2020 Presidential Election 4: How Much Longer?

[front hugs > duggs]

I just moved from the NE US down to FL just in time for the election (got to vote in the local one too, which I was really excited about!). Whilst I know I traded down to a clusterfuck of a state run election system, I'm glad that my vote will (hopefully!) make a difference in this state.

[WiseGirl]

 

[fraurosena]

Ok, Americans! You know what you have to do!

 

[fraurosena]

Do you think states would pay?

Oh, what if Biden were to say he'd pay back the states when he wins?

[fraurosena]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, the Dumpy campaign isn't organized. What a surprise.

The article is linked here:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Twitler would have kicked him...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Familiar Republicans join team Biden"

Spoiler

If the Republican Party no longer has room in the asylum for staunch conservatives such as former Arizona Republican senator Jeff Flake, former Republican Rep. Justin Amash (L-Mich.) or the pro-life, pro-tax-cutting Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), then it certainly holds no allure for more centrist Republicans. Those sort of Republicans decamped from Congress already (e.g., former Tennessee senator Bob Corker, former Florida congressman Carlos Curbelo, former Pennsylvania congressmen Charlie Dent).

As President Trump’s unceasing attacks on the Constitution, abject lying and disinclination to defend America’s national security (when confronted with evidence of Russian bounties on the heads of U.S. troops in Afghanistan), NeverTrumpers (this one included) have cheered the nomination of former vice president Joe Biden, a center-left politician with high regard for democratic institutions. We now see some of the best pro-Biden ads from Republican ad-makers at the Lincoln Project and at Republican Voters Against Trump (which has captured hundreds of ordinary Republicans explaining why they will vote for Biden).

On Monday night, with the start of the Democratic convention, that trend will be highlighted with the appearance of familiar Republicans — former New Jersey governor and director of the Environmental Protection Agency Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate candidate Meg Whitman, former Staten Island congresswoman (and keynoter at the Republicans’ 1996 convention) Susan Molinari and former Ohio governor John Kasich. The number of defectors from the other party appearing at a national convention must be a record of some sort. Trump and the party entirely under his sway have done a bang-up job of alienating real rule-of-law, pro-environment, anti-Russia, pro-legal immigration, pro-free trade and pro-democracy (little “d”) Republicans.

Of course, those Republicans have more in common with Biden than they do with Trump — just as White suburban women in 2018 found they had more in common with Democrats. Current polls show White college-educated voters have transferred loyalty to the Democratic Party. These are the sort of Republicans who actually believe functional and clean government matters, and cherish the American creed (“government of the people, by the people, for the people”). And, frankly, these are the Republicans put off by Trump’s willful ignorance, his bigotry, his bullying, his incompetence, his corruption and his norm-breaking. They are embarrassed to be associated with the Trump Republican Party, and they — not without reason — worry about what another four years of Trump would do to America.

A couple questions remain about Republican defectors.

First, we do not know how many party-crossers there are, in part because some of them already became Democrats. Gallup reported earlier this summer that Republican self-identification was down five points: “What had been a two-percentage-point Republican advantage in U.S. party identification and leaning has become an 11-point Democratic advantage, with more of that movement reflecting a loss in Republican identification and leaning (down eight points) than a gain in Democratic identification and leaning (up five points).” They now show up in polling and exit polling as Democrats, but these are the flock of Republicans Trump chased from the party. (It would be interesting to see what percentage of Biden voters are casting their first presidential pick for a Democrat.)

Second, we do not know how much of this realignment is permanent. That depends, in large part, on how Biden governs and what Republicans want to do with themselves after 2020. If, as many suspect, Trump Republicans are not yet ready to shed their populist, blood-and-soil, know-nothingism, then many of these ex-Republicans will not return anytime soon. They may not like everything Biden does, but if they are comfortable with enough of his agenda, that might be sufficient to keep them in the Democratic fold.

What Biden and his fellow Democrats hope is that lots of Republican or ex-Republican voters sense tonight that John Kasich, Susan Molinari, Christine Todd Whitman and Meg Whitman sound an awful lot like themselves. And if these Republicans feel comfortable voting for Biden, they should too.

 

[47of74]

Yeah I totally agree with this

Quote

Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez says the handful of 2020 presidential caucuses should be the last the party ever holds.

