Do you know what has been causing me health problems?
- Waking up and finding out that Trump is keeping kids in cages and watching them die.
- Reading stories about how he’s inspiring six year olds to bully minorities.
- Seeing him weaken the EPA.
- Watching Barr turn the DOJ into a tool for Trump to use to go after his enemies.
- Catching another announcement that Republicans, rather than defending our democracy, are willing to throw it all away to stay in power.
- Hearing about how minorities are scared that us white people could easily forget about everything that’s going on in this country and screw this election up because we’re focused on “our problems” (and that’s putting it nicely) and not those of the country as a whole.
There’s been a lot of fighting between the Democratic candidates, and even worse fighting among the usual Democratic voters over how to change our health care. Medicare for All, Medicare for All If You Want It, enhancing the ACA. There has even been arguments by some supporters that even if you don’t like a candidate’s plan, support the candidate anyway because their plan may not actually get implemented.
Now, I understand why this is happening. When the candidates agree on 98% of the stuff, you have to magnify the differences. But we’re not magnifying the differences between the candidates abilities to be president. What we’re looking at is their ability to run Congress, which is not the job of the president.
What the president does is provide a vision for the country, and use the various departments under their power to execute (get it, the Executive executes) that vision. Trump’s vision is to make the country white again. He’s using ICE and CBP to deport people who have come to this country to make a better life for themselves, in some cases people who worked for America and would be dead if they went back to their country. Through Barr, he’s using the DOJ to go after his political opponents.
And because the fighting between our candidates is over health care, and not about how we’re going to end what Trump is doing, minorities are scared. And that being scared could drive themselves into the arms of the one man that has been taking on Donald Trump exclusively:
Michael Bloomberg is a white quadrillionaire with infinitely deep pockets and a record of getting shit done. Even if the “shit” he got done came at the expense of our sons and daughters, defeating Donald Trump is the most important factor in a lot of people’s decisions on who they will vote for. Michael Bloomberg’s rise isn’t a condemnation of the other candidates as much as it is an example that black people know white people better than anything else in the universe.
One of the biggest factors in a large number of black people’s primary voting criterion is who they think white people will vote for when the curtain closes behind them in the voting booth. We know Bernie has better policy plans. We know Elizabeth Warren is a better communicator. We have seen Buttigieg’s Douglass plan.
But we also know white people.
Donald Trump is proof of what they will do.
For many black people, the prospect of an unchecked, second-term white supremacist outweighs the choice between Medicare for All and a public option. It’s heavier than student loan forgiveness or foreign policy. It’s bigger than all of the economic proposals and tax plans combined. It’s not even that people don’t think the other Democratic candidates can defeat Donald Trump. We just don’t know if they can defeat the overwhelming self-interests of white people.
I do not support Bloomberg’s nomination. He’s not on my list because I’m not fond of any candidate that shows up to run for Democrat just to run against Trump. There are plenty of competent people running. Bloomberg has a lot of issues. But he’s doing two things right:
1. He’s running against Trump.
2. He’s not taking crap from Trump.
And because of those, Bloomberg is going to find a receptive audience.
Are the other candidates criticizing Trump? Of course. But that’s not the narrative, and, more importantly, that’s not what their supporters are fighting about. Why aren’t we fighting over whether it would be better to try Trump in our courts or turn him over to the Hague? Why aren’t we fighting over the proper compensation for the families that have been put in cages, and the proper way to take care of the children that have been separated from their families? Why aren’t we talking about the best way to rein in the CBP, who now consider themselves a national police force controlled by the president?
What is ailing the country right now is the cancer that is the Republican party, which has metastasized to the presidency in the form of Donald Trump. And that cancer is killing our democracy. Right now, the biggest health care fight should be over how remove Trump, deprive the GOP of power to do further damage to this country, and stabilize the patient.
And I realize that someone will say “We have to motivate our voters.” Here’s the motivation: If Trump wins, children will die, mothers will die, minorities will be attacked, gays and trans will be attacked and killed, and it will all be done with the blessing of the state. We can fix health care, but we have fix our democracy first.
Edit: I should add that I will vote for whoever is the nominee. I just don’t think Bloomberg should be the one chosen.
