The Democratic Party is hosting their official nominating convention from August 17th – August 20th. Based in Milwaukee, much of the convention functions are digital.
The main clip of Obama’s speech tonight that everyone is going to see is his scathing rebuke of Trump. While everything he said is painfully true and stated more eloquently by him than anyone else could…the most important part of his speech was this:
“Look, I understand why many Americans are down on government. The way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easy for special interests to stop progress. Believe me, I know. I understand why a white factory worker who’s seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a Black mother might feel like it never looked out for her at all. I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and wonder whether there’s still a place for him here; why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and think, what’s the point?
Well, here’s the point: this president and those in power — those who benefit from keeping things the way they are — they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter. That’s how they win. That’s how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives of the people you love. That’s how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That’s how a democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all.”
-Obama
Regardless of partisanship, everyone should read that and look inside themselves and realize that it is the truth. People ask why they like Obama despite his mistakes and his flaws, and it’s because of his fundamental understanding of America and the values that it is meant to represent.
Many people have become more political over the past 4 years and you can thank the current administration’s ability to keep them constantly exasperated. But they are tired of feeling ashamed every time they see a rambling tweet or an incoherent press conference. No matter who you want to choose, for the love of this country, please go out and vote this November…whatever it takes, and let’s see what the majority of this country actually stands for.