I'm Voting for Kamala

Time Magazine wasted no time creating an iconic cover, following President Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. It became clear in less than a day that Vice President Kamala Harris would sweep into the pole position with glory.

I posted a brief video statement this morning in response to the President’s withdrawal from the race for president.

I’m including a full transcript here, so…

You can watch it, here:

Or listen to it on the Dave the Planet podcast (wherever you get your podcasts).

Or read it here:

By now you know that yesterday President Joe Biden discontinued his bid for re-election. I want to thank him for his many years of honorable service. I was expecting this, and had planned to offer myself as the candidate to replace him. I’ve been in the race, running as an independent. I thought I’d offer the Democratic Party a chance to take a bold step, and adopt a candidate and platform that can leave our children a chance to live decent lives.

But since Biden’s announcement, the party has really rallied behind Vice President Kamala Harris. There’s no doubt she’ll be the new presidential candidate, and she has my full support. I wish I could ask you to cast a meaningful, symbolic vote for me. But the reality is, with the electoral college, and no ranked choice voting in most states, only the Democrat and GOP candidates have a chance of being elected. And it is essential that the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, serve a prison sentence rather than another term in the White House.

Maybe I should offer to be Vice President Harris’ running mate. But let’s be honest about two things: First, it’s essential that she win the election. A vote for her will be a vote for honesty, competency and – importantly – decency. Second, if she were to advance my platform – promising to begin shrinking the economy, rather than pursue robust growth, and to raise the price of gas so we’ll stop burning so much of it – the public isn’t ready to support that. They have not been alerted that we’re in an ecological overshoot emergency.

Don’t get me wrong. We need policies like I’m proposing, to give future generations a bright future. The next generation has a right to be born onto a healthy planet, with clean air and water, abundant food and a livable climate. Because we’re in ecological overshoot, we all need to wake up every morning with a mission – to conserve energy, curb our overconsumption, shrink our footprint and live as lightly on the planet as possible. The right policies can make this easier, and even joyful.

I entered the race to begin telling the public the full truth about this. But the news media have ignored me, and too few of you have shared my message. I’m not giving up. I’m staying in the race – because the conversation has to change, and soon. But it’s also critical we choose a path of decency and integrity. And the GOP’s “drill, baby, drill” policies would step on the gas toward a dead planet.

So, I’ll be voting for Kamala Harris. I won't be asking for your vote. But I will be asking you to continue to share the message, that we need to end the thinking, behavior and policies that will leave our kids a dead planet. Let’s continue our effort. No, let’s amplify our efforts to set the stage – to offer what we all want for them – a bright future.

Check out The Bright Future Project here.

This was also posted here on Substack.

Posted on 22 Jul 2024, 16:30 - Category: News