Some thoughts on the election

A couple of questions have come into my Tumblr ASK thingy recently. If you’re interested in what I’m thinking about the election, keep reading. If not, please enjoy this picture I took of the clock in my kitchen. I think it’s neat.

About Tim Kaine as Hillary Clinton’s VP pick:

I wanted someone more liberal, and someone who was more unambiguously antiwar.

But that’s who I wanted at the top of the ticket, and I didn’t get that, either.

I don’t know too much about him, but people I know and trust who do know lots about him — even Sanders supporters — think he’s a good choice.

Ultimately, it just doesn’t matter to me. The reality of this election is thatwe can choose between a disappointing Democrat and the end of the world. (Unless you’re in a deep deep deep blue or deep deep red state,voting for a third party is irresponsible this time around, given the stakes for the election, in my opinion. Younger me would have argued fiercely against that. Younger me voted for Nader, and look how that turned out.)

What’s really, really, really important is that Democrats take back the Senate, so people like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown and Al Franken are in leadership positions. We need to get as many strong progressives in congress, and in our state and local governments, as we can, to ensure that Clinton’s neocon foreign policy instincts and fealty to Wall Street are held in check as much as possible. It’s really important to get as much of the House back as possible, to neuter the Tea Party and force whatever is left of traditional Republicans (like, the non-insane ones who aren’t in the Trump or Cruz wing of the party) to compromise and actually get shit done. Most important of all, Trump has to be defeated in an historical landslide. He needs to be humiliated, and he needs to take as much of his party down with him as possible.

I remember in 2004 how shitty I thought Kerry was, and what a terrible candidate he was. But I remember feeling like America needed to show the world and ourselves that Bush was an anomaly, that Bush was installed by SCOTUS, and when we were given a choice, we rejected him. It was really, really bad when America basically reaffirmed that the Bush/Cheney reign of terror was A-OK with us, and I believe it’s one of the reasons, if not thereason that not a single person was ever held accountable for the Iraq War lies.

So we have another chance this year, and we have to loudly and unambiguously say that We, The People, totally reject the fascist, nativist, white nationalist cult of personality that is Donald Trump.

So Kaine is safe. Kaine is boring. Kaine says that Hillary Clinton takes the votes of the liberal wing of the party for granted. Kaine says that the Clintons are stuck in the 90s and always will be. And all of that is disappointing to me, but it ultimately doesn’t matter because the stakes in this election are as high as they’ve ever been. If Trump is elected, America will never recover. We can’t allow that to happen, and voting for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine is the best way to do that.

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Have you seen Michael Moore’s post about how Trump is going to win, and if so, your thoughts?

It’s a useful call to arms that everyone who is #BernieOrBust needs to hear and think about.

I’ve made it really clear that Bernie Sanders is who I wanted for my president, and I did what I could to make that happen … but he didn’t get the nomination, and now my realistic choice is between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

I think Michael Moore is right about Hillary not exciting young people the way President Obama did and does. It’s now our job to help everyone who is upset and disappointed and thinking about staying home to realize that we’re going to need every single vote we can get to defeat and utterly demolish and humiliate Donald Trump and everything he stands for.

I don’t like that Clinton is a warmonger. I don’t like that she’s too close to Wall Street. I don’t like that she and her campaign were condescending and dismissive of Millennials during the primaries.

But none of that changes the reality we are facing: it’s Clinton or Trump. I understand that younger voters don’t remember the 2000 election when SCOTUS installed Bush, and I understand that younger voters who were in elementary school during his disastrous presidency were effectively insulated from it because they were kids. I was *exactly* that kid in 2000 when I voted for Nader, because Bush was an asshole and Gore was a terrible candidate.

But if I could get my vote back now, I’d build the time machine with my own hands. Think of the millions of people who have died because of Bush. Think of the destruction of our climate that is now a total crisis, because Bush and his administration did nothing to address it. Think of how much horrible debt college students have, because Bush put people who just wanted to take their money away from them into positions of power. Think about the militarization of our police, which began under Bush.

President Obama did everything he could to roll back the damage Bush and Cheney did to our country and the world, and we aren’t even halfway to where we need to be. I don’t know how much President Clinton will work to continue rolling it back, but even if she keeps it in the same place, that’s better for our country and the world than what will happen under a President Trump.

If you, like me, wanted Bernie Sanders to be our president, if you, like me, believe in his revolution, if you, like me, believe that we have to make America work for the 99%, then your choice in this election is Hillary Clinton.

She’s not perfect. She’s not my first choice, or even in my top five choices. But she is the choice I have if I want to protect my country and my children from Donald Trump.

So that’s why, even though I still Feel the Bern, I’m With Her.