Broadway for Biden.

Some reflections on our President and what’s at stake in this country in the next election.

Last night, I had the awesome privilege of being invited to attend the Broadway for Biden fundraiser. And it was absolutely incredible. One amazingly talented performance followed by another and another, each unique and special and moving in their own way. It felt like I kept getting to open a new day in an advent calendar full of the best chocolate on earth. Each one wildly different from the last, yet just as good.

And while I was completely blown away by the parade of talent on display, there is this one thing which I just can’t seem stop thinking about. Something that hit me as soon as it was said last night. Something I’ve heard said before, many times, but never in person. And never after watching an absolute tsunami of theatrical talent share their passion for re-electing our President because they understand what’s at stake if we don’t. That their very existences could be at stake if we don’t.

The President opened with his trademark “I’m Jill Biden’s husband” levity and shared some personal stories of the couple’s shared love of Broadway in-keeping with his classically relatable style. He talked about how after serving as Vice President for eight years, he was ready to retire.

…and I was going to write a book and set up the institute of foreign pol- — and I set up the institute of foreign policy at the University of Pennsylvania,
where I became a professor… and domestic policy at the University of Delaware.  And that’s what I did.”

But then his tone began to change. His voice became more serious, more resolute. And this is what he said:

“But then Charlottesville happened in August of 2017.  Something I never, never, never thought I’d see in America.  But you sure remember what happened, along with me.
 
We saw people crawling out of fields with lighted torches, carrying — carrying swastikas, their veins bulging, and chanting the same anti-Semitic bile and racist bile we heard in Germany in the ‘30s, accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan.  And in the process, a young woman was murdered.
 
When the President was asked about — about what was — what comment did he have, he said, and I quote, “There are very fine people on both sides.”
 
Very fine people on both sides?
 
When I heard that, I knew I could no longer sit on the sidelines — (applause) — because the President of the United States had just drawn a moral equivalency between those who stood for hate and those who stood against it.
 
You see, I believe silence is complicity.  And I would not be silent any more than you were.  So, I ran.”

He wanted to talk about what was at stake in this country. At stake if we remain silent in the face of evil. In the face of intolerance. In the face of authoritarianism. In the face of state-sanctioned bigotry and hate.

I began thinking about Charlottesville, about Heather Heyer who was murdered there. About how she died fighting for her beliefs and campaigning against hate. About how she had said in her last post on her Facebook page not long before her death, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

I remember feeling that so deeply in my soul. A young woman was mowed down by a man so ANGRY that a Confederate statue was being removed, that he wanted blood. Her murderer had undoubtedly been a racist for his whole life, but Donald Trump turned him into a killer. He told that monster that he was right to hate. Right to express that hate. With violence. And as my mind returned to those days and those feelings, hearing our President recount how it was then that he knew he HAD TO STAND, that he knew he couldn’t sit by doing nothing… I began to cry.

And it hit me like a Mack truck to hear him say those words in that beautiful theatre full of human beings who just want to live their lives authentically. To live without hate. To truly be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. To be able to love who they want and dress how they want without hurting anyone and to have the same rights as everyone else. People who want to worship their faith openly and without fear of violence or segregation.

A theatre full of people who when considering what another Trumpian presidency would look like, instantly fear for our children, and for our children’s children. A theatre full of people who don’t want to subjugate “others” for expressing themselves “differently” from the “conventional” thinking pushed so pervasively by the Republican Party.

I’m running because, all across America, hate groups have been emboldened. 
 
I’m running because far too often it’s still the case that you can get killed or attacked walking the streets in America just because you’re Black or because you’re wearing a symbol of your faith. 

This was a good man. Driven by doing good. Such a glaringly obvious distinction between himself and Trump. A seemingly simple idea: that a President should be guided by what was right. And not by hate. Standing before us was a man who wants to work to make this a world where marching with tiki torches and rifles through city streets while spewing vile antisemitic slurs is UNDENIABLY bad. Where driving your car through peacefully assembled protestors is irrefutably WRONG. And not remotely comparable to those who showed up to protest against unabashed prejudice.

A man who doesn’t see “two sides” to what happened that day. Joe Biden is a man who understands exactly what kind of a threat to this country someone like Trump poses.

I don’t believe America is a dark, negative nation — a nation of carnage driven by anger, fear, and revenge.  Donald Trump does.
 
To his supporters, he says, “I am your retribution.”  I am your retribution?  “We’re a failing nation,” he says.  “Either they win or we win.  And if they win, we no longer have a country.”

Any “leader” for whom bigotry is blurry at best when is comes distinguishing what is good vs what is bad, any “President” who not only refuses to denounce violence driven by hate, but encourages and inflames it, will inevitably lead the entire country down a very dark path.

Donald Trump has already done this to America. He has taken this country down a very ominous path indeed. One where racists, sexists, homophobes & xenophobes are emboldened to commit acts of violence. More than that—one where democracy itself is seen as antithetical to a “true American existence.”

As bad as it is now, it will only become much, much worse if Trump is allowed to return to the White House. If we don’t rally behind someone we know will stand up to stop him.

Someone who can stop him. Someone who understands who we are and who we can BE as a nation. This country isn’t perfect, far from it, but the choice before us is to work towards perfecting it for everyone or to succumb to those who want to make this country benefit only themselves. He understands that the yet unfulfilled promise of America has never been a guarantee and that it won’t sustain itself. It requires work. It requires WE THE PEOPLE.

We’re not built on our ethnicity or religion or geography.  We’re built on an idea.  We’re the only country built on an idea that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.  Endowed by the creator, they deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.
 
We’ve never fully lived up to that commitment, but God knows we have never, in 240 years, walked away from it.  Never walked away from it.  And we’re not going to walk away now.  

Our President knows what’s at stake, and he’s here to stand up and fight. To hold the line. And he fucking means it.

I am often accused of being a Joe Biden super-fan, and to be honest—I’ve never minded the label. The truth is, while I don’t know his favorite color and haven’t ever once added “Biden” to the end of my own name whilst staring dreamily at his photo, I am a Joe Biden super-fan. Do I think he’s perfect—no. Is anyone perfect? Not even Tom Hanks is perfect. And who doesn’t fucking love Tom Hanks?