I wanted someone more liberal, and someone who was more unambiguously antiwar.
But that’s who I wanted at the top of the ticket, and I didn’t get that, either.
I don’t know too much about him, but people I know and trust who do know lots about him – even Sanders supporters – think he’s a good choice.
Ultimately, it just doesn’t matter to me. The reality of this election is that we can choose between a disappointing Democrat and the end of the world. (Unless you’re in a deep deep deep blue or deep deep red state, voting for a third party is irresponsible this time around, given the stakes for the election, in my opinion. Younger me would have argued fiercely against that. Younger me voted for Nader, and look how that turned out.)
What’s really, really, really important is that Democrats take back the Senate, so people like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown and Al Franken are in leadership positions. We need to get as many strong progressives in congress, and in our state and local governments, as we can, to ensure that Clinton’s neocon foreign policy instincts and fealty to Wall Street are held in check as much as possible. It’s really important to get as much of the House back as possible, to neuter the Tea Party and force whatever is left of traditional Republicans (like, the non-insane ones who aren’t in the Trump or Cruz wing of the party) to compromise and actually get shit done. Most important of all, Trump has to be defeated in an historical landslide. He needs to be humiliated, and he needs to take as much of his party down with him as possible.
I remember in 2004 how shitty I thought Kerry was, and what a terrible candidate he was. But I remember feeling like America needed to show the world and ourselves that Bush was an anomaly, that Bush was installed by SCOTUS, and when we were given a choice, we rejected him. It was really, really bad when America basically reaffirmed that the Bush/Cheney reign of terror was A-OK with us, and I believe it’s one of the reasons, if not the reason that not a single person was ever held accountable for the Iraq War lies.
So we have another chance this year, and we have to loudly and unambiguously say that We, The People, totally reject the fascist, nativist, white nationalist cult of personality that is Donald Trump.
So Kaine is safe. Kaine is boring. Kaine says that Hillary Clinton takes the votes of the liberal wing of the party for granted. Kaine says that the Clintons are stuck in the 90s and always will be. And all of that is disappointing to me, but it ultimately doesn’t matter because the stakes in this election are as high as they’ve ever been. If Trump is elected, America will never recover. We can’t allow that to happen, and voting for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine is the best way to do that.
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