He didn’t specifically name Iowa, which for decades has led off the nominating calendar, but his position would represent a seismic shift in the party’s traditions.

That was a total waste of time this year going to the caucuses.  I had some other fun stuff I could have done and it turned out to be a giant cluster fuck anyways.  I'll never go to another caucus again if I wind up somewhere else where they have them. 

[SPHASH]

Watched the convention tonight.  Whitmer, Klobuchar, Michelle Obama, and Kasich all gave great speeches IMO.  I kinda like the virtual format too.

Edited August 18, 2020 by SPHASH
ETA

[Workingmom]

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

For those who missed it, here is the transcript of Michelle Obama's excellent speech. There are notes, which can be viewed by going to the website: "Michelle Obama’s full speech to the Democratic National Convention, annotated"

Spoiler

Former first lady Michelle Obama was the closing speaker during the first night of the Democratic Convention.

Obama’s speech was a more pointed and more political one than her well-received speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, in which she employed her now-well known phrase “When they go low, we go high," without ever referring to then-candidate Donald Trump by name. Monday, she made a direct case for why voters should back Joe Biden and reject Trump and Trumpism, and warned of obstacles to voting by mail or in person.

Good evening, everyone. It’s a hard time, and everyone’s feeling it in different ways. And I know a lot of folks are reluctant to tune into a political convention right now or to politics in general. Believe me, I get that. But I am here tonight because I love this country with all my heart, and it pains me to see so many people hurting.

I’ve met so many of you. I’ve heard your stories. And through you, I have seen this country’s promise. And thanks to so many who came before me, thanks to their toil and sweat and blood, I’ve been able to live that promise myself.

That’s the story of America. All those folks who sacrificed and overcame so much in their own times because they wanted something more, something better for their kids.

There’s a lot of beauty in that story. There’s a lot of pain in it, too, a lot of struggle and injustice and work left to do. And who we choose as our president in this election will determine whether or not we honor that struggle and chip away at that injustice and keep alive the very possibility of finishing that work.

I am one of a handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency. And let me once again tell you this: the job is hard. It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.

A president’s words have the power to move markets. They can start wars or broker peace. They can summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts. You simply cannot fake your way through this job.

As I’ve said before, being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are. Well, a presidential election can reveal who we are, too. And four years ago, too many people chose to believe that their votes didn’t matter. Maybe they were fed up. Maybe they thought the outcome wouldn’t be close. Maybe the barriers felt too steep. Whatever the reason, in the end, those choices sent someone to the Oval Office who lost the national popular vote by nearly 3,000,000 votes.

In one of the states that determined the outcome, the winning margin averaged out to just two votes per precinct—two votes. And we’ve all been living with the consequences.

When my husband left office with Joe Biden at his side, we had a record-breaking stretch of job creation. We’d secured the right to health care for 20,000,000 people. We were respected around the world, rallying our allies to confront climate change. And our leaders had worked hand-in-hand with scientists to help prevent an Ebola outbreak from becoming a global pandemic.

Four years later, the state of this nation is very different. More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long. It has left millions of people jobless. Too many have lost their health care; too many are struggling to take care of basic necessities like food and rent; too many communities have been left in the lurch to grapple with whether and how to open our schools safely. Internationally, we’ve turned our back, not just on agreements forged by my husband, but on alliances championed by presidents like Reagan and Eisenhower.

And here at home, as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a never-ending list of innocent people of color continue to be murdered, stating the simple fact that a Black life matters is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office.

Because whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy.

Empathy: that’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. The ability to walk in someone else’s shoes; the recognition that someone else’s experience has value, too. Most of us practice this without a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don’t stand in judgment. We reach out because, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” It is not a hard concept to grasp. It’s what we teach our children.

And like so many of you, Barack and I have tried our best to instill in our girls a strong moral foundation to carry forward the values that our parents and grandparents poured into us. But right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.

They see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn’t matter what happens to everyone else. And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain.

They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op.

Sadly, this is the America that is on display for the next generation. A nation that’s underperforming not simply on matters of policy but on matters of character. And that’s not just disappointing; it’s downright infuriating, because I know the goodness and the grace that is out there in households and neighborhoods all across this nation.

