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"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." —Arthur Ashe


In my hand is my "official absentee ballot." It will go out in the mail in the morning. Though I live in the wilderness of upstate New York, where both republicans and independents far outnumber Democrats, I am confident that the Harris - Walz ticket will do much better here than our party has done in previous presidential elections.

Last night, I had a phone call from an old hippie who became a registered voter in 2016. At that time, he recognized that the republican nominee was the last person on earth who should be president. He is a member of our party, who is in a position that allows him to donate sums of money to various candidates' campaigns. As usual, he had called me in early September, to ask what Democrats I thought were the most important to invest in.

His call last night reminded me of an OP/thread I had read here on DU a few days back. It had to do with someone's concerns that the Harris campaign was more focused on gaining the votes of republicans and former republicans than on the left of our party, and independents who left our party because it has shifted to the right over recent decades. This journalist does not want the campaign to make the same errors as happened in 2016.

My friend had been having coffee with others of our generation earlier in the day. He said that when elected, he hopes President Harris offers a position to Liz Cheney. He admires her work with the January 6 Committee. Another guy said that doing the right thing should be expected, not viewed as noble. He said upholding one's oath of office should be the rule, not the exception. Still another said he doesn't want a neoconservative to have any position in the administration.

My friend recognizes that I am among the furthest left in the Democratic Party. He remembers decades ago, asking me why I bothered with "politics"? Last night, his question was if I thought Liz Cheney should be considered for an administration position? I started by saying that her taking a leading role on the J6C was the exception in today's maga party. More, she is a conservative -- not neoconservative. She can't be mistaken for open-minded on social issues. Her record on women's choice is terrible. And she did vote for the felon in 2020.

The only position that she could be offered that would not be viewed as a betrayal to Democratic Party values, in my opinion, would be in the DOJ, investigating and prosecuting political crime. She's proved herself in that limited area. But no offer should be made before the election.

I told him that yes, VP Harris did appear on stage with Cheney. Obviously the media will cover that. But she also has been spending much more time campaigning on issues that are extremely important to the middle class. She is the candidate who recognizes that human activities have influenced climate change, and would advance steps to reduce that. And she is the candidate that knows that women have the absolute right to control their bodies.

I said that as leftists, we have the duty to remind others that we must start where we are. To be here, now. To deal with the reality of the era we are in, and the internal threats our country faces. That VP Harris is not only the best choice, but she is a good choice for moving towards our common goals.