corylea: A woman gazing at the sky (Default)
[personal profile] corylea
 Although I'm currently living in Massachusetts, met my husband in upstate New York, and have lived in Chicago, California, and Virginia, I was born and raised in Delaware.  When I mention this, the most common reaction I get is, "I drove through there once."  Yes, Delaware is a place that people mostly pass through on their way to more interesting locations. :-)  With our three -- count them, 3 -- Electoral College votes, I never thought that Delaware would be in a position to provide a presidential candidate to the nation.  Well, live long enough, and you see just about everything. :-)

Joe Biden wasn't the smartest of the Democratic candidates running in the primaries this year; I'm pretty sure that was Elizabeth Warren.  Joe Biden wasn't the most passionate of the Democratic candidates; I'm pretty sure that was Bernie Sanders.  But Joe Biden has a bedrock decency and kindness and caring, and if you think that isn't important, then look at what's in the White House right now, and look at where it has gotten us.

Although I voted for Warren in the primary, I will be pleased and even proud -- not just as a former Delawarean but as an American -- to vote for Biden in November.

When Biden won so much on Super Tuesday, I sent him some money, which means that now he sends me e-mail.  The e-mail he sent me today brought a tear to my eye.  He said, In part:

We will not defeat Donald Trump by being like Donald Trump. We won’t win with division, cruelty, or appealing to the worst in us. We’ll win with compassion, humanity, humility, and joy. We’ll win by being a campaign that brings Americans together -- a campaign that shows decency, but also determination. A campaign that shows humanity, but also grit. And in the end: we will show the country that a better future is possible.

Around this country right now, there are people stepping up to the call of a crisis. Nurses with nothing but garbage bags to protect them -- but they go into work anyway. Environmental Services workers -- like the one Jill spoke to just this morning in Chicago -- keeping our hospitals safe without attention or little appreciation -- but they work around the clock anyway. Teachers leading classes remotely, while balancing their own families at home -- but they teach anyway. There are grocery store workers and food delivery people paid far too little for the work they do - but they do it anyway.

It’s amazing who we are. I have talked a lot in this campaign about the Soul of America. Well -- we are seeing the soul of the nation on display every day in this crisis. Courage. Bravery. Selflessness. A commitment to something bigger than ourselves. That’s who we are. And it makes me so damn proud of America. And those are the things that make me so damn proud to be our party’s nominee.

So, yes: we’re going to defeat Donald Trump. But once we do that, we’re going to tackle the climate crisis head-on. We’re going to make health care accessible and affordable to everyone. We’re going to take on the NRA, and we’re going to relieve a generation of the crushing burden of debt. We will not win just the battle for the soul of our nation. We’ll transform it as well.

Go, go, Joe!  I believe that your decency -- even more than Warren's brains or Sanders' passion -- is what America needs right now.

 

(No, I don't want to debate who should have won the primaries.  We have our candidate, and what I want to focus on now is BEATING TRUMP.)


Date: 2020-04-08 08:17 pm (UTC)
minoanmiss: Minoan style drawing of the constellation Orion. (Orion)
From: [personal profile] minoanmiss
I hope so, ma belle. Not that it matters -- he's the Democratic candidate, he's got my vote.

Date: 2020-04-09 06:56 pm (UTC)
adrian_turtle: (Default)
From: [personal profile] adrian_turtle
I'm going to vote for Biden because, as you say, he is the Democratic nominee and we need him so desperately. Everyone else is out of the race. (And I think Sanders and Warren are too old to be VP.)

I know the Biden campaign needs my help, not just my vote, but it's hard for me to think about volunteering. (I used to be scared of just talking to people because I'm such an introvert, but it turned out that I could handle phone banking for Clinton and even canvassing for Prop #3.) I'm worried about working for the Biden campaign specifically. I'm afraid I'll stand there while some "likely democratic voter" says Biden is so problematic they don't feel like they can vote for him in good conscience. And I won't be able to answer them, because all my reasons to vote for him are strategic. I'm really glad you can see decency in him.

Date: 2020-04-09 07:52 pm (UTC)
adrian_turtle: (Default)
From: [personal profile] adrian_turtle
I'm sorry to ignore you. For quite a while before the plague hit, I was setting aside things that needed a proper reply and then depression would knock me right down again before I answered them. So I'm answering this right now in the window rather than counting on depression not knocking me down before this evening!

Its wonderful that Biden is so caring and considerate on the scale of individuals. I had been thinking of him on the much larger scale of congressional hearings and policymaking. I think you're right, that Delaware sees him in a way the rest of the country doesn't. All of us are constituents of the vice president, but it's not like being his constituents.

Date: 2020-04-23 03:19 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] marius23
Hi Adrian. Good to see you online!

Date: 2020-04-23 03:18 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] marius23
Thanks for posting this. I certainly was in the "he's the Democratic candidate so I'll vote for him camp" but I feel much better about that being my option (and about giving his campaign money) after reading your perspective. Yes, I've driven through Delaware many times on my way to Maryland. I was surprised to learn that Biden is from there (and a bit chagrined that I had forgotten you are).

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