So… About Last Night.
(unintelligible existential screams into a pillow)
Look, I really like Joe Biden. In 2020, I worked with a group of Dem friends to come together and figure out how to do virtual phone banks via Zoom — ones that were so well-attended the campaign had us teaching other volunteers across the state how to pull them off. And it should be noted, I wasn’t a Biden stan during the primary.
In my heart, I’m a political pragmatist. I’m fundamentally terrified by cults of personality and performative strongmen in pursuit of authoritarian power, and Trump descending that golden escalator on June 16, 2015 was what kicked my ass into getting me involved politically (and creating this Missive!). I got involved with the Clinton campaign because I knew in my heart that this entertainer con man wannabe dictator could win. I started running phone banks for Hillary at home, and then as a part of the campaign at Oakland for Hillary. I feel like some thought it was a cute hobby, because there was no way he could win, right? I was in a liberal stronghold and it was like pulling teeth to get people to come to a phone bank. So I basically had two jobs during that election, and I was there until the bitter end on Election Night, as crying volunteers stumbled out past the champagne and sheet cakes they’d brought in assuming a Hillary win.
Fast forward to 2020 — when Biden became the nominee, I, like millions of others around the country, strapped on my skates and got in the game, because we had a freaking job to do. In San Francisco and the Bay Area, our rag tag group of nerd volunteers hosted 500+ person virtual phone banks from our COVID-isolated living rooms until the polls closed on Election Day (closing my laptop and sitting in silence afterwards was… something.) Then, we all gathered together in Dolores Park on that Saturday when he was declared the president-elect — many of us meeting IRL for the first time! — to hug and cry and laugh and take a deep breath. It was an exhilarating moment and reminder that we’d all come together to choose the type of America we wanted to live in.
Over the course of volunteering for that campaign, I became more and more impressed by Biden’s humanity, sense of humor and dogged optimism. And after he took the oath of office, I was more than pleasantly surprised by his administration’s ability to get stuff done, leading with heart to achieve a most impressive record.
Because of what happened in 2016, I now have less rights than when I became a citizen in 2015. Last night scared me because it laid out plainly how we’ll likely lose more.
I bring up all of this personal history as a way of responding to some of the Dem establishment who are currently on social media scolding anyone entertaining the idea of another candidate this late in the game. They are saying it’s bedwetting, and destructive, and indulgent, and distracting, and that we should all line up, shut up, and get the job done because it’s “just one debate”.
I get that impulse to keep your head down and do the work, I do. And I more than understand that, yes, we are voting for an administration as well as a candidate. And I feel how frustrating it is to have an online mob of armchair quarterbacks coming after the candidate you’ve worked so hard for.
But downplaying what happened last night negates the fact that those of us who’ve worked hard as active volunteers were scared by what we saw last night.
A broad coalition of Democrats rallied around Biden in 2020 because he was a charming fighter who knew policy while also knowing when to throw a winking punch when needed. Joe Biden has had one of the most impressive political careers ever, has led with heart and pragmatism, and is by all accounts an empathetic and kind human. And that is the type of person that I get behind.
But that person didn’t show up last night. And that’s terrifying as we stare down the imminent execution of the Project 2025 platform should the former guy be reelected. We need to acknowledge and address the very real anxiety permeating Biden supporters right now (highly recommend the latest Pod Save America episode) because if we’re feeling this way, what does it mean for less plugged in humans who are still deciding who to vote for?
Look, we’ll put in the work as needed. But discounting reactions like mine doesn’t change last night.
Drink that water, get outside, and be kind to each other, won’t you?
xoxo Amy
