I am nowhere near as disabled as Ady Barkan. However, I am also a long term political activist, and my disabilities are also interfering with my activism. Therefore, I empathize with Ady’s perspective. In addition, I agree.
I have spent my entire career at the messy and vital intersection of movement-building, electoral politics, and governance. And for the past three years, I’ve done that work under the debilitating weight of ALS, a deadly neurological illness that’s robbed me of my ability to do almost all the things that most people take for granted: hug my son, go for a walk with my newborn daughter, or speak to my wife. I was diagnosed three weeks before the 2016 presidential election, and I vividly remember wondering, on that tragic November night, whether I was going to die under President Donald Trump.
Whom would I like to see replace him? Of the hundreds of elected officials, activists, and policy wonks I have worked with over the past two decades, Elizabeth Warren is the individual who I believe would make the best president. I believe that she, more than any other person in America, has the skills, the temperament, and the knowledge to lead us toward a more just and equitable future.
Please keep reading, especially if, like me, you’re an admirer of Bernie Sanders. Because I have no intention to diminish his incredible work building our progressive movement or the ways in which his historic campaigns for president have shifted American political discourse. This is, rather, a declaration of how I plan to vote in the California primary, and why I believe in Warren because during her whole career, she has fought to put economic and political power in the hands of working families. I’ve seen up close how she confronts a problem: She listens to the people most affected, does her homework, and then comes up with a plan. A brilliant, workable plan… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <The Nation>
I have shared only the introduction to this extensive article and urge you to click through and read it in his entirety. It also includes the best explanation of Medicare for All that I have seen. It shows how her plan is nothing like the Medicare at Gunpoint that some of her opponents either do not understand or are using to mislead.
RESIST!!
7 Responses to “I Agree”
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Warren has been my go to person from the get-go, and she remains such. It is nice to get validation from someone with an apparently long run in political circles.
I’ve been following Ady Barkan to some degree. Yes, he is much more diabled than you or I, and he is also younger, and it came on faster. And he’s still a tiger.
My candidate is Warren also. Whoever wins, we need a return to FDR-type values, minus the blindness of the bigotry of the time. To get there, we need transformational change in government personnel and government policies. I anticipate our work of pressuring the Federal government not to be over (possibly it can be more focused, but I won’t guarantee that.) Furthermore, Our work in the states and in loclal government will be just beginning.
I hope Ady’s life and be saved. I wish I had confidence in that.
Ms. Warren is my choice. She’s got the goods, and so does Ady!
I too am one who supports Elizabeth Warren.
I feel that she will continue fighting for our rights in all aspects of life.
Appreciate what Ady has shared with us in his article. He has done so much for others and still does.
Ady gives Americans al the right reasons to vote for Elizabeth Warren and does so in a measured and rational way without falling into the pitfall of idolatry. I hope he lives to see Liz as the first female president in the White House.
This social democrat Canadian chick likes Warren and Bernie, but all things considered, I think the US needs an Elizabeth Warren. She comes with well thought out plans, knows Wall Street and what needs to happen, she comes from a working class family and can relate to the plight of the middle and working classes, supports “medicare” for all, and who else (other than Canada’s Justin Trudeau!) can take so many selfies and still genuinely smile. Further, I think she could go toe to toe with that vermin that infests and desecrates the WH now. He is a carnival barker, she is a down to earth intelligent individual concerned about the country and not her own purse.
As to Ady, I admire him and regularly include him in my prayers.
Thanks and hugs to all!