And I know that regardless of our race, age, religion, or politics, when we close out the noise and the fear and truly open our hearts, we know that what’s going on in this country is just not right. This is not who we want to be.

So what do we do now? What’s our strategy? Over the past four years, a lot of people have asked me, “When others are going so low, does going high still really work?” My answer: going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that’s drowning out everything else. We degrade ourselves. We degrade the very causes for which we fight.

But let’s be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, and if we want to survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences.

And going high means unlocking the shackles of lies and mistrust with the only thing that can truly set us free: the cold hard truth.

So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.

Now, I understand that my message won’t be heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention. But enough of you know me by now. You know that I tell you exactly what I’m feeling. You know I hate politics. But you also know that I care about this nation. You know how much I care about all of our children.

So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.

I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man, guided by faith. He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic, and lead our country. And he listens. He will tell the truth and trust science. He will make smart plans and manage a good team. And he will govern as someone who’s lived a life that the rest of us can recognize.

When he was a kid, Joe’s father lost his job. When he was a young senator, Joe lost his wife and his baby daughter. And when he was vice president, he lost his beloved son. So Joe knows the anguish of sitting at a table with an empty chair, which is why he gives his time so freely to grieving parents. Joe knows what it’s like to struggle, which is why he gives his personal phone number to kids overcoming a stutter of their own.

His life is a testament to getting back up, and he is going to channel that same grit and passion to pick us all up, to help us heal and guide us forward.

Now, Joe is not perfect. And he’d be the first to tell you that. But there is no perfect candidate, no perfect president. And his ability to learn and grow—we find in that the kind of humility and maturity that so many of us yearn for right now. Because Joe Biden has served this nation his entire life without ever losing sight of who he is; but more than that, he has never lost sight of who we are, all of us.

Joe Biden wants all of our kids to go to a good school, see a doctor when they’re sick, live on a healthy planet. And he’s got plans to make all of that happen. Joe Biden wants all of our kids, no matter what they look like, to be able to walk out the door without worrying about being harassed or arrested or killed. He wants all of our kids to be able to go to a movie or a math class without being afraid of getting shot. He wants all our kids to grow up with leaders who won’t just serve themselves and their wealthy peers but will provide a safety net for people facing hard times.

And if we want a chance to pursue any of these goals, any of these most basic requirements for a functioning society, we have to vote for Joe Biden in numbers that cannot be ignored. Because right now, folks who know they cannot win fair and square at the ballot box are doing everything they can to stop us from voting. They’re closing down polling places in minority neighborhoods. They’re purging voter rolls. They’re sending people out to intimidate voters, and they’re lying about the security of our ballots. These tactics are not new.

But this is not the time to withhold our votes in protest or play games with candidates who have no chance of winning. We have got to vote like we did in 2008 and 2012. We’ve got to show up with the same level of passion and hope for Joe Biden. We’ve got to vote early, in person if we can. We’ve got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately and follow-up to make sure they’re received. And then, make sure our friends and families do the same.

We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast too, because we’ve got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to.

Look, we have already sacrificed so much this year. So many of you are already going that extra mile. Even when you’re exhausted, you’re mustering up unimaginable courage to put on those scrubs and give our loved ones a fighting chance. Even when you’re anxious, you’re delivering those packages, stocking those shelves, and doing all that essential work so that all of us can keep moving forward.

Even when it all feels so overwhelming, working parents are somehow piecing it all together without child care. Teachers are getting creative so that our kids can still learn and grow. Our young people are desperately fighting to pursue their dreams.

And when the horrors of systemic racism shook our country and our consciences, millions of Americans of every age, every background rose up to march for each other, crying out for justice and progress.

This is who we still are: compassionate, resilient, decent people whose fortunes are bound up with one another. And it is well past time for our leaders to once again reflect our truth.

So, it is up to us to add our voices and our votes to the course of history, echoing heroes like John Lewis who said, “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.” That is the truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing; not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all our kids.

And if we want to keep the possibility of progress alive in our time, if we want to be able to look our children in the eye after this election, we have got to reassert our place in American history. And we have got to do everything we can to elect my friend, Joe Biden, as the next president of the United States.

