COVID Update October 21:

A few nights ago I described how we need to do 2 things.

Account for the past
Fight for our future

I wrote about how we need to account for the past. But I haven’t had the words to focus on the future.

Now I think I do. Or will try. 1/

Thinking about the future turns out to be really hard when we are deep in a hole we must climb out from.

Writing about the past— the need for an accountability election— was easy. Here it is if you didn’t see & want to. 2/ https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1317880291969597440

But the future. The future. It feels so uncertain right now. It took me some time. And many many stupid sounding drafts. (Yes for the trolls, even stupider than this!) 3/

One thing I do know is what the future would feel like in another Trump turn.

It will be a world where so many people just don’t matter. 4/

With 14 days to go this is the message Trump sent to the country.

Maybe some people agree with this. To me this is white supremacy, intolerance, bigotry, hate, division, meanness, cynicism & exploitation. But that’s me. 5/

We all have a stake in this country. Every one of us. But we are being told we don’t deserve: to have health care, to have a safety net under us for hard times, to be respected, to be who we are, to be in this country, to make a fair wage.

6/

If the stock market doesn’t value you, if you inconvenience businesses by requiring a curb for your wheel chair, if you make people uncomfortable by who you choose to be, if you’re poor, if you’re sick, if you’re old, if you’re Black or Brown, you are told you don’t have value.7/

Before we even talk about policy changes, with that vision for our country at the top, with a view that the rules don’t apply to you if you’re in charge, in 4 more years we will devolve into a society where those that can cook the system win. Everyone else loses. 8/

COVID has taught us what this president thinks of us. Do you feel cared for? Do you feel invested in? Do you feel like you matter? Are our kids brainwashed into feeling like 2nd class citizens? Is our pain, suffering & loss without any consequence. 9/

Prisoners, farm workers, vaccine distribution, retirees, homeless, hourly workers— not only don’t you matter, your life has been told it has no meaning. Wrong. Wrong. 10/

The call to selfishness is failing us.

We need a call to empathy to get through this and be back to the nation we can’t be.

11/

We can’t become that country. That’s not a country about freedom; it’s a country about recklessness. 12/

The next 10 years, think about what hangs in the balance. Our planet.

What resources will we be harvesting— a smart grid, renewable, the sun it will we be destroying it. Biden’s $2T green energy plan or businesses free to pillage. 13/

What else? Pandemics, diseases, drug resistant bacteria, biodiversity.

The next decade will decide our fate. A compassionate response that considers future generations is what we need. Not a laissez faire free for all. 14/

What else? Our place in the world.

Leading, feeding the world, fighting disease or feeding off of others labor, shut off, walled off, tariffs & trade wars but still not making stuff in our own country.

There is a right choice. 15/

What have we learned that we lack during the pandemic? A safety net that works.

There’s a story in my book about people who work at an Amazon warehouse. They get sick, they stop working, they don’t get paid.

Sick or broke. Take your pick. 16/

A real safety net has: paid medical leave, it has a resilient Medicaid system to catch people, it has no questions asked meals not the jump through hoops SNAP benefit Trump wants. It has health care for everyone. It provides community at home care for people who need it. 17/

When you are at a low point, your country should life you up not beat you down.

A leader will build a real & integrated mental health system that is broadly available & destigmatizes our goal to all be as mentally healthy as possible. 18/

An immigration system with a heart. An education system that teaches skills & values & resilience & provides opportunity.
A housing system that creates an affordable place for everyone. 19/

When I served in government I learned something I should have know. The culture set by the president dictates who serves in government & who gets access. 20/

I’m not going to pretend Obama-Biden were perfect. But I can tell you the things he seemed to care about.

1. Unions- Joe always wanted to talk about labor & people who worked for a living
2- Solving people’s problems
3- Doing the tough thing. Joe backing gay marriage first...21/

4- Science. Obama quote below. Anti-science people had no quarter.
5- the best & brightest. Biden made the cancer moonshot team get the best ideas
6- Collaboration— look at Joe & John McCain
7- Organizing, particularly young people, was Obama’s passion 22/

8- Fairness and justice. “How does it impact the little guy.” Kind of the opposite of today where one person matters
9- Family, friendship, tears, humor, optimism, hope, faith
10- dogs. How do you have a White House without dogs 23/

In fact if there is one thing I associate with Biden, it’s the underdog. The boy who stutters, the little girl with cancer, the guy who works in the plant.

Everybody was included in that vision 24/

So I don’t know what policy building blocks come together precisely and in what order. There’s so much to do. But I do think I know what it needs to be built on: honesty & compassion. 25/

What we all hope for for the future is interesting.

Take a glance through this. Add to it if you like. 26/ https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1317915850377203712

We lost two of our country’s grandparents this year.

John Lewis & Ruth Bader-Ginsberg

Their lives were a testament to living for the purpose of building us a better future. 27/

Imagine losing them and this same year finishing by moving toward the future they built for us. Imagine a country that creates thousands more in their footsteps. /end