The actual quote, attributed (with some historical uncertainty) to Ben Franklin, is:
We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Let us assume with nostalgia that Ben Franklin actually said this. It is then appropriate for us to remember his words now, as Franklin and his American revolutionary companions were seeking to escape the rule of a dictator; and we modern Americans are seeking to avoid falling to a dictator born of our own nation.
This post is intended as a gentle, but important, reminder to this community that Franklin’s maxim applies to us.
Currently, we are not sure if our nominee will be President Joe Biden, or another.
What we do know is this:
- The democratic nominee, whoever they may be, deserves our full support, 100%, and then some.
This is based on our own interest, individually and together, to not fall under the rule of Donald Trump. Because we all know that is a rule from which we and the country would be unlikely to escape.
And on the positive side, a Democratic President taking office in 2025 could very well take this country in a good direction, to where we might once again feel abundant pride to be Americans, and not simply the dread that we must fight against the enemy within. Again: Any Democratic President.
To the Biden supporters:
(And this is a funny term, because we are all Biden supporters. But there are different opinions about the best candidate going forward.)
In any event: I just ask that you all mentally prepare yourselves to accept whatever process may be used to determine the nominee, even if it may seem unfair. There is no such thing as fair in this moment we are in. Ultimately, you must be prepared to support the nominee, whoever it may be.
To the “supporters” of alternative candidates:
(And I use the air-quotes for the same reason I mentioned above—)
I ask the same thing of you. If the nominee ends up being Biden, be prepared to support him 100%.
Ideally, it would be nice if the Democratic Party could follow a “process” that everyone could buy into. Unfortunately, that was the Primary process, and the problem is things didn’t go as planned, and something must be done to bring the Party together around a chosen candidate. That may or may not involve a revised “process” for selecting the nominee, and such a revised “process” may or may not seem even remotely fair or appropriate to many.
I advise everyone to prepare for this and understand that it is inevitable, and it is a product of dire times. Ultimately, the people who will make the decision on the nominee, in terms of both the process to be followed and the final decision, are most likely, the power players: the people who put forty hours a week of their lives (or often much more) into Democratic success, the people whose own career and livelihood depends directly on achieving political victory. Because they devote their professional lives and often their lives overall to this arena, it is not entirely a bad thing that they will be the ones who will take us through these unexpected choppy waters.
I don’t know what the best move is. But I know one more thing:
- The decision does need to be made soon, before it becomes an October Surprise.
Sometimes these things happen in democracies, in emergencies. During the depression and World War II, FDR broke George Washington’s two-term tradition and got himself elected four times. Etc. This is a ship navigating a maelstrom. Someone needs to take the wheel to get us through. The rest of us just need to row.
When the Democratic Party has announced its nominee, whoever it may be, we all need to support them 100%. We must hang together, or we will surely hang separately.