It’s August 20. Second day of the DNC.
Last night was special. Last night I only quoted the lines from Norah Jones’ “National Anthem” as Joe Biden recited them during his speech. It was the perfect ending to an evening full of great moments. There was a bitter part in his speech that touched me and that I knew would hurt.
So walk with me with an open mind.
The chosen speakers did not disappoint and for the most part the evening was a good start for the DNC. There were three key moments, in my opinion; the ones that brought the house down. The unexpected appearance on stage by Kamala Harris was unbelievable. The heartfelt speech by Hillary Clinton was pitch perfect. And Joe. We had been waiting for it. Yesterday, on my short good night post I called it flawless. Yet there was a moment that made my stomach turn.
Joe Biden is a better person than I or most of us will ever be. While the pro-Hamas simps were telling him to burn in hell and accusing him and Kamala Harris of being baby killers he chose to read the line someone wrote for him and that is today on Al Jazeera’s front page: “The protesters have a point.” Should he burn in hell, then? The point, for Joe and unfortunately for the Jewish people, is that Israel has a fascist government. But to the “protesters” the point is another.
To them, among who a reporter from The Free Press was hard pressed to find a single democrat, the point is Biden should burn in hell along with all Jews, the US should be destroyed along with Israel and democracy must die. That’s their point. The point that one White House speech writer managed to slip into a speech that will go down in History as the “I gave my best to you” speech for most but that for the Jewish people will be remembered as the “the protesters have a point” speech.
The President, the candidate for President and all the democrats in office will need to come to terms with the fact that these people who want them to burn in hell have no other point than to destroy democracy itself. At some point they have to realize that antisemitism does not live only in the Christian Nationalist ranks but also, and especially, in the far left regressive ranks who are as invested in the end of democracy as the neo Nazis.
While I understand why Joe Biden chose to read those lines, conscious of what the ones he tried to appease want for him, I wish he hadn’t. But that’s because I am not the President of the United States. If it were up to me, every single one of these pro-Hamas simps without US citizenship would be deported immediately. If it were up to me I would call them what they are: ignorant idiots doing Iran’s bidding. If it were up to me I would denounce Islamic fundamentalism for what it is.
I feel the pain of the Jewish community as they digest that fateful line. It makes them feel like they are alone and they, themselves, are all they got. That’s not true. Joe Biden had already deployed a strong air and naval military force to the Middle East to which the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group is being added. Israel will not face the Iranian threat alone. Far from it. To the diaspora Jews in the US, however, given the very real antisemitism they face, that’s not enough.
Most of them, like most of us, know the current Israeli government is a big part of the problem. While negotiations for the release of the hostages keep stalling one after another it has become apparent to all that neither Hamas nor Netanyahu have any interest in solving this situation. The IDF just recovered the bodies of six of the hostages from Gaza. There are only 109 left. Time is running out fast. That’s the reality.
And while most of us wish for peace, the return of the hostages and the removal of Hamas and other Islamic Jihad elements from the region, the mostly self identified “communists, marxists, anarchists” and other similar types “protest” for a ceasefire in the same breath they call for the destruction of Israel. It’s unfortunate that some White House romantic idiot speech writer doesn’t want to see it that way. Spelling it out with such dangerous ambiguity is a mistake.
Let me remind you this is not only about the vain effort to conciliate the need for the end of a war that wreaks havoc in the lives of many innocent people, as all wars do, with the need to get as many votes as possible in this election. It’s about the fundamentalists who wish to destroy our society who are NOT on the ballot except as third party candidates. Their point is not antisemitism alone. We’re next. That threat is as real as the one posed by Project 2025.
Sooner than later our democratic government will have to decide where does tolerance become a clear and present danger to our democracy and what to do about it. And they MUST admit and express clearly that threat does not come from the radical right alone. Our President is a good man. He is protecting Israel with the might of our military and so will Kamala Harris. To us, here at home, the time may be “inconvenient” but soon that same pragmatism must apply.
Many of us, indeed most of us, felt our hearts tighten as we witnessed our President on the DNC stage. I hope you watched it on one of the commentary free platforms and not the MSM, where most tried to cast their delusions onto his speech. Fuck them. Even that dreadful line that will be used against us will not take away Joe Biden’s moment. It was our moment too. We desperately needed to thank him. And we did.
Let’s remain together in this fight. We know the stakes and unlike those third party simps we know what needs to happen next. We will not let Biden’s sacrifice be in vain. We will not allow him to be portrayed as anything other than the good man he is. Better than most if not all of us will ever be. So I rise above the politics and the noise and I tell you my hope is unchanged. We will not be divided; we will defeat ALL those who wish us to burn in hell.
Tune out the naysayers and focus on what it is we are fighting against: to our right and to our left. Once you do, you will breathe easy again and be able to appreciate our President in all his consequence, honor and integrity. I trust him and give him the respect he deserves. In that light I wish to thank him once again for bringing us this far and opening the doors to a brighter future and the promise of America Harris and Walz represent.
We love Joe and We’re not going back!
[finis]
DNC 2024 Series:
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