thenation.com/article/activi…
Because this article was put up behind a paywall I choose to respond here:
I'd like to start off by thanking those who signed this letter for their years of service to Progressive causes, but let me outline why/how I disagree with you. 1/
Because this article was put up behind a paywall I choose to respond here:
I'd like to start off by thanking those who signed this letter for their years of service to Progressive causes, but let me outline why/how I disagree with you. 1/
While I believe your intentions are good, like everything about your generation they are flawed. Flawed by even your lifetime of experience with dealing with matters of govt. Let me explain: Had I been born when you were born, I would likely be afraid of Trump too. 2/
While Donald Trump hasn't been an ideal President in any way, think about how he got to office. He was the #DemocratCorporation's candidate @HillaryClinton's #PiedPiper candidate. He had no expectation that he'd actually win. & Why should he have?
After all, he had been told by a former President he could never win when he started in the race. He in fact made a joke of the entire process, earning the wrath of a media that would become so obsessed with him (I wonder why?) that he got $2Billion in free media! 4/
I remember starkly the time when he tweeted this out on cinco de mayo; if that's not evidence enough for you abt his lack of serioussness re: this race, I don't know what is?
6/6
To me, the most remarkable thing abt this is how @HillaryClinton's campaign reacted: in "utter shock" at his tweet! They could not have been 'shocked' by it. I believe he was instructed by both her and #BubbatheLovePresident to tone it down, as they shouldn't make it look rigged!
To me, that was the first (of many) tells from this campaign, I'm going to stop here and tell you that I was never a fan of Hillary's. I was never planning on voting for her. And I supported @SenSanders both bc he was the candidate against her & due to who he was! 8/
That being said, I ended up voting @drjillstein here in Pennsylvania, a marginal swing state, bc I didn't trust Hillary with the reigns of government. I intended it as a protest vote, a way to let the #DemocratCorporation know of my problems with her behavior in the primary. 9/
So I was both surprised, and, in fact, elated when I got home from voting and saw the race was so close! I loved watching all of the tears from the #JavitzCenter; my favorite moment was when @JohnPodesta played the role of the great man of Oz in telling everyone to go home! 10/
Anyhow, enough sentimentality. So when Trump won I remember #facebooking with a die hard Hillary supporting friend that "all one could do was to make the best of the next 4 years." As I prepared for Trump to takeover I felt better abt my personal chances of living; 11/
As I took Hillary at her word when she said once upon a time that all of her enemies would be vanquished when she won the presidency! No way did I want that nutcase in office. Once Trump took over, it was time for the #Russiagate #conspiracytheory brought to US by the #Democrats!
Of course, having been skeptical of her words during her debates with trump made me doubt the veracity of these accusations, but I treated them seriously until i saw an interview with the authors of the book "Shattered", which was abt her failed bid for office. 13/
In this book a couple of pages really caught my eye. They were abt how, in the immediate aftermath of the election, @RobbyMook & @JohnPodesta had quickly scrambled together a plot by the #Russians to steal the campaign from Mrs. Clinton. 14/
Knowing what I knew abt the Russian deal for uranium at the rime, just bits and pieces, their explanation had caused red flags to go off. Why would Putin who evidently had a pretty good relationship with BOTH of the Clintons not want her elected. 15/
It seemed to me that Putin should have preferred Hillary to the less predictable Trump. Nevertheless, that's what the media was running with, so I figured we'd either find out what really happened or they'd force Trump out somehow. 16/
By the time Trump fired James Comey, (the best move of his four years in that it put the #HashtagResist ers in the precarious position of calling Trump out for something that they'd repeatedly asked for in the lead up to it), everyone believed something was up and we got Mueller.
The Mueller investigation was a complete waste of time and American taxpayer money. I repeatedly tweeted my displeasure at this and the doubts about it I had, only to be told by the #HashtagResistance to shut up, that I was a #RussianStooge, and was summarily blocked by many! 18/
Including, perhaps, some people signatories of your letter. So here we are heading into the 2018 election season. I was definitely no longer @BlueNoMatterWho, my vote for Dr. Stein having cured me of that terminal illness, so I looked at my local ballot to see who I'd vote for.
For governor, I was voting #Democrat tom Wolf again, and I was certainly voting for his new candidate for Lieutenant Governor, @JohnFetterman. However, that was as far as I was willing to go. I refused to vote for @SenBobCasey as he's NOT PROGRESSIVE IN THE LEAST, 20/
and there was NO FUKING way that I was voting for #Potatohead #ConnorLamb, the former naval intelligence officer scion of a locally strong political family. I had voted against Hillary Clinton in part because I am not a royalist; I believe a job is to be earned, not inherited!
A week b4 we were scheduled to vote a gunman came and killed 9 people worshipping at a shul in Pittsburgh. This didnt just happen at any synagogue, though; i happened at my synagogue, the building that WE had danced our torot down ShadyAve to less than a year b4. 22/
As I got 1st word of this the first thing I did was say a little prayer that i had stayed up to watch the baseball game the night before rather than waking up to go to Synagogue.Information slowly trickled in; there were 9 people in all three congregations combined killed!
