No campaign slogan, catchy phrase or soundbyte could be more fitting of defining his impact on our nation and the world by proxy, and no promise more fulfilled in every sense of the word than that original inspirational and singular message made iconic by Shepard Fairey: HOPE He inspired hope. He restored hope. For all the achievements, of which there are so many, that those that would tear down his legacy or trash with their agendas and hateful propaganda, the most significant to me was giving us back hope. And for many, he didn't give it back. That implies it had been present at some point in the past. For many, he gave it for the first time.

It hit the world and spread. It resonated and echoed across the globe. It was undeniable. We were incredibly proud to see how he conducted himself, the restoration of our standing internationally, and the unity he forged and repaired with our allies. We watched as they stood in awe and the respect they showed for him, apparent in their eyes, was personal. For the first time for many of us, we had hope, things were getting better every day, and we had someone that treated the white house janitor with the same dignity and respect as the princes and prime ministers of foreign countries. All those principles we were taught as children were an inherit part of his character. For generations of Americans jaded and let down time after time; generations of Americans who were taught ideal morals from parents or role models who shared the teachings of Jesus Christ, or Ghandi, or a Muslim prophet, or MLK, the Dalai Llama or Mother Theresa - finally, we saw someone actually acting that way.

But the same internet that the old, corrupted and now rebuked Americans didn't unserstand how to use when it propelled President Obama to victory in 2008, turned on him with a constant bombardment of ads and "fake news" for years to come as they hired us and we taught them. As Facebook and even good 'ol Yahoo of the distant internet past became a fertile ground for planting the seeds of propaganda by those who had lost power and were seeething with hatred at the loss of dominance, years of anti-Obama content populated the web and seeped into our everyday lives.

So, we fractured. Some of us believed them, and became those that would go on to vote for Trump. Some of us hated them, and some of us assumed nobody was stupid enough to "believe the hype". I think a lot of my generation and many of the older Americans who had been given hope and inspiration assumed that most everyone saw these internet ads, lynched mannequins and racist attacks for what they were. We thought most everyone but the real whackos and hillbillies dismissed this stuff as racist, right along with birthirism, and thought most people saw it as total horse crap. See, we thought all these people that went on to vote for Trump had been passing this stuff up like the "Michael Jackson is really an alien" and "Tupac alive and well in South America" nonsense, the way you did back when we had newspaper stands and it was understood this was shock-value garbage. IMO (in my opinion, boomers) that's why so many of us were floored, shocked, horrified and lashed out calling every Trump voter a racist and hillbilly. We really didn't think people bought into it.

Here's the thing, Trump voters. We do see now that many of you believed these things all along. You were looking at the world with a different pair of glasses. You saw things through the Fox lense, the NRA or The Blaze lense, and still worse outlets like Breitbart. Good, decent folks like my living 90-something year old Grandfather listened intently to Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and even the likes of Steve Bannon and Steve Miller. We've seen it with our own eyes now. And the plain and simple fact is, they all said the same things and a lot of people believed them (and still do). That old Russian KGB tactic of repeating the same lie enough times or accusing the opponent of whatever it is you have to hide yourself...works. We've seen the outright denial, and we've seen even those whom we love and cherish in our own families be mezmorized with propaganda. Who would have ever thought my Reagan-loving, Soviet-hating grandfather would be pro-Putin? It's incredible. But it's happened. We can't be so naive this time.

I'm not here to ask anyone to embrace vicious and hostile MAGA trolls and obviously foreign bots, Twitter Klansman and Neo-Nazis. I say stand up and fight that. Defend Democracy and all things good and right I'm not advocating welcoming hateful, conspiracy-theorist-convinced and warped Americans with open arms in some apologist form of pacifism. No. We will always stand up for what's right. It's in our very nature as Americans. We are a nation born of rebellion. A nation that stood up against tyranny from a rich, entitled bully with seemingly unlimited piles of gold and power. It was the little guy that won then, and it's the little guy that can win now. The everyday Jane, Joe and every common and uncommon American in between are what matters. The People. We, the People. With so much political fighting about The Constitution it's amazing so few take the time to read The Decleration. Read it. That's where we are now, facing the same tyranny they risked everything to fight then. And it was farmers, tailors and common folks that rose up and fought for freedom.

But I do believe there is a possible future where we can manage and tamp down the flames of evil, and get back to a healthy Democracy that meets and works things out like adults. I do believe that a decent portion of Americans that voted for Trump can be made reasonably tolerant and mildly bitter, rather than seething and frothing at the mouth with literal tiki torches storming around our cities and towns. My Grandparents, whom I respect, cherish and admire deeply, voted for Trump. Any realistic future needs to include these Americans. I do believe the right leader can "unite" our fractured nation and society. Like a marriage, democracy requires finding resolution. Like a business deal not crafted by a con-man, a good one should leave everyone either reasonably content or reasonably discontent. It's only with a bad deal that one side skips away gleefully and blatantly ecstatic. My goal, and I think the goal of everyday Americans, in this 2020 election is to restore that healthy democracy with a leader that can guide us into a future where good prevails and evil is tamped down to a slow burn. I believe it's unrealistic to expect some landslide victory, and even less realistic to expect some far-left agenda doing to those on the right what they're doing to the rest of us right now, will do anything other than fuel the flames already burning. President Joe Biden can lead us to a future where all of America can be a safe place; where Americans with passionately different views can reasonably tolereate one another; where the next President after could be even better; where real progress can be made and real legislature passed that plants the seeds and paves the way toward the goals we all share in unison. Some of us may be more "left" or more "center-left" or "moderate", but we are all united in our end goal. And Joe Biden is the only canidate on that stage that can get all of our favorite public servants into the White House and throughout the United States government. He's the only one with the national support that would gladly select a Vice President Harris or welcome in Beto, Pete or Warrne with open arms. And he's the only one who can get both Democrats and Republican Senators and Congress to do their jobs.