I’m excited. For the first time in 12 years, I’m…hopeful? And that is a dangerous thing because I was ready for America to go to hell. I was resigned to losing the election because this country is a fucking joke. And then, Kamala Harris did the unexpected and chose Tim Walz, my governor, as her running mate. I knew he was one of the finalists, but I assumed she would be sensible and choose someone from a swing state. Governor Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania was the one who was mentioned the most often. I figured it would be him.
This morning, I woke up to the news that Harris had chosen Walz. Immediately, my mood lifted 100%. When it was *sigh* Biden running for reelection, I just could not muster any enthusiasm. At all. It was incredible to me that it was that close at all. And it sucked that the Supreme Court was intent on ruining democracy. And Trump chose someone as his running mate who is, to put it politely, a complete jackoff with no redeeming qualities, which made me feel even more hopeless.
I had written this election off, incredibly. There are still so many people in my country who are that upset at losing their privilege (white cis dudes, mainly), they’ll vote for the gross old white dude who tells them what they want to hear. Even though he does not give a single shit about them. I did not like what it said about my country. I did not come back from the dead for this!
Then, Biden steepped down from the election. And Trump was classless as always in what he had to say about it. He could have simply said, “Good luck to him; I wish him wel.” If that was too much, he could have said nothing. But, no, he chose the ugliest thing to say because that is who he is.
There was a debate about who would replace him, but there reall ywas no confusion over that. It would be Harris because Biden left too late for it to be anyone but her. I was skeptical beacuse America couldn’t even manage to hire a white woman, let alone a black woman. But then I thought that weirdly, it might be easier for a black woman because progressive white dudes would probably be more willing to vote for a black woman than a wihte one (three-thousand words here why that is true).
In the RKG Discord, there are a few Americans. One of them was adamant that Harris had to give the donor money back and that she should be considered the same as any other candidate. It took me five seconds to Google the first statement and find out it’s not true. Because it’s not. Her name is on the campaign, so the money is hers. She could give it back, but why should she? As to the second comment, come on. That’s ridiculous. She had the name recognition as the fucking vice-president. I had no doubt that this person would have said the same thing if the VP had been a white guy, right? In case you can’t tell, I have all the doubts about that.
I mean, why should Harris pretend she’s not the VP? At this point, she’s our best shot. It’s her or nothing. It’s not realistic to think anyone else would have even a tenth of the name recognition she has. It shows how deep sexism runs in this country.
When I heard she chose Walz, I was so energized! He did a terrific job during the pandemic against heavy Republican opposition (to more lockdowns than they wanted). He also passed a bill that made it so that all kids have free school lunches. And another to protect abortion. And yet another decriminalizing marijuana.
He’s a true progressive, and I think this is the perfect time for him. As I said, this election was written off when it was Biden-Harris. Why not take the risk and show the country what we stood for? This has been a gripe of mine for such a long time about the Dems. We spend way too much thime saying, “We’re not as bad as they are” rather than emphasizing what we are for. People don’t like voting for the lesser of two evils (I certainly don’t) and would rather vote FOR somtething than against something else.
I was jazzed when I heard it. And a little prideful, I will admit. That’s MY governor, thank you very much. I was thrilled to be able to vote for him as well as for Harris. Of course, one of the first thoughtpieces blasted the choice and said they had to skew to the center.
HELL FUCKING NO! The media always insists that it’s the Democrats who have to move to the middle, no matter who is president. No. Just no. Let them come to us for a goddamn change.
Side note: J.D. Vance has tried to make it a thing ‘childless cat ladies’ were running the Democrats and destroying the very fabric of our society. He said people without children were sociopaths. He pointed out that Harris, Buttigieg, and Ocasio-Cortez didn’t have children, and that was when he made the comment about crazy cat ladies, in essence.
A few things to point out. Kamala Harris has step-children. Buttigieg is not a woman (but is a gay man, so I’m sure that’s why Vance lumped Bittigieg into that category). And, do you know what I’d do if I DID have that kind of power? (I’m sure I’d be lumped into that category as well.) I would kick his ass over and over again. I WISH I had that power, for fuck’s sake. His wife tried to clarify that he never meant people who were trying to have children.
Oh, so just us free-sex-having hussies who don’t want children are the problem, eh? It’s such a tired old argument, I’m almost surprised he pulled that one out of his ass. But he seems obsessed with it as he said it several times. People actually got indignant about it, which also surprised me. Usually, people don’t give a shit about people without children. Oh, and also that he lumped Harris into the group when she has stepchildren.
I have more to say. I’ll probably write more about it tomorrow. I suddenly ran out of energy.