November 30, 2024 Glenn Stewart

“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat” — Will Rogers

I said in my post on election day that “I’m out.”  To be clear, I meant I have no intention of spending any portion of the next 4 years shouting into the darkness about how awful it is that that abomination is president.

This post isn’t about his Party, but rather mine.

There has been a tsunami of invective hurled at the Democratic party from inside and out for our failure to see what was coming.  Within days after the election, Kamala Harris went from adored-savior to toxic-goods.

Yeah, it doesn’t take a genius to see that we as a Party got it horribly wrong, one need only view the results.  But here’s the thing.  We—and by “we” I mean the Party and VP Harris, ran a fantastic campaign.  In my lifetime of 65 years there has never been a more unified and determined Democratic Party than what we experienced during the shortest campaign in our history.  Will Rogers would have been astounded, and I think pleased at just how ‘organized’ his Party was in the 2024 election. 

Every policy position and solution articulated by our candidate was real, needed, and doable.  If implemented, no one would be harmed, indeed, usually modest liberal policies tend to cause a rising-tide that ‘lifts all boats,’ as the saying goes.  The success of the Democrats’ generally Keynesian approach is proven by decades of macro-economic data.

From our most fervently left-wing to our conservative-center, our Party (and a lot of people from their Party) backed Kamala Harris in an all-out effort to prevent the orange felon and adjudicated sex-offender from regaining power.  We all had the right motive.  No matter how far off target we turned-out to be, where we were aiming is where I want my Party to aim.  

We aimed for a world where we work together to save our species.  

We proposed a government that protects the vulnerable.

Don’t listen to the nonsense about our Party being “out-of-touch” because supposedly bogged-down in fringe, “culture war” issues.  What they call culture wars, I call standing up for human decency.  To paraphrase John Donne… Every violation of human rights diminishes me. 

In fact, far from being ‘bogged-down,’ Americans who for centuries had nothing with which to fight back against discrimination, even persecution, now have the heft of our Party behind them.  

I’m proud of that.

I’m proud of our Party and Kamala Harris for an historic, beautifully orchestrated effort.

Make no mistake, and do not doubt—The moral victory is ours, hands down.  Campaigns and political operations can be changed, fixed, improved, and I expect we’ll do that.  But the moral turpitude and ethical-bankruptcy of our opponents can be none-other than immoral and unethical.   

We showed the world in 2024 what we can do, and it was damned good.  Now we go on, we show the world that we can win.

Glenn Stewart, Ferndale