Mr. Biden, I have great respect for you. Know that before you read the rest of what I have to say, because it’s not going to pull punches.

You’ll like this part. You have my vote come November. Not because you were my first choice, or even close. I’ll get to that in a minute. You have my vote because you’re a decent human being, and you’re not Donald Trump.

You were my last choice, given that Tulsi Gabbard was only on my radar for satirical purposes. This is because you are a moderate, and a chameleon. You tend to change with the political winds. This does, as you said in the debate, allow you to “get things done”, but it is not encouraging to the masses of people who KNOW that being moderate in crazy times is slow suicide.

This current crisis, as you mentioned, has illustrated numerous fundamental problems with our system. These need addressed. There can’t be a small percentage (it’s actually far less than 1 percent) who have it all while millions struggle just to survive. This is wrong, in far more ways than I can illustrate in this post. Socialism is not a dirty word, no matter how often we frame it that way. Neither is Capitalism. One fuels the other. Capitalism is the fuel, Socialism is the engine.

Countries that have realized this, contrary to right-wing and often centrist democratic rhetoric, have not only not failed, they have prospered.

I have been an online worker for many years, and thus have had the opportunity to work with people all over the world. When I mention to them that I can’t afford a dental procedure, or glasses, or to go to the doctor for some medical issue, they react like I have three eyes. This, in the allegedly richest nation on earth.

It is not the richest nation on earth. It has the richest people, but it also has a huge number of people who make nothing, or near to it, and they are getting the shaft. Most of them, until recently myself included, bought into the nonsense that we deserve this life somehow. That we must have made some huge mistake at some point in trying to live a normal life. This narrative is pushed from birth by the right, and not challenged nearly often enough by the left. Bernie took it head on and said what needed to be said. Forcefully.

Now we both know that as a senator, he often compromised where he would get a piece of what needed to happen, rather than holding out for the whole package. Strategically, this was and will remain necessary. But he NEVER ONCE toned down the message, even if he held his nose and voted for something significantly less. He also screwed up a few times because of it, but he ALWAYS kept pounding home the message that the little guys and gals matter.

This epidemic has illustrated that beyond measure. The billionaires can hole up in their palaces, but everyone else is absolutely dependent on the people that the right spits on.

If you want my vote a second time, and don’t want to face off against me after my own congressional run, you will very definitely need to step up your game regarding:

Unionization by sectors

Living wages

Universal Health care.

Climate change.

Safety nets for the unemployed, both in crisis and not.

Compromise with evil is a win for evil. The right’s idea that most of us deserve the hand we’re dealt and should kneel like good peasants, whether touted by those who benefit by it or internalized by those who suffer under it, is evil.

J. Kevin Putzier. A blue dot in Idaho.