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Reprinted with permission from the Facebook page of Dr. Mark Levine, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at UCI:
Dear Joe Biden-supporting friends.
In the immortal words of Colin Powell, “You own it.”
I think Biden is a horrible candidate. I think he’s as much part of the problem as Trump. He’s part of the system that got us here. I cannot for the life of me imagine how any African American, how any union member, how anyone with a desire to save this planet and our species, could vote for him. But these are now questions for the history books, not for the present moment. You voted for him, you got him.
I will donate what I can afford to his campaign. I will take off work — if we are even working — in the fall to go do voter registration and related drives in swing states. I will march or whatever and stand against the Trump supporters who are smelling blood like a shark approaching a sick minnow.
And I expect to see every fucking one of you out there with me. I expect you to spend whatever money you have — a lot more than I will spend — to make him competitive. I expect you to take off from work, even at the cost of your jobs, to go to swing states to register every damn voter and drive them to the polls if necessary. I don’t care if there’s still CV19 in every molecule of air we breathe. Buy a gas mask if you need to, but get to your nearest swing states and figure out how to help people get whatever ID they need by November and to show up at the polling station and wait in line for the 10 hours it will take for them to vote on November 3. Make sure to bring lots of coffee and sandwiches to hand out to people on line.
And then, on November 4, I expect you to fight. FIGHT. I mean, like, really fight, like with whatever means necessary, including violence if that’s what it takes, to stop what is inevitably to come. You put not just your future, but my future and my kids’ future and the world’s future, in the hands of Biden. I will refrain from cataloguing why that’s such an insane idea because it no longer matters. But it is now YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to lead the fight for survival that is coming, as sure as the white walkers through the wall, regardless of who wins. If Biden somehow wins, Trump supporters are gonna lose it and who knows what they’ll do but you better be there because the only moral position you have is to be the rest of our human shield, protecting us.
But if as I’m almost 100% positive, Trump wins, the level of racism, sexism, and psychopathic hatred and violence that his supporters will feel entitled to unleash on everyone who isn’t white, Christian and patriarchy-supporting, will make the last four years seem like a joke. And the policies he will unleash, and the damage he will do to the environment and to our future by packing the SCOTUS, is beyond any of our imagination.
What I do know is that at this point the Republic will be no more. We will be like Syria at the start of its Civil War. We will have a homicidal mafia government ready to do whatever is necessary to crush any dissent and anyone who isn’t part of their core constituency. We will have militias, many of the them groups of religious fanatics, running around with the tacit if not formal support of the leader. We will have a small but courageous democratic opposition who will be targeted, arrested, and some no doubt killed, by the state and its supporters. We will have a set of policies that literally will doom our species and a good share of the other ones on this planet to extinction with zero political checks to its power.
I would appreciate hearing what you are planning to do about this, because if you haven’t thought it through then you are as morally bankrupt as Trump. So please, now that you have your man, tell the rest of us, in the most detailed way possible, what you are planning to do to ensure he wins, and then, what you are willing, planning and preparing to do when he doesn’t. Because I can tell you I will be ready and I will fight literally to the death before I’ll let that orange motherfucker and his minions completely destroy this country and this planet. You better be willing to do the same because while they might come for me first, there won’t be anyone for you to hide behind after.
Have a nice day.
“Written by Admin”?
Please will anybody explain that to me…. Also people that publish under,synonyms,or names like, “rubber ducky” or “love muffin”… Or any of those looks!… Who comment on Matt Cunningham/the Anaheim insider/or that nonsense that Dan chlumsky posted on his lousy blog… For ‘God Sakes’ put your real name and own up to it… I guess I’ve been inside too long I needed to vent!!!… Okay stay safe… wash your hands, “Vote Blue…No Matter Who”!!(Biden)..
It’s pretty easy to see – the title, and the introductory line.
Admin is when me or Greg posts something that’s mostly by someone else. That’s also explained at the bottom of the story.
uggg harrumph mumble snort
“I cannot for the life of me imagine how any African American, how any union member, how anyone with a desire to save this planet and our species, could vote for him.”
Dr. Levine – PLEASE DON’T join the narrative of blaming African Americans for who they voted for.
To this day, blacks across the nation are fighting for their Constitutional right to cast a ballot. With voter turnout as low as it is across the nation, state, county and cities – NO ONE should be castigated for how they voted or whom they cast a ballot for.
As someone of mixed (African American/Japanese) ancestry, I find it extremely disturbing to see ANY marginalized minority group “blamed” for voting.
I voted for Sen. Sanders and was happy to see he won the California primary. Many of my African American family members and friends throughout the state and across the nation had qualms about his candidacy.
Some of them voted for another candidate. And that’s their right. And I’m glad they cast a vote. Because if they don’t vote, they shouldn’t complain.
According to census bureau numbers, almost 40% of the citizen voting-age population didn’t cast a ballot in the 2016 election.
Nearly 40% of black voters didn’t cast a ballot. That helped Trump in Michigan, Ohio and especially Wisconsin – which saw almost a 20% drop in black voters, due to voter disenfranchisement among a few reasons.
Instead of blaming voters for WHO they voted for, why not look at the nearly 40% of voters who didn’t cast a vote and ask why didn’t they vote?
I’m saddened that Sen. Sanders suspended his campaign. I’m frustrated at the lack of voter turnout for him across the nation because I know the grassroots organization that was done – and YES, he won the ideological campaign.
