Fixed it for you” Kamala’s concession speech revised; the speech we needed
Not copyrighted, okay to reduce, revise, repurpose. No restrictions.
Nov. 6 a friend asked me about Kamala’s concession speech. I told her it was worse than no speech at all. Why? Because she admitted learning nothing. She didn’t even mention learning. No Democratic party will exist at all unless and until it begins to demonstrate healthy, robust “willingness to learn.”
I invite all readers of this — especially all writers — to write their own “Fixed it for you” alternative concession speech. Publish your version wherever you can, online and in print. Okay to share with me for comments.
Here’s mine. See if you can improve on my verson.
[Insert Kamala thank yous, her acknowledging of allies, husband and volunteers.]
Wow, the last 18 hours have been an intense learning experience for me. I’m sure this is true for many of you as well.
What did I learn from this election? I learned you can’t beat the Regressive right by joining them, appealing to them, promoting Liz Cheney or other moderate regressives. It’s madness. It’s contrary to our core values.
Dems must be again the party of the lower 90% of voters
I learned the Democratic Party can no longer win a national election aligning itself with the 1% and 10% elites of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and corporate media.
If the Democratic Party has any future, it will have to change its allegiances. It must align with the highest good and brightest future for the lower 90% of people, not elites, not billionaires.
For me personally, continuing high prices and price gouging at the supermarket doesn’t affect me much. However I learned kitchen table issues are what the 90% voters vote on, not celebrities, not the first female president.
Joyful dancing is not sufficient
Sadly the joy we shared together these last 107 days was not enuf. I learned our joy must be harnessed to fuel passing policies, laws and regulations to make life more livable in the America Wall Street doesn’t see, Silicon Valley doesn’t; and, to the vast majority of billionaires and millionaires never see [Applause!]
I learned voters were “Mad as hell at being ignored by the politicians they elected; and, not going to take it any longer!” I ignored this; the Democratic National Committee has ignored this for 40–50 years. I imagine the anger of the lower 90% was superficial. I was wrong. Their anger has been building since Bill Clinton sold NAFTA to blue collar workers, as “Good for workers.” It was only good for corporations and Wall Street.
Dems have built almost zero cross-class, long-term community
Here in my notes, my speechwriter suggests I say, “Over the 107 days of this campaign, we were been intentional about building community and building coalitions, bringing people together from every walk of life and background, united by love of country with enthusiasm and joy in our fight for America’s future.”
Lovely speech writing isn’t it? However, in 2024 the Democratic Party did NOT do these things. By far the largest fraction of all donations we received was spent on TV and radio ads — not on building sustainable local community to develop new authentically progressive democratic candidates; and then, support them every two years. Democratic campaign consultants, many of them former Republican campaign consultants, were wrong again.
If there ever is another President elected from the Democratic Party, I hope they put this sign on their desk in the oval office, “It’s the 90% stupid,” not the 1% not the top 10%.
We fought for elites, not the 90% of voters
Here in the remarks prepared for me, I was gonna say, “I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, ambitions, and aspirations. That is a fight I will never give up.”
I don’t believe this any more. The center-right Dem party, the party of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and corporate elites, has controlled the Democratic Party for 40 years. Why? To get their agenda passed. They believed to get what they want — improving quality of life for the lower 90% of voters — meant elites could not get their greed met. [Applause!] I see this now. Are you with me? [Applause!]
Honor to all women who voted not to go backwards
I do honor the women of America. They will never give up their fight to “have the freedom to make decisions about their own body and not have their government telling them what to do.” I will continue to support you. I will continue to support and fight for a number of progressive issues. However, if there is to be a Dem Party in 2028, I have learned it will have to create a larger frame for our unresolved economic issues. What is this larger frame? It is the perspective of improving quality of life for everyone, not just the top 10%.
For 40 years, Dems have ignored the suffering of young males age 18–35
Among many oversights in my 2024 campaign, I want to call out one. We did NOTHING to address the plight of Gen Z young men. College education is too expensive. Too often it has a low rate of return on investment. The average age of homebuyers in 2024 is age 56. Despair among white males, especially young ones is at an all time high. What did we do about this? Nothing. We just parroted feel-good slogans form past feel-good speeches.
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References
Opinion | “The Men — and Boys — Are Not Alright” in The New York Times — https://www.nytimes.com › 2023/03/10 › opinion › Mar 10, 2023 — Richard Reeves breaks down the ev…
Best Of Ezra Klein: “The Men — and Boys — Are Not Alright” : r/ezraklein — Reddit r/ezraklein — 370+ comments · 2 months ago
We discuss how the current education system places boys at a disadvantage, why boys raised in poverty are less likely than girls to escape it.
“The Men — and Boys — Are Not Alright” — The Ezra Klein Show — Mar 15, 2023
“American young men are in crisis because they are not …”
Mar 23, 2023: “The Men — and Boys — Are Not Alright” : r/ezraklein — Reddit
“What’s going on with men? It’s a strange question, but it’s one …” Aug 8, 2023
More results from www.reddit.com
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“American society is failing its young men. They are suffering from loneliness, rates of suicide, and drug overdoses way disproportionate to women. Many (ages 18–34) still live in their parent’s home. They are also less likely to graduate from high school and attend or graduate from college compared to young girls. Yet almost nobody in modern culture talks about it.” — April 2024: https://polispandit.com/young-men-are-not-alright/
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Wholesale failure of corporatized media
I also learned we have no reliable, trustworthy corporate media. [Applause!] I can think of not one corporate outlet demonstrating CONSISTENT integrity. Like many of you, I will now have to get my news from independent journalists, their SubStacks, their podcasts, their magazines.
Dems have to stop empty speechifying
Here’s another section of the concession speech written for me I can no longer get behind, “we will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square. And we will also wage it in quieter ways: in how we live our lives by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve. The fight for our freedom will take hard work. But, like I always say, we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work can be joyful work. And the fight for our country is always worth it. It is always worth it. To the young people who are watching, it is okay to feel sad and disappointed. But please know it’s going to be okay.”
Who am I kidding? Was I kidding myself? Those are PLATITUDES, not policies, not anything working people can put in a wheelbarrow and take home. I was fooling myself, gaslighting myself, now I can admit this.
Dems have to be the party of ending endless wars
In the last 107 days, I learned a future Democratic party has to become the party who stands for ending endless wars abroad. We split and divide our voting base when we allow fake, empty suits like Anthony Blinken to mouth democratic platitudes while paying for, enabling and excusing genocide at every opportunity. [Applause!]
Dems have to be the party of ending NATO expansionism
We won’t be able to end endless wars unless and until we end ruthless, thoughtless, unsustainable, evil, NATO expansionism. Earth is already one world. Earth is a picture of unity in diversity. Earth will never be, “One nation under the US, with liberty and justice for all.” This is the male grandiosity which is always invoked to defend all our interfering with foreign governments we dislike.
Dems must become the party of Medicare for All
2024 convinced me. If we can spend a trillion dollars to enable Israel to commit genocide — we can commit a couple billion to get Medicare for all started.
By the way, this will also solve one of our biggest problems in 2024, the problem of hedge funds buying up and monopolizing healthcare practices and hospitals. [APPLAUSE!]
At the end, it’s not only about what I learned. It’s about what you learned. What did you learn? I invite you to write up what you learned as Democratic voters, form our 2024 debacle. Send it to me at the White House. I would love to move forward on the issues I’ve listed. I can’t do it alone. I can only do it with the support of the lower 90% of Democratic voters.
[Insert Kamala’s uplifting, ending, idealism platitudes]