Thank you all. God bless.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

In case you missed it, here are Kristin Urquiza's remarks shown during last night's convention:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A great op-ed from Dana Milbank: "Bernie Sanders has the right medicine for a country too sick to hold a convention"

Spoiler

This is exactly the right convention for our times.

There are many losses to mourn since the pandemic, and President Trump’s woeful handling of it, shut down our lives — but the demise of the modern political convention is not among them.

Gone, mercifully, are the corporation-financed parties where lobbyists ply their trade and big donors buy access to public figures. Absent, thankfully, are the convention-floor pageantry and theatrics that haven’t meant a thing for decades. Missing, too, are the preening journalists bagging trophy interviews on media row. Vanished are the scores of interest groups threatening to withhold support if they don’t get their moments in the spotlight and their planks in a platform the nominee will eventually ignore.

As Democrats gather virtually for their 2020 political convention, they don’t have the luxury of a balloon-drop convention spectacle. None of us does. We are living in the worst of times. There is nothing to celebrate.

Instead, Democrats on Monday night gave us the somber moment we deserve: a recognition of the desperate condition Trump has put our country in, and a passionate call to action. Democrats of all variety — socialist and moderate, coastal and heartland, Black and White and Brown — may be geographically dispersed this week but they are uncommonly unified in one existential message.

“We are facing the worst public health crisis in 100 years and worst economic collapse since the Great Depression,” as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put it. “We have a president who is not only incapable of addressing these crises but is leading us down the path of authoritarianism.”

Sanders, once Biden’s most formidable primary opponent, became his most powerful advocate Monday night, demanding “a movement like never before” to fight for his former rival. “During this president’s term the unthinkable has become normal,” Sanders said, with a passion and urgency that eluded him in his 2016 support for the Democratic ticket.

“He has tried to prevent people from voting, undermined the U.S. Postal Service, deployed the military and federal agents against peaceful protestors, threatened to delay the election, and suggested that he will not leave office if he loses. This is not normal, and we must never treat it like it is. Under this administration authoritarianism has taken root in our country. I and my family and many of yours know the insidious way authoritarianism destroys democracy, decency and humanity. As long as I am here, I will work with progressives, with moderates and, yes, with conservatives to preserve this nation from a threat that so many of our heroes fought and died to defeat.”

Trump, who has governed by division, hoped for disunity among Democrats. “Great division between the Bernie Sanders crowd and the other Radical Lefties,” he tweeted Monday afternoon.

So he wishes. The Democratic Party — now joined by Republicans of conscience — has never been so unified. They are unified around Biden and his basic human decency. The resounding, reverberating message Monday night, and almost certainly for the rest of the week, is that Democrats are united in determination to end the catastrophe Trump’s presidency has been for the country.

“You have the most destructive, hateful, racist president in the history of the country who is tearing apart the fabric of the United States,” said former congressman Beto O’Rourke, another Biden rival for the nomination.

Kristin Urquiza, an Arizona woman whose Trump-supporting father died of covid-19, told the convention “his only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life.”

John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio and longtime Republican leader of Congress, declared that “we’re being taken down the wrong road by a president who has pitted one against another.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo angrily pointed out “how many lives can be lost when our government is incompetent.”

And former first lady Michelle Obama closed the night with a portrait of America’s children seeing “our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown in cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protesters for a photo op.”

Interspersed were memorials to some of the 170,000 Americans lost to the coronavirus, the many African Americans killed by police brutality, the infamous images of Trump throwing paper towels to hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico and holding a bible at his church photo-op, and testimonials from lifelong Republicans and former Trump voters who felt betrayed.

The virtual convention was undoubtedly weird, with actress Eva Longoria playing emcee and occasionally looking into the wrong camera, Biden himself attempting to lead a virtual roundtable, video and audio glitches, several pre-taped speeches and a couple of attempts at crowd applause using Zoom-style boxes.

Will any of it matter? Probably not. Biden already has a lead approaching double digits and can’t possibly get much more of a bounce. And the broadcast networks aired only an hour of the two-hour event — inexcusable stinginess at a time when other means of campaigning are impossible.

But give Democrats credit for capturing the moment — the infuriating reality of a great nation brought to its knees by a president who has botched twin crises and fomented rage and division.

