“We at war.
We at war with terrorism.
Racism.
But most of all,
we at war with ourselves.”
When Kanye West first recorded these words in 2004, America had only recently begun its descendance into the costly quagmire that is the War On Terror. President George W. Bush declared war on Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator keeping his country in organized terror and fear for decades. In a matter of days, Saddam’s capital fell, he fled, hid for nearly a year before being captured, tried, convicted, and executed in 2006. Few people knew what kind of hell our country was about to dive headfirst into.
One of those few is currently running for president.
The other, one of many then-Senators whom voted to begin the long, spiraling, calamitous affair that Donald Trump vowed to end before his consequent inauguration, many, many, many lies concerning everything from national security to personal infidelities, calling off talks with the Taliban, reigniting talks with the Taliban, signing a treaty with the Taliban to end the Afghan War, and subsequently breaking that treaty with the Taliban before the ink could dry.
Countless men, women, and children have died as a result of our actions in the Middle East. Iraqis, Afghanis, Kurds, Lebanese, Jordanians, Egyptians, Libyans, Israelis, Palestinians.
In Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria alone, 7,000 American military servicemen and women have died since 2001. This does not include the number of military personnel who died due to mental and physical wounds suffered over that same period.
Most importantly, these wars and the subsequent tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration plunged the economy into oblivion, forcing corporate bailouts, shuttering countless factory and manufacturing jobs across the country, leaving people like my parents in soul-crushing debt, poverty, or worse. These conflicts destroyed numerous lives, and brought nothing but suffering to the world.
And right now, we stand at the cliff edge of yet another self-destructive force: a fractured opposition to easily the worst man ever to hold the title President of the United States of America.
If you’ve read this site before, I apologize. This is meant to include some talk of sports, not merely my personal dismay at the state of our nation. But now that the Orange Führer has decided to prevent states from conducting coronavirus testing, I once more must implore you the reader to heed my words. Listen carefully to my begging now and hear my pleas later:
Vote for the Democrat in November.
No, really. Just fucking do it.
It really is that simple.
As a matter of principle, I dislike former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. His at-best dubious past of propping up his standing within the civil rights movement, passage of discriminatory bills and policies that hurt minority communities over decades, and his notoriously-botched chairmanship of Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Clarence Thomas’s alleged sexual harassment, a stark moment of patronizing misogyny in American history, make it clear that the Joe Biden of yesteryear is a man I would never willingly give my vote under any circumstance.
But right now, if he truly becomes the Democratic nominee for the general election, I will vote for him with a smile on my face and an overwhelming sense of terror, praying the rest of my countrymen ignore his nonsense ramblings and his naïve confidence that Trump’s departure will bring us back the country we love in blithe ignorance of reality.
It’s not a question of him being the man with the best policies, oh no. In my opinion, Elizabeth Warren still holds that title. Sadly, her candidacy is proof that no matter how competent a woman may be, she will always take backseat to ineffective famous white men thanks to their G-d-given birthright of having penises and not vaginas.
But don’t be fooled. I’m under no illusion of the choices I face.
Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist demonized by Democratic leadership, establishment, strategists, pundits as well as his rivals on the campaign trail, represents in my mind the best remaining policy choice. On a more personal note, he will be the only Jewish candidate for president I’ll have a chance to vote for in my lifetime. I’m that confident that this opportunity will not come again, especially if the fascist running us into the proverbial brick wall wins re-election.
But I cannot, will not resign myself to such predetermination. It’s the reason I’m hunched over my laptop battering my keyboard, hammering this rant out at 2am on a Sunday night.
I refuse to sit idly while the maniacal lunatics set fire to the mattresses within the asylum. I won’t walk away from the polls if the man I don’t want to be the nominee becomes the name on the ballot next to Trump’s. I will not cut off my nose to spite my face like some Twitter trolls threateningly intimate to former Warren supporters and other “fake progressives”, demanding her public allegiance to the man who told her she couldn’t be president.
Scouring the web for news about the election, I ran across a reminder of the pedestal I inherited at the dawn of my life. I had to be Dear White People-ed back into reality with some sober, insightful analysis of the race:
“I know you take your vote for granted because it came included in the birthright package while ours was earned by the blood, sweat and slit throats of our ancestors. Disappointment is a bitter pill to swallow when you’re accustomed to having your larynx coated with privilege and the perspiration from black people’s labor. But we were not put on this earth to clean up the mess that you created. Our purpose is not to jumpstart another round of economic justice for white people that will undoubtedly leave black people behind.”
As pointed out by smarter and better writers around our marketplace of ideas, Bernie’s lack of support from key voting blocs are a self-fulfilling prophecy. If voters simply don’t want him now in the Democratic Primary, will they really want him when the votes actually count?
Yes, primary voting IS IMPORTANT, else why even have the primary to begin with? And true, the race is far from over. But when you consider that the general consensus from those in the know predict a brokered Democratic National Convention, the thought of hashing out the two old men’s qualifications through purity testing and electability scaremongering seems trite and counterproductive.
We, the liberals, moderates, centrists, pragmatists, idealists, realists, leftists, cultists, what have you, of this country want Donald Trump gone.
His inhumane treatment of asylum-seekers, people of color, women, LGBTQ+, members of all marginalized communities, or anyone who dare disagrees with the very stable genius reeks of America’s darkest moments if not outright eclipsing them to levels once thought impossible, improbable to ever happen outside of classic dystopian narratives.
Alas, Big Brother menacingly watches his Twitter feed and Fox News, waiting to vomit out more lies to instill confusion and spread disinformation in the hopes we will all be too dazed to keep our focus on his demise – the one, true, paramount prize.
Folks, it’s now or never. Liberals must cease with the never-ending one-upmanship for the benefit of their ratios and followers. We must remember that it’s this very instant, this fight of our lives, that matters.
The Devil continues to try breaking us down but we must not relent. We cannot fight each other once the convention arrives. We cannot break, we cannot hide, we cannot splinter.
Even if he isn’t your candidate, he’s your last shot at ending the nightmare that we’ve been living since January 20th, 2017.
In the end, that’s the point.
It’s either Biden, Bernie, or bust.
Moderates, liberals, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Hear my cry before we perish in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Join, or die.
Diary of a Mad Millennial 