But to BLAME people for who they voted for – especially a segment of the population that historically and presently is battling to the right to vote – is shameful.
I didn’t read this as blaming African Americans for their votes for Biden in the primaries. I read it as doubting that African Americans will support him in November, when Trump & Co. ramp up their “greatest hits” review of Biden’s cooperation with segregationists and bigots for much of his career.
I’m more optimistic than he is about this: as was explained to me, the most salient thing about Biden for African American voters is that he played second-banana to a Black man for eight years and apparently loved it. That’s not a white supremacist thing to do.
It’s the women’s vote (plus of course the youth vote) where I expect Biden to falter, with Trump & Co. hammering on everything from the hair-sniffing to the child- touching to — and yes, of course this is shameless and hypocritical of them, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work — the grabbing of an intern “by the pussy.” It’s going to be brutal.
“I cannot for the life of me imagine how any African American, how any union member, how anyone..” Wow. Levine must have invested so much of himself in Brosplaining these last two years. Democrats must feel so horrible for not understanding Levine’s passion for Bernie. Levine has delivered the revelations. Yet there is hope. The white savior of the democratic establishment has provided a list expectations! Ha!
That’s a weird reaction.
Look for an email from me welcoming you to the site.
It is a real person, if that’s what you’re worried about just because of his colorful name.
He’s running for OUSD from Garden Grove.
https://www.facebook.com/tigerforousd/
That’s even weirder.
I post as Rintrah because I work in a job that I would lose if I used my real name. The scenario the writer lays out is chilling and I believe accurate. I have many Berner friends- trust fund babies, tech geeks, artists- who are running away from reality, abandoning those less fortunate, and I would like to re-post this as a call to action.
“In Toto…….wasn’t that a dog in the Wizard of Oz? Hmmm, pseudonyms remind us all that there are many ways to spell Stupid, Ignorant, Uninformed or just plain mean spirited. Luckily, this Corona-Virus is leveling the playing field. In fact, going out on the Golf Course is such a pleasure without the ballbusting arrogance and sandbagging attitudes…. but that is another story. Biden/Harris 2020. A return to normalcy may indeed accompany our four year economic recovery from the current Weymar Republic in charge; as we cogitate on the future of America. Let’s all just have a group study session on what the World Depression is going to mean to local communities, the life of the Common People, the hearts of the wealthy sequestered behind their guarded gates and N-95 Masks. No, Tim McGraw said it best: “Humble and Kind” will probably be our best medicine. Arrogance and Self Indulgent Ego Pleasures are so OVER! We are all going to have to learn “the Lesson of False Pride”…..as the Guru said in
“Gunga Din”. As we watch Pension and Retirement Programs fail across this nation and see 40% of all businesses fail, and see 60 Million plus people out of work by Labor Day….or maybe even 4th of July. What people do not quite grasp is that our entire Global connectivity is being attacked. Toilet Paper and Paper Towels will be minor inconvenient problems. – but why become maudlin…..while Sweden, China and Denmark still have open restaurants and bakeries.
“I will donate what I can afford to his campaign. I will take off work — if we are even working — in the fall to go do voter registration and related drives in swing states. I will march or whatever and stand against the Trump supporters who are smelling blood like a shark approaching a sick minnow.”
So Biden is palatable after all, when considering the alternative. Our system almost always pulls candidates toward the middle.
He didn’t say “palatable.” It’s like eating your recently expired grandmother after all of the food has run out. It will nourish you, but it isn’t palatable.
*This is an easy read. Just ask who is still watching Fox News or listening to Rush Limbaugh and you will find someone with an IQ under 80. But then, we know a lot of people with IQ’s under 80 that don’t watch Fox News or Listen to Rush Limbaugh so…..the problem may be deeper than we know.
Upon reflection and a bit of research, this guy does come off as a condescending entitled schmuck. His is the perfect voice to appeal to Barnie’s supporters as they share so much in common. Biden beats trump handily in virtually every poll vetted by 538 for the last six months and Barnie is and always was much closer in a heads up with trump. This fact seems lost on the author.
As a grad student at UCI in history, my experience was the profs felt they were critical theorists and refused to do math. I guess the tradition continues. If it all comes apart, I will watch – in vain, most likely – to see the professor on the ramparts, waving the red flag and channeling 1968 – the year his grandparents met.
I don’t think that your presentation of the one-on-one polls is accurate. Regardless, those sorts of polls are about as bad as they come this far away from the election.
My fave is when the local media drag out some local doofus political science professor from Chapman or CSUF to pontificate on local politics.
*Oh, you mean Hugh Hewitt? Come on now DZ, don’t have to sugar coat this for us locals…..we get it. Anyway, glad Barack and Bernie gave Joe their Endorsement. The people that call C-Span in the morning are rather depressing however: “I used to be a live long Democrat…..until Chicken Little became President!” “The Democrats are just so mean, so awful, so Pelosi, so Schumer, so what?” Anyway, Biden/Harris 2020 folks! You go Black…you don’t go back!
Anyway, Denmark, Norway and even Hawaii……have had enough Cabin Fever and want to walk in the Sunshine…with Masks of course! We had to wear a Mask to Gelson’s today…..very embarrassing. Also, DZ, your comment is understated. We are so bored watching lightweight so-called experts………talk the company line. All said and done, there is a light at the end of the tunnel…..but it will be out, by the time we there!
Bernie & Biden take on Trump