Finally, at abt 1:30 I called Dan Stein's house nervously I knew that he had to have been there, and I hoped/prayed that he had been spared. his son answered, and said they hadn't heard anything at all! I took this as somewhat bad news, as he was one who would have reported in.
Not to be dissuaded, I then called the President of my congregations number, knowing that she wouldn't have likely been there so early. her husband answered, ad told me that he knew there were three people from my little congregation murdered, but didn't know who yet! 25/
I live abt 8 miles away from my synagogue, and i no longer drive, so I had no real need to go to Squirrel Hill, the small Jewish enclave in Pittsburgh. I asked my wife for a ride to the neighborhood anyhow, just so I could be around other mourners. 26/
I arrived there abt 6:00 PM, in time for a quickly organized community havdallah service to commemorate the end of the sabbath and the victims. AFter the shortn service, i was talking with a friend who I'd run into, when, out of the corner of my eye, i spotted Governor Wolf. 27/
I approached Governor wolf, I could tell it had been a long day for him. I thus shook his hand, told him how genuinely happy I was with the job he was doing and that I'd be proudly voting for him on Tuesday, and left him (and his companion Senator Casey) without saying a thing.
Casey looked like he should have still been on the campaign trail, looking t oshake hands and whatnot, while Governor wolf just took the entire scene in. That was my perception, at least. I didn't stop to shake his hand, gave him a dirty look and left. 29/
I spoke with my rebbetzin soon after arriving home. She delivered the bad news to me; three members of our synagogue; no, the three MOST ACTIVE members of OUR synagogue had been killed. My Rabbi had saved the lives of three congregants by hiding in an electrical closet with them!
I consoled her for a moment, then went to bed to reflect on what this all meant; three of the very best people I knew were gunned down i at my place of worship. what moves could I make that would honor their memory? 31/
I would obviously be attending shul a lot more than I had in the past, as now there were sure to be many mourners depending on me to be there to make a #minyan, a group of 10 required for them to say the prayer of mourning. Being a rabbi's son I already knew that I'd do that. 32/
I was a little bit shocked at the behavior of some of my fellow Jews though. While they were looking for somebody to blame, it always seemed to come back to President Trump for some of them. 33/
Even as it was revealed that the gunman hated Trump as intensely as they did, they'd blame it on his rhetoric. It seemed to me that he couldn't catch a break. Why was this?Did Trump shoot the people in my synagogue? No. Did he tell anybody to shoot up places of worship? no
What had Trump's relations been like with Jewish people? The little I knew of Donald trump's relations with Jewish people was that his daughter and two sons had all married Jews, and that he was very pro-Israel. While I am a #Zionist. I am a labor zionist, not a fan of Netanyahu!
The night before we voted I made a shivah call at Dan Stein's house in Squirrel Hill. Right after saying my condolences to his wife and children, I was immediately confronted by this woman I've known for a while. She had been a Hillary Clinton fangirl, i remembered.
She immediately dragged me aside fro mwhere I had just spoken to the mourners, and proceeded, in front of the family, to tell me abt how HER rabbi (different one of the 3 congregtion's involved) was such an asshole because he had actually shaken the President's hand! 37/
ANd wasn't it so awful and blah-blah-blah. I immediately turned red, and tried not to yell at her that I thought that he was the President of the United States (WHERE WE CURRENTLY LIVE) and should be afforded respect as such, even if she didn't like him. 38/
This is as much true of Donald trump as it was of Bill Clinton. If she couldn't disagree with the man without being disagreeable, then maybe keep her thoughts to herself. This was at a shivah call for a person not in her family.I couldn't have cared less abt her opinion of trump.
I was there to comfort mourners, NOT to get into some political debate! As I hurriedly left the house hoping that I hadn't made a scene (I was later told that i hadn't, thankfully), I was in tears. This was my country breaking down around me. Who should I blame for it?
I resolved then to try NOT to blame the people i had typically blamed for everything wrong with the world, the hated #Republicans. I would analyze politics from a New Light (in honor of my synagogues name).That light would not be overtly partisan for now but rather investigatory.
I would go back and investigate what REALLY happened in 2016, then I would make some decisions for myself abt how to proceed. I started to look into President Trump's claims that he was being framed by #Russiagate. I already knew that Hillary had stolen the election from Bernie.
Now I would begin the task of investigating if it was more than just a #PiedPiper that drove Trump in that fateful election. i went back and reviewed everything we already knew via Wikileaks objectively. Some things fit into place for me immediately. 43/
The rumors of Pizzagate I decided were likely true, knowing Hillary's track record as I did and knowing enough abt the crew $he hung out with; neera, podesta, et al. What I needed to find out was the smoking gun; did Hillary really put #Russiagate into place before the election?
