One of my biggest complaints about Democrats is that they won’t take a stand for what they believe in. The party, I mean. They water it down or equivocate or try to make it as palatable as possible. They try to appeal to everyone, and it doesn’t appeal to anyone. I have never felt wanted as a Democrat. I felt taken for granted beacuse, well, I was NOT going to vote for a Republican. I was resentful of that. I only felt good voting for Barack Obama, and less so the second time than the first. Not beacuse he did anything wrong, but just because it’s impossible to sustain that kind of high.
Every election before that and since, I have dutifully done my duty. I have voted in every election I could, but I have not had any joy in doing so. The only time I ever felt seen was when Barack Obama ran as a candidate the first time because he mentioned Asian people and nonreligious people. Once he was elected, he actually said ‘bisexual’. Out loud! It may seem trivial, but it’s such a big thing when your entire identity is ignored in every other aspect of politics/media.
I have felt taken for granted for most of my life (politically) because I don’t really have a choice. It’s Democrats or nothing, but it’s always feels like the lesser of two evils. In 2008, I went into the primaries equally open to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I was excited to have a female candidate and a black candidate, both of whom were more than qualified to be president.
Over the next month, I listened to and read everything each had to say. Obama won me over; it’s as simple as that. In part, it’s because he’s such a fantastic speaker, but it’s also because his policies were more aligned with my own. Clinton, for better and for worse, was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat. She embodied the Democartic Party whereas Obama was the fresh-faced kid who exuded hope and new ideas.
By the way, he’s a moderate. I mean, he’s progressive in ideas, but a moderate in practice because he’s pragmatic (and a black man in the United States). But he spoke with such passion and constantly appealed to people’s better nature. He believed in the best of us (or at least convincingly conveyed that he did), and it was infectious.
Clinton would have been a fine president. But she was too old-school Democrat for me. Even though I know we have to be pragmatic, I am about as left as you can get. I’m an anarchist and would burn everything to the ground if I thought it would help, but I don’t. I’m not against rules, per se, but I am against mindlessly following the rules. Or tradition for the sake of tradition. I was not inspired when I heard Clinton talk. Or read what she meant to do. She was following the Democratic Party playbook by the letter, and that left me feeling empty.
Obama dared to mention things that other people wouldn’t. He said what he would do and the vision he had for our country. And, and I cannot stress this enough, he effectively used the internet to rally the youth. That’s another thing that frustrated the hell out of me. Democrats not using the internet, such a powerful tool, to their advantage–or at all.
Here are the things that made Obama stood out. He was a fantastic speaker who had a gift for uplifting and energizing people. He had charisma for days, but not that nasty kind. He was kind and considerate, talking to everyone as if they were just as important as he was. He had an agenda and was able to articulate it in a manner that was both straightforward and complete. Oh, this was Obama as a candidate, by the way, and why I think he won. He was immensely likable as well.
Let’s bring it back to Walz. That’s something that the media has said about him–that he’s likable. I can’t remmeber who it was, but he said he was skeptical before the announcement. He wanted Shapiro and was disappointed when Walz was anounced. As he listened to Walz talk, though, he was won over by Walz’s demeanor and the way he presented himself. People are calling him America’s Dad, which is pretty apt. He has big dad energy, and America seems more than ready to welcome them into their family.
There are so many memes about him being a dad, but it’s for real. in the Eau Claire rally today, someone was crying out for help and he stopped his speech to ask for someone to help the person in distress. He then told the crowd to drink water and take care of each other. That’s such a Midwestern dad thing to do, it warms my heart.
One media person put it perfectly. Tim Walz is the man who J.D. Vance pretends to be. And it is driving the Republicans crazy. This is so petty of me, but I’m loving how mad they are and how they’re flailing as to what they should do about it. J.D. Vance has had a weird obsession with crazy childless cat ladies running the Democratic Party (which, as I said before, I WISH!), and he’s had to try to walk it back because, well, it’s apparently too out there even for Republicans. Probably because he did not specify that meant only the wanton liberals and our slutty, slutty ways.
He got a lot of heat from people who could not have children, and his wife pathetically tried to say he, of course, did not mean those people. He was only referring to the slutty liberals, you see, who wanted to have sex willy and indeed nilly, but not pay the consequences for it (having children). What struck me as I listened to J.D. talk about this (with gritted teeth because he’s such a smug, supercillious asshole. And, it probably won’t surprise you that he was adamantly against Trump in 2016. But, power is a hell of a drug, and we all have our selling point. This was apparently his.
Another thing the Republicans (or their supporters) tried to do is label Walz “Tampon Tim” because he passed a law to put free tampons in all bathrooms of schools. The Republicans tried to limit it to the girls restrooms, but Walz would not budge. There were trans boys who menstruated, and they deserved to be protected without a fuss, too.
Side note: I’m sad to lose ‘weird’ because I use it a lot to describe myself, but I will let it go because it’s a good cause.
The Republicans are usually good at slinging mud and making the Dems defend unwarranted attacks. Which can be really hard to do because there is nothing of substance. Now, however, Dems have defitly turned it around by shooting the ‘weird’ back at Trump and J.D. Vance, and it’s driving them crazy! They have one way of operating (spurrious attacks), and they have no idea what to do when it’s not working.
Which is going to make the next 90 days VERY interesting.