“A president who fights his fellow Americans rather than fighting the virus that’s killing us,” said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

A president who isn’t “decent enough, stable enough, strong enough,” to get our economy back on track, said former Republican New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman.

A man who “has not clue how to run a business, let alone a country,” said Republican businesswoman Meg Whitman.

But the most biting of all was the senator from Vermont, in front of neatly stacked firewood. “Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs,” Sanders said. “His actions fanned this pandemic, resulting in 170,000 deaths, and a nation still unprepared to protect its people. Furthermore, Trump’s negligence has exacerbated the economic crisis we’re experiencing.”

In apocalyptic terms, Sanders made the case for his former opponent. “Joe Biden will end the hate and division Trump has created. He will stop the demonization of immigrants, coddling of white nationalists, racist dog-whistling, religious bigotry and the ugly attacks on women. My friends, I say to you, to everyone who supported other candidates in the primary, and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. ... My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”

For a country too sick to hold a political convention, this is the right medicine.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I was thinking about this last night:

[WiseGirl]

Bernie

 

[fraurosena]

*Muttley snigger*

 

[AuntK]

I was remembering last night how it was a little over 3 years and 9 months ago that, other than the deaths of my parents and my divorce, I had one of the worst few days of my life. After the 2016 election's unbelievable result, I was in shock, depressed, unable to sleep, eat for days. Thank goodness for FJ! I had nowhere else to turn, but I had friends here to commiserate with me.

The weeks and months of outrageous, incompetent, racist, sexist, vile behavior that we endured! I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I can now! Can it really be only 77 days until we can vote and get this horrible, evil thing out of the WH? I am still fearful for our country and what can happen. I don't even want to think about a Biden loss. I don't think I could handle it. 

But, I'm excited about Kamala, I'm excited to see dignity, class and competence in a presidential campaign. We can DO this, America! We MUST!

[Audrey2]

8 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

For those who missed it, here is the transcript of Michelle Obama's excellent speech. There are notes, which can be viewed by going to the website: "Michelle Obama’s full speech to the Democratic National Convention, annotated"

  Reveal hidden contents

Former first lady Michelle Obama was the closing speaker during the first night of the Democratic Convention.

Obama’s speech was a more pointed and more political one than her well-received speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, in which she employed her now-well known phrase “When they go low, we go high," without ever referring to then-candidate Donald Trump by name. Monday, she made a direct case for why voters should back Joe Biden and reject Trump and Trumpism, and warned of obstacles to voting by mail or in person.

Good evening, everyone. It’s a hard time, and everyone’s feeling it in different ways. And I know a lot of folks are reluctant to tune into a political convention right now or to politics in general. Believe me, I get that. But I am here tonight because I love this country with all my heart, and it pains me to see so many people hurting.

I’ve met so many of you. I’ve heard your stories. And through you, I have seen this country’s promise. And thanks to so many who came before me, thanks to their toil and sweat and blood, I’ve been able to live that promise myself.

That’s the story of America. All those folks who sacrificed and overcame so much in their own times because they wanted something more, something better for their kids.

There’s a lot of beauty in that story. There’s a lot of pain in it, too, a lot of struggle and injustice and work left to do. And who we choose as our president in this election will determine whether or not we honor that struggle and chip away at that injustice and keep alive the very possibility of finishing that work.

I am one of a handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency. And let me once again tell you this: the job is hard. It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.

A president’s words have the power to move markets. They can start wars or broker peace. They can summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts. You simply cannot fake your way through this job.

As I’ve said before, being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are. Well, a presidential election can reveal who we are, too. And four years ago, too many people chose to believe that their votes didn’t matter. Maybe they were fed up. Maybe they thought the outcome wouldn’t be close. Maybe the barriers felt too steep. Whatever the reason, in the end, those choices sent someone to the Oval Office who lost the national popular vote by nearly 3,000,000 votes.

In one of the states that determined the outcome, the winning margin averaged out to just two votes per precinct—two votes. And we’ve all been living with the consequences.

When my husband left office with Joe Biden at his side, we had a record-breaking stretch of job creation. We’d secured the right to health care for 20,000,000 people. We were respected around the world, rallying our allies to confront climate change. And our leaders had worked hand-in-hand with scientists to help prevent an Ebola outbreak from becoming a global pandemic.

