This is not the time to choose your candidate, but to choose who we are as a party. It's never been more important. Listen to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders talk about educational and economic inequity. Listen to Jay Inslee talk about climate change. Listen to all of them talk about a progressive vision for ending the horrors of mass incarceration and our Trump-inflicted immigration crisis. Then decide what you believe, and vote accordingly. But more importantly - hold whoever we choose accountable to our standards.
Republicans also had more candidates than they knew what to do with before that last election, and they chose the vision of a madman. They chose to tolerate and in many cases enjoy his abhorrent behavior either because they sincerely shared in his misanthropy or because it provided a smokescreen for passing equally abhorrent laws that reflect not the collective will of the people but top-down corporate directives that make the rich even richer while punishing the most vulnerable.
We're better than that. Make your list of the major issues discussed and argued over Wednesday and Thursday evening, and prioritize. We have a lot to do. Trump and American Conservatives have brought us to the brink of self-annihilation. Let's lead the way to a better future, for all of us. This will not be a return to normalcy - we Americans have had a skewed version of "normal" for some time time now. It's time to reposition ourselves, as citizens and as a country, toward justice and equity rather than efficiency and greed. It’s time to claim our positive as a global leader, not as a global plunderer. It’s time to look at the global world with empathy and joy, rather than power and fear.
Conservatives can thank us later, or claim in twenty years that our ideas were theirs all along. But we'll know, and we’ll be able to face our children and grandchildren knowing we’ve envisioned the world we want for them, rather than letting someone else’s warped vision guide us.