on the Trump Presidency, a.k.a. the Second Dark Age.
So please, I'm begging you: Stop pouting, get your heads out of your rear-ends (use a crowbar if you must), and UNIFY - if not for the sake of the individual candidate, then for the sake of the concept of saving America from four more years of Donald Trump. That is the mission.
Period.
End of rant.
In : Opinion
Tags: election politics. patriotism