Dear John,
One year ago today I launched my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.
It has been a wild ride. This year has given me an inside look at everything that is right, and everything that is wrong, with American politics.
But I didn’t enter this race to be part of the political system as it is; I entered to represent the millions of people who know it needs to change. That it is corrupted by money. That it serves donors more than constituents. That it represents not the better angels of our nature, but the crass and greedy will of a soulless economic behemoth that now controls DC.
To say my message has not been appreciated by the establishment is putting it mildly. When I ran in 2020, the political and media elite seemed satisfied to simply paint me as a crazy person… a crystal lady… “not serious.”
But this time when they saw me coming, they were not amused. A woman who founded a multimillion-dollar non-profit that has served 16 million meals to homebound people with AIDS and other critical illnesses became someone who apparently did not take illness seriously. From the women on The View willfully lying about me and my past, to a complete blacklisting on CNN and MSNBC and elsewhere, you need to hand it to our party overlords. When they want someone out of the way, they will tell any lie and go to any lengths to make it happen.
And why? Because I was saying too many things that they knew would light a political bonfire. A majority of Republicans as well as Democrats say they want Medicare for All. And the establishment knows that. A majority of Republicans as well as Democrats want tuition free college and tech school. And they know that too. My message of fundamental economic reform is the message that resonates with a majority of Americans. The establishment elite who run our political machinery had no intention of letting anyone who is not in their club have a say. The narrative that I’m “not serious” wasn’t spread by those who actually believe it. They created that narrative because they know how serious I am.
Over this past year, we’ve seen it all. But for those who actually heard our message, who came to my events and listened to what I have to say, this campaign has been far from irrelevant. It’s the campaign that many of us have been waiting for.
The political-media industrial complex made sure the horserace had only one horse. Yet after I suspended the campaign, I received thousands of messages from voters throughout America. And I realized there is something bigger than the horse race. In the words of Mohammed Ali, “When the mission is right, the odds don’t matter.”
Having unsuspended the campaign, a huge amount of energy has burst forth to support us. For the first time since we started, I feel the wind at our back rather than in our face. It’s as if people are waking up from a fog, realizing that no, we do not have to accept another Trump versus Biden election.
Ours is the campaign that will defeat Donald Trump. My life force matches his, plus I have the ultimate edge because I speak truth where he speaks lies. Whereas he offers fear and authoritarianism, my campaign offers hope and inspiration. We offer the American people the vision of a future that is unburdened by intense and chronic economic anxiety. And that’s how we will win.
We can restore America’s middle class with an Economic Bill of Rights. We can repudiate America’s forever war machine and begin to wage peace. We can transition from a dirty economy to a clean economy and from a war economy to a peace economy. We can stand for reparations and a ceasefire now. We can end America’s ill-begotten war on drugs.
In short, we can begin again.