Four years later, the state of this nation is very different. More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long. It has left millions of people jobless. Too many have lost their health care; too many are struggling to take care of basic necessities like food and rent; too many communities have been left in the lurch to grapple with whether and how to open our schools safely. Internationally, we’ve turned our back, not just on agreements forged by my husband, but on alliances championed by presidents like Reagan and Eisenhower.

And here at home, as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a never-ending list of innocent people of color continue to be murdered, stating the simple fact that a Black life matters is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office.

Because whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy.

Empathy: that’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. The ability to walk in someone else’s shoes; the recognition that someone else’s experience has value, too. Most of us practice this without a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don’t stand in judgment. We reach out because, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” It is not a hard concept to grasp. It’s what we teach our children.

And like so many of you, Barack and I have tried our best to instill in our girls a strong moral foundation to carry forward the values that our parents and grandparents poured into us. But right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.

They see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn’t matter what happens to everyone else. And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain.

They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op.

Sadly, this is the America that is on display for the next generation. A nation that’s underperforming not simply on matters of policy but on matters of character. And that’s not just disappointing; it’s downright infuriating, because I know the goodness and the grace that is out there in households and neighborhoods all across this nation.

And I know that regardless of our race, age, religion, or politics, when we close out the noise and the fear and truly open our hearts, we know that what’s going on in this country is just not right. This is not who we want to be.

So what do we do now? What’s our strategy? Over the past four years, a lot of people have asked me, “When others are going so low, does going high still really work?” My answer: going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that’s drowning out everything else. We degrade ourselves. We degrade the very causes for which we fight.

But let’s be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, and if we want to survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences.

And going high means unlocking the shackles of lies and mistrust with the only thing that can truly set us free: the cold hard truth.

So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.

Now, I understand that my message won’t be heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention. But enough of you know me by now. You know that I tell you exactly what I’m feeling. You know I hate politics. But you also know that I care about this nation. You know how much I care about all of our children.

So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.

I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man, guided by faith. He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic, and lead our country. And he listens. He will tell the truth and trust science. He will make smart plans and manage a good team. And he will govern as someone who’s lived a life that the rest of us can recognize.

When he was a kid, Joe’s father lost his job. When he was a young senator, Joe lost his wife and his baby daughter. And when he was vice president, he lost his beloved son. So Joe knows the anguish of sitting at a table with an empty chair, which is why he gives his time so freely to grieving parents. Joe knows what it’s like to struggle, which is why he gives his personal phone number to kids overcoming a stutter of their own.

His life is a testament to getting back up, and he is going to channel that same grit and passion to pick us all up, to help us heal and guide us forward.

Now, Joe is not perfect. And he’d be the first to tell you that. But there is no perfect candidate, no perfect president. And his ability to learn and grow—we find in that the kind of humility and maturity that so many of us yearn for right now. Because Joe Biden has served this nation his entire life without ever losing sight of who he is; but more than that, he has never lost sight of who we are, all of us.

Joe Biden wants all of our kids to go to a good school, see a doctor when they’re sick, live on a healthy planet. And he’s got plans to make all of that happen. Joe Biden wants all of our kids, no matter what they look like, to be able to walk out the door without worrying about being harassed or arrested or killed. He wants all of our kids to be able to go to a movie or a math class without being afraid of getting shot. He wants all our kids to grow up with leaders who won’t just serve themselves and their wealthy peers but will provide a safety net for people facing hard times.

And if we want a chance to pursue any of these goals, any of these most basic requirements for a functioning society, we have to vote for Joe Biden in numbers that cannot be ignored. Because right now, folks who know they cannot win fair and square at the ballot box are doing everything they can to stop us from voting. They’re closing down polling places in minority neighborhoods. They’re purging voter rolls. They’re sending people out to intimidate voters, and they’re lying about the security of our ballots. These tactics are not new.

But this is not the time to withhold our votes in protest or play games with candidates who have no chance of winning. We have got to vote like we did in 2008 and 2012. We’ve got to show up with the same level of passion and hope for Joe Biden. We’ve got to vote early, in person if we can. We’ve got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately and follow-up to make sure they’re received. And then, make sure our friends and families do the same.

