This will be a long thread. I've been taking in last night's vote returns, and people's comments and responses to it, and I've got some things to get off my chest. My friends on the left, after last night, I'm concerned about your spirits. Our spirits. We gotta set 'em right.
Last night was tough. I know it hurt. You've dedicated your mind, body and soul to enacting economic justice, racial justice, environmental justice in substantive ways and these votes are an obstacle. You're angry. They feel like a rejection, but I'm not sure that's what's true.
I believe we need to contextualize this moment again. We know who's in the White House. A white supremacist. A fascist. An autocrat. Left unchecked, he is a threat to every person in our borders, and due to our economic and military might, every person outside our borders.
We unleashed him upon us all. Again, I say *we*―whether you voted for or against him or didn't vote at all―because this is our country, hence he is our collective responsibility to address, each of us doing our part. We have our own goals aside from that, but this must be #1.
To invest what we've invested to fight for the dignity of working people in this country, of minorities in this country, of our natural environment to this point and then turn away or bow out of the fight with the fascist undermines our professed ideals and harms our movements.
We can't allow that to happen. We can't allow this man with power to stand. And I believe the votes you saw yesterday are from people who, if agreeing on nothing else with us, can agree that the swift end of this current presidency is imperative.
After all, those were real votes from real people. With stories. Perspective. Older Black voters in the South aren't the establishment; they are survivors of racial trauma and economic exploitation. They've fought and won and lost for decades and they now try to survive again.
I respect them, that they've gone through the fire. Now, I believe, it's time for our young coalition, just beginning to realize our political power, to go through the fire ourselves. We are signing up for the fight of our lives and that might mean fighting our whole lives.
And you know what? That's expected. The pursuit of justice never ends. It must guide us in how we move through the world, how we care for this planet and how we care for other people, the ones subjected to the violence of this administration now and the ones who may be next.
One presidential campaign was never going to give us all we wanted. No single election ever will. But it does give us a barometer of what we're building. We're reshaping, finally, what people believe can be possible and clarifying what would be just. And it's working.
There have been progressive victories all over this country. However small they may seem, they mean something. They are building towards something and we must carry forward. Pursuit of the dream doesn't end when this campaign does, whether at the convention or in November.
Participation in electoral politics is crucial toward the cause, of course, but it's not the sum of our action. The movement lives at the ground level, in your daily interactions with others. In how you challenge their imaginations. In how you challenge power in all forms.
In November, regardless of the nominee, we have a battle to win so we can get along with trying to win the war. We can't afford to lose it. To win this battle, you will have some awkward alliances and that's fine. A partnership now doesn't need to be one forever. It's pragmatic.
Doing so doesn't make you uncommitted; it may reveal how committed you are to alleviating the human suffering that has been unleashed: while kids sleep in cages, while a pandemic runs across the land, while hate crimes continue to rise and state consolidates into singularity.
I'm voting for Bernie Sanders in this primary. I'm committed to voting for the nominee, Sanders or Biden, in November. I'm steadfast in my aim to remove our largest obstacle so we can get on with building the nation, and world, we so desperately need. That should be our pledge.
And likewise, if any of the moderates truly believe anything of what they're saying about restoration of decency, they'll know the only way to do so is to pledge their support to the eventual Dem nominee also, whether it is Biden or, if we have our say, Bernie Sanders. Stand up.