I read up on all of the news reports from every source & began to get a picture of a woman who, rather than holding any womanly virtue was as cold hearted as any man could be. She'd somehow been allowed to skate by unmolested by our law while people dropped around her like flies!
There was apparently some truth to the #arkancide rumors I'd heard abt. Not enough to make me suicidal and go investigate them or anything. Just enough to make my skin crawl. Had she any virtue whatsoever in her body I realized she couldn't have murdered Qadafi as she did!
I soon realized that her plan,upon entering office, was to turn on her perceived enemies with the full power of the state behind her. Her perceived enemies were not those whom one might classically associate with a #Democrats enemies though. 47/
No, if she ever gained power she would turn tha firepower on #progressives. By eliminating our movement was the only way to guarantee her another term. She had assumed that we'd get in line to vote for her, and she'd assumed incorrectly. She'd make us pay if she ever could! 48/
Now it's around April of 2019, and everyone wanted to know whom I'd support for President in 2020. I quickly answered Bernie Sanders if he ran, as I still hadn't abandoned the thoughts of Universal healthcare which I believed WE'd need b4 the next pandemic. 49/
So I started to campaign for Bernie. Everything was going pretty well, I think, until Iowa. I had told anyone who'd read what I wrote on twitter that if the @DNC engaged in any fukery against Berniethis time around that I would be out CANVASSING for Trump come fall!
Iowa shoild have been abt a 6-8 point victory for Bernie. We were finally going to do it! WE WERE GOING TO ELECT A PERSON WHO CARES ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE (not just #BenjaminnFranklin) TO THE PRESIDENCY. Until the night of the Iowa caucus i thuoght that we were unbeatable!
That all changed as, when the results started t ocome in, they suddenly stopped. What could be the delay? The great leader of the #DemocratCorporation, @TomPerez, had ORDERED Iowa to use this untested app paid for & operated by @PeteButtigieg's campaign. i.e. #DemocratFukery
From there it was on to New Hampshire... Where the polling results didn't exactly comply with the standards set abt exit polling, but Bernie won anyhow... Best of all, he had put both #LizzerdWarren and #DementedUncleJoe30330 on the ropes.
While giving some life to Klobuchar and Buttigieg, these didn't really seem to make all that much of a difference, as they had little name recognition beyond their home states in any of the remaining contests, while Bernie had already visited most of them!
Bernie went on to win the next state of nevada handily, bringing us to South Carolina. I didn't foresee Joe wining by as much as he did there, but it was South Carolina, not exactly a hotbed of progresivism. The #MSM treated it like Joe had just won the election though oddly. 55/
That's when the day of Obama's WORST con-job on the American people, of MANY committed by him on US in the 11 years preceeding was pulled on US. He told #MayoPete, @AmyKlobuchar, and the newly entered into the race gazillionaire @MikeBloomberg to drop out b4 super Tuesday. 56/
He made certain that #LizzerdWarren would remain in the race. Along with foretold problems with the results vs. the exit-polling and the media's attacks against Bernie were too much to bear, & #DementedJoe managed to slip by winning 7 of 11 states and giving all momentum to Joe.
Bringing us to where we sit today, with a #DemocratCorporation Presidential candidate who can't remember the wording of the declaration of Independence and calls people "fat" when they disagree with him. All because of Obama, Hillary, and their uber-wealthy donors who fear us!
So what do we do? Do we back down to this group of #neoliberals and say, don't worry abt it we're all blue anyways? In the face of the existetial threat they've already supposedly put us in with Trump? 59/
If there is one thing WE know about these #Democrats its that they value Corporations over the 99% of us who control nothing but their fate. We know this most recently because of the CorporateBailout they passed using #Covid19 as the excuse. They get paid handsomely for it. US?
What do we get? A small 'thank you for being a citizen' check for $1000/& some extended unemployment benefits! Thanks @SpeakerPelosi and @SenSchumer! I don't know how I can thank you enough for HANDING OUR corporate overlords $10 Trillion in play money they'll use until bankrupt!
When, of course, they'll be back to beg for more of OUR hard earned tax dollars which you'll eventually ive them so long as they keep your proverbial beak wet! This system of government just is not working for US any longer. 62/
It needs replaced badly; but the problem is if We give you power to do that you take it as a money making opportunity and rip us off more! Hence why capitalism needs to end. If we are all born the same then we should all begiven the same opportunity 2 make something of ourselves!
That's why I will NEVER vote for @JoeBiden or @HillaryClinton or @AndrewCuomo or anybody else put up by you and your bloody #superdelegates. I don't care for a #Politicalcorporation that holds it's voters with such low regards. That's why I'm done being a #Democrat forever. 64/64
Post-Script: ONLY in this country in this day and age do I feel the need to include here that I'm not suicidal in any way, so if I should fall into a gunshot or something you all know at least that it was likely related to one of the people mentioned in the above screed!!
