Thread by @bsw5020

The last 2 days I’ve watched this video a dozen times, each time thinking about waking up on Nov 4th.

This cycle led to a thread and ask: please share this thread with any undecided voter or D thinking about not voting. It may not sway them, but our future is worth the shot. /1

https://twitter.com/ericswalwell/status/1322161334696386560

Let me step back for a minute. In 2008, I met my wife working on the Obama/Biden campaign. I was 28, living on fast food and the sense that I was bending the arc of history.

At 30 we were both working in the White House.

At 33 we moved to Chicago, leaving politics behind. /2

She ran education non-profits. Me, a federal prosecutor focused on cases involving the city’s most violent gangs.

By 37 we had 2 beautiful little girls. I could not have asked for more.

Then, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with ALS and given 6 months to live. /3

After a period of soul searching and research we decided to dedicate ourselves to the task of making ALS a “formerly terminal disease.”

At that time I had no social media accounts, but we had a community around us that believed in making the impossible real. /4

Over the last 3 years we have waged war on ALS.

As we fought I tried to stay outside of the political fray as ALS doesn’t care about your politics and as I was working with passionate advocates and politicians across the political spectrum. /5

Last weekend my former boss retweeted me. Reading the replies brought me to tears. ALS has weakened my voice and legs so I can’t phone bank or knock doors. But I can share the story behind the tweet in the hope it brings others to vote. /6

https://twitter.com/barackobama/status/1320470492889911298

So who am I? I one of the 130 million Americans with a pre-existing conditions. In the tweet I’m getting infused with a drug that costs $140,000 a year and at best will extend my life by months.

I have a terminal illness, yet I believe I will be among its first survivors. /7

I have lived the last 8 months trapped in my house, family in a bubble, as catching COVID would likely kill me.

Every day of this quarantine I have gotten up to fight to remake our health care system for those who like me were told there was no hope, get prepared to die. /8

I am a lawyer who has had to become a self-taught expert in medicine and science to take on this system.

I am a father, a husband, a son—I am an ordinary person thrust into action by a diagnosis I hope you have no experience with nor ever will. /9

I voted for Joe because of my 130 million fellow Americans with pre-existing conditions who have lived in constant fear these last 4 years of losing their insurance.

I voted for Joe because he has committed to pushing for $50 billion in funding to fight ALS and beyond. /10

Because he understands that curing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS—which touch nearly every American family—requires bold action now. A change from this White House which has ignored pleas from the ALS community for years.

Because he believes in science. And wearing a mask. /11

Because I want my daughters to inherit a world where empathy, tolerance, equality, decency, hope and opportunity for all are the norm not the exception.

I could go on but think you get my point: I voted FOR Joe, FOR Kamala, FOR hope, and I am humbled to have done so. /12

Voting is the one time we, the average citizen, have power over those who represent us. It has become cliched to say elections have consequences, but they do.

Which is why I spent over an hour typing this thread on my phone with just the thumb on my right hand. /13

If you already voted—thank you. If not, I hope you will. I hope you carry this thread with you and that your choices Tuesday reflect your hopes, not your fears. #VoteHopesNotFears /end