What I intend to do regarding the coming election — a personal manifesto
I affirm that I will vote in perhaps the most important election since I started voting in 1960. I will do all in my power to vote against Trump and the MAGA Party. I identify myself a small “d” democrat to transcend Party tribalism. I will vote for Biden if he decides to run and will support Democrats and Independents who will save our democracy from the white supremacist, illiberal, oligarchical, anti-democratic, xenophobic extremists whom Trump has corralled and buffaloed.
I don’t know if Biden should resign at the recent demonstration of his age and disability — having lived through the Johnson Vietnam years and the horrible 1968 Chicago convention that brought in a more extended and vicious war which I judge seeded our present political dilemma. But I will vote and encourage all to vote.
I think President Biden should tell us that, if he is no longer fit for his duties, he will resign immediately and will choose the people who will keep the People in charge.
I will support Biden not just because he kept us from Trump, but because he championed policies that support the common good for the nation and world.
In any event, I anticipate a major national Disruption. Not because of Biden or Trump, but because of what Trump and others, now on the stage of a media “reality show,” are conjuring up and appealing to. I believe our next generations will need to make meaning out of the coming national and world-wide chaos. This will be a turning point for, and the proving of, humankind.
I will promote free and open democracy in every way I can so long as there is the ability to associate, assemble, speak out, question all, and act with my peers through a civil society.
I will act against immunity for politicians including the President. I will act for support of the democratic principle of the rule of law.
I rebel against the MAGA Party and for the reform of a Supreme Court and a Congress that enables it. I will act, demonstrate, and resist in any way that I can openly and honestly through organization and persuasion. Never violence, unless I believe that self-defense is an immediate and direct necessity for saving lives.
I will not give up faith in our human potential and future. Since we are threatened by rule against a free and open society, I acknowledge that civil war may be immanent. If so, I resolve to love our enemies. Only forgiveness, not retribution, can restore human thriving and a Beloved Community. I will not become what we are opposing.
An Addendum: the latest word is that Joe Biden insists on running. If he wins, he will choose younger more fit leaders of the agencies of government and the Supreme Court. The pundits say that if he runs and loses, his legacy will be whatever Trump does to us. Maybe Joe doesn’t care about his legacy. Maybe he has faith in the People, us, so much that he is willing to risk everything for maintaining and improving democracy in America. We the people have to make sure that he does and that we do.