Greetings friends – from all over the world, most of us of a “certain age” (baby boomer & Covid19 vulnerable). I’m writing this post out of a deep sense of urgency. We have just seven months.
Over the course of our lives, many of us have been part of profound moral & political struggles – many of us have struggled from the center-left; some from further left; others from the center-right. But these nuances must now fall away. Especially for those of us living in the USA, the next seven months will be as crucial as any time we’ve lived through. A movement is (hopefully) coming together – even under the extraordinarily adverse conditions of Covid19 social distancing. Everything we’ve worked for is at stake.

For all of our lives, until now, enlightenment values have provided the taken-for-granted backdrop for our struggles. But a year from now these values could be irrevocably defeated in the USA – a country which has been their (uneven) champion through two world wars, through ongoing domestic civil rights struggles for both racial and gender equality, and (albeit weakly, for the past half-century…..) for economic justice. All of this could be swept away by the combination of a global pandemic and a toxic American president, whose vanity is overweening, whose understanding and appreciation of the values of constitutional democracy is non-existent, and who lacks any sense of restraint.

We have just seven months. To come together. To mobilize a united front from across the spectrum of those committed to constitutional democracy. To organize in the face of a pandemic. To resist efforts to block or steal the election. To turn around the toxicity that has been eating away at our life’s work. Elizabeth Warren’s powerful endorsement of Joe Biden is available via this link. Two days ago, Bernie Sanders gave him a ringing endorsement. Here’s Barack Obama’s strong endorsement, which communicates powerfully his sense of urgency. And Ezra Klein’s excellent piece (linked here) argues persuasively that Biden has important strengths as a leader, strengths which it is easy to underestimate. I’ve just made my first contribution to his campaign (at JoeBiden.com) I will make more. And I will look for ways to do what I can to help him win this election – and, also, to help defeat other toxic politicians who have been poisoning the national (and indirectly global) civic space on which our collective well-being depends.