We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast too, because we’ve got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to.

Look, we have already sacrificed so much this year. So many of you are already going that extra mile. Even when you’re exhausted, you’re mustering up unimaginable courage to put on those scrubs and give our loved ones a fighting chance. Even when you’re anxious, you’re delivering those packages, stocking those shelves, and doing all that essential work so that all of us can keep moving forward.

Even when it all feels so overwhelming, working parents are somehow piecing it all together without child care. Teachers are getting creative so that our kids can still learn and grow. Our young people are desperately fighting to pursue their dreams.

And when the horrors of systemic racism shook our country and our consciences, millions of Americans of every age, every background rose up to march for each other, crying out for justice and progress.

This is who we still are: compassionate, resilient, decent people whose fortunes are bound up with one another. And it is well past time for our leaders to once again reflect our truth.

So, it is up to us to add our voices and our votes to the course of history, echoing heroes like John Lewis who said, “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.” That is the truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing; not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all our kids.

And if we want to keep the possibility of progress alive in our time, if we want to be able to look our children in the eye after this election, we have got to reassert our place in American history. And we have got to do everything we can to elect my friend, Joe Biden, as the next president of the United States.

Thank you all. God bless.

 

If we missed it, we can always hear it when Melania delivers it again and trumptards brag about what a smart first lady we have

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, AuntK said:

I was remembering last night how it was a little over 3 years and 9 months ago that, other than the deaths of my parents and my divorce, I had one of the worst few days of my life. After the 2016 election's unbelievable result, I was in shock, depressed, unable to sleep, eat for days. Thank goodness for FJ! I had nowhere else to turn, but I had friends here to commiserate with me.

I hear you. My birthday is November 9. So I woke up sick that morning. I was unable to think straight.

 

2 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

If we missed it, we can always hear it when Melania delivers it again and trumptards brag about what a smart first lady we have

Oh, she'll change it radically by adding "be best" at the end.

[nausicaa]

All right, that roll call was cool as shit. 

This, along with alcohol delivery and widespread working from home, needs to be another permanent post-pandemic adjustment. 

On 8/17/2020 at 10:17 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

Gee, the Dumpy campaign isn't organized. What a surprise.

The article is linked here:

 

It's a pretty open secret that Trump had a horrible campaign manager and a terribly organized 2016 campaign. Trump won because of his cult of personality and the fact that he was "fresh" and unprecedented. Yet another thing working against Trump this year. I'm not even sure he is aware enough of the reasons behind his election success to know he needs to improve this. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by nausicaa

[Maggie Mae]

1 hour ago, nausicaa said:

All right, that roll call was cool as shit. 

NGL, I started sobbing when i saw a filipeno american casting the votes for Hawaii, I was already on the edge after my own state but that just pushed me over like a crazy person. 

The RNC is planning to have the lunatic couple who waved guns at peaceful protesters in ... somewhere? St Louis? I don't know. I don't know why that would be a draw for anyone but I also don't understand how anyone can still support Trump so I am not the person to ask. 

[fraurosena]

This thread is hilarious!

I put the rest of the thread under a spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

[fraurosena]

 

[Becky]

There is light at the end of the tunnel!  this nomination brought me to tears, and I am weeping again this morning reading the morning news recaps.  The thought that a decent human being will replace the flaming and vile dumpster fire currently occupying the White House, that life could possibly, possibly return to something resembling "normal," well - call it relief, call it hope, call it whatever you want, it really should not be this way, I shouldn't be so emotional over this but I am so goddamn TIRED of Trump's chaos and bullshit and Joe Biden just appears to be so nice and normal and kind and SANE! 

Blessings on Joe Biden and his family and his campaign staff, may this election be a landslide in his favor, and Trump finally slink off to ignominy, shame, and irrelevance forever.  Who am I kidding? he will start up the Trump News Network and spend the rest of his life ranting incomprehensibly at his acolytes, and Congress will still have right wing, homophobic, racist assholes, but this morning I have a glimmer of hope that good will win over evil, love over hate, sanity over chaos.  ?

Edited August 19, 2020 by Becky
spelling counts!