Yesterday, Anne Holton made a whistle-stop appearance at one of our local Coordinated Campaign offices. Her brief remarks were warmly received by a SRO crowd, comprised largely but not exclusively of women, most of whom appeared to be middle-aged, middle-class, and white.
I managed to slip close enough to her at the end of her address to shake her hand and introduce myself as a Bernie delegate at the DNC who is now all in for Hillary. Anne did not miss a beat: “Bernie made Hillary stronger through the primary process,” she said, and thanked me for my support.
One of us is more practiced in responding for a photograph. :)
I consider myself an idealistic realist, if that makes any sense. At this point, I think the primary process for the Democrats went just about as well as it could have. A hard-fought but generally not negative — at least, not often publicly between the candidates — primary campaign resulted in a very strong platform and a well-tested candidate, who is better prepared now for having had to work through the challenges she faced.
On the last morning of the DNC, I sat not twenty feet away from Bernie as he expressed how important it was for all his ardent supporters to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton in the general election. He spoke with vehemence on this point, and since then he has only made it clearer how much he believes is at stake. I may yet write up my response to that event in more detail, within the context of what we have seen since then. But for now, let me express my own unqualified support for Hillary Clinton as President. As one of the local organizers of the Bernie campaign said succinctly yesterday: “I'm with Bernie, and that means that #ImWithHer.”
In Michigan, the big push now is to REGISTER VOTERS. That was the major theme of Anne’s short speech, reinforced several times by her question: When does Voter Registration close? The answer: October 11th, or 13 days from now. If you have questions about the process *in Michigan*, I can either answer them myself or point you to an authoritative reference.
This is really and truly the most important national election yet. Let’s all do everything we can to make sure it has the outcome we want and need.
REGISTER TO VOTE BY CLICKING HERE. Filling out the form here will only take about 2 minutes. You can also send it to friends and family, and help them